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The Tarot of Eli, LLC-Major Arcana: Thoth- ATU 7-The Chariot & Gothic Tarot- Key 7-The Chariot.

Western hermetic Qabalah, astrological, numerical Tantric, and Alchemical Tarot Card Comparisons.

February 6, 2021

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Thoth- atu 7-the chariot

 Motion or change and identity or rest are the first and second secrets of Nature: Motion and Rest. The whole code of her laws may be written on the thumbnail.

-Emerson

The Thoth Chariot represents the Universal Key of change/movement combination of stillness-activity: of movement and repose. The Chariot is the Universal Constant of Transformation/change, an unstoppable motion that doesn't look to be moving.

Every individual is touched by change multi-dimensionally in their areas of Earth, Air, Water and Fire, as symbolized by the four pillars, the four wheels, and the four animals. on the Thoth ATU 7-The Chariot. These four elemental aspects of ourselves combine to create who we are, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

The spinning disc in the hands of the charioteer, to some symbolizes the wheel of fortune (esoterically the Grail) that we have free-choice and can choose fortunate, positive, and abundant changes for ourselves. However, to a Qabalist The Graäl is the deeper meaning of this card and suggests 2 in one. The Red Graäl is Mother's blood, the Holy Elixir that all of our bodies are made of and the Blue/Water Graäl, which is not only the Ocean's of Earth, that all life is from, but also the Womb of Consciousness. The Fact that the 2 in 1 is nestle comfortably on his armored lap, has Alchemical-Tantric meaning that I shall go into later in this blog.

The 10 crystals on the golden armor represent the ten powerful positive choices of the Ten Sephiroth on the Qabalist' Tree of Life; The crown, which is "the crowning achievement", wisdom, understanding, mercy, severity, beauty, splendor, victory, foundation and kingdom, in that order. These 10 states of Self-Truth are multidimensional movements and repose that are known as "Our Greater Self" and/or Adam Khadmond or Eve Khadmond.

When this card is thrown during a reading, it generally means that a new force is dissolving old forms. This is a time for clearing out, moving beyond the past, beginning with new energy and taking full responsibility for the past. This is a time of supreme magical power and self-mastery. But as always, this explanation is too short for a more profound understanding of this Powerful symbol for Self movement and much more study is required.

The Chariot Card is the Qabalistic Path of Cheth on the Tree of Life, the Hebrew letter- Cheth means "enclosure, or fence" which is that enclosure which the Chariot provides for the Charioteer and also is the enclosure of the Graäl/Womb that provides the Magnetic holding form for the male energy.

In the THIRTY TWO PATHS OF WISDOM, Paul Foster Case stated:

The Eighteenth Path is called the House of Influence (by greatness of whose abundance the influx of good things upon created beings is increased) and from the midst of the investigation the arcana and hidden senses are drawn forth, which dwell in its shade and which cling to it, form the cause of all causes.

Between Geburah (Severity) and Binah (Understanding) the Great Mother on the Tree of Life, runs the Path of Cheth. This is the highest and most profound Path on the Pillar of Severity and introduces the Personality to the Supreme Spiritual Self that wraps our Soul in the Golden Armor of Protection, just like the Crab, the zodiacal Sign that is associated with this card. Wrapped in a golden armor the Psyche can be carried through the unmanifested Universe, and/or Dark Matter and Dark Energy. The Chariot is the enclosure that holds the Soul in a state of peace, as moves through all planes of the Macrocosm.

It is In his BOOK OF TOKENS, Sr.Paul Foster Cases stated this about the Chariot:

I am the hedge of protection

Enclosing the field of existence in this field thou dwellest,

And I am thy defense,

Against the darkness which is without.

Yet is this hedge of safety

Alas a wall of limitation,

And the darkness against which it defends thee

Is the radiant Darkness of the Limitless Light, too brilliant for thine eyes.

 The Darkness that Case, refers to is that of the Limitless Light of Kether, the very pinnacle of the Supreme Spiritual Self. Pictured as the Armored Charioteer, the experience of the Spiritual Self is known in Alchemy as the "Exhalation", where the Alchemist's body becomes the "Philosopher's Stone" and/or the Master's body.

