The Chariot

The charioteer has found their groove. They are in the flow of the path they are meant to be on. They control the direction with their mind and spirit, not the reins. They have found the middle path between yin and yang where life is in balance.

I have to own up that the Chariot was only the third card I pulled to paint and at the time I really didn’t step too far away from the original image of the RWS deck. I didn’t even know I would deep dive commit to painting all 78 cards as full on oil paintings. I was not yet writing out the juicey details. I didnt know the universe was going to through me under the bus, chew up my pulverized insides, and spit out the bad stuff. So its a good thing I took notes, eh?!

Whats with those two little moon faces on our charioteers epilets? That is our two friends Urim and Thummin. You can dive down that bunny hole if you so desire! They may go back to Babylonian times where they meant ‘oracle’ and ‘command’ and were worn on the breast of Marduk, God of Creation. Or they may mean ‘lights’ and ‘perfection’ and were worn on the aprons of ancient Israeli high priests. According to Wikipedia, source of all miss-information, (via William Muss Arnolt: “The Urim and Thummin…1900) these two moon dudes are connected with cleromancy (with divination by casting lots). Most scholars suspect that they were a set of two objects used by high priests to answer a question or reveal the will of God. The history goes on. Most of the symbols already in he ancient Tarot decks can be traced back on winding, sometimes disappearing and reappearing, paths, to ancient times. Which is something that I love about this project! At any rate, I couldnt pass up keeping them on my Charioteer. Looking back I wonder if I wouldn’t have read the card as an open door to reading Tarot as a daily practice, to find my own path, drive my own Chariot with my mind.

The one black and one white wings attaching or un-attaching from our Charioteer come from Plato. Plato, in Phaedrus, compared the soul to a chariot with two winged horses. As the chariot approaches the earth (aka material attachments) there wings fall off. If the Charioteer can control their mind: the concepts of what each horse represents, the good and the bad in balance, they will reach spiritual enlightenment, or the Platonic version there of. As Yin Yang is life in balance, I made my horses a subtle Yin-Yang symbol. and each of the horses wings is flying off, looking like they pull away from the Charioteer, as they navigate their way towards that balance.

The Charioteer moves with the wood grain, quite literally. Their hair stretches out behind them, the river Nile. They are in the flow.

“In the Flow” Oil on wood in upcycled frame. 22” x 32” original available