The Chariot

In a reading

• Relationships, love: a busy, fast-moving time, moving toward a goal. Could be a trip, or a couple getting through a crisis. The card can also show one partner taking the wheel and the responsibility. Could be a fast-moving romance. Sometimes it means leaving a relationship that has run its course.
• Career, money: fast career growth. A project launch that goes well. Good business trips involving travel, flights, transport. Financial success comes through bold action and being able to make decisions fast.

Shadow side

Losing control. Burnout. Aggression. Stepping on people to get ahead. Intolerance. Or the opposite — being completely stuck, afraid to take the first step. Here it matters to take things into your own hands and move forward.

From the wider tradition

Not Tahmina’s own words: meanings common among other tarot readers, which she has reviewed and approved.

• The two sphinxes (black and white) — opposing forces pulling in different directions; the task is to make them move together.
• No reins — steering is done with willpower and the mind, not with the hands.
• Armor and a canopy with stars — protection, boundaries and heavenly patronage.
• Triumph, coming home a winner, a test or exam passed.

Stage of the journey

The Chariot is card VII, the seventh step on the path from the Fool to the World. It’s the moment when a person isn’t just thinking about a direction anymore, but starts actively moving along the path they chose.

What a person has already been through. Before the Chariot they went through the Fool — dared to walk into the unknown; the Magician — realized they can shape what happens; the High Priestess — learned to listen to their inner knowing; the Empress — learned to create and make things real; the Emperor — built support and took responsibility; the Hierophant — formed their knowledge, values and worldview; the Lovers — made their own choice. And now the choice is made. The Chariot says: “Enough choosing. Time to go.”

What happens in the Chariot. Here a person learns to handle opposing forces. The card usually shows two sphinxes — black and white. They pull the chariot in different directions, but the driver has to hold the course. So the Chariot’s win isn’t so much about crushing one side as about pulling the contradictions together and pointing them at one goal. It’s will, movement, ambition, independence, getting past obstacles.

Where the Chariot leads — next comes Strength, card VIII. And here there’s a really important change of energy: the Chariot — I steer outward movement; Strength — I learn to steer myself. After a burst of action, a person runs into their own inner nature, emotions, desires and instincts. The Chariot says: “I can beat my circumstances.” And Strength asks: “But can you learn to handle yourself?”

And you get this sequence:

• The Lovers: “I choose.”
• The Chariot: “I move.”
• Strength: “I manage my inner strength.”

The section above is the shadow side of the upright card — every card has one. I don’t read cards upside down — here is why.