Learning to Read the Chariot
This series on the major arcana presents some ways that I like to think about each of the majors with the hope that it helps you learn more about or think differently about these cards. In each of these posts, I provide an overview of how I read the relevant major arcanum through a few different lenses: with keywords; in the context of other majors; and through visuals. You can read more about the premise behind this structure in the introductory post on the “Learning to Read the Major Arcana” series.
These may represent just a small sample of what I might consider when I see a major arcanum, but they are still quite deep takes, so they can be a lot to take in all at once. Don’t be afraid to skip around and come back to it paragraph by paragraph as needed.
… And yes, it’s been a long time since the Lovers post, like almost a year. Oops. Honestly, it got to be very time-consuming and I wasn’t seeing much reaction for the posts, so my feelings were hurt, but I’ve gotten over that part of it (and I’m going to make these new posts shorter). Still, I had my first session of the intensive introductory course, Read Tarot like a Nerd, followed by a ton of work to complete the self-paced version. (And then there were the decks.) More recently, I’ve struggled to find an image of the Chariot that I actually really like because I struggle with this archetype. There are a lot of beautiful Chariot cards, and there are some that are profound, but it’s hard to find the many aspects of the Chariot collected in one place, and I think it’s important to see its nuances. But it’s time, finally, to continue this major arcana journey. We’ll see how fast and far the Chariot goes this time.
Keywords
As a reminder, these keywords are examples and not exhaustive of all possible meanings of the Chariot. Remember to take what works for you and question what doesn’t. I’ve tried to arrange these keywords by broad concept to help organize them and make them easier to learn.
Drive, Momentum, Determination, Action
Control, Ownership, Triumph, Willpower
Protection, Vulnerability, Opposing forces, Recklessness
Vehicles, Transportation, Travel, Accidents
Cancer, Water, Holy Grail, Sacred container
In Context
If you’re one of my students or you have followed my work for a while, then you know that I’m all about layering interpretive techniques. So here we will look at the Chariot in a few different contexts. First, we’ll look at the Chariot’s important role in the Fool’s Journey and how the Chariot relates to its neighbors. We’ll then also look at how it compares to its numerological twin/shadow, the Tower, before finally turning to the Chariot’s astrological and elemental relatives. In the major arcana, it can be hard to easily see the watery cards, and I think that’s something that the Chariot can help us understand.
Remember that you do not have to read all of this at once. It can be a lot to take in, and it may need some pondering. And very few readers who do think of all these things actually use all of them in a reading, so just let it percolate and enter your subconscious. When you need it, it can appear.
If following along on the Fool’s Journey, the Chariot completes the first septenary (set of seven) of the major arcana. If you remove the Fool from the major arcana, there are three sets of seven (1–7, 8–14, 15–21), and you can find resonances across the nth card of each septenary (e.g., the Magician [1], Strength/Adjustment [8], and the Devil [15] are all the first card in their septenary). As the seventh card, the Chariot is related to the seventh card of the other two septenaries (Temperance [14] and the World [21]), and it is also the culmination of the other six cards in the first septenary.
As the final card of the septenary, the Chariot shows a kind of mastery over that particular realm. This is similar to the mastery demonstrated by Temperance/Art and the World/Universe. The World/Universe shows the end of one cycle before the next begins, but Temperance/Art and the Chariot also represent turning points, but these may feel less obvious than that which ends the Fool’s Journey. We can see the transporting nature of the Chariot in this turn, as the vehicle which brings the individual into a new realm.
With the first septenary, the Fool explores individuals who have lessons to teach, so the Chariot is the master of those. The first six major arcana are archetypal people, so they have certain skills, knowledge, and experiences based in their realm of expertise. And they are willing to share skills, knowledge, and experiences with the curious Fool. In this way, the Chariot is a master of individualism, wisdom, power, and of skills and knowledge, so we can understand the concepts of determination, mastery and control (ownership), and the application of willpower through this lens.
