Exploring The Chariot

Welcome to Tarot Thursdays! This week we will be exploring The Chariot and how it can be used as a prompt or brainstorming in our writing.

Tarot is an interesting thing. It’s based upon symbolism and metaphors through imagery. With these images the subconscious mind is tapped into through the story provided. Not everyone gets the same thing from a piece of art. Each piece will influence each person in a slightly different way.

Introduction of the Card

The Chariot is card number 07 in the deck and the eighth card in the Major Arcana of the Tarot.

Let’s take a look at the following examples of this card below.

Card Examples

Notice the similarities between them and take note of their differences. Do any of these move you more than the others? Take your time and allow these cards to tell you their story.

My Analysis of These Cards

In each of these cards, the chariot is being pulled by opposing beasts. Even though in the Universal Tarot card the chariot isn’t moving, the two sphinxes are opposite colors which suggests different energies are involved or required for getting to go.

Because it’s a chariot, it also suggests a great deal of speed due to the ancient races and because of this there is an air of urgency in the images. Like, why isn’t the chariot in the Universal Tarot card moving? What’s going on there? Is something wrong? Has the race started? Is the driver waiting for something?

And! Who are they all racing against anyway? What’s the rush? We can’t see that in any of these images.

Themes of the Card

Each card has a set of keywords associated with it that serve as themes for its image. These keywords will vary somewhat depending on who you ask.

According to the Learning the Tarot website, the keywords associated with the card are:

VICTORY
WILL
SELF-ASSERTION
HARD CONTROL

You can learn more about what this site has to say about this card here.

According to the Biddy Tarot website, the keywords associated with the card are:

CONTROL
WILL POWER
VICTORY
ASSERTION
DETERMINATION

You can learn more about what this site has to say about this card here.

What this Card Means to Me

So this card builds upon the concepts we discussed with The Lovers card and is the next step in The Fool’s Journey, which I haven’t mentioned until now – sorry about that.

Now that we have discovered the knowledge of good and evil, and thus obtained the power of free agency, we must now exert our will upon ourselves and shape our identity as we see fit through the choices we make.

This is the significance of the visual symbolism in the two opposing beasts pulling the chariot. These represent the dual nature of our internal yin-yang or rather, our Adam and Eve within us. What this means is, these two energies need to be in alignment and in harmony in order for us to successfully move forward in a productive way.

The other symbolism present in the imagery is the race, or speed. I think it represents the fact that we make choices all the time, every moment of every day in our lives whether we realize it or not. This means that there is constant movement happening with our chariot due to those choices. Each choice means at least one of those beasts is moving.

So how is that working for you (or your character in your story for that matter)? Do you have both hands on the reigns and are you in control of both energies within you? Or are you letting these beasts spin the wheels and run your cart in circles? Are you going in the direction you need to go?

Really stop and think about this for a moment. If you are sinking all your energy on the next party, the next high, the next lay… are you really moving your business goals forward with all that? Yeah, it’s fun but what are you really gaining in all that? Conversely, what’s happening there if you are all work and no play at all and you’re burning yourself out? That chariot of yours is going to fall apart at some point, isn’t it?

Therefore, the key phrase I choose for this card is: WILL POWER.

Music Playlist

In this spirit of all this, these are the songs I have picked out for this card.

The Writing Exercise

This exercise is a free write. Permit yourself to write whatever comes to mind based upon the theme of this card. Choose a keyword or key phrase and run with it to see what you come up with.

I would love it if you linked or pinged back what you wrote so I could see where you went with this.

Happy writing!

Mythic Tarot by Liz Greene (Author), Juliet Sharman-Burke (Author), Tricia Newell (Illustrator) © 1989
Dragon Tarot by Terry Donaldson (Author), Peter Pracownik (Author) © 1996
Universal Tarot by Lo Scarabeo (Author), R. De Angelis (Illustrator), A. E. Waite (Designer) © 2001
Tarot of Dreams by Ciro Marchetti (Author), Lee Bursten (Author) © 2015