The 4th card of the Major Arcana, the emperor stands for complete fullness.
In this archetype of the divine male, it expresses the idea of harmony with foundation and authority. And so it reflects the deeper vision of all matters regal.
The deeper meaning in it represents being the emperor in your domain of celestial matters in the pursuit of the godhead. Externally however, it reflects the greatest solid sense of authority, kingly or otherwise in the larger structural construct of society. In that, the reflections of this are within the governments of the self, and its externalised acceptance.
That said, it reflects the foundations that make up our world view of society, and so in that patriarchal conditioning also reflects the concept of the kingly emperor.
Osho, in his cleverness calls the Emperor the rebel, for despite the solid foundations that form the past, the potential of change and the revolution within the self is always the greatest harmony.
This card represents ambition, authority, leadership, and paternity that can be found within oneself. Herein within is the drive and determination to lead and to be in control.
In an individual, this card often represents a person in power. It is all the characteristically masculine aspects of consciousness and solar illumination, which demand clarity. He as a sign is the source of conscious spiritual and moral principles that would then provide that vision to his own fundamental clarity.