Major Arcana · VII
The Chariot
Upright
- willpower
- determination
- victory through control
- direction
- driving forward
Reversed
- loss of direction
- aggression
- forces pulling apart
- scattered will
- a stalled advance
Your notes on The Chariot
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The image
An armoured prince stands in a stone chariot beneath a starry canopy, holding a wand but no reins, while two sphinxes, one black and one white, sit before him facing slightly different ways. A walled city lies behind; a river runs between him and it. His face is calm and the sphinxes are perfectly still.
Upright meaning
The Chariot is the will that holds opposing forces together and makes them pull in one direction. There are no reins; the sphinxes move by the driver's mind. In a reading the card shows determination, triumph through self-control, a journey or a campaign undertaken with focus, and the discipline to keep contrary impulses yoked to a single aim. It is a victory card, and the victory is first of all over yourself. The city behind says you have left the familiar to do this.
Reversed meaning
Reversed, the sphinxes pull apart or refuse to move. The card shows a loss of direction, forces in your life or yourself working against each other, aggression that mistakes itself for drive, or a campaign stalled by the driver's own divided will. It can mark a person steering by ego rather than purpose. The chariot is intact. Ask where you actually want to go, and whether both sphinxes know it.
The Chariot: yes or no?
- Upright
- Yes
- The Chariot leans yes, on the strength of willpower and determination, though it asks something of you in return.
- Reversed
- Not yet
- The Chariot reversed is a yes held back. The promise of the upright card is there, but loss of direction and aggression delay it; the timing or the approach needs to change first.
The Chariot with other cards
- The Chariot and StrengthThe Chariot and Strength together contrast force with patience.
The Chariot by topic
How the card reads when the question is about a particular part of life. Choose a topic on any spread and these appear beside each card’s position reading.
love and relationships
Upright. Determination carries this relationship forward through distance, disapproval or a difficult patch. Both of you are pulling, and pulling in roughly the same direction. Keep hold of the reins and do not let pride steer.
Reversed. Pulling in opposite directions, or forcing a relationship to go where it does not want to. Ambition or stubbornness is driving over feeling. Slow down and ask where you are both trying to get to.
work and career
Upright. Drive, discipline and a win through sheer determination: a promotion earned, a deadline met, a project driven through obstacles. Keep both horses pulling the same way. Momentum is yours.
Reversed. Drift, or drive with no direction: pushing hard at the wrong goal, or losing control of a project that was running away. Stop, re-aim, then push.
money
Upright. Financial goals reached by discipline: debt paid down, a target hit, a plan driven through. Momentum is yours. Keep both horses pulling the same way.
Reversed. Spending or saving with no direction, or forcing a financial plan that is not working. Stop, re-aim, then push.
health and wellbeing
Upright. Willpower and drive: a fitness goal reached, a recovery pushed through, discipline that wins. Momentum carries you. Keep the horses pulling together, and do not run them into the ground.
Reversed. Pushing hard without direction, or losing control of a regime that was running away with you. Overtraining, or a crash. Stop, re-aim, then push.
family and home
Upright. Determination carries the household through a hard patch: a move managed, a crisis driven through, everyone pulling the same way. Keep hold of the reins.
Reversed. A family pulling in opposite directions, or one person forcing the household somewhere it does not want to go. Slow down and ask where you are all trying to get to.
personal growth
Upright. Willpower: holding contradictory impulses and driving forward anyway. Discipline with direction. You have been growing through sheer determination, and it is working.
Reversed. Drive without direction, or force where surrender was needed. You are pushing hard and not sure at what. Stop, re-aim, then push.
the spiritual path
Upright. Will on the path: holding opposing forces and driving forward anyway, discipline with direction. Victory through persistence. Keep both sphinxes under the reins.
Reversed. Spiritual striving with no direction, or force where surrender was needed. Pushing hard toward a goal you have not examined. Stop, re-aim, then push.
a decision
Upright. Decide and drive. The card favours the option that needs willpower and rewards it. Hold the opposing pulls and commit to a direction.
Reversed. Deciding under pressure without a direction, or forcing a choice that is not ready to be made. Stop, find the destination again, then drive.
Waite’s divinatory meanings
Quoted from A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), public domain.
Upright: “Succour, providence also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble.”
Reversed: “Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.”
From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
Waite’s full description of the card, Part II of the 1911 text, public domain.
An erect and princely figure carrying a drawn sword and corresponding, broadly speaking, to the traditional description which I have given in the first part. On the shoulders of the victorious hero are supposed to be the Urim and Thummim. He has led captivity captive; he is conquest on all planes--in the mind, in science, in progress, in certain trials of initiation. He has thus replied to the sphinx, and it is on this account that I have accepted the variation of �liphas L�vi; two sphinxes thus draw his chariot. He is above all things triumph in the mind. It is to be understood for this reason (a) that the question of the sphinx is concerned with a Mystery of Nature and not of the world of Grace, to which the charioteer could offer no answer; (b) that the planes of his conquest are manifest or external and not within himself; (c) that the liberation which he effects may leave himself in the bondage of the logical understanding; (d) that the tests of initiation through which he has passed in triumph are to be understood physically or rationally; and (e) that if he came to the pillars of that Temple between which the High Priestess is seated, he could not open the scroll called Tora, nor if she questioned him could he answer. He is not hereditary royalty and he is not priesthood.
