07: Spirea / The Chariot
The Chariot Tarot Card Meanings
It’s Tarot Tuesday! Every Tuesday I will be posting an article diving deeper into an individual tarot card, to help me better understand its meaning, and to help educate others in the process. I’ll also share about the connection between each tarot card and the botanical I paired it with in my Fleurot tarot deck, which is based around the Victorian Language of Flowers.
Today we are diving into the card numbered 7 in the traditional Rider-Waite tarot, The Chariot (which is Spirea in the Fleurot deck).
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Keywords
The Chariot | Victory, Determination, Assertion
Spirea | Victory, Conceit
In the traditional Rider-Waite Colman-Smith tarot deck, the Chariot card depicts a figure adorned in armor decorated with crescent moons (symbolizing what is to come) and wearing a laurel and star crown representing victory, success and spiritual growth. The figure is atop a chariot pulled by two sphinxes, one black and one white (representing both positive and negative forces). They wield a wand in their right hand.
Though the figure is clearly driving the chariot, they hold no reins, alluding that they are controlling the chariot through their force of will and determination. The charioteer is charging forward with confidence, away from a castle city in the background. The front of the chariot is adorned with a crest featuring two wings and a mallet - a masonic symbol representing self control, and the top is adorned with a canopy of six pointed stars, symbolizing a connection to the divine and the celestial realm.
This card is all about action - and charging forward with determination and self-confidence. When it appears, it’s a great reminder that behind every goal has to be action and self-directed discipline. Are you doing everything in your power to achieve what you have set forth to achieve? This isn’t a card of passivity - take the reins and move confidently towards what you really want!
“the Chariot is an invitation to draw upon your willpower and home in on what’s essential to you, so you can push past the obstacles in your way.”
For more in-depth information about the meaning of The Chariot tarot card, I highly recommend checking out the description by Biddy Tarot!
Spirea Spiraea Japonica
During the Victorian Era, people would exchange flowers and plants as a way of sending messages to express their true feelings (ones they couldn’t often express out loud). The system they developed was published in Flower Dictionaries which allowed the meanings of each flower to be widely accepted, and this language was often dubbed ‘Floriography’.
Spirea is an ornamental deciduous shrub with showy, dense clusters of small five-petaled flowers, often in white, pink, or reddish colors. The plant has been used medicinally as a tea to treat abdominal pain. The name derives from the Greek word ‘speira’ meaning ‘twisting.’
The fluffiness of Spirea, with its zillions of tiny flowers, is obsession-worthy. Its long-reaching stalks might be the reason it signifies victory. The Tarot card that immediately comes to mind is the Chariot—charging into the future with determination and control, which is why I paired it with this card in the Fleurot deck. Victory can be yours, if you assert yourself as the driver at the helm of your chariot.