Tarot is Not About The Future
Thoughts on the Chariot
I remind my clients before every reading that tarot is neither fortune telling nor is it therapy. These are very important distinctions for me. The idea that I would pull some cards and be able to tell you what is going to happen to you is both disrespectful to the cards and to you as well. I would rather have my tarot conversations be viewed as life-affirming, puzzle solving, iterative discussions wherein both the client and I learn a great deal. Does this resonate with you? How? Why? Tarot is not about the future. In some very real sense, it is about looking at the past, through the lens of the cards.
The Chariot
Recently my priest buddy, Erin Jean Warde, sent me a card she had pulled for me for my birthday, The Chariot. I don’t see this card come up very often in readings, so I took some time to consider what it might be telling me. I couldn’t just look at what it might indicate for the future. I had to look at the past to see the light it was shining forward.
In the Rider Waite Smith deck, The Chariot reminds us of our self-reliance . We see unwavering strength in the man looking straight ahead. But behind him is structure, the cityscape with water flowing behind him. He could not move forward with such confidence if he were not shored up with the structures of his past. This is a great example of how our past informs what comes next. The sphinxes in front of him represent wisdom and intuition gained from years of experiences which formed who he is today.
A Note On My Own Past
I am a confident and strong woman. As a Leo and an enneagram type eight this is reinforcing. How I got to be so strong though is through my past, through what was a very challenging childhood, where a lot of pressure was put on me to be older than I was, to take care of myself before I was ready. My best friend Amy and I roamed the streets of Manhattan starting at the age of eight. We speak of healthy benign neglect, which allows kids to grow and be creative—this was much more than that. Our parents, though extraordinarily different and in some ways excellent, were busy with their careers, and we both had a lot of time alone. We were bonded by our status as only children and became sisters. We had a sense of freedom and danger and we knew we had a safety net that might have a few holes in it but was sound enough. We were middle class white girls in a big city. There were few rules or guidelines, so we made them up ourselves, based upon trial and error. That was too scary, let’s not do that again. That was fun, more!
Another Version of The Chariot
Looking at The Chariot in the Wild Unknown deck, I see a somewhat different idea, though the image of power is in common, as well as the idea of moving forward, with the stallion looking straight ahead, just like the man in the R/W/S deck. The stallion feels freer, adorned with a pentacle, sun shining down on him, while the moon is squarely between his eyes. This image reminds me much more of who I was as a teenager, a wild horse, with strong intuition, who tried as best I knew how to protect myself and stay safe. While the pentacle reminds us that we are moving forward on this earth with all its resources, the sun and moon images remind us to stay balanced as we charge forward. The Sun is all around us and the moon is at our third eye chakra, the seat of our intuition and inner knowing—we look out with the sun and we look inwards with the moon.
Final Note
As you move through your day, your week, this moment, try to give yourself grace as you look forward, remembering how much your past informs your future, but does not have to dictate it. Maybe you feel strong and confident right now, unstoppable. Perhaps a little stuck today, wavering and uneasy. However you feel today, be kind to yourself and remember you are loved.
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