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The Tarot of Eli-Major Arcana: Thoth Tarot- ATU 7-The Chariot & Tarot of The Ages-Key VII-The Chariot

Western hermetic qabalah, alchemical, astrological, Tantric, and numerical Tarot Card Comparisons.

November 15, 2019

#tarotqabalahthothelitarotstrickingly.com

tarot of the ages- key VII-the chariot

The Tarot of The Ages- Key VII- The Chariot, uses the Hebrew letter Zain (Sword) and the zodiac sign of Gemini to represent it. Both of these signs are applied to the Thoth-ATU 6-The Lovers. It seems that the creators of The Tarot of The Ages are using the assigned signs and letters of the Thoth Cards, one card latter than normal. According to Patrizia D'Agostino, this is what the muse of Mario Garizo suggested. (?) Be that as it may, The Tarot of The Ages, seems to be a mixture of both the Traditional Tarot of Mather's and the progressive Tarot of Thoth.

The Universal 4 pillars are supporting the canopy of the Universe, as shown in the Thoth Tarot while the charioteer is shown as an Egyptian, rather than a Golden Armored Knight. The Granite Chariot (the Rider, Wate, Smith Tarot), is being pulled by 2 Sphinx representing the power of light and the power of darkness, as power always has 2 faces. Yet, these 2 sphinx are not of Egyptian origin but rather that of the Greeks, who created the image of the Female Sphinx (This is called "artistic license"). The Charioteer is not holding the reigns in his hands, as he has tamed the power of the sphinx by the exertion of his will. Therefore, the run of the Chariot, is his mystical practice, leaving behind the dust of indecision and fear.

The Divinatory meaning of the Tarot of The Ages- Key VII-The Chariot:

  • Trouble.
  • Adversity, possibly overcome.
  • Conflicting influences.
  • Turmoil. 
  • Success.
  • Possible voyage or journey.
  • Escape.
  • Rushing to a decision.
  • Urgency to gain control of one's emotions.
  • Need to pay attention to details. 

If reversed:

  • To be unsuccessful.
  • Defeat.
  • Failure.
  • To lose at the last minute something otherwise within your grasp.
  • Sudden collapse of plans.
  • Conquered.
  • Overwhelmed.
  • Failure to face reality.

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

Thoth-atu 7-the chariot

The Thoth Chariot represents the Universal Key of change/movement combination of stillness-activity-of movement and repose.

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 4 Kerubim-animals. 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, symbolizes the Wheel of Fortune /Goddess Fortuna and hence,esoterically the Grail in both the blue of the Empress and The Red of the Lust Card. The Chariot also ensures that we have free-choice and can choose fortunate, positive, and abundant changes for ourselves.

The 10 crystals on the golden armor represent the ten powerful positive choices of the 10 Sephiroth on the Qabalah's 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 conscious energy/the One Mind, are multidimensional movements and repose that are known as "Our Greater Self".

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 is the 18th 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/Soul.

In the THIRTY TWO PATHS OF WISDOM, Dr.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 the 5th Sephiroth- Geburah (Severity) andthe 3rd Sephiroth-Binah (Understanding)- the Great Mother on the Tree of Life, runs the Path of Cheth. This is the highest and most profound inner-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 so that the Psyche can be carried through the unmanifested Universe, and/or Dark Matter and Dark Energy and/or the Most Arcane areas of the One Mind. The Chariot is the enclosure that holds the Soul in a state of peace, as moves through all planes. In his BOOK OF TOKENS, Dr.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 Dr. Case, refers to is that of the Limitless Light of Kether, the very pinnacle of the Supreme Spiritual Self. Pictured in the Chariot, the experience of the Spiritual Self that is known in Alchemy as the "Exhalation", where the Alchemist becomes the Philosopher's Stone (The rising of the Kundalini changes the 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 4 universal Tarot Elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth, but also each has 4 sub-elements, as do the Tattvas, and are represented as the four faces of the creatures.

Geburah, is often symbolized with a Pentagram, or 5 pointed star, that has the 4 Elements crowned by the Spirit. Thus, making 5 the number of Geburah on the Tree of Life, Geburah is a Red Force, 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, the 5th Sephiroth, iscomplimented by Chesed (Mercy), the 4th Sephiroth, on the Tree of Life, and this compliment is seen in the constant usage of the number 4. In the Thoth Chariot card there are 4 Sphinx, and 4 columns (4 Universal Elements) holding up the starry canopy or heavens of Binah (The Great Mother- Empress ATU 3). These 4 elemental columns are according to Crowley, "The “4 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, author of The Qabalistic Tarot, 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 Gematria (numerology), (Book 777 of Crowley) adds up to 418. Using the math of numerology, we do the sum, 4+1+8= 13, the Key/ATU 13 of the Death Card representing a great spiritual change.

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 on his golden chest that represent Spirit's travel to- Assiah or Matter. Seated in meditation, with the Holy Grail, both blue and red, in his hands: the Cup (Womb) that we look directly into when using our Imagination to produce ideas, i.e. the womb with a view.

The movement of the Chariot conceals a mystery (arcana) of great significance. The Chariot is reminiscent of the Greek Chariot of the Sun, Helios, as the four 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 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 Greek Mythology and 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 Unconsciousness) takes precedence here and is represented by the Moon.

This is a Higher Path card, of the "Holy Guardian Angel", the Warrior part of our Soul, 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. There is much to consider here, if one wishes to " "Above all things, know thyself!" It is appropriate to say that deep within our Psyche, is a protector power, whose chariot is the Merkabah.**** Which is the "Throne of God" that our Soul is enclosed in.

****Merkabah mysticism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

"First vision of Ezekiel" and "Early Jewish mysticism" redirect here. For other uses, see Merkabah ).

For the modern Israeli main battle tank, see Merkava.

Copy of Matthäus Merian's engraving of Ezekiel's vision (1670)

Merkabah/Merkavah (Hebrew: מרכבה) mysticism (or Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 1, or in the heikhalot ("palaces") literature, concerning stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God. The main corpus of the Merkavah literature was composed in the period 200–700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Chassidei Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages.[1] A major text in this tradition is the Maaseh Merkavah (Works of the Chariot).[2]

 

The noun merkabah/merkavah "thing to ride in, cart" is derived from the consonantal root

ר־כ־ב r-k-b with the general meaning "to ride". The word "chariot" is found 44 times in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible—most of them referring to normal chariots on earth,[3] and although the concept of the Merkabah is associated with Ezekiel's vision (1:4–26), the word is not explicitly written in Ezekiel 1.[4]

However, when left untranslated, in English the Hebrew term merkabah/merkavah (Hebrew:

מֶרְכַּב, מרכבה, and

מִרְכֶּבֶת) relates to the throne-chariot of God in prophetic visions. It is most closely associated with the vision in Ezekiel chapter 1 of the four-wheeled vehicle driven by four hayyot ("living creatures"), each of which has four wings[5] and the four faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle (or vulture).

To read more about Ezekiel's vision. Click on this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkabah_mysticism

When the Chariot 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, and you have been granted the energy to win it!
  • 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.

When ill defined by surrounding cards:

  • High handedness.
  • Megalomania.
  • Ultimate failure because of obstacles. 

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