The Chariot
The Chariot tarot card has appeared for me like crazy this year. So much so, I get frustrated and throw it back in the deck. I’ve also had issues with the card in divination. Often, I assume it means being in the driver’s seat. Being in control, knowing where you are headed and really hitting the gas petal. Unfortunalty, this is not always how things would turn out. There is nothing more frustrating for a tarot reader than being wrong about a prediction. I should also know, more than anyone, that each tarot card contains an endless depth of meanings. It was time I took The Chariot one step further.
Last night in my class at The Tarot School, we discussed The Chariot at length. I could have cried I was so thrilled to finally be discussing the precarious Chariot! My teachers, Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone, base their understanding of tarot on the Cabbalistic tree of life. They explained that The Chariot is really the vehicle that brings you above and below. The vehicle that carries you from the regular world to the world of the spiritual. The Chariot is the way in which you reach higher spiritual realms. I love the idea that we can reach back to the place from which we came and the place we will inevitably return for guidance and inspiration.
It got me thinking of all the ways I leave the regular world to journey into the spiritual. Guided meditation, yoga and reading tarot cards are all ways that I feel I reach for that higher realm. In fact, whenever I’m engaged in the creative process, through writing or painting, I feel I am opening up to a higher realm. I wonder then, is sleep our Chariot into another world, a higher level? Drugs and alcohol can be considered vehicles into altered states of consciousness, although not necessarily healthy ones.
Are you interested in going where The Chariot might take you? What ways, what vehicles do you chose when reaching for a higher spiritual state? How might your world change if you were to leave the familiar and open yourself up to a bit of the unknown?