The Chariot and Cancer (zodiac)

Barleywine

It seems the system has thrown more than one tarot designer/author for a loop. One I'm aware of swapped Cancer over to Temperance, while another switched it to the Moon. Clearly they didn't understand or chose to ignore the "system." Personally, since I have a long history with that system, I like things just the way they stand.
 

Zephyros

Yes, because many don't understand that it is in fact a system and not just random things thrown around. People call the RWS a "system" by which they mean a method of reading completely divorced of any kind of system, but purely by free association.

But the GD is fact a system, with reasoning and checks and balances for every disparate element.
 

ravenest

Association seems 'originally' due to its placement in the deck (its trump number) in some cases. Cards before it seemed to show Gemini imagery, and after it, Leo, so ......

Then by nature of its dual energy ( as a card and originally the sign) and accretion of further symbolism ... that redefined it more distinctly FROM Cancer the astrological sign.

It is with those extra associations and some 'Cancerian specifics' that I can relate to (as it is a strong energy in my chart). But they are not general Cancerian traits.

They seem more a combination of the energies of the signs ( and cards ? ) either side.

One example is the magical weapon of Cancer ; the furnace . What ? A furnace .... Cancer ?

After a few years of thinking about that, it makes perfect sense and is a big part of my dynamic.

But looking at the original iconography of the card or the superficial astrology, in a system like G.D. the associations are pretty hard to get. Most of the relevant associations seem via the accretions, which seems strange to understand a thing by the things attached to it to help understand the original thing in the first place.

But that's tarot ! (Who cares ... as long as it works and gives great insight into the self and the workings of the self ... and others and processes in nature. )
 

Zephyros

Not that hard, a furnace actually makes perfect sense, if one looks at it from the right point of view.

I guess I don't need a few years to see it. })
 

Brilliance

Chariot is Aries

I guess I'm just thinking more of the common personality traits of Cancer: sensitive, protective, home-body. The Hermit, The Moon -- those feel like a better fit (I realize they're taken though).

The Chariot makes me think more of Capricorn or Aries -- zodiac signs associated with determination and ambition.

I think if I tap more into the spiritual aspect of The Chariot I'll begin to understand.

To me the Chariot is Aries. The traits of the Chariot have nothing to do with the sign of Cancer. Also, the Emperor is Capricorn.
 

kwaw

I think the astrological symbolism is better viewed within the context of traditional astrology (dignities, rulerships, qualities, triplicities, etc.,), seasonal allegories (N. Hemisphere), biblical references and classical myths or renaissance interpretations thereof than modern day Linda Goodman style 'sun signs'!?

The fiery furnace "was nothing else than an emblem of that region of the great circle which the sun enters at midsummer, or the sign Cancer.“

It is that part of the year (N.Hemisphere) when the sun makes "our greatest heats, longest days, and Summer Solstice."

The fiery furnace is also symbolized by the desert, where in St.John the Baptist (whose festival is connected with the Cancer solstice) cried out:

“"Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.”

Echoing the Prophet Isaiah:

35:8 "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”

Cancer is ruled by the moon, whose Chariot (Homer/Ovid) is drawn by two horses, one black one white, the reason being (Bassus, Germanica) that she is sometimes seen by night, and sometimes by day.

The chariot, in contrast to the other sitting, standing, kneeling or walking figures, may also be emblematic of the Moon (ruler of Cancer), the swiftest of the (astrological) planets.

...And why the nimble Moon
Does drive her Chariot faster than the Sun;
And in one Month thro all the Zodiack go,
While the grave Sun's a year in walking thro’:

De Natura, Lucretius, Book V.
 

Michael Sternbach

Even though I find the Golden Dawn's Tarot system quite coherent, as an astrologer, I do find some of the attributions, well, challenging. Then again, since Tarot is surely not the same as astrology, we might think of there being an interface as defined by the GD.

Talking about The Chariot and Cancer, this makes more sense if we consider their path on the ToL, which connects Binah and Geburah:

The chariot (reaching at least as far back as Plato) is a symbol of the incarnating soul - which in the Gnostic view of the Mithras mysteries descends through the planetary spheres from the stellar realms. More specifically, it starts its journey from Cancer (where the band of the Milky Way intersects the zodiac), whence it rides down on an augoeides ochema (radiant vehicle), reaching as its first station Saturn, whose Kabbalistic equivalent is Binah. It differentiates itself through the separating and dividing influences of Mars/Geburah, and attains the final stage of embodiment prior to earthly incarnation in the sphere of the Moon (the Moon being the ruler of Cancer).

Looked at that way, The Chariot's attribution to Cancer encodes an important esoteric information. :)
 

novumorganum

the deeper one works with the chariot (and with the charioteer as well), the more one will find beautiful resonances between the card and the cardinal sign of cancer (and the letter cheth...)

even in terms of a concept like cancer and home, mentioned in a few posts, the chariot is card which best represents the return path, the return home to the great mother of binah and the supernals.

there are many connections, some dealing with alchemy, some with mysticism, some with qabbalah. there are even resonances between the charioteer and the person the month of july was named after...