But we can also see the implication of mastering several lifetime’s worth of experiences. The Chariot becomes a container for those experiences. It is a moving vessel of wisdom, emotions, and life’s ups and downs. It needs to be protected because it is precious, but it can be also a source for sensitivity. The armor that you see in traditional imagery of the Chariot protects something vulnerable, which makes it a good representative of Cancer, the Crab of the zodiac. Life delivers a lot of pain, and you cannot learn the wisdom of others’ experience without also feeling a lot of their heartache.
We can also look at the Chariot in contrast to its two neighbors, the Lovers and either Strength or Adjustment/La Justice. All three of these cards show pairs, and it’s important to realize that the Chariot is as much about the symbolism of the mounts as it is about the vehicle and driver. The Chariot must balance opposing forces, whether those are contrasting mounts going in different directions, strange chimeric beasts that mix and match their anatomy, or just unruly mounts who have minds of their own. But the Chariot does not meet its mounts as equals, which would be more in line with the Lovers or Adjustment/La Justice. Instead, the Chariot is more like Strength in showing a person in control of a beast. But the Chariot driver is not trying to subdue the animal but to rein in its force and redirect it so that the Chariot driver can get where they are trying to go. This Chariot’s drive is a balancing of energy that is in service to the charioteer, a combination of the Chariot’s neighbors.
We could also talk about the importance of decision-making in the Lovers and Adjustment/La Justice and in knowing where you are headed in the Chariot, but well, I just said all I need to say about that.
So let’s shift gears and look at the numerology of the Chariot. Fitting for the end of the septenary and this card in particular, the number 7 is often associated with established competence. It’s an early form of mastery that has been tested by simple scenarios that provide the confidence to do things by oneself, but the 7 usually has not yet proved their leadership to others. We can often see that in the minor 7s, where there is a shift to show competence but also some pride or questionable application of it. The rebellious 7 of Wands is a prime example of this believe in one’s own ability to lead or stand independent even if others don’t quite have faith in that leader. The clever but sneaky 7 of Swords may be an indication of mental mastery applied in unconventional or unappreciated ways. Chances are good that the Chariot shows more self-mastery than actual leadership because they have culminated that Fool’s first part of the journey, the self, but they haven’t yet learned to interact much with the broader world.
We can also contrast this to the Tower, which is numbered 16 and is thus the Chariot’s numerological twin/shadow (16 —> 1 + 6 = 7).
The Tower is so … the Tower, and most people know viscerally what it can mean. Is it any wonder that the fast-moving vehicle that could so easily swerve out of control is paired with the Tower, the card of disaster? Both cards can signal accidents, although the Chariot is more likely an accident in one’s own control. And that’s really the fundamental difference between the two. The Chariot is designed to be within the charioteer’s control. Driving it is specifically an exercise in control. But the Tower signals events that are completely out of one’s control. The Tower may be a sign of action and power, just like the Chariot can be when driving at speed, but it is power and action happening to you, rather than happening through you. Mastery and control can be re-established after the crash, as the charioteer must do if they are to get back on the proverbial horse. But it is not instantaneous with the Tower. There is a rebuilding effort needed, and that is time-consuming. The Chariot’s energy is much more easily dissipated and regained.
Let’s move on to a different path with the astrological and elemental correspondences.
The Chariot is the tarot card that represents Cancer, so it is associated with the element of water. The two other water signs are Scorpio and Pisces, represented by Death and the Moon, respectively, and we’ll look at those first because they can be a confusing combination. Much like the Tower, Death shows the risk and danger of the Chariot, as well as the potential to drive into whatever comes next, bringing us back to Temperance/Art. And to experience the energy of Death is to release all control (as with the Tower), to let go of the reins and let Death’s horse pull the Chariot. Meanwhile, the Moon offers a world of confusion, illusion, and mystery, which are all antithetical to the Chariot. There may be some fear, which the Moon may signify, but there can be no confusion when the charioteer takes the reins, no moment of relaxation in the Moon’s calming waters once the Chariot is underway. Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces can be linked by their understanding of occult knowledge, intuition, and psychic gifts, but these are not present in many depictions of the Chariot, Death, and the Moon. That vulnerable center of mushy emotion and irrational subconscious is present in all of them, but it takes Death scythe to crack open the Chariot’s armor and reveal the inner intangibility of the Moon’s waters.
