XULTUN TAROT EMPEROR CARD (Peter Balin, artist) & REVISITING THE EMPEROR (dreamku series by Roswila)

REVISITING THE EMPEROR

the nice young worker
sits with me a while before
his long ride home
each day he makes this trip
between wife and home, and work

he tries to focus
on my enthusiastic
talk about Tarot
I show him, card by card,
the gorgeous Xultun Tarot

but he falls asleep
I keep coming across IV,
The Emperor, and think how
much this young man resembles
this archetypal family man:

hard-working, resourceful, and generous
and at times simply in need of a good rest


[three tanka and a two-liner on a dream of 8-19-12. This was one of the rare dreams in which I dreamed largely in full color. The Xultun (Mayan) Tarot is by artist Peter Balin, and was published by Arcanum Publishing in 1978. Not only is its art unusual among the great variety of Tarot decks available, but it’s 22 majors (one “suit” of five in a Tarot deck) can be put together to form one complete picture – seen here:

The Emperor in the Xultun (Mayan) Tarot, at the top of this post, is the card I kept coming across in the dream. I think what may be pertinent here is reflected in an old post I made about The Emperor card to my tarot journal blog (click here to read it), in which I soften my view of the archetypal masculine. Somethings we just have to keep learning, again and again.]

PLEASE NOTE: I have changed the name of my digital photography blog from Opening to the Light to “Trying to Hold a Box of Light.” URL: tryingtoholdaboxoflight.blogspot.com.

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS): The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, and monoku -- are offered in the spirit of collaboration. I have done my part. Now it’s your turn to jump in and see what comes up for you. I.e., there is no right or wrong way to understand or interpret any of these dream offerings. Even my own understandings of them change over time. And it gives me joy when a reader sees something in any of them that I have not.

For more in-depth exploration:

-- a brief post about both dreamku and my photos THE AREN'TS OF DREAMKU & ACCOMPANYING DIGITAL PHOTOS.

-- detailed three-part post about dreamku: "A DREAMKU PRIMER: Writing Haiku-Like Poems About Your Night Dreams": PART ONE: Introduction & Writing Dreamku as Dream Work; PART TWO: Elements of the Haiku Form Used in Dreamku; and PART THREE: How to Write Dreamku (the second and third parts have some overlap).

-- a brief up-dating post about the three-part "A DREAMKU PRIMER" -- Important Up-date to A DREAMKU PRIMER....".

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‘til next time, keep dreaming,






If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's other blogs: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.