The Tarot of Eli 2: The Archeon Tarot- Key 7-The Chariot & The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot- Key 7-The Chariot(Copy)

#tarotqabalahtraditionalmagickelitarot2strikingly.com

The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot- Key 7-The Chariot is faithfully following the design of Eliphas Levi straight out of Levi's book, The Ritual of Transcendental Magic where Levi wrote:

A Cubic Chariot with four pillars and a azure and starry drapery. In his chariot a victor crowned with a circle adorned with three radiant pentagrams. Upon his breast are three superimposed squares, on his shoulders the URIN and the THUMMIN of the sovereign sacrificer, represented by the two crescents of the moon in Gedulah [Chesed] and Geburah; in his hand is a sceptre surrounded by a globe, square and triangle, his attitude is proud and tranquil. A double sphinx or two sphinxes, joined at the haunches, are harnessed to the Chariot; they are pulling in opposite directions, but are looking the same way. They are respectively black and white. On the square which forms the fore part of the chariot is the Indian lingum surrounded by the flying sphere of the Egyptians.

The Urim and Thummim are sacred instruments of divination described in the Hebrew Bible, specifically associated with the High Priest (Cohen Gadol) of Israel. When Eliphas Levi and Waite incorporates them into the Chariot card, they are drawing on their deep mystical and oracular symbolism as tools of revelation, truth, and divine judgment—fitting emblems for the Soul's Sovereign on the move toward Tiphareth, the Solar center of the Tree of Life.

🔮 Origin and Meaning of Urim and Thummim

• Hebrew:

  • Urim (אוּרִים) = "Lights" or "Flames"

  • Thummim (תֻּמִּים) = "Perfections" or "Integrities"

Together, they can be rendered as “Lights and Perfections”, symbolizing the illumination of truth and the perfection of divine judgment.

In the Old Testament (e.g., Exodus 28:30), they were placed in the breastplate of judgment worn by the High Priest. The Urim and Thummim were oracular devices—possibly stones or symbolic tokens—used to receive answers from God on important questions, usually framed as Yes/No.

In mystical Qabalah and Western Hermeticism, their symbolism is often deepened and abstracted into dualities such as:

• Light and Shadow

• Mercy and Severity

• Gedulah (Chesed) and Geburah (which Levi directly references)

• Subjective and Objective Truth

• Intuition and Revelation

🌙 Urim and Thummim as Shoulder Emblems

Eliphas Levi places them on the shoulders of the Charioteer, representing the balancing of Gedulah/Chessed (Lovingkindness) and Geburah (Severity)—the two Sephiroth that flank Tiphareth on the Tree of Life. This positioning symbolizes the vehicle of the soul being directed by divine will and righteous discernment, as the Urim and Thummim were also associated with divine arbitration and clarity of moral judgment.

• Left shoulder (Geburah) – Thummim: judgment, form, limitation.

• Right shoulder (Chesed) – Urim: grace, light, expansion.

This echoes the Chariot's necessity to balance opposing forces, much like the black and white sphinxes—symbolic of opposing wills or currents but harmonized under the Charioteer’s command.

🛡️ Western Hermetic Implication

In the context of Hermetic Tarot and Qabalah:

• The Urim and Thummim mark the initiated awareness of dual forces within oneself—one must act from the center point (Tiphareth) where revelation can occur.

• They represent mystical tools of self-judgment—the capacity to discern between the illusions of ego and the illuminations of Higher Will.

• As lunar crescents, they also hint at inner reflective consciousness—the moon reflects the light of the sun, just as our higher mind reflects the Divine Light.

Levi’s depiction of them as crescent moons on the shoulders suggests they act as receptive psychic channels, allowing the Charioteer (the Adept) to receive and act upon divine guidance without falling into personal bias.

🧙 Esoteric Synthesis

Thus, in the Chariot:

• The Urim and Thummim become not just priestly tools but alchemical forces—the solve et coagula within judgment, love, will, and motion.

