The Chariot

Symbols

• The Two SphinxesOne white, one black — opposition itself becomes the motive force, divergence gathered by the will into a single line.+

  Waite says he accepted 'the variation of Éliphas Lévi' because the charioteer 'has thus replied to the sphinx' — the riddle Oedipus answered. Lévi's pair is one white, one black; Smith keeps the colours and draws no harness.

• The Starry CanopyA blue canopy spangled with stars above the car — a still sky held over motion, reminding the driver that traveling is also looking up.+

  Lévi describes the chariot under 'an azure and starry drapery' on four pillars; Smith keeps the star-sown blue canopy. It is a sky the charioteer carries with him, set apart from the open sky behind the city.

• The Crescent EpauletsA crescent on each shoulder — the driver carries the tides with him; his force issues from water rather than from its suppression.+

  Waite says the Urim and Thummim 'are supposed to be' on his shoulders; Lévi showed them as two crescents. Exodus puts them in the breastplate (28:30) and gives the shoulders two onyx stones engraved with the tribes' names (28:9–12).

• The City and the RiverA river and a walled city behind him — the river lies between the car and the walled place he came out of, already crossed; advance is not flight but passage from one shape to another.+

  The Golden Dawn gives this card the letter Cheth, traditionally glossed 'fence' or 'enclosure'. The one enclosure in the picture is the walled city — and it lies behind him, across the river, at his back.

• The WandThe wand in his hand does not strike; it points — direction itself is the form of governance.+

  Waite's text gives him 'a drawn sword', and Lévi a sceptre topped by a globe, a square and a triangle; Smith drew a wand instead. Here the picture and its author's text part ways.

• The Square BreastplateA square cartouche on the chest — a stable shape must come first if outward thrust is to be carried; the square is the ground of the going.+

  Exodus gives the high priest a breastplate 'foursquare' (28:16) and puts the Urim and Thummim inside it (28:30). Lévi, and Waite after him, put those on the shoulders instead; Smith leaves a square on the chest — the very shape Exodus gives the breastplate.

• Winged Sun DiscA disc spreading two wings on the front of the car — the sun given flight, carried ahead of the driver.+

  Lévi puts 'the flying sphere of the Egyptians' on the square front of his chariot, and Smith keeps it. In Egypt the winged sun disc was carved over temple gateways, so the car's front reads as a doorway on the move.

Story

The whole vehicle is turned toward us. The charioteer faces out of the card, upright and square in the car, and the car itself sits head-on, so any journey it made would come straight at us. Yet nothing is moving: the two beasts in front lie couchant, and no line joins them to his hands. Behind his back the land keeps its distance — a band of river, then the walls of a town, under an open sky. The picture freezes a pause that looks like a departure: everything points one way, and what holds the shape together is only the stillness of the man inside it.

Correspondences

Shadow

Related Cards

Strength

Justice

Two of Cups

Combinations with this card