​Alternative Names: Victory

Number: 7

Astrological Sign or Planet: Cancer the Crab

Element: Water

Hebrew Letter: Heth (Chet, Cheth)

Key Meanings: Determination, victory, and a journey

The Chariot card in Tarot is not an easy card to interpret. It could mean an eventual hard-won success. The card often pictures the chariot, an armored warrior, sun or moon symbols, the encircled rod on the winged shield, black and white sphinxes (or lions or horses), sometimes at rest. Some decks have a canopy of stars and sometimes a throne inside the chariot.

Upright Meaning: When The Chariot appears, there is a need to be in control of competing forces, whether these are inner conflicts, people, or a situation in your life that requires you to take command in order to reach your goals. Like the celebrated but seldom achieved bipartisanship of government, the solution to the problem at hand is to take the middle road between the conflicting elements.

You may feel unequal to the challenge of controlling the multiple factors of a given situation, but if you choose to just go with the flow and make the best of where it takes you, you will succeed. Once you have resolved the conflict within your own mind, even if that requires considerable struggle, you will be able to move forward. To do this, you need firm resolve—self-mastery. With a strategy determined by clear thinking and a sense of purpose, you will overcome all obstacles.

Receiving The Chariot in a reading, depending on its position in the spread, is generally favorable. It indicates you have the means to triumph over all obstacles and stay the course you have set for yourself. It can also mean that assistance is on the way as a result of your own strength and determination. It may suggest you are in the process of transforming yourself and your ways of thinking and behaving in order to create a firm foundation from which to go forward and achieve your desires. At this time you are keenly aware of how to use your past experience to reach a major goal and you are in touch with deep inner resources.

Reversed Meaning: When reversed, there is arrogance and self-indulgence. This can show a person or event spiraling out of control. Ego is at work, and selfish needs come before the greater good, so the Chariot reversed can indicate recklessness and poor leadership. When the Chariot reverses and is tipped off the road, travel plans and house moves are disrupted or delayed.