The Chariot in a spread
How the card reads in each position. The first ten are the Celtic Cross; the rest are used by the Horseshoe, Relationship and Two Paths spreads. The smaller spreads reuse these positions.
The Significator
What is at the heart of the matter right now?
At the centre of your situation is your own will, holding opposing demands in line and driving toward a goal. You are in the chariot. The reading is about keeping both sphinxes facing the same way.
At the heart of this is a divided will or a lost direction: forces pulling against each other, drive that has become aggression, a journey that has stalled. The matter turns on choosing one destination.
Crossing Card
What crosses, challenges or shapes it?
What meets your situation is a demand for discipline and direction, perhaps a competitive force or a goal that requires everything you have. It asks for control. Take the stand.
The force across your path is conflicting pulls or someone's unchecked aggression, including possibly your own. Until the direction is settled, effort cancels itself out.
Foundation
What is the root of this?
This grew from a hard-won victory of will, a time when you took control of contrary forces and drove through to a goal. That discipline is the ground beneath the present.
At the root is a campaign that lost its way, or a time when ambition became aggression and cost you. The present carries that memory of the sphinxes pulling apart.
Recent Past
What is passing out of the picture?
A period of determined effort and forward drive is receding. The campaign is won or nearly so. What follows asks you to step down from the chariot and live in the territory you reached.
A stretch of lost direction or of forces working against each other is losing its hold. The sphinxes are settling. Point them, and the chariot moves again.
Crown
What are you consciously aiming for, and what could this become?
What you consciously want is victory through your own will: to master the situation and arrive where you set out to. That is achievable here and the circumstances favour disciplined drive.
You may be aiming at winning rather than arriving, or at control over others rather than over yourself. Make the goal a destination, not a conquest.
Future
What is coming next?
A time of determined forward movement is coming, a journey or a campaign that will succeed if you hold your focus. Prepare the chariot and set the sphinxes.
You are heading into a stretch of conflicting pulls, when direction is hard to hold and aggression tempts. Settle your destination before you set out.
Emotions
How are you meeting this, inside?
Inwardly, you are focused, disciplined and determined. That willpower is your contribution to this matter. Keep it aimed at the goal rather than at the people in the way.
Part of you wants one thing and part another, and you have been driving hard without agreeing on where. Stop and let the sphinxes talk.
External Forces
What are others, and the wider setting, bringing to it?
The people around you are driven and competitive, and the atmosphere rewards focus and control. Someone may be a strong ally in a campaign. Harness the energy.
Your surroundings are pulling in different directions, with aggression or confusion making progress impossible. Do not add to the pulling. Hold your own line.
Hopes & Desires
What do you hope for, and what do you fear?
You hope to triumph by your own strength and to arrive where you intend, and may fear losing control along the way. The card says the control is already yours. Trust the mind that moves the sphinxes.
You fear being torn apart by competing demands, or fear your own aggression, and part of you may hope for an external force to set the direction. Set it yourself.
Outcome
Where does all of this lead?
This resolves in victory through will: contrary forces mastered, a goal reached by discipline and direction. Keep the sphinxes aligned and the result holds.
Left as it is, this ends in a stalled campaign or a direction lost to conflicting pulls. The spread shows where the will divided. Reunite it and the ending changes.
Hidden Influences
What is at work here that you cannot see yet?
Willpower is the hidden engine here: someone's determination, perhaps your own, is holding contrary forces together and pushing. Things look calm because the driver is holding the sphinxes by mind alone.
Beneath the surface two forces are pulling in different directions, and the appearance of control is costing more than it shows. Aggression may be hiding as drive. Check who is steering and where.
Advice
What should you do about it?
Take the reins. Decide the destination, yoke your contrary impulses to it, and drive. Control yourself first and the situation follows. Do not stop to argue with the sphinxes.
Stop forcing. The pull you feel in two directions is information: the destination is not agreed. Settle where you actually want to go before you apply any more will.
The Other Person
What are they bringing to this?
They are driven, disciplined and determined to win through, and they expect to carry the day. Expect momentum and little patience for doubt. Ride with them if you share the destination.
They have lost direction, or their drive has turned to aggression, and they may be running over people without noticing. Expect speed without steering. Step aside rather than in front.
What Joins You
What holds the two of you together?
What joins you is shared drive: a destination you both want and the discipline to pull toward it together. You are a good team in a campaign. Make sure you also know how to stop.
You are joined by a campaign that has lost its purpose, or by one person's will dragging the other along. The chariot is moving and only one of you is steering. Agree the destination or the ride ends badly.
What Divides You
What pulls the two of you apart?
Control divides you: who drives, whose direction, whose pace. Two strong wills in one chariot pull like the two sphinxes. Decide the destination together and the pulling becomes power.
Aggression, or a loss of shared direction, has opened the gap. One of you is forcing and the other is dragging. The division is about will, and will can be pointed the same way again.
A Path
What happens if you take this road?
This road is the campaign: decide, commit and drive through with everything you have. It leads to victory and asks complete self-control along the way. It suits a clear destination and punishes a vague one.
This road is force without agreed direction. It leads to a stalled chariot or collateral damage. Before you take it, settle the destination; then it becomes the upright road.
See where it falls for you
Deal a spread and read every card in its position.