The Inverse Emperor is a lil shit. His influence over me showed itself with matchstick fuses and a sudden intolerance for deviation from my expectations. But for all his bluster, the moment I came for his ass, he folded like wet tissue. A sopping mess of pleas and attempts to bargain himself a role at my side.
Like a hot air balloon, he only had substance as long as he was being fueled. But by what? I had control of the deck from Inverse World to Inverse Hierophant. I had his legion, his sword, and his justifications. What kept him in the appearance of power?
I found out when I went for the Inverse Empress.
I had no expectations going in except that she would be the embodiment of everything negative I hold about womanhood and femininity. It would not surprise me if she wore my mother’s face. I know how I see the servitors of these cards would be one part what they were created to be and one part what metaphor my brain finds to describe them.
I came for her and she came for blood. I had toppled the justification for her reign and she was going to take her son back or there would be no peace.
Wait.
Her… son?
It took some shenanigans to keep the monstrous appearing woman at a safe length mentally. She was tripping all the familiar fear reactions I had to my mother as a child. While we are supposed to be living in a more enlightened era (~looks at the news and scowls~), the tarot is still traditionally structured along certain gender expectations. The Emperor rules with absolute power, and the Empress is the greatest of his assets. (I usually see the Emperor as the owner of the business, and the Empress as the CEO that turns the owner’s desires into acts.)
So the Emperor should be the dominate power of the pair, not the Empress. But her reaction now explains the Emperor’s childish behavior. She was the ruler of the two, and as long as he got what he wanted, she could do as she pleased with the rest of the cards. (Inverse Justice’s spite streak is now explained.)
I put her to the side and walked around for a while to clear my head. Surely, I’m reading these two cards wrong. The two servitors weren’t created to be incestous like that… right?
I called both cards’ servitors forward. Yup. Mother and son. The Empress had become barren either by choice or by construction, and the Emperor would be her forever-child to balance the pair.
On the one hand, I’m hoping this is a representation of my macabre sense of humor, and on the other hand, I’m seeing a trend of morally questionable actions by the creator of these servitors. I know the truth is somewhere in the middle.
I reminded the two cards that they may retain their titles, but I am now the ruler of the deck, and my rule over them all is absolute. The Inverse Emperor stomped his feet and screamed how unfair I was. The Inverse Empress said nothing but wound herself into a series of knots while growling ferally at me. I may have mastered her card but this is a fight that is going to repeat itself often.
Three cards left to go, and now I no longer feel constrained to continue hiding the identity of the spokes-spirit.
The Inverse High Priestess lied to me as I came into this deal, and I’m sure there are some good spiritual lawyers who could argue this as justification to break the deal. But I’ve come too far to quit now, and I need some fucking answers out of the deck and out of myself.
If anyone has played the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, they may remember the room in the Water Temple where Link has to fight his dark double.
This is where I feel the next encounter is going to start. I know she is going to play dirty, and I know she is going to try to turn me to fighting myself.
But the only way out is through, and I have a deal to uphold.
Let’s go.