Episode 146: An Air of Great Power: On the Chariot in the Tarot

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2023

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Of the twenty-two figures that make up the major arcana of the tarot, the Chariot is probably the most commonplace. While the tenth arcanum is a wheel, it's The Wheel of Fortune, not just any old wagon wheel. But arcanum VII is neither the Chariot of Fire or the Chariot of the Gods – just the plain old chariot. Usually, it is interpreted as a symbol of the will in its lower and higher aspects. In this episode, Phil notes that the Chariot can also symbolize something as ordinary as new car. Of course, here on Weird Studies, no car is just a car, and we like to think that Youngblood Priest, the protagonist of the 1972 film Super Fly, would agree. A car also a tool, a medium, a token of mastery, an atmospheric disturbance, a means of manifestation, a spaceship... Enroll in THE TWIN PEAKS MYTHOS, a 4-week Weird Studies view-along starting June 8th. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia. Support us on Patreon and gain access to Phil's podcast on Wagner's Ring Cycle. Download Pierre-Yves Martel's new album, Mer Bleue. Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! REFERENCES Rachel Pollack, Tarot Wisdom Jordan Parks Jr., Super Fly Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot Weird Studies, Episode 144 on “Hellraiser” Plato, Phaedrus Vanessa Onwuemezi, Dark Neighborhood J. G. Ballard, Crash Paul Virilio, War and Cinema Karl Marx, Grundrisse Weird Studies, Episode 26 with Michael Garfield Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.8	For more episodes or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdstudies.com. Hi, welcome to Weird Studies. This is Phil.
0:53.5	This week, we are continuing our series on the 22 major
0:57.2	arcana of the taro. So far, we have discussed the Fool, the Empress, the Moon, the Tower,
1:04.8	the Wheel of Fortune, the Star, Death, and now the Chariot, in that order. Now, this isn't the order in which these trumps
1:14.6	appear in the taro. In a manner perhaps appropriate to the intuitive lunar knowledge that the
1:20.7	tarot represents, we have been wending our way through this series by means of a series of
1:26.0	hunches. Each tarot episode has been born of an obscure
1:29.9	conviction that each card is the one we need to be talking about at the moment. As for why we feel
1:36.1	we should be talking about the chariot right now, I couldn't even tell you. Perhaps it's as simple as
1:41.2	wanting to talk about a card that isn't as high-minded and spiritual
1:44.7	as some of the ones we've already done.
1:47.5	The chariot is about getting somewhere, with the executive function of the self as the charioteer
1:53.7	and the chariot as its vehicle, the self's energizing purpose.
1:58.8	In this vein, Cartamancer and former professor Camelia Elias
2:02.6	susses out the core potentiality of this card by imagining how it combines with others.
2:08.9	When the chariot is seen in company with the devil, it suggests a criminal, the one who
2:14.0	puts diabolical impulses into action. When combined with death, we get a harvester,
2:20.5	with the moon an astronaut, and with the tower we get an accident-prone tourist. In some cards,
2:28.3	for example the card that precedes the chariot in the tarot series, the lovers, we feel compelled
	...

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