Tarot Journey with Leisa ReFalo

Number: 7
Card Title: The Chariot
Esoteric Title: Child of the Power of the Waters, Lord of the Triumph of Light
Astrological Atttribution: Cancer
Elemental Attribution: Water (cold, wet)
Dates & Timing: June 21 to July 22
Hebrew Letter: Cheth Fence 7
Color: Yellow-Orange or Gold
Intelligence: Intelligence of the House of Influence
Esoteric Function: Speech
Qabalistic Path: Path 18: 3 Binah to 5 Geburah
Translation of Path: The Understanding of Severity

Keywords: Driving Force, Aries, Macho, Transportation, Introspection, Hard Control, Self Assertion, Remodeling, New Beginning, Spiritual Growth, Travel, Career, Control, Will Power, Victory. Conflicts, Triumph, Overcoming Obstacles. War, Dispute, Disruption.Ill-Dignified: Scattered, Pushy, Macho, Car Trouble, Pressure, Wasteful, Indulgent, Overbearing attitude, Vanity, Ruthlessness, and Aggression. Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat. Overthrown, Conquered by Obstacles at the last moment. Unrest, Racket, Quarrel

Interpretation: All accomplishing action. Self-discipline needed. Achievement with effort. Remove obstacles. Vision to go ahead. Harness your energy. Struggle and triumph against odds. Unexpected news by word of mouth. Artistic Success. Triumph in work. Sustained effort. Change for the good. Things are going your way and will work out as you wish. What area of your life will be changing? This is a good time for making plans and setting
goals. Spend the time to become clear about what you are trying to
create in your life. Make plans and set incremental goals you can
meet.

Reversed Interpretation: Wrong use of energy and talent. Over emphasis on physical side results in loss of spirituality. Lack of direction. Need to clear vision. Unfortunate news. Collapse of plans. Unethical victory. Ill health. Journey Postponed. Uncontrolled passion. Runaway car.

Rider-Waite Imagery

The central figure is a man standing in a chariot that is being pulled by a black sphinx (yin)and a white sphinx (yang). The Hebrew letter associated with the Chariot is Cheth which means fence, a protective enclosure. The Chariot is a movable fence. The chariot represents the drive and direction to obtain goals. On top of the body of the chariot are 4 pillars. These represent the 4 elements and the number of order and measurement. On top of the pillars is a starry canopy. The starry canopy represents celestial forces, divine inspiration and the correlation of the stars to human forces (astrology). There is a lot
of symmetry and balance in this card.

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

Part I: The Veil and its Symbols

7. The Chariot. This is represented in some extant codices as being drawn by two sphinxes, and the device is in consonance with the symbolism, but it must not be supposed that such was its original form; the variation was invented to support a particular historical hypothesis. In the eighteenth century white horses were yoked to the car. As regards its usual name, the lesser stands for the greater; it is really the King in his triumph, typifying, however, the victory which creates kingship as its natural consequence and not the vested royalty of the fourth card. M. Court de Gebelin said that it was Osiris Triumphing, the conquering sun in spring-time having vanquished the obstacles of winter. We know now that Osiris rising from the dead is not represented by such obvious symbolism. Other animals than horses have also been used to draw the currus triumphalis, as, for example, a lion and a leopard.
Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil

An erect and princely figure carrying a drawn sword and corresponding, broadly speaking, to the traditional description which I have given in the first part. On the shoulders of the victorious hero are supposed to be the Urim and Thummim. He has led captivity captive; he is conquest on all planes–in the mind, in science, in progress, in certain trials of initiation. He has thus replied to the sphinx, and it is on this account that I have accepted the variation of Éliphas Lévi; two sphinxes thus draw his chariot. He is above all things triumph in the mind.

