The Spiritual Meaning of the Chariot Tarot Card

The Chariot tarot card usually shows someone at the reins of a chariot, driving forward. In the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the chariot is depicted as being drawn by a black and a white sphinx, facing in opposite directions. In some more modern cards, they are horses that are pulling the chariot, one dark and one light, in opposite directions. The charioteer often looks calm despite the opposing directions of the beings in front of him.

Driving Force and Willpower

In general, this card represents the power of driving force or will. The horses may be pulling the chariot, guided by the charioteer, or he may be moving towards the opposing mysteries of the sphinxes, on a journey of discovery. Either way, he moves forward, but his path is strangely split.

When this card arises in a spread, we are asked to consider our relationship with our willpower. Will can move us forward. It can be what controls the reins in our hands. At the same time, though, our willpower has limitations. There are mysterious powers both within and without that can interrupt the best plans of our will.

Using willpower can mean trying to put the brain before the body. We command the body to do, to want, to not want. We might have a modicum of success before the body will show its power. The body—or, let’s say, the survival-oriented parts of our brains and nervous systems—has its own wisdom. Its major focus is survival, and if it thinks something will contribute to that survival, it will move towards it, even if the brain disagrees.

Human beings do many things that aren’t great for us in order to survive. Addiction is essentially a powerful urge to self-soothe or self-regulate, often because of emotions that feel overwhelming. We can’t simply will ourselves to not need that self-regulation. It’s happening on a non-rational level of decision making. Anyone who has tried to will themselves out of addiction has almost always failed.

Harnessing the Many Parts of Ourselves

So, what do we do when our wild parts pull us away from what our rational minds want? We work with the wild horses and their opposing needs and desires. We come to understand why one horse wants to go this way while the other horse insists on going that way. We feed the horses, get to know them, and earn their trust. We come to understand their power as animals just like us.

Practically, when we understand how our wild parts associate a certain unwanted behavior with survival, we can teach those parts different ways of feeling safe that work better for the whole system. Sometimes we discover younger parts of ourselves, inner children that are still operating based on an old need that wasn’t met. Meeting that need in our adult lives can calm that inner child, convincing it to return the reins back to our hands. It takes time, gentleness, and a strong measure of humility to understand these deep inner parts and get them to work with us.

Attending to Our Wildness

The Chariot card asks us to attend to our wildness—especially if we have been trying to suppress or repress that wildness through willpower. In order to get the two horses to face in the same direction, we need to understand the parts of ourselves that don’t want to follow the urges of the charioteer’s reins.

If you’ve pulled the Chariot card in a tarot reading, ask yourself where you are trying to override your wildness with willpower. Consider the wisdom of the darker parts of you that you may not allow to come forward and see if they have anything to teach you. Look at how you’ve been “driving” your mind and your body and see if you can bring your opposing aspects into balance rather than trying to force yourself to move only from the desires of your rational mind.

If you let your body have a voice, what would it tell you? It’s already pulling you halfway off your path, so you’d better figure out what it needs before you can continue on your journey.

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