The Chariot Tarot Card: The Lodge and Masons in Microcosm?
Recently, when studying the symbolism and meaning of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, some Masonic meanings jumped out at me when looking at Key 7 (the Chariot). As I looked at the imagery on the key – using the deck designed by Bro. Paul Foster Case for his Builders of the Adytum – I began to see it as a microcosm of the Lodge with a Brother standing in the midst of it.
The body of the chariot itself is either a square or oblong, depending on how one views the foreshortening from the head-on perspective of the beholder.
If a square, it – coupled with its grey, stone-like color – resembles the perfect ashlar, with the driver (a crowned, armored man) rising from it, almost signifying ourselves as Masons flowing out from the ashlar which we hope to make squarer day by day through our actions and work.
If oblong, it resembles a lodge in miniature, for, as we are taught as Entered Apprentices, “the form of a Lodge is oblong,” a similarity also highlighted by Bro. Case in his The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages (p. 98).
A starry canopy is suspended over the charioteer, recalling the “clouded canopy, or star-decked heavens” that forms the covering of a Lodge. This covering is supported by four pillars, which Case associates with order and measurement (two very Masonic concepts) as well as the four classical elements (p. 95).
Once again, based on the perspective of the viewer, these columns align with each other, with the wheels of the chariot itself, and with the two sphinxes which pull the chariot (but which are conspicuously not yoked to it). Taken together, these are easily likened to the columns Jachin and Boaz found at the entrance to King Solomon’s Temple, and which play an important role in Masonic teachings. Case himself cites the colors of these anthropomorphs – one white, one black – as echoing the pillars of Mercy and Severity found in the Qabbalah (p. 98), which likewise are associated with Jachin and Boaz.
The human figure of the charioteer then evokes the Mason in both his capacities as Master of his Lodge and as an individual Brother, particularly as a brand-new candidate.
The commanding position of the charioteer coupled with the square around his neck – albeit not the classic working tool of the Master, but a square plate – bring to mind the Master presiding from his station in the East.
Case likewise encapsulates this figure as being the summation of all the powers of preceding keys (much like how the Worshipful Master has already passed through the officers’ line before ascending the Oriental Chair)(p. 97).
As the individual Brother, he stands in the center of the chariot much as a candidate would stand in the center of the Lodge before the altar to take his obligations.
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This quick exploration of how Key 7 of the Tarot’s Major Arcana can be seen to contain Masonic symbolism and meaning is perhaps not totally unique, but these thoughts coupled with the studies of Bro. Case and others have certainly helped me grow in appreciation for the richness of the Tarot and its correlation with Masonry and other aspects of the Western esoteric tradition. Given the universality of the Tarot and the universality of Masonry, other Keys may very well reveal similar Masonic meaning when examined closely.
Reference: Case, Paul Foster. The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages. New York: Tarcher-Penguin 2006.
