Cosmic Tribe Tarot
VII - CHARIOT
Onward, fearless chariot rider. The open road to the soul of the world escorts you across the terrains of your destiny. Don the armor of naked vulnerability. and mount the eternal vehicle of your imagination. The adventure of life beckons promising the riches of experience to those with the will to ride.
A chariot appears before you, and no ordinary conveyance this is. She has an amanita mushroom for a seat and a winged roving eyeball on the hood. Gracefully moving through the air, she's pulled by a team of butterflies! Do you feel the whoosh of their wings? She's a classic, this Chariot, with millions of miles on her ancient odometer. Have a seat. No reins to worry about, just relax. She will take you places beyond your wildest imaginings. In the card, a beautiful charioteer, who could be any one of us, leaves the comforts of the castle town behind him to find his way in the world. He sits calmly, apparently motionless, even as time and events speed by him. In order to experience the wonders he is passing, the Charioteer must achieve a contemplative awareness within the dynamism of the journey. He must be able to go fast enough to maintain his momentum but slow enough to see where he is going. The ring of orbs around him replaces the reins of domination common to chariots. This reemphasizes his relaxed style where his centered calmness allows him to maximize his felt experience of the world. The journey is a metaphor for the charioteer's attempt to discover what out there holds meaning for him. The charioteer sits nimbly on an amanita mushroom, long a symbol for journeying through multilayered consciousness. Sometimes the journey can be undertaken without having to physically travel very far at all. In fact, one of the best chariots for human experience has been the body and the many pathways hidden within. A UFO hovers in the sky above the charioteer and accompanies him on his travels. The canopy of sky and the UFO act as guardian angels tending him carefully and expanding the range of his travels. Beams emanate from the UFO, pass through the rider and flow into the world where they awaken the butterflies that represent our souls. The eyes on the butterflies are the colors of the four elements and see the possibility of travel in any of the cardinal directions. The truth-seeking eye on the hood does not open until a rider is present. And the butterflies are in their cocoons until a rider arrives to transform them into creatures of power and grace.