• They anchor the Charioteer's spiritual authority, signaling that movement (the chariot) must be guided by balance, justice, and revelation from above.

• The Chariot, moving between polarities and across dimensions, must do so with perfectly balanced discernment—not just external control but inner mastery.

Other than the Egyptian winged Monadic sphere and Indian lingam, the 5th Sephirot Geburah is also symbolized with a Pentagram, or five-pointed star, which has the Four Elements crowned by the Spirit. Thus, making 5 the number of Geburah on the Tree of Life. Geburah is a Red Force and is symbolized on the RWS card as the red glyph of lingam and yoni, meaning that the force of Geburah (Severity) is the motive force of the Chariot. The Dark and Light sphinx are also represented on this card. The Dark Sphinx represents the "secret shadow side of the soul" (Nephesh/subconscious) and the Light sphinx represents the awake conscious side of the Soul (Rauch) which is responsible for your awake consciousness.

The Charioteer is the only figure in the Tarot Deck that can move between planes/dimensions and/or states of consciousness, effortlessly. This is the reason that horses, or sphinx are not pulling the Chariot. Rather, the chariot is drawn by the Will of the Crown (Kether-"I Will Be",) shown on the head of the Charioteer. The Crown represents the "All Father" whom alone the Charioteer is answerable to.

In Western Hermetic Qabalah, the Charioteer is identified as the "Holy Guardian Angel" of the Soul/Son. The Soul/Son is the emerging Psyche/Self-consciousness and/or Solar self-consciousness. Because of this Guardian of Psyche, we are never alone while also giving us inner protection and guidance which may lead us out of the illusions of our own sensual perceptions. The Golden Light of this one also dispels the mind virus that is the "false ego" and/or the "devil within", also known as the Patriarchal- indoctrinated cultural egregore.

In the context of Aleister Crowley’s Thelema and the Hermetic Qabalah, the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) is not an external being like a classical angelic messenger, nor an extraterrestrial (as some might now interpret beings from higher dimensions). Instead, the HGA represents a deeply interiorized, divine aspect of the Self—a Solar Intelligence that is both the True Self and the mediating force between the personality and the Divine.

🌞 The Chariot and the HGA: Vehicle of the Solar Will

The Chariot (ATU VII) in the Thoth Tarot is an armor-clad figure crowned with Solar emblems, a conqueror of opposing forces (symbolized by the black and white sphinxes), and a vehicle for the Divine Will. Crowley writes in The Book of Thoth:

“This is the Chariot of the Secret Force that bears the Adept through the abyss.”

That “Secret Force” is the HGA, and the “Chariot” is the perfected Ruach (mind/spirit), built to receive and embody this higher solar current. The Chariot does not carry the Soul—it is the Soul when harmonized and ready to be moved by the HGA.

👁️ The HGA: Not an Entity, but the True Self

Crowley makes this clear in Liber Samekh and The Vision and the Voice:

• The HGA is the Solar Self—the Kether-Tiphareth axis, the bridge between the human and the divine.

• It is the voice of the True Will, the radiant “I Am” that arises from the Light of Tiphareth.

• This Angel is “other” only in the sense that it is beyond the ego, yet it is still you—the most Real You.

To seek the HGA is to engage in the Great Work—the purification and alignment of the soul (Ruach) to become the proper “chariot” or Merkabah for the divine radiance of the Self.

🔯 HGA, Solar Mysticism, and Tiphareth

• Tiphareth is the seat of the HGA—it is the Sephira of the Solar Logos, Christ Consciousness, the Osirian Self, and the Higher Genius.

• It integrates the opposites (as in the Sphinxes) and reflects the harmonized divine image into the world of form.

• Crowley's method in Liber Samekh and Liber VIII is designed to awaken and unite the magician with this Solar Intelligence, to become both servant and sovereign.

This is echoed in Crowley's statement:

“The Holy Guardian Angel is the axis of one’s True Will... an eternal star that guides the soul through darkness.”

