![\"IMG_2286\"](\"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_2286.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\nThis is Eliphas Levi’s illustration from Transcendental Magic. Levi was the first to propose that the two faces on the Charioteer’s shoulders represented the divination tools named Urim and Thummim. Urim and Thummim are briefly and VERY VAGUELY mentioned in the Old Testament on a few occasions as two objects worn on the breastplate of the Jewish High Priest as a means of getting Yes or No answers from God. <\/p>\n
This symbolic meaning was accepted by AE Waite and subsequently by everyone else.<\/p>\n
The glaring problem here is how do you go from the chest to the shoulders? Urim and Thummim were somehow part of the twelve jewels worn by ancient Jewish priests, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. They were a means of consulting God through a priest rather than directly, similar to how the Catholic church handles things. Anyway, the correlation is really not important as far as I’m concerned. In spirit, the two faces represent Urim and Thummim in that they reflect the polarized forces contained in the card. I just don’t believe anyone was thinking Urim and Thummim when they created the Marseille. <\/p>\n I think Jodorowsky handles this issue the best with his interpretation of the faces representing positive and negative, past+future, time+space etc…<\/p>\n What Jodorowsky curiously does is replace the mysterious initials in the Chariot’s crest with a green dewdrop which he describes as some kind of symbol of eternity encased in flesh. I don’t know where he got this idea from. <\/p>\n Here’s a picture of the Jodorowsky Chariot vs. the Yoav Ben-Dov Chariot card. (Also note that Jodorowsky makes the horse on the right side feminine, which contradicts other representations of feminine energies (Boaz) occurring on the left. Maybe you could say it’s from the point of view of the Charioteer.)<\/p>\n What do the mysterious V.T initials mean? Paul Foster Case has some comments about it:<\/p>\n The gist of PFC’s interpretation is “V.T” somehow correlates to The Lingam Yoni is a symbolic Hindu expression of the male and female energies.<\/p>\n Unfortunately all I had to do was look up another version of the Marseille card and see a completely different set of fucking initials.<\/p>\n So what the fuck. It just goes to show how sometimes trying to apply preconceived mystical logic to the Tarot will lead you to a dead end.<\/p>\n Here’s my last page of notes from Richard Roberts and Paul Foster Case:<\/p>\n My favorite bit is the idea that the square represents the mundane foundation and the triangle represents either ascending to or descending from heaven, either externally or internally. <\/p>\n I really like PFC’s notion that the Chariot is the summation or synthesis of those cards that come before. You can see evidence of this in the scepters held by the Empress (III) and the Emperor (IIII) , the two blue horses correlating to the priests in the Pope card, and the dog in the Fool card. The sun and Raphael in the Lover card transformed into the globe and wings on the RWS version, the infinity symbol above the head of the Magician transformed into the head of the Charioteer’s scepter (in the BOTA version and vaguely in the Marseille version), the pillars behind the Pope (V) and the Popess (II) combined to form the pillars of the Chariot (VII) and so on…<\/p>\n As Jodorowsky states, he represents the quest of the spiritualization of matter. The triangle in the square (3+4). <\/p>\n I like the idea that the Chariot is unmoving. Or rather it is embedded in the Earth and moves with the cosmos. As Manly P Hall puts it (paraphrased): the ever moving throne of the unmoved God… which is being hurled through the immensities of space, but is immovable upon the foundation of the mind. <\/p>\n If you notice the chariot seems to be embedded in the ground. Everything about the chariot and the animals that draw it, indicate a lack of traditional functionality. In the Marseille deck, half of the horses bodies are missing. In the RWS, Thoth and BOTA images, the sphinxes are sitting down, chilling. Conversely in the older, hand painted Visconti version, the horses are winged and prancing forward. <\/p>\n OKAY so horses vs sphinxes. Sphinxes represent the triumph of the mind (3 over 4) over matter as AE Waite puts it in a brief moment of not being a completely inscrutable asshole. “He has thus replied to the sphinx therefore the sphinx draws his chariot.” Horse are sometimes associated with the Sun, drawing the chariot of Helios across the sky. Horses draw chariots. Sphinxes do not. But the chariot here is not meant to be drawn, instead it moves with the earth and the super macro idea of “moving”. I haven’t made up my mind about this. I will have to let is sit for a bit. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, I want to comment on the beauty of Lady Frieda Harris’ rendition of the Chariot for Crowley. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“Tav” the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The original character for Tav was a cross which symbolized the vertical masculine and horizontal feminine forces, reflected on the breast of the Popess (High Priestess). This is, I guess how AE Waite transformed V.T into the image of the Lingam-Yoni, expressed on the RWS card. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n(I’d like to place a frustrated emoji here.)<\/p>\n