TRUMP 7 - THE CHARIOT
Following along in the story unveiled in the Tarot cards, we have just left the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve have left the dominion of unification. They have left the oneness and harmony with God and nature, harmony with themselves, harmony with each other. They have been cast out into a world of pain, of toil, of hardship. What happens next?
The answer is the Chariot. All of the cards are remarkable, and this card is indeed astounding. It can take quite some time for a novice to be able to absorb the imagery on this card.
We see a charioteer standing in a chariot. Behind him is a city in front of which is a flowing river. The Chariot has two wheels and four posts rising up above him creating a canopy. Upon this blue canopy are many, many stars. In front of the Chariot, we see a shield with a red, odd, top-looking thing, and a pair of wings with a yellow dot between them. Pulling the Chariot are two sphinxes. The one on the left is black; the one on the right is red. The charioteer wears a crown upon his head, a strange looking crescent moon on each shoulder, a breastplate, and a gold girdle with several symbols on it. His left hand rests comfortably on the Chariot, and his right hand holds a staff of some form. What is this rich imagery meant to convey?
Perhaps at this point in your Tarot studies you might want to begin by not immediately reading my description, but rather take some time to absorb the symbolism of this card and see what it indicates to you.
This is a card of God's interaction in our lives. We have seen previously in Trump 5, revelation
in the Hierophant which unites our reason with our creativity. The chariot is not merely a card of revelation, but actual divine intervention in all aspects of our lives.
The chariot is a vehicle of war. Of this, there is no doubt. Rome and Greece had thousands of chariots, sometimes driven by one, two. three or more men pulled usually by a team of two to five horses. The famous chariot race in "Ben Hur" is a fact of history. The energies of the horses were used to pull the charioteer in his war--take him swiftly that he might have the combined energies and speed of two or more horses, instead of riding individually on horseback. Also, he would be able to carry more implements of war in the chariot with him. What is this image of war doing in our allegedly sacred Tarot book?
Ladies and gentlemen, life is war. Having left the Garden of Eden, there is struggle. Adam and Eve left the unified state, and now see everything in terms of good and evil. After we leave the Garden of Eden, we see everything polarizes in terms of plus or minus, better or worse. It is almost impossible for us to engage in any relationship of any kind without entering upon judgment, comparison, evaluation, discrimination, and, therefore war.
Even if we do something as simple as eat a cookie, it is almost impossible for us to appreciate or enjoy that cookie simply for itself. We must be constantly comparing it to other cookies. Is this better or is this worse then other cookies we have had previously? You can expand that a billion fold, and you have the human race--always judging, always testing, always comparing. And, that judging and testing and comparing causes us great amounts of harm--great amounts of pain. It makes it impossible for us to appreciate anything the way it is. It is what it is. I am what I am. When we return to the unitive state, we can appreciate other people for who they are. They are who they are. We could appreciate things for what they are, it is what it is, without constantly comparing it to what it is not. This is the essence of love--to be able to accept someone exactly for who he or she is, unconditionally, without any comparisons or tests or criteria. This is a very high difficult thing to do. This is the promised land. This is the Eden to which we attempt to return.
In the meanwhile, there is war. We are constantly fighting between discrimination of the plus and minus. We are constantly battling between trying to live life in the unitive loving state versus living life in the fractured immoral fall.
We, therefore, find ourselves in the middle of a religious holy war being waged inside of our very own souls. St. Paul refers to this as the struggle between the old man and the new man. The old man, trapped in ignorance and sin, enslaved to fleshly lusts and antipathy, versus the new man, whose eyes are on Heaven focusing on the realms of the spirit. This war is the fight of our lives that is everyday. This is the battle that we must engage upon, so that we might overcome those tendencies--the poison that was infused into our veins through the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That poison must be extricated, but it will not go peacefully. It will not go automatically. It will not go without us struggling to overcome. The Bible is a book of love. It is a book of God's redemption. It is also a book of war. In both the Hebrew bible and in the Christian New Testament, we see struggles--struggles with people against people and struggles with people against their sinful tendencies. And, the Bible repeats over and over and over as a litany, the necessity of perseverance, the necessity of tenacity, and the necessity of overcoming. If you read the first seven letters of Jesus to the churches in the book of Revelation, he is constantly talking about persevering, fighting the good fight, and overcoming. To he who overcomes, I will grant the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the nature of the war. That is why we have a charioteer. However, we do not fight this war alone. If we did, we could never win.