The Thoth  Chariot, shows the influences of both the Hindu Tattvas and the biblical text of Ezekiel with its "living creatures" being represented as 4 Sphinxes pulling the Chariot. These 4 Kerubim (angelic beings) represent not only the four Tarot Elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth, but also each has four sub-elements, as do the Tattvas, and are represented as the 4 faces of the creatures.

In Hindu tantrism there are five tattvas creating global energy cycles of tattvic tides beginning at dawn with Akasha and ending with Prithvi: 

  • Akasha (Spirit tattva) – symbolized by a black egg
  • Vayu (Air tattva) – symbolized by a blue circle
  • Tejas (Fire tattva) – symbolized by a red triangle
  • Apas (Water tattva) – symbolized by a silver crescent

Geburah, is often symbolized with a Pentagram, or five pointed star, that has the Four Elements crowned by the Spirit. Thus, making 5 the number of Geburah on the Tree of Life, Geburah is a Red Force of Mars/Aries (Scarlet woman), and is symbolized on the Thoth card as Red Wheels, meaning that the force of Geburah (Severity) is the motive force of the Chariot.

Geburah is complimented and connected by 19th Path of Strength to Chesed (Mercy) on the Tree of Life, and this compliment is seen in the constant usage of the number 4, Chesed's number. In the Thoth Chariot card there are 4 Sphinx, and 4 columns (Four Universal Elements) holding up the starry canopy or heavens of Binah (The Great Mother- Empress Card key 3). These 4 elemental columns are called the “four columns of the Tree of Life in a Solid Sphere", adding a little more of the arcane to this card. I suggest the curious student gets the book, THE QABALISTIC TAROT by Robert Wang, as it is a fine text for understanding the Arcane.

Above the Golden Armored figure on the Thoth Card is a crab, symbolizing the sign of Cancer Woven into the canopy is the word "ABRACADABRA", which Robert Wang thinks is an apparent pun on "ABRAHADABRA", a word that Crowley called, “one of the most important key numbers of the Liber Al...The word of the Aeon....the cypher of the Great Work which when using Qabalistic Geomatria (numerology), (Book 777 of Crowley) adds up to 418. Using the math of numerology, we do the sum, 4+1+8= 13, the Key 13 of the Death Card of great spiritual change.

(Mars and Minerva) 

Crowley understood that something martial is going on in the Psyche of the Seeker themselves. Much like the Bhagavad Gita, where the pursuit of enlivenment is symbolized by warring factions. On this highest Path of Severity, the Soul Warrior of Geburah has reached a pinnacle, as shown by the 10 stars/Crystals on his golden chest that represent Assiah or Matter. Seated in meditation, with the Holy Graäl in his hands: the Cup (Womb) of 2 colors, the Blue one is the mental enclosure that we look directly into when using our Imagination to produce ideas, i.e. the womb with a view, the Red Graäl is the "magical Wine" from water, that represents the "Mother's Blood" of the Microcosm. And if you dare to think about it, from the Waters of the Oceans on earth, all blood is formed and it is the amniotic "magic fluid" in the Womb that all children are formed in and from. Here also is the symbol of the Crab, Cancer, which is a not too subtle Tantric Alchemical symbol for a technique of Tantra Yoga in which male and female energies are "drunk" after being perfectly prepared, balance, and exchanged to create the 2 in 1 elixir of Life.

This "drinking" of male and female fluids/essences that produce the magic elixir of life might take a bit of explanation. Crowley "hinted" at this Tantric technique in his Book of Thoth, Pg. 256:

The issue of the Vulture, Two in One,

Conveyed; This is the Chariot of Power.

TRINC: The Last Oracle!

"The issue of the Vulture, Two in One, relates to the myth of Maät, the Egyptian Goddess of adjustment and supreme balance, her sacred bird is The Vulture. In times most ancient, it was believed that Vultures didn't mate, for in each bird was both sexes, and they produced their young alone and unmarried. Therefore, the Vulture produced a child of internal marriage of 2 perfectly balanced things and/or 2 in 1.