The ruler of Cancer is the Moon, represented not by the Moon (Pisces) but by the High Priestess, and its element of water is represented by the Hanged Man. These feel more similar to the Chariot, and we can understand the need to contain and hide the Chariot’s inner secrets through the similar enclosure of the High Priestess. Her unique wisdom (and our own unique wisdom) is carried in the sacred container of the Chariot. And the Hanged Man, that person who has found his way into a bit of a pickle, could indicate the potential danger for the charioteer. Thankfully it is only discomfort and a forced pause rather than death. But it’s a good reminder that if we push too fast and too hard, we will end up stuck and forced to slow down or even stop all together anyway, whatever our intentions when driving things forward.
Visuals
For interpreting the visuals, I chose one of my favorite images of the Chariot, which comes from the Linestrider Tarot by Siolo Thompson, published by Llewellyn Worldwide. (You can read my interview with that deck here.) The digital reproduction is a little more vivid than the actual card.
In this version of the Chariot, we see a crowned person standing over two horse heads facing in opposite directions. Although there is no sign that this person is a charioteer: there are no reins, no chariot cart even. But the figure stands above the two horses as though controlling them. This idea of control over potentially unruly, contrasting forces is key to how I read the Chariot. Whether you can direct it or whether it crashes horribly is up to the driver. If you whip the horses into a frenzy, they may obey you for the short term, but it’s easy to lose control or burn out. The Chariot functions best with continued momentum. It’s sustained drive and focus on the goal, and you can see that in the focused gaze of the charioteer. Focus and sustained drive lead to the Chariot’s success, and that is symbolized by the star-specked laurel wreath. This charioteer seems hesitant, and I think that’s appropriate because there is lot of responsibility to take the reins.
Archetypes are supposedly universal, but the major arcana change over time as the key concepts behind those bigger ideas take on different cultural relevance. One of the themes you’ll see in many modern incarnations of the Chariot is freedom and a bared chest. I think that these images of wind-in-the-hair freedom is partly tied to mastery but also part of the mobility that vehicles provide. And the bared chest not only suggests freedom and recalls classical toga-clad charioteers, but it also exposes the emotion and vulnerability of this archetype, and that’s necessary to flesh out the card’s many layers.
What’s more rarely seen with the bare-chested charioteer, however, is the need for armor or protection. Now, exposure and armor, even freedom or mobility and armor, seem contradictory. But the Chariot is challenging to drive, and there needs to be some indication of this. If it’s not armor, what is it? Danger. Risk. Damage. That’s what makes this Chariot from the Linestrider Tarot so poignant for me and lifts it up to one of my very few favorites of this card. In the center of the card is a bird within a red splotch of wetness. Is it a bird that has been crushed beneath the wheels? Is it the Charioteer’s heart opening up for us? (The word “heart-wrenching” comes to mind.) Is it the dove with the Holy Grail, the san grael (or sang real for you Da Vinci Code fans)? To me it can signal the heart and the delicate center that needs protection within the confines of the Chariot. It is what must be carried and protected on the journey, whether you see that as the Holy Grail or the medium’s connection to Source or some pure intention behind the drive and action.
There is also a clear if small nod to the sign of Cancer, with the zodiacal glyph just beneath the bird wings. But there are some elements of the Chariot that aren’t present in this version, such as icons of the Moon, which rules Cancer, or any suggestion of the element of water. But there is a feminine power in this illustration that aligns with the Mother who grounds Cancer, embodies the Moon, and draws her power from Water.
Did you learn something?
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