It's funny, it seems that very often I start working on my analysis thinking "Geez, I really can't figure this card out" - and then in the end I have to admit that SOME things I had figured out after all...! I don't know how much sense this makes, but here it is anyway...!
I actually spent a lot of time thinking of this card the last week or so, since I spent that time On Tour, kind of. To be travelling does to me what movies do, only much stronger (and for longer): act as a catalyst for thoughts, ideas, inner connecting, tapping into energy-sources I never knew I had in me. And that to me is what the Chariot is about.
The Image:
http://www.stevee.com/images/t.mjr.07.jpg
This is an image I actually have a bit of a problem getting though. It's like I don't know where to start, where the "entrance" to the card is. But I guess that will change while I work more with the deck as a whole. The first thing in the image that draws my attention is the charioteer. The is sitting in a lotus position on top of a mushroom, which is the seat of the Chariot itself. In a wide circle around his waist there are a number of spheres, like planets or moons. He holds his hands over them sort of like a concerto pianist or a conductor - his pose is to me one of control and willpower.
Over his head hovers a space craft. It is beaming rays of energy to him - to me it seems like it is sending him a message, sharing information with him. Around the space craft there is an energy-field, that resembles rings on water. The sky behind the charioteer, beneath the space craft, is stirred, a little restless. There are traces and fractions of fractals, hinting on something eternal, but they are fragmented and therefore the image seems disrupted, almost a little noisy.
The chariot then: it is pulled by four butterflies, all of them with a pair of Cosmic Eyes on their wings. The colours of the eyes represent (according to the book) the four elements. Beneath the chariot, between its wheels (one black and one white), one can see the landscape that the charioteer is leaving behind in his strange vehicle. A castle of the well-known, a river of emotions taken for granted but never yet really explored, the rosy skies of childhood idealism and naïvety (sp?).
The symbols:
One thing that strikes me about the charioteer is that he seems extremely present - that is enhanced my the blue-ish/white-ish aura that surrounds him, he seems very much focused in his being. His mind isn't wandering from one thing to another, not trying to figure out what the neighbours are saying about him or what he should do or should not do next or something like that, he is just being right here, right now.
Also I find his gesture of control is less violent and forceful than in other Chariot-cards - he moves his hands like an artist in controling his movement through the universe. This softness contrasts with his strong presence - because that is where his force lies. That is the secret behind his strength and control.
The space craft I have not been able to figure out, no more than I mentioned above - that it looks like it is sending him a message, or some kind of information. Also the energy-field around it makes me think of how mere presence of "something" affects the world that surrounds it. But I'm not sure what to make of the space craft, so I'm not sure what to make of this either.
The uneasy sky to me represents the traditional interpretation of a fast-moving chariot, this is a card of fast changes, perhaps a little scary changes but none the less tempting, fascinating, intriguing... In most Chariot cards I have seen, the movement and change has been shown with the chariot and the charioteer themselves, but here I find they are the objects of calm and stillness in this image, and the movement is in the environment. To me that makes sense, and this is what I wrote about in the beginning: how travelling will set your mind to work, in completely different ways than otherwise. It's like our everyday life are shackles that tie our minds and spirits down - which is good and bad. Good because the storm of energy that hits us when we're travelling gives no peace, no rest, no room to make something out of the impulses we have received, bad because if we never break free from that we will never experience that magical presence that the charioteer has here.
It struck me the other day that leaving everyday life to grow on us for too long without ever questioning it, breaking a habit or two or turn into a different path every once in a while, it will actually start to grow IN on us. After a while there's no telling what is ME and what is the other stuff. I think it was Jung who called this the Persona. The character we build to deal with the world for us. But the personas aren't really our true selves, it's merely facades and surfaces - created for practical reasons, and should be kept for practical reasons only.
I saw the movie The Game tonight, and that movie is exactly what I'm talking about. The guy it's about is so tied up in his persona, he has lost himself. And it takes some force to throw him out of those surroundings he's built for himself, for him to be able to see that he is a lot more than the suit he wears or the papers he signs.
I wish all of you "class mates" a really Happy New Year! May we all learn lots also during 2003!
Light and love,
Jenny
