Symbols - What does heaven look like
Chariot
A chariot is a means of transport. People don’t ‘see’ chariots anymore in visions or dreams simply because we don’t use them, but they may see cars which are the modern day alternative.
Chariots were commonplace up until a couple of hundred years ago. The earliest reference I could find was in the Upanishads, and it is here the symbolism of the chariot is well explained...
Katha Upanishad
The Self (atman) is the owner of the chariot;
the body (sarira) is the chariot;
intuitive discernment and awareness (buddhi) is the charioteer;
the thinking function (manas) is the bridle;
the sense forces (indriya) are the horses;
and the objects or spheres of sense perception (visaya) are the ranging ground.
The individual in whom the Self, the sense forces and the mind are joined is called the eater or enjoyer (bhoktar).
For one who is devoid of real insight and has not properly and constantly yoked and tamed his mind – that is to say, for one who has not disciplined and controlled both his conscious mental faculty (manas) and the intuitive awareness (buddhi) which is a manifestation of the irrational unconscious – the sense forces become unmanageable, like the wicked horses of a charioteer. But for him who is always full of intuitive awareness and who has tamed and yoked his mind, the senses are subdued like the good horses of a charioteer.
He who lacks the proper intuitive awareness and is thoughtless and impure, does not reach That Place [the state of transcendental existence] he tips over into the whirlpool of death and rebirth (samsara).
But he who is full of intuitive awareness, thoughtful and pure at all times, reaches that place, whence one is not reborn. The man who has for his charioteer intuitive awareness, and for his bridle the mind, attains the end of his journey – which is a great distance away. That goal is the supreme abode of Visnu – the cosmic all pervading Self divine.
In effect, from this description we can perhaps see the meaning in all the subsequent uses of the chariot in tarot cards, myths, legends and stories, even in the Bible.
Observations
For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.
- 2 Kings 2
- Albrecht Dürer – 07 The Chariot
- Alice in Wonderland - Ch 04 - 4 The Lizard flies
- Atharvaveda - IV 10 The Pearl and its Shell bestowing long life and prosperity
- Aubrey de Vere - Sun god
- Bern Zinc tablet
- Blithe spirit - Flying with the gods
- Boethius - The Consolation of Philosophy - For I have swift and speedy wings
- Braveheart - The hill and the plain
- Cirlot on chariots and reins
- Cohen, Leonard - Here it is
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 8 and the Devil
- Crowley - 07 The Chariot
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - Steeped horsehair
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - Mind over Matter
- Dalí, Salvador – 07 The Chariot
- Desnos, Robert - Dove In The Arch
- Dionysos - The Dionysian frenzy
- Doré, Gustave - The Bible - Zachariah 6:5
- Enûma Eliš - Fourth Tablet
- Ezekiel - Ezekiel's vision from the Bear Bible
- Frost, Robert - Never tell me that not one star of all
- Giuoco delle Minchiate Fiorentine and Visconti-Sforza - 7 - The Chariot
- Gray, Thomas - A Pindaric Ode
- Gray, Thomas - A Pindaric Ode II
- Hawker, Robert Stephen - Angels have no wings, not a single feather
- Homer - The Iliad - The Hours
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Cornucopia
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Death
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Dismembered by swords
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Flying Chariot
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Leda and the Swan
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - Triumph drawn by Centaurs
- Ibn El-Arabi - The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq - They mounted the howdahs on the swift camels
- Jean Noblet - 07 Le Chariot
- Judee Sill - Lopin' Along Thru the Cosmos
- Karnataka and South India - 03 Airavatesvara Temple
- Kepler, Johannes - Notes from Somnium
- Krishna - Arjunas charioteer in the battle-field of Kurukshetra
- L. Brinckmair - 12 May 1624, Anhalt, Germany - Chariots in the sky
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian shamanism - On spirit beings
- Maier, Michael - Atalanta Fugiens 1618
- Mirabai - The Bhil woman
- Mirabai - The Plums tasted
- Morrells, Luce and glace fruit and ambassadors
- Mucha - 07 The Chariot
- Myths and legends - Mug Ruith
- Norse - Jelling
- Norse - Tanum
- Orphic hymn to the Mother of the gods
- Ovid - Metamorphoses - The Story of Phaeton 2
- Ovid - Metamorphoses - The Story of Phaeton 3
- Parmenides - On Nature - 01
- Philo - On the dove
- Plato - Critias - Atlantis and Athens
- Plato - Phaedrus - The Immortal soul as the Charioteer
- Plato - Timaeus - On Fire and Water
- Poussin - Dance to the music of time
- Poussin - Midas and Bacchus
- Poussin - The Triumph of Flora
- Poussin - The Triumph of Neptune and birth of Venus
- Prasna Upanishad
- Ptolemy after 150 AD - Auriga
- Rabbi Hayim Vital - Mishna
- Redon, Odilon - the Chariot of Apollo series
- Rider-Waite - 07 The Chariot
- Rig veda - Boats, Birds and Chariots
- Rig veda - Bull and Cow
- Rig veda - Chariots
- Rig Veda - Sun and Chariots
- Rig veda - Tree of Life
- Rubens - Fall of Phaeton
- Samavedas – Book 02 Chapter 02, VII Maruts
- Samavedas – Book 02 Chapter 02, X Soma Pavamana
- Samavedas – Book 07 Chapter 03, X Soma Pavamana
- Samavedas – Book 07 Chapter 03, XII Soma Pavamana
- Samavedas – Book 08 Chapter 03, IX Asvins
- Samavedas – Book 08 Chapter 03, XII Asvins
- Sefer ha-bahir – Para 21 - Order of Creation and Tree of Life
- Song of Solomon 1
- Song of Solomon 3
- Song of Solomon 6
- Sri Aurobindo - Musa Spiritus
- Surdas - Fatephur Sikri manuscript - NPS 2415
- Symbols – Picts – Constellation - Chariot [Auriga]
- Tagore, Rabindranath - Song XXXXX to XXXXXII, Gitanjali
- Tarot - 03 Major Arcana - 07 The Chariot
- The Homeric Hymn to Demeter - 03
- The Supreme Teaching from the Upanishads
- Tissot - Ladies of the Chariots
- Tulsidas - Vinaya Patrika 08
- Waterhouse, John William - Ulysses and the Sirens
- Watson, Sir William - Epigram - In mid whirl of the dance of Time ye start
- Wirth, Oswald – 07 The Chariot
- Zachariah 6