Remember, this card and every card says, the only reality is the Fool. The only truth is the Arik Anpin and the bubbling consciousness of creation upon that vast countenance. That is all that there is. That is all that there ever was, and that is all that there ever can be. Everything else is dancing shadows. Therefore, once the consciousness of God becomes so dense, once the light becomes so slowed down as to turn into matter, and God's divine spirit becomes encased within human flesh to the point that the world is full of enmity and strife due to the poison of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God sends his chariot to enable us to escape to have victory.
In the Bible, we read about Elijah, a prophet of God, who struggled mightily against the forces of darkness in his age. At the end of his life when all seemed lost, God sent a magical, mysterious chariot from the heavens to whisk him away and take him back to holy Jerusalem.
Undeniably, this card stems from that Biblical account. We see many elements which are crucial. Number one, we see the city in the very farthest background. We have left the Garden of Eden, and now we are in full blown civilization. This is the first time that we see anything that comes close to a human structure in the cards. This is a full blown city. The other structures that we have seen are pillars in the temple and are meant to represent elements not created by human hands, but by the mind of God. However, the city in the background symbolizes perhaps another element--the holy city of Jerusalem inside of Heaven, the great gated city of God, the new promised land that we are striving for.
In this way, we see the as above-so below. All cities are embodied in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is embodied in the city of Heaven. We see this reflective echoing over and over and over in the Bible.
To use a common example, let’s think about a football. The term “football” means many things. In its broadest sense, football is the sum-total of all people, players, games in the entire history of a national sport. Football refers to one particular game that is being played in the global scheme. Football also refers to the physical object that gets tossed about during the game. However, that too is an abstraction. Because we say during this one game, there was only one football. You never have two footballs on the field. There is only one. However, in its densest form, we have the actual, physical object, and that object can be used over and over. In a single particular game, players might use five or ten individual different footballs. That is exactly how the as above-as below works. That is why this city symbolized on this card is a representative of the eternal city of God--a representative of Jerusalem and of all cities on the earth. The card is indicating to us that there is no real difference between the earth and the sky, between Heaven and Earth. The same principles apply to the Kingdom of God as apply to the Kingdom of Man. The laws that we saw in the Emperor apply universally.
But, what is the real purpose of the Chariot? The Chariot is here to provide a vehicle for us to overcome our fears and our anxieties, to overcome our constant search for evil, and to forever look at what is. The Charioteer is divine intervention; it is divine grace to carry us wherever we are willing to go.
The canopy above the Charioteer’s head is, quite obviously, the canopy of Heaven. The Charioteer is ready at a moment’s notice to whisk us into Heaven. The notion of grace is a very powerful, mystical idea. In common understanding, grace is the notion that God's not going to hold your sins against you, but grace is so much more than that. As we've seen in other cards, the essence of grace is that whatsoever we do in thought, word or deed is all the manifestation of the power of God.
Therefore, if we are to overcome and return to the godhead, what power are we going to use to do this? The only power we can use is not the power of self; not the power of ego. The ego, which entered the world through card #6, cannot be used to eradicate itself. If it even tries to do so, it just creates a much worse problem than before.
Let me give you an example. In China, people developed a religion called “Buddhism,” wherein the priests in the Buddhist temples became known as "Boddhisattvas." The Boddhisattva ideal was a Buddha to be, not quite a perfectly enlightened being, but one who was guaranteed in his next life to be a complete Buddha. The Boddhisattvas would sit around proclaiming to everyone how they had slain their egos, had risen above the realm of duality, and were now essentially complete and perfect enlightened beings.
Over the course of time, the Buddhists recognized that there was a bit of a problem here, because the Boddhisattvas were most grievously guilty of the very thing which they claimed to have overcome--that being the egotist state. When one sits down and says, “Look at me. I've overcome my ego. You should all be more like me.” one does not yet grasp the core of life. In contrast, you see in the Bible, Jesus is constantly, only, and always pointing to God the Father. "Why do you call me good? There is no one good but the Father. Do not cling on to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, I go to my God and your God, to my Father and your Father." He came not to be a religious object of worship, so much as a religious subject, as a friend and a guide to show us the way. When He says, "He who believes in me shall have everlasting life," He was not talking about a doctrinal confession regarding the Athenasian Creed. He was, in fact, saying, “If you are listening to me, and you believe what I am telling you is true, then this pathway will lead you to God. That is why the Christian proclamation of by grace through faith is so crucial. The Chariot sits and waits to carry us to Heaven, just as it did Elijah.
