Karmic Tarot: A Profound System for Finding and ... - myteacup

Definitions of the Major Arcana
tied solely to reproduction. The previous lessons of the Hierophant(5), of society and the group,
may dominate the individual yielding: a female who looks to the society/state for her hero-mate and
the male becomes an intruder and can even be considered evil. Or a male who looks to the society/
state for his heroine, his source of civility and stability, and the female is reduced to a toy, an object,
an obstacle, or burden rather than a source of energy. Marriage of convenience rather than marriage
of love (also seen in the Two of Cups, inverted).
7 The Chariot
UPRIGHT: Here is the seventh stop on the overall journey, and the second
stop on the Physical Plane. As such, you see the physical ways and means of
extending your physical package, your physical growth. Here are the wheels for
the Emperor/Empress. Physical transportation/movement. Travel. Relocation.
Physical strength and capability, prowess. Construction. Physical action taken
to increase your personal package. Physical extensions of the self and support
in your environment. Material aids to achieving goals. Building and feathering
the nest. Asserting physical independence. Creating your personal, physical
world as a laboratory for your life’s work. Getting things done on the Material
Plane. Efforts to improve your health, especially your physical condition.
Change and control in diet. Financial investment. Physical investment of time
and energy. Harnessing of energy to appropriate physical ends. To achieve
anything one must somehow harness the extremes of opposites, of dualities. Our chariot will go
neither where the left horse would take it, nor where the right would have it, but where we steer it,
straight ahead down the middle path just as Plato’s Charioteer steered his two steeds. Here, too, is
the archetype for the caravan, carrying not just the self, but the self with extended family. In one
analogy the two horses are Temperance(14) and Temptation (Devil/15), one pulling us back, the
other pushing us forward. INVERTED: Distortion in the way of too much or too little of the above
meanings. Spinning your wheels. Moving in the wrong direction, too quickly, too slowly, not at all.
Lack of flexibility in movement. Running away, or running headstrong into a messy situation—
retreat or a foolish attack. Changing jobs too often, not often enough. Not enough, or too much,
physical exercise. Building too much, too fast. Tearing down, reducing means. Accumulation of too
much baggage, too heavy for your needs. Over feathering the nest. Physically over extended, or not
extended enough. Overly independent or much too dependent.
8 Strength
UPRIGHT: Here is the eighth stop. Properly channeled and controlled
emotions. You are on solid ground, centered. There are extensions of self in
place and functioning—family/extended, strong self-image, self-respect, family,
and creative projects. A feeling of invincibility. An emotional sense of the
eternal, of permanence. Loyalty. Constancy without stagnation. A harnessing of
our lower energies to support/generate higher energies. Here is the source of
courage, the assumption of responsibility for one’s own existence, hence emotional
independence. The feeling of duality is strong but the self is in harmony
with all extensions of the self, and with nature. Your heart has begun to know
things for itself, with the help, but independent, of mind. (The hypothalamus is
that aspect of mind, of reason, belonging to the heart.) Here ideas are generated
in the gut, the Solar Plexus, before reason and perspective of higher mind get a
crack at them. Conversely however, it is proper to say that this is the effect of mind in the emotions.
We see here that true strength lies in our hearts, in our emotional stability. INVERTED: Distortion
in the way of too much or too little of the above meanings. Feeling a need to be strong can prevent
us accepting from others when it is their turn to give. Everyone must take as well as give. Too much
strength can be part of a tendency toward complacency and stagnation. Too much strength can lead
to abuse of power.
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