The Chariot

Correspondences

Number

VII

Hebrew letter

ח Cheth, “Fence, enclosure” (value 8)

Attribution

♋︎ Cancer

Golden Dawn title

The Child of the Powers of the Waters; the Lord of the Triumph of Light

Thoth

The Chariot

Marseille

Le Chariot

Case’s key word

Receptivity (will)

Path on the Tree

The 18th path, joining Binah and Geburah

The letter

Cheth, the fence or field, encloses and protects: the wall around the garden, the shell of the crab, the chariot that carries its rider. Its value is 8; Case gives it the faculty of speech. Spelled in full, חית has the value 418, which Crowley identified with ABRAHADABRA, the Word of the Aeon, and with the Great Work itself; he gave the number to his record of the Aethyrs, Liber 418.

On the Tree

The 18th path descends from Binah to Geburah, on the Pillar of Severity: the Great Mother’s form carried down into strength and action. Its 32 Paths name, the House of Influence, is the vessel through which “the arcana and hidden senses are drawn forth”.

The Chariot in the Waite deck

Waite’s charioteer stands crowned and armoured in a stone chariot under a starry canopy, holding a wand but no reins; the chariot is drawn by two sphinxes, black and white, which he guides by will alone. Crescent moons are on his shoulders and a winged sun on the chariot front. Case’s key word is receptivity: the will that triumphs is the will that lets the higher power drive.

The Chariot in the Thoth deck

Harris’s Chariot is a vision of the Holy Grail: a charioteer in amber armour (the King-scale colour of the path) sits still, holding before him the Graal, a cup of amethyst with blood at its heart, turning like a wheel. Four sphinxes made of the four Kerubim draw the chariot; the canopy is the blue night of Binah. Crowley says that he does not drive but simply sits; his task is to carry the Graal, and the card is the triumph of light protected by the shell of form.