One may ask "What the hell is TRINC" the answer to that entails a lengthy explanation beginning with the Story of Gargantua and Pantagruel an mystical satire written by François Rabelais (1494-1553). In the story Panurge, one of the main characters, seeks an answer to the question "should I marry". After much discussion, his partner's decided to seek the answer from the Oracle of the Bottle. As in all heroic journeys, many adventures happen before they eventually reach the Temple of the Bottle. Upon passing through the entry door of the Temple upon which is written En Oino Aletheia (in wine lies truth), they meet Bacbuc, the Priestess of the Temple who escorts them to the Bottle. Panurge posses his question, "should I marry", the Holy Bottle makes a sharp cracking sound like breaking glass, : TRINC!, Which happens to mean "Drink". To Panurge, this is a firm "Yes" and he interprets TINC as an admonition to drink deeply from the well spring of life and knowledge. Now we jump to the language of Thelema imagery to continue our Qabalistic fairytale.  

In Thelema, the elixir is brewed in the Holy Graäl by Babalon/Nuit in Binah (3rd Sephiroth-Understanding and Queen of the Qabalistic fairytale, who then offers it to the Beast/Hadit in Chokmah (the King of the Qabalistic fairytale) and they both Drink/Trinc and become ecstatically drunk. By drinking, they annihilate all sense of separateness and 2 become 1. This intoxication is also one of the "mysteries" of Dionysus=the Greek God of Wine. Of this I'll say no more.

The movement of the Chariot conceals yet another mystery (arcana) of great significance. The Chariot is reminiscent of the Greek Chariot of the Sun, Helios, as the 4 horses of the Sun pulled the Chariot of the Sun across the sky. This is significant as a representation, since the Chariot moves between the Light, centered in the 6th Sephiroth- Tiphareth (Beauty) and the Supreme Darkness of the Limitless Light (Dark Energy) at the hidden side of Kether (Crown). Yet, there is even a more complex meaning suggested here, as the Sun is guided by the Moon! And in both Egyptian and Greek Mythology and even on the Qabalistic Tree of Life,  the sun is subordinate to the moon. Since the Chariot is of the sign of Cancer, that is ruled by the Moon (and in which Jupiter is exalted), the Charioteer follows this philosophy of subordination to the Great Mother. The cardinal Path of the Moon, leads from Tiphareth (Beauty-Solar Logos) to Kether (Crown) is the Path of the Priestess. Water -Pure Intuitional Consciousness takes precedence here and is represented by the Moon.

This is a Higher Path/Initiation card, of the Holy Guardian Angel and hence full of occult/hidden meanings, and requires much skrying, meditation, and arcane study, so this author recommends that you devote more time to this card than a brief lesson. At least, get the books I have recommended in this treatise and read them liberally! What is also noted here, is that the Male-Female relationship, is represented backwards here in our reflected world. The Male Force of the Universe is Subservient to the Female Force in order for Force to become Form. Idea is subservient to Understanding, for Life to progress as in-form-action. There is much to consider here, if one wishes to "Know thyself!"

Gothic Tarot- Key 7-The Chariot

Conqueror of Spirits.

The Gothic Tarot-Key 7-The Chariot, has nothing to do with traditional nor Qabalistic Tarot. It seems to be just a mechanism for Anne Stokes, fantasy art. The Art is very good, but a knowledge of Tarot is needed before these cards can be used. Here we have a mighty beast of a Dragon flaming the sky in the colors of the Sun. One could say that the flame is his golden armor. That may just be reaching on my part to get this to have some relationship to the Tarot Charioteer. Represented is an ancient beast of strength, determination, assertiveness, and discipline. All indecision is vanquished in his fiery breath.

A Magi's declaration: " I Am the Universal Constant of Transformation".

  • When this card is thrown during a reading, the querent is reminded: to devote themselves to the combination of activity and quietude so that they may have the drive to attain goals. 
  • It is a time of clearing out the past, moving beyond and beginning with new energy while taking responsibility for one's present condition.
  • There is a need for victory here, by combining the images or content of the unconscious with the consciousness for the purpose of achievement.
  • The Chariot also signifies that the querent has begun controlling a situation by the force of their personality....a focus of Will. 
  • The goal will need fighting for, but you have been granted the energy to win it!
  • The forces setting off.
  • The path that leads forwards.
  • The searching for and finding of one's place in the world. 
  • Spirit of adventure. 
  • Desire for conquest.
  • Daring.

If ill defined by the surrounding cards in the layout:

  • HIgh handedness.
  • Megalomania.
  • Ultimate failure because of obstacles.
  • Indecision.

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