It is to be understood for this reason (a) that the question of the sphinx is concerned with a Mystery of Nature and not of the world of Grace, to which the charioteer could offer no answer; (b) that the planes of his conquest are manifest or external and not within himself; (c) that the liberation which he effects may leave himself in the bondage of the logical understanding; (d) that the tests of initiation through which he has passed in triumph are to be understood physically or rationally; and (e) that if he came to the pillars of that Temple between which the High Priestess is seated, he could not open the scroll called Tora, nor if she questioned him could he answer. He is not hereditary royalty and he is not priesthood.

The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]

Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot

7. 7th Hebrew letter (Zain).

ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SEVENTH CARD OF THE TAROT.

Hieroglyphically the Zain expresses an arrow, and therefore it suggests the idea of a weapon, of the instrument which man uses to rule and conquer, and to attain his object.

The Zain expresses victory in all the worlds. As a simple letter it corresponds with the astronomic sign of the Twins in the Zodiac.

SEVENTH CARD OF THE TAROT. The Chariot.

The symbolism of this card corresponds in all points with the ideas which it expresses.

A Conqueror, crowned with a coronet, upon which rise three shining Pentagrams of gold, advances in a cubical chariot, surmounted by an azure, star-decked canopy supported by four columns.

This symbol reproduces the 1st and 21st arcana in another order of ideas. The four columns represent the four animals of the 1st arcanum, and the four symbols of the 1st arcanum, symbols of the quaternary in all its acceptations.

The Conqueror, who occupies the centre of the four elements, is the man who has vanquished and directed the elementary forces: this victory is confirmed by the cubical p. 136 form of the chariot, and by the Pentagrams, which crown the Initiate.

The Conqueror has three right angles upon his cuirass, and he bears upon his shoulders the Urim and Thummim of the sovereign sacrificant, represented by the two crescents of the moon on the right and left; in his hand is a sceptre surmounted by a globe, a square, and a triangle. Upon the square, which forms the front of the chariot, we see the Indian lingam, surmounted by the flying sphere of Egypt.

Two sphinxes, one white, the other black, are harnessed to the chariot.

This symbol represents the sacred septenary in all its manifestations. The word Yod-he-vau-he is portrayed upon the front of the chariot by the winged globe, to indicate that the septenary gives the key to the whole Tarot. The two sphinxes correspond to the two principles, active and passive. The Conqueror corresponds especially with the Sword and the Vau of the sacred name.

The 7th card of the Tarot shows the influence of the creation in the preservation of the Divine in the Human. It represents the Yod or the God of the 2nd septenary.

• THE GOD of the 2nd septenary. Man performing the function of God the Creator.
• THE FATHER. The law of the 2nd septenary.
• REALIZATION. (Reflex of the Power.) The Man of the 2nd septenary. Nature performing the function of Adam.
• THE ASTRAL LIGHT.

7. The Chariot.

The passage from one world to the other is scarcely performed, when we see the same law in action that we found in the 1st septenary. The second terra of this series will be the reflection of the first, just as the second term of the first series also reflected the first. However, since this 2nd septenary is the central one, we shall find as the foundation of all its constituent arcana, the idea of mediation or equilibrium. This is shown by the eighth card.

Affinities

• Primitive Hieroglyphic: Arrow
• Kabbalah: HOD
• Astronomy: The Twins
• Month: May
• Hebrew Letter: Zain (simple)

Significations

• Man performing the function of God the Creator THE FATHER The Realizer
• Law THE REALIZATION
• Nature performing the function of Adam THE ASTRAL LIGHT
• Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View

7. The Chariot signifies TRIUMPH. PROVIDENTIAL PROTECTION.

The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]

Symbolism of Each Key

7. The Chariot. This is a most complicated and important symbol, which has been restored by Eliphas Levi. It represents a Conqueror crowned and bearing a sceptre, riding in a cubical chariot, surmounted by four columns and a canopy, and drawn by two horses, one of which looks straight forward, while the other turns his head towards him. (Two wheels are shown in the complete single-headed figure.) It represents Triumph, and Victory of Justice and Judgment.