The tradition has developed within the Tarot card community that the reason there are four pillars supporting the canopy above the Charioteer’s head is that they represent the four letters of God's holy name, YHWH. All of the Tarot cards are structured around this holy name for it is through that name that we can learn and know all that there is about God. We will discuss this name in greater detail later. Suffice it to state here, that it is the holy name in each of the letters YHWH which connect the Chariot on the ground to the canopy of Heaven above. The Chariot is here to wage war, to grant us the grace and power to overcome.
But notice that while the Chariot appears to be a card of such power, action, and even intervention, the Chariot is absolutely stationary. There is no indication whatsoever that the Chariot is moving. In fact, the entire countenance of the card is that the Chariot sits and is here waiting for you. It is up to you whether or not you are going to enter the Chariot. We have seen this principle several times. The groom shall not rape the bride, and the bride shall not rape the groom. The two shall become one. It is up to us to determine if we are going to be willing to let go and let God. This simple little cliché does contain much power. That power is the revelation of the Chariot. The Chariot with all of its glory and all of its power and all of its divine intervention sits patiently waiting for us to enter.
This is also symbolized in the two hands of the Charioteer. The left hand waits patiently, lying inactive upon the mantle of the Chariot. In his right hand, the Charioteer holds a staff. That staff is drawn in such a way as to have a dual meaning. Meaning number one is the sword. It appears to be sword-like to indicate that this is to cleave truth from darkness, good from evil, yes from no, to help in the act of discernment. At the same time, the very tip of the sword is drawn in such a way as to remind us of the Magician's wand in card #1, indicating that through this wand, the power of God can be communicated. So we see the two-fold nature, both of earthly involvement, warring and of communicating the divine mind. In this way, we see that the war that is carried out is all done through the power of the Magician.
But there is more here, much more. Upon the breast of the Charioteer, we see a breastpiece. This is symbolically representative of the breastplate that the High Priest would wear as he entered the Holy of Holies, (symbolized by the canopy) as he would represent the people. Upon this breastplate were 12 stones, and upon them were the inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. This indicates that this power, this salvation, this redemption, this divine intervention, are for all people of all races everywhere. The Tarot never discriminates between those who are inside and those who are outside. All salvation and all truth are available for all people at all times.
Around the Charioteer’s waist, we see a gold band with 5 symbols upon it. If you project those 5 symbols to the sides of his hips and the 5 symbols behind him, you see that once again these are the 12 signs of the zodiac--all of the stars of Heaven, all time, all people, symbolized in this girdle.
The imagery in front of the Chariot conveys the power of the swiftness of the wings. Like the time I ran away, turned around, and you were standing close to me. No matter how far we run, no matter how fast we run, no matter how long we run away from God, all we must do is simply turn around, and we will encounter Him, the swift messenger. It has been said that for every one step a man takes toward God, God takes a thousand steps toward man. This is very true. Sometimes from our perspective, it seems that we must wait a long while. The truth is that God answers instantaneously. That instantaneous answering does not necessarily constitute a change in the external circumstances of our lives. If we are praying for a new job, then that may take quite some time because the various layers of the cosmos, as they get more and more dense, take more and more energy, and more and more time to change. As we sit in our automobile, for example, we can change our thinking instantaneously. We can think about a flower one minute; we can think about a book another minute. If we want to change something on the car, that is going to take much, much more effort. Even if it is something as simple as opening the door, that takes more time and it takes more effort than it takes to change our thinking.
In exactly the same way, God's answers to our psyche, to our soul, to our spirit, are instantaneous. If we are seeking for God's truth or for his comfort or peace, that help is available to our minds and to our souls instantaneously. However, if we are seeking a transformation in the physical universe or in the social order to effect changes in other human beings, this can and often and usually does take much more time. Why? Isn't God all powerful? Can't he do anything and everything instantaneously?
