The CHARIOT: It's Go-Time. Urgh.
A Tarot offering for Cancer season
My family and I were recently delayed at Heathrow on our way home from a two-week vacation. Some weird glitch in the booking made it impossible to account for our checked baggage before take-off. We waited at the luggage drop-off point for over an hour before the attendant gave up and jogged us to the front of the security line with instructions to RUN for the gate so we might make our flight.
Emotions were running hot. There were tears, shallow breaths, sweat and snappish exchanges all around. I petitioned to Mercury — Please get us home. Get us home and I will write you an ode everyday for the next thirty days.
Maybe the god of travelers, tricksters, and thieves couldn’t guarantee that we would make our flight. But envisioning the fleet-footed celestial clearing a path for us with his snake-entwined caduceus, I remembered what should have been obvious all along: if one travel plan fell through, then, like good little tricksters, we would make ourselves another.
There is power in symbolic thinking.
Like spoken affirmations, evoking a spirit helper, I’ve found, can focus my energy, reducing overwhelm and inviting solutions outside of my usual cognitive spin. In the security line my stress was tempered by curiosity: what shape would my odes take? Could I sustain a new writing commitment for that long? Redirecting my mind to an enjoyable task soothed me.1 Amid the fuss over water bottles we hadn’t had time to empty, the whiff of the unknown felt less like disaster and more like an adventure.
We made the flight. Though I will say…it wasn’t a total win. I had planned to provision us with snacks and drinks before lining up on the jetway. Now there was no time. For 10.5 hours were at the mercy of the in-flight team for every tiny plastic cup of water and morsel of food — most of which my picky eater refused. But at that point who really cared? In the grand scheme these were minor discomforts. We were safe. We were together. We were going home. Thanks, Mercury.
On a spiritual level, we are all migrants.
My brain kind of squirms around phrases like “spiritual journey” and “life path” — metaphors so well-worn that they’re full of holes. But the Tarot luxuriates in cliches, it revels in their imprecision. To the cards, we’re all on a Fool’s Journey, traveling through the energetic states of the Major Arcana from birth until death.
Our lived experience of travel can remind us of this—quite viscerally. It’s one reason that I think so many of us are nervous fliers. It’s not just that it feels existentially suspect to be crossing oceans at inhospitable altitudes in the time it takes to read a paperback and down a few glasses of ginger ale. All of our issues around control and uncertainty come barreling at us through the security gates.
Chances are your brain is clanging around with your own stories of missed flights, lost baggage, botched itineraries. You’ve had your share of discomfort, disappointment, even fear out there on the road. Sometimes, particularly if we present as women, BIPOC, or LGBTQ+, that fear is warranted.
But I’d bet that some of your sagas also sparkle with serendipitous meetings, unexpected supports and encounters with unplanned marvels. Many of my most treasured travel memories begin with me, stranded at a train station in a place where no one knows me.
So why resist every proverbial bump in the road?
Like our travel stories, the CHARIOT reminds us of our capacity to adapt to shifting terrain, unexpected weather, and moving milestones along the road of the soul’s journey.
Take a look at the Pamela Coleman Smith Chariot illustration: Here is a person who is Provisioned. Crowned with glorious starlight. Attended by mythical beasts. The Charioteer (our stand-in) appears ready to meet life’s challenges head-on. Their armor symbolizes preparedness in the event of conflict. But the battle ahead is metaphorical—waged against blocks to our self-actualization. Many of those blocks will be self-created, barriers crafted earlier in life to keep us safe. The CHARIOT represents the container we need to carry us from the safety of the fortress to the great green wilds beyond.
In the CHARIOT there is an acknowledgement of what we have already achieved. We have likely worked hard to prepare ourselves for this departure. We have some skills and resources at our disposal. Still, the card reminds us, we are likely going to need to adapt to conditions we could never have predicted at the outset of this journey.
On the brink of such uncertainty, the CHARIOT reminds us to tend to our vessels: the body, the mind, the heart. Are you getting enough sleep? Inspiration? Connection with others?
What do we do when the going gets tough?
The CHARIOT often shows up with the suggestion that new methods of self-tending are called for. It’s a midlife card. The old ways of coping have become outdated. Consider that CHARIOT corresponds to Cancer season. In this energy we’re all crabs, sloughing off our outgrown shells.
Emerging from the portal of the June solstice, we are all experiencing the apex of light/dark on our planet. This is a moment of extremes. In response, the CHARIOT asks us to recalibrate. Check the oil. Balance the tires. Maybe consult the map.
Did you set intentions six months ago around the beginning of the year? Are they still relevant to you?
Sometimes even the best laid plans are better left to fall by the wayside. But maybe you want to recommit to your plans. Maybe you only need to re-chart your course.
How do we greet unexpected labors?
I respect those who interpret the CHARIOT as a card denoting VICTORY. I think those readers are right to emphasize the card’s ultimate affirmation that no matter the mess we are in at the moment, we have the means to prevail. (Or, like good tricksters, we will make new ones). But I confess that I don’t love pulling this card anymore than I would love learning that my flight is delayed or canceled.
In my experience, the CHARIOT suggests that some new effort will likely be required on my part.
Even if it just involves waiting around and resting when I’d rather be on the move, it’s annoying. On the larger scale, it’s cataclysmic.
My family’s overseas respite came during a period of intense upheaval—right as we were navigating the death of my husband’s tender-hearted and fiercely intelligent father. Through the on-going journey of this loss, I have often felt like the Charioteer in Chris-Anne’s Light Seer’s Tarot: perched precariously on the wobbly container of my life. Though protected from the brunt of the grief experienced by my husband, children, and beloved in-laws, I was tasked with keeping the vehicle of our life rolling. So many things went strangely on as normal—meals made, bedtimes kept, laundry folded—though emotional upheaval swept in at a pace I wasn’t sure I could match.
With my partner deep in the portal of loss, I wanted to be able to hold onto reigns of our life all by myself until he returned. But the truth was that I needed every offer and expression of support that came my way. I am especially grateful for those friends who came just to sit with me when I was isolated at home with the kids through that first, long month of summer.
One thing I’m still learning: Though the path can be lonely, we don’t have to drive the CHARIOT on our own. Even when our people can’t be there for us, it helps me to remember that our spirit guides remain in whatever form we choose to imagine them: God with a capital ‘G’ or his/her/their lesser aspects. Celestial supports. Divine intermediaries (hey Mercury!) Archetypal energies. Or our beloved dead. We can always take a breath and call them in.
You live on planet Earth. You’re up against a few roadblocks of your own. Whatever shape they take for you this season, I hope you find the resources and support that you need to keep the CHARIOT rolling. If we’re all here to learn, then God was just in his affirmation: “Victory is yours.” Claim it.
Try this spread to help you adapt to changing conditions on your path:
CARD 1 — What am I learning from this leg of my journey?
CARD 2 — How can I support myself moving forward?
CARD 3 — A card to represent the Spirit Helper who wants to accompany me.
Don’t be a stranger! Let me know what this spread reveals for you in the comments below. Every time you interact with a post it helps other folks find me and encourages me to keep writing these missives on mystery and making art out of life.
I’m putting interviews on hold for the rest of the summer. Putting a little more breathing room in my CHARIOT during this busy season. But I’ll be back with a reflection on the STRENGTH card and Leo season next month. See you then!
Somewhere a few years ago I read that just imagining yourself engaged in a pleasurable activity is proven to counter-act feelings of anxiety and overwhelm. The study came with instructions to make yourself flashcards of things you like to do and flip through them when you’re stuck in a negative spiral.