Meanings of the Cards

7. The Chariot.–Triumph, Victory, Overcoming obstacles; R. Overthrown, Conquered by Obstacles at the last moment.

Occult Significance of the Tarot Cards

7. The Chariot.–A cubical chariot with four columns, surmounted by an azure and star-decked canopy. Within the chariot and between the four columns stands a Conqueror crowned with a circlet, from which rise and shine three pentagrams of gold. On his cuirass are three right angles; and on his shoulders the Urim and Thummim symbolized by the two crescents of the Moon in increase and decrease. In his hand is a sceptre surmounted by a globe, a square, and a triangle. His attitude is proud and tranquil. To the Chariot is attached a double sphinx, or rather two sphinxes joined together; one of them turns its head, and they both look in the same direction. The sphinx which turns its head towards the other is black and menacing, the other is white and calm. On the square which forms the front of the Chariot we see the Indian lingam surmounted by the flying globe of the Egyptians.

The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]

What is the Tarot? Card V.–”The Chariot”.

“Man.” The Imagination. Magic. Self-suggestion. Self deceit. Artificial means of attainment. Pseudo-occultism. Pseudo-theosophy.

CARD V. THE CHARIOT.

I saw a chariot drawn by two sphinxes, one white, the other black. Four pillars supported a blue canopy, on which were scattered five-pointed stars. The Conqueror, clad in steel armour, stood under this canopy guiding the sphinxes. He held a sceptre, on the end of which were a globe, a triangle and a square. A golden pentagram sparkled in his crown. On the front of the chariot there was represented a winged sphere and beneath that the symbol of the mystical lingam, signifying the union of two principles.

“Everything in this picture has a significance. Look and try to understand”, said the voice.

“This is Will armed with Knowledge. We see here, however, the wish to achieve, rather than achievement itself. The man in the chariot thought himself a conqueror before he had really conquered, and he believes that victory must come to the conqueror. There are true possibilities in this beautiful conception, but also many false ones. Illusory fires and numerous dangers are hidden here.He controls the sphinxes by the power of a magic word, but the tension of his Will may fail and then the magic word will lose its power and he may be devoured by the sphinxes.

This is indeed the Conqueror, but only for the moment; he has not yet conquered Time, and the succeeding moment is unknown to him.

This is the Conqueror, not by love, but by fire and the sword,–a conqueror against whom the conquered may arise. Do you see behind him the towers of the conquered city? Perhaps the flame of uprising burns already there.

And he is unaware that the city vanquished by means of fire and the sword is the city within his own consciousness, that the magic chariot is in himself and that the blood-thirsty sphinxes, also a state of consciousness within, watch his every movement. He has externalized all these phases of his mind and sees them only outside himself. This is his fundamental error. He entered the outer court of the Temple of knowledge, but thinks he has been in the Temple itself. He regarded the rituals of the first tests as initiation, and he mistook for the goddess, the priestess who guarded the threshold. Because of this misconception great perils await him.

Nevertheless it may be that even in his errors and perils the Great Conception lies concealed. He seeks to know and, perhaps, in order to attain, mistakes, dangers and even failures are necessary. Understand that this is the same man whom you saw uniting Heaven and Earth, and again walking across a hot desert to a precipice.

The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.

II. THE CHARIOT
Here we have a symbol of the spirit of man controlling the lower principles, soul and body, and thus passing triumphantly thorough the astral plane, rising above the clouds of illusion and penetrating to the higher spheres.

The colors amber, silver-gray, blue-gray, and the deep blue violet of the night sky elucidate this symbol. It is the sublimation of the Psyche.

Book “T” The Tarot

Brief Meanings of Twenty-Two Keys

8. Triumph, victory, health (sometimes unstable).
9. Eternal justice. Strength and force, but arrested as in act of judgment. May mean law, trial, etc.
10. Wisdom from on high. Active divine inspiration. Sometimes “unexpected current.”