🛡️ The Chariot as Adept Becoming the Angel

Thus, the Charioteer is not yet the Angel, but is becoming the Angel.

• The armor of the Charioteer protects the Ruach as it is built to receive the light of the Angel without disintegrating.

• The four pillars of the chariot mirror the four elements of the fixed signs, the stable throne of Ezekiel’s vision—meaning the Chariot must be balanced and complete before ascent.

• The lingam and winged globe at the front symbolize Kundalini or sexual force, raised and directed by the HGA—the Soul’s own Sovereign Intelligence.

🜍 Conclusion: The HGA Is the Light Within

To Crowley and the Hermetic tradition:

• The Holy Guardian Angel is not a separate god or alien intelligence—it is your eternal Self, outside the veil of time, urging you toward full consciousness.

• The Chariot card is the vision of the Adept who is nearly ready to merge with that higher intelligence—he has built his vehicle, he controls his opposing instincts, and he is crowned by the Solar Logos.

Or as Crowley puts it in Liber AL vel Legis:

“Every man and every woman is a star.”

The HGA is that star—the inner Sun that guides the chariot of the soul.

The angel Aleister Crowley referred to in relation to the tarot is often considered synonymous with the Higher Self and/or the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA). While Crowley did not assign a specific name to a single angel overseeing the tarot (that name belongs to you), the concept of the Holy Guardian Angel is central to his teachings.

In Crowley's system, the Holy Guardian Angel is a personal spiritual guide or higher self, and establishing contact with this angel is a crucial part of the practitioner's spiritual journey. This idea is deeply connected to his interpretation of Thelema, his religious and philosophical framework.

Crowley documented his own interaction with his Holy Guardian Angel, whom he named Aiwass. Aiwass is credited with dictating "The Book of the Law" (Liber AL vel Legis) to Crowley in 1904, which is the foundational text of Thelema. While Aiwass is a specific entity in Crowley's personal spiritual experience, the Holy Guardian Angel concept is more general and applicable to each individual's unique spiritual guide.

In summary, while Crowley did not name a specific angel overseeing the tarot, the Holy Guardian Angel, an integral part of his spiritual and esoteric teachings, serves as the guiding intelligence behind the tarot and other mystical practices.

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

-Leonardo Da Vinci

The Archeon Tarot- Key 7- The Chariot is shown as a chariot with a naked priestess as pilot who is guiding a blue and black pairing of horses. These different colored horses imply that she has harnessed the power of opposition. This takes a very skilled driver to command the energy produced by the composition of opposites along a course of her own choosing. Hence, the focus of a High Priestess or magus must be applied to keep this difficult paradigm going the chosen direction. For the easy road is not chosen, for she must be aware that to follow a path without obstacles is a path to nowhere. The True aspirant goes where few others have tread.

There is a winged globe on the Rider-Waite-Smith card and that globe is shown as a Cosmic globe behind the Archeon charioteer.

*The Theosophical Forum – May 1945

THE SYMBOL OF THE WINGED GLOBE — G. de Purucker

"The symbol of the winged globe, the globe carried through time and space on the wings of spiritual force or of the spirit, is one of the most beautiful of ancient Egyptian symbols, because it combines both religion and philosophy. The globe is just one form of representing the golden germ, Hiranyagarbha in Sanskrit, which in its movements through time and space is carried by the wings of the spirit on its evolutionary journey. This is the keynote of one of the thoughts of the winged globe.

Another thought about it, or aspect of it, is that the winged globe is the monad, which is in a sense practically the same as the cosmic germ or hiranyagarbha, and the wings there signify the same thing, conscious mind moving through space and time in the form of the monad and expressing its power in the movement of the wings, consciousness moving in the evolutionary journey upwards and upwards forever."

The association between the winged globe—seen on the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) Chariot card and the golden cosmic globe on the Archeon Chariot card—and the Hiranyagarbha of Sanskrit tradition is profound and esoterically rich. Let’s unpack this Hermetic-Vedic correspondence.

