Letter: Zayin (Tz) = Gemini
Path: Between Chakhmah and Tiferet
Quality: House of Attraction
The Chariot represents the principle of perpetual motion, meaning the eternal circulation of Light and sound frequencies that compound invisible energies into tangible matter. The awakened human, that heavenly animal, becomes attuned to the voice of Spirit. Sound is the vehicle of Sophia immanent in the human world, traveling across all cultural, temporal, and religious boundaries, seeking an abode among the children of men.
The Chariot card, capstone of the first Septenary, represents polarity in cooperation or integrated frequencies. The individual who entered upon the self-cultivation path in the Magus card has reached the first synthesis. The Fixed throne of matter is now animated, moved by one dark and one light horse. These two steeds (sometimes sphinxes) show that all polarities are harnessed to their common denominator working towards a mutual goal.
Individually, the horses are each very distinct in their own nature but function best in harmony with their equal-and-opposite partner. By harnessing the body’s great passion and libido (dark horse looking backward) to the clarity of an awakening consciousness (the white horse looking forward), the pair can influence each other’s evolution over time. This is the sign of the yogi, the meditator, and the martial artist, exposing a duality that transcends the either/or paradigm.
The state the Chariot represents is more than the sum of the previous six Trumps. We now have a vehicle that responds to the witness in consciousness. Our Charioteer has won the first level of Hermetic androgyny by bringing the physical body (original referent for the Cube of Space) into harmony, balancing its cosmic and terrestrial attributes around its astral center.
In Trump 7 contending opposites no longer have power to take the driver off the chosen road (which was determined in Trump 6). The Charioteer has outgrown the pose of victim of circumstances. Nevermore will she be pulled in one direction by intuition and in the other direction by reason or acculturation. Having yoked and directed both opposites onto the spiritual path, she is ready to claim the first evolutionary victory, that of self-mastery and self-unification.
Our female Charioteer’s armor signals her awakened left brain. The Medusa head on her shield suggests this dynamic lady is Athena, bearing gifts derived from the reasoning mind. This points us back to the Wisdom Tradition again, the cumulative inheritance of our literate ancestors. This Gemini Charioteer can be likened to Sophia in the Chariot of our ancestors. She aligns her goals to Divine Will, as signaled by the course of the planets overhead. The inner vision of her mind’s eye directs her horses and keeps her wheels on the road. When this card is at its best, the planets, the body’s energies, and the mind’s eye are functioning as one.
Another quality that the Chariot card refers to is ambidexterity, a brain so well-balanced and cross-wired that either hand can be rallied for action at any time. So often in life we find ourselves building up with one hand and tearing down with the other, and it happens right under our own noses. Cross-coordination (of thought, at very least) is a signal accomplishment.
Those who harbor internal inconsistencies can’t get their ego, will, and spiritual vision focused on the same project at the same time. Society takes advantage of this unfortunate situation because humans make better herd animals when our internal balance is repeatedly upset. Those who wish to achieve higher than average levels of integration have to expand their capacities across the centerline and develop their weak side, however that might manifest. This is a vital aspect of the traditional symbol of androgyny.
The above text is an excerpt from our book Tarot of the Holy Light: A Continental Esoteric Tarot - Volume One.
