THE CHARIOT'S GUIDE TO LIFE TRANSITIONS

What if protecting your dreams demanded relentless determination and the courage to embrace change? Join me, Alexandra, on this inspiring episode of Intimate Tarot as we unravel the profound messages behind The Chariot card. We dive deep into the fascinating interplay of masculine and feminine energies within The Chariot, shedding light on its connection to Cancer and the moon. Discover how this card reflects the journey from creation and stability to the fierce protection and perseverance needed to safeguard what truly matters.

In this episode, I share my personal story of moving back to the UK after years in Poland, a journey that mirrored The Chariot’s themes of movement and transformation. Learn how nurturing my emotional needs empowered me to be a better mother and professional tarot reader. Whether you’re navigating a personal project, family dynamic, or business challenge, The Chariot offers invaluable lessons on embracing change and ensuring your vessel remains full. Tune in for insights on how this powerful card can guide you through life’s transitions and help you protect your heart's deepest desires.

For visual reference I used The Chariot card from: The Original RWS Tarot, The Good Karma Tarot and The Dark Mansion Tarot.

Listen to The Tower episode to find out how I lost my job as Assistant Operations Manager for a luxury brand in London. 

Transcript

Alexandra Virginia: 0:02

Welcome to another episode of Intimate Tarot. I'm your host, Alexandra, and today we are going to talk about The Chariot. This is one of those cards that took me a while to understand, because in the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot you see a charioteer dressed in armor standing on a solid chariot, driving two sphinx. By the sole power of his will, he is projecting masculine energy, though the astrological association of this card is Cancer zodiac sign, ruled by the moon, so you have feminine energy. I was confused. Then I started thinking this is card 7 in the tarot deck. It's the sum of 3, The Empress, the archetypal mother, and 4, The Emperor, the archetypal father. What do you get when you add a mom and a dad, a family. In this way, I could see the relations to cancer, which talks about nurture, comfort and protection, and the moon, which is about satisfying emotional needs, nurture self and others. In the chariot, you take what you have created in the three and brought to stability in the four and you protect it from adversity at all costs, just like a mother would do with her children. The Chariot speaks to me in this way because I am a mom. I made kids in the empress, gave them safety in the emperor and now in the chariot, I am doing the best I can to protect them. It is my personal experience, but it can be said of whatever you have created in the empress. Perhaps you gave birth to a business and gave it a solid foundation in The Emperor and now in The Chariot, you are asked to persevere in a moment of financial crisis, to not discourage and protect your business like it was your own child.

Alexandra Virginia: 1:35

Discard is often associated with the concept of movement. You need to see it as the mutable energy of surrender, fluidity and welcoming change. It's what comes after the cardinal energy of surrender, fluidity and welcoming change. It's what comes after the cardinal energy of instigation and the fixed energy of stability. You start something in the three, you persist in the four, but if it doesn't work, you surrender in the seven. Either you accept the new reality or you change it, which is the choice you have to make in the six. By the way, you are faced with a choice in The Lovers, you roll with it in The Chariot, so you can be happy in Strength. To learn Tarot always pay attention to the previous card and the one following. It gives you perspective. It helps you make sense of the bigger picture.

Alexandra Virginia: 2:17

In my personal life this card manifested as my return to the UK after six years of living in Poland. The decision was made based on the fact that I was not happy in my marriage. My husband is Polish and we lived in Krakow for six years, had two children, bought a flat, had a comfortable life, but it wasn't fulfilling to me. I wasn't able to speak Polish fluently and for someone who values communication and human connection so much, it was detrimental for my mental health. I started feeling really, really lonely and it was affecting the relationship with my children too, because if I am not happy as a wife, I am not happy as a mother, I am not happy as a woman. These are all layers of the same thing. At the core is just me being miserable here in Poland, feeling isolated and not being able to express my true self.

Alexandra Virginia: 3:07

Just to give you an example, I was in Poland when I had my spiritual awakening and started practicing astrology and tarot, but it was so difficult to promote it as a business. In that highly Catholic country, people were not open to spiritualism the same way they are here in the UK. I found it much easier to establish myself as a tarot reader in London, so the chariot for me was a reminder to nurture my emotional needs in order to nurture others, because you can't pour from an empty vessel. I needed to take care of myself so I could show up as a better mother, a better friend, a better sister and, unfortunately, more often than not, to feel better you need to move. That's why the chariot is considered a card of movement. It's because you can't heal in the environment that made you sick. Also, you get again that connection to cancer and therefore the moon, because no other celestial body moves as fast as the moon. She changes zodiac sign every two days and a half. She's the promoter of movement and change.

Alexandra Virginia: 4:07

So when this card appears in a reading, ask yourself what do I need to do to protect what I love? Where should I put my effort? Should I surrender to acceptance or surrender to change? Where is the change leading me? Where am I going? What am I leaving behind?

Alexandra Virginia: 4:25

I have two cards in front of me that capture perfectly the sense of movement of this card. One is the chariot from The Good Karma Tarot, and the other is The Chariot from The Dark Mansion Tarot. In the first we see a woman on a motorcycle so confidently riding her bike and moving forward in her life, and that speaks to me, because I felt the same way when I took the decision of divorcing my husband and coming back to London to find a job and start a new chapter of my life, because I didn't want to be just a mom anymore. The other one depicts a carriage moving fast between narrow streets of an old town and it gives me that sense of pressure, like changes time sensitive. You need to act fast, and that's how I felt, because my loneliness was killing me, as Britney Spears would say.

Alexandra Virginia: 5:11

I want to mention that the chariot is a card of effort and protection, so it is extremely important that you ask yourself if it is worth going through all of this. I myself asked that question because my life was pretty easy in Poland. I was a stay-at-home mom, my husband was providing financially for all of us, I didn't have to worry about money and for most people that's enough. And now that I am unemployed listen to the Tauber episode to know all about that and I have no money, I do question my decision. Was it really worth it for me to leave the marriage and Poland and come to the UK and work so hard to stay sane in the midst of the turmoil?

Alexandra Virginia: 5:51

That is my current life as a single mom with no job. And I can't answer that question yet because my journey is not at the end. Perhaps after my Wheel of Fortune moment I will have some luck and then I will feel confident in my decision, because that's the other thing. The card after The Chariot is Strength, which is courage and confidence. All is good now in the eight, but to arrive at the moment of feeling completely loyal to your decision you have to put on the work and go through the pain in the seven, and the struggles of the seven is something you will see repeated in the minor arcana, but that's for another day. I hope you enjoyed this episode and that you decided to subscribe to the podcast. I'll catch you on the next one. Ciao for now!