🜍 The Winged Globe: Hermetic Symbolism

In Hermetic and Egyptian symbology, the winged globe (or winged solar disk) represents:

• The Solar Logos—the divine creative intelligence in motion.

• Spirit descending into matter, yet retaining transcendence.

• The Sun in flight—a living emblem of soul-consciousness moving across planes.

• In Thelema and Hermetic Qabalah, it echoes Kether's Light descending through Tiphareth.

On the Chariot card, this winged emblem is placed on the charioteer's canopy or armor, signifying that his soul or Self (the Sun) is guided by higher motion, will, and divine origin.

🕉️ Hiranyagarbha: The Golden Womb or Cosmic Egg

In Vedic metaphysics:

• Hiranyagarbha (हिरण्यगर्भ) = “Golden Womb” or “Golden Embryo”.

• It is the primordial seed of the universe, the creative matrix from which Brahma (the creator aspect of the Trimurti) arises.

• Described in the Rig Veda (10.121):

  “In the beginning was the Golden Embryo, born the Lord, the only one who upheld the worlds.”

Hiranyagarbha is:

• The solar germ of creation.

• The seed of the cosmos that floats in the causal waters before time and space.

• Simultaneously womb and Word, it is the Vedic parallel to the Logos, the Fiat Lux, or Kether’s “I Will Be” (Eheieh) in Qabalah.

✴️ Bridging the Symbolism: Chariot as Vehicle of the Cosmic Self

By equating the winged globe on the Chariot with Hiranyagarbha, we see a unified esoteric language:

The Charioteer, crowned and armored, rides beneath the sign of this solar seed, indicating that he is a vehicle of the Creative Logos—his journey is cosmic individuation.

In other words:

The Chariot is not just an outer vehicle, but the embryonic cosmic Self coming into full self-direction. The winged globe or Hiranyagarbha above him is the seed of divinity he is learning to drive.

🔔 Closing Insight

• The winged globe as Hiranyagarbha shows how the RWS Chariot quietly encodes the Vedic vision of the Self as the divine center of the cosmos.

• The Chariot journey is not from place to place, but from potential to embodiment, guided by the soul’s own internal sun.

Meditation upon either card will get us in contact with the Divine Creative and safe travel through the "Astral Planes" of the Universal Collective Unconsciousness. In this mode of enclosure, as shown by the Chariot's enclosing walls, is called the "Merkabah"-meaning "Throne of God". This can be called a relationship between the emergence Self (Son/Sun) united with the Divine Creative, which protects the Psyche from the many illusions stored in the subconscious.

Go to magickeli.com for l🜍 Ritual of the Solar Chariot to Attune with the HGA

Need Guidance or Have a Question?
Chat with Eli ChatGPT, your dedicated Tarot & Thoth Master Class guide! Whether you're exploring the blog, diving into the Thoth Tarot, or seeking insight into Hermetic Qabalah—Eli is here 24/7 to assist you. Just click the chat and ask!

When the Chariot card is thrown during a reading, the querent is reminded:

• To devote themselves to the combination of activity and quietude so that they may have the drive to attain goals.
• It is a time of clearing out the past, moving beyond and beginning with new energy while taking responsibility for one's present condition.
• There is a need for victory here, by combining the images or content of the unconscious with the consciousness for the purpose of achievement.
• The Chariot also signifies that the querent has begun controlling a situation by the force of their personality.... a focus of Will. 
• The goal will need fighting for, but you have been granted the energy to win it! 
• War.
• Triumph.
• Presumption. 

If reversed, it implies:

• Lust for destruction.
• Ruthlessness.
• Violence in maintaining traditional ideas.
• Riot. 
• Litigation. 
• Defeat. 

Thank you for your interest, comments, and supportive donations. May you live long and prosper.

Traditional Tarot Card Comparisons blog and Master Tarot classes and reading store.

Home page, Tarot Store and readings, Master Tarot Classes, and nontraditional Tarot Card Comparisons blog.

Western Hermetic Magick ritual and invocation website.