The entire message of the Fool is that God is voluntarily self limiting. If God wanted to, God could eliminate all hatred, but to do so would be to have the Groom rape the Bride. Therefore, since God is all powerful, but seeks communion with his creation, he abides eternally in peace, standing in the Chariot waiting for us to approach him. We are his agents within the world.
This is why the winged messenger sometimes seems to be so slow in arriving. Often the problem is not God; the problem is usually and only us. God is, in fact, working instantaneously, but if he magically changes our circumstances, then the flow and fabric of our lives could be completely destroyed. This is in violation of his laws of nature. That being said and done, it remains forever true that the messenger is swift and the communications between his mind and ours are instantaneous. The answers are always there if we will sit and silence ourselves enough to listen.
The red top-like device is a symbol from India known as a “lingam.” It is another phallic symbol. It is there to symbolize action on the part of God. This is not a form giver card. This is a interactive card indicating the presence of God's power in our lives. Behold, I am with you forever, even until the end of the age.
The final element we will look at in this card is, for many of you, perhaps somewhat of a mystery--the two very strange creatures pulling the Chariot. They are obviously sphinxes--one black, one white. What is the sphinx? The sphinx is a creature from Greek mythology. The sphinx was there in front of the pyramids when the Hebrews were held captive in Egypt. What is the myth of the sphinx? The sphinx was a creature with the body of a lion, usually wings of an eagle, and the face of a human woman. It would go about terrorizing citizens in the town, asking them a riddle. If the citizen answered the riddle correctly, he would be spared. Otherwise, he would be devoured by the sphinx. No one ever answered the riddle correctly until a young man named Oedipus came along. Do you remember the riddle from your junior high school mythology class? It was, “What animal is it that goes about on fours in the morning, twos in the day and threes at night?” The answer, Oedipus said, is “man,” who crawls as a baby, who walks in his strength in middle age, and hobbles about using a cane in his old age. The moment that Oedipus gave that answer to the sphinx, she shrieked a horrible howl and dashed herself against the rocks until she was dead.
Why in the world would we put such an image from Greek mythology on this card? Well, as we've said so many times, the Tarot is dealing in symbolism. The symbolism behind these sphinxes is quite clear and quite powerful, and it's something that you could not condense into any other imagery that I can think of. Man goes in a cycle of birth, life and death, and that cycle is forever. That cycle is natural. The death that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden was a spiritual death. They no longer lived according to the life principle which is the unified principle, but they forever more were living according to the good vs. evil principle. This has nothing to do with the biological flow.
As we live below, so we live above. We are born to a new idea. We let it live within us and then, in one form or another, it dies away. Even if it stays with us forever, it changes and grows and merges with other ideas.
Going about on fours and twos and threes is the cycle of life. It encompasses the totality of all human experience, whether it is your marriage, your job, your religion, your body, your hopes, your dreams or anything. That cycle of life, the riddle of the sphinx, encompasses all aspects of it, and the Chariot is here to constantly help.
The sphinx was in a life and death struggle. The sphinx would devour creatures who could not solve her riddle until she met someone who could, at which point she had to destroy herself. There is no compromise. There is only right and wrong. There is life, and there is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There is nothing in between. Either we will overcome and we will solve the riddle of the sphinx and we enter the Chariot and return to our celestial home, or we will be devoured in totality by the darkness of the realms of opposites, the consciousness of good and evil.
There are two sphinxes--one white, one black. They are there to indicate that the cycle of life and the divine intervention exist in all aspects of our lives. If we say that something is "good," or we say that something is "bad," usually we mean that it is pleasant or unpleasant. This has very little to do with whether it is from the tree of life or from the tree of death. All things which happen to us which are "good" and all the things which happen to us which are "bad" are likewise reflections of the cycle of man and can all be tools of blessing. If good things happen to us, we can stray from God and think that we are self made people not needing any divine help. If bad things happen to us, then we can think that God does not love us, that we are cursed, that we are getting what we deserve.
The opposite is true. If good comes, we can see it as a blessing and a gift of God. If adversity comes, we can see it as merely another test, another learning experience, another opportunity to rise above the realm of good and evil and seek the unity beyond.
That is the Chariot; that is the power. That is the divine intervention--the endless, limitless grace of God, here to take us from the pain and suffering through our fall and restore us to the eternal throne, the blessed new Jerusalem.