The Chariot — VII

Shadowscapes, Stephanie Pui-Mun; Triumph over obstacles, achieving victory, focusing intent and will, establishing an identity, self-confidence, maintaining discipline, assuming the reigns of power and authority, and driving with the unwavering certainty in a cause.

Chariot is from Old French charriot "wagon," augmentative of char "car," from Late Latin carrum "chariot." 

Car is said to be from PIE root *kers- "to run," which is also said source of Latin currere "to run." Strong animals like horses run and pull chariots by their horse power,  and the power an engine produces in a car is called horsepower. So *kers- "to run" seems to be equally applicable to both cars and horses. 

In fact one proposed etymological origin of the word horse is that it is possibly from PIE *kers-.  In this sense the name "horse" would point to the fact that is is an animal that runs. But running when done gracefully can be very smooth and fluid, like birds in flight.

One Biblical Hebrew word used for horses/chariot horses is cuwc (soos/suse) which has the literal meaning of "swallow, swift (type of bird)." Swift is from the adjective swift "moving quickly," related to  swivel from PIE root *swei- (2) "to turn, bend, move in a sweeping manner."

You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters. Habakkuk 3:15

The PIE root *ōku- "swift," is said to be the possible origin of PIE *ekwo- "horse" from whence we get the Latin equus "horse." However, the word run itself carries with it etymologically the sense of not only swiftness but also flowing. A faucet runs. A nose runs. However, run can also be used as a noun, such as a ski run, or a river is a run, like the Rhine "ultimately from Gaulish Renos, literally "that which flows..."

Run (n) is from Old English ryne/yrn (early Middle English rine) meant "a flowing, a course, a watercourse."

Walter crane, Neptune's Horses 1910

Horses are fluent flowing runners. When a thing flows it is acting fluid, which is interesting given that the PIE root given for flow is *pleu- "to flow," which sounds like "plow" and when a field is plowed the dirt is made fluid. The tilling of the earth can be compared to the look of a wave breaking on the shore, and a horse or a team of horses are apt beasts to undertake this task. A plow causes the earth to *pleu- "to flow." But a plow may be pulled by plowers that are  "flow-ers," i.e., runners themselves, i.e., horses.

It is further of interest that the word hearse, sounds like horse, and a hearse is a kind of chariot of the dead. 

Halloween Tarot - (Hearse) Literally being in the driver's seat. Council, self-discipline, strength of character. Victory, success, greatness. Movement in life

Death can be one of the most harrowing experiences we ever endure. Hearse is said to be from a word meaning "harrow" which is a raking of the earth that is carried out after plowing (in the same fashion, i.e., by the dragging of the harrow, and sometimes the harrow "hearse" would be driven by a horse). 

c.1300 (late13c. in Anglo-Latin), "flat framework for candles, hung over a coffin," from Old French herse, formerly herce "large rake for breaking up soil, harrow; portcullis," also "large chandelier in a church," from Medieval Latin hercia, from Latin hirpicem (nominative hirpex) "harrow" a rustic word, from Oscan hirpus "wolf," supposedly in allusion to its teeth. Or the Oscan word may be related to Latin hirsutus "shaggy, bristly." [OE]

Horse-drawn wooden harrow at Addergoole, Co. Galway, photo UniversityCollege Dublin, National University Ireland

Horses don't seem to have much in common with wolves, however horses can be connected to this idea of being "bristly" hirsutus, witch is the etymological origin of the English word hirsute meaning "hairy," and the word "hair" is said to come from PIE *ghers- "to stand out, bristle, raise to a point," which is very similar when spoken to *kers- . The harrow can be pulled by horses as well as the plow. So a horse pulls a herce "harrow," and a horse, which is a *pleu-er "flow-er/runner" pulls a plow. 

Horses, being mammals, obviously wear a hair suit, they are hairy, but they aren't necessarily thought to be "bristly" hirsutus, yet some members of the horse family[Equidae], such as the Przewalski horse are described as having "stiff upright manes,"which could definitely be described as hirsutus.

Przewalski's horse

Cave paintings 30,000 years old found in Spain and France depict a stocky wild horse with Przewalski's horse features. Przewalski's horse Equus ferus Przewalski ; San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

And, in fact, many types of brushes are popularly made from horsehair bristles.

SCRUBIT Horsehair Shoeshine Brush 

Of course "course (n.)" means "a run," or coarse (which is pronunced the same) can mean something not soft, maybe bristly, but this "coarse" (original spelling cors), had the meaning "ordinary," that is, the coarse fabric was the ordinary wear fabric, which meaning did in fact come from "course" (in the sense of  course[i.e., run/flow] of nature), so it seems like these two ideas, run and bristly keep circling back to one another. Things that are hairy, run (like horses), and courses that may be hairy, as in "difficult," may run with water, or are called runs.

Horses do show up in a lot of hairy and harrowing situations.

And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. Revelation 6:8 ESV

Death is definitely hairy and harrowing, so a hearse pulled by a horse is a fitting chariot/carrier of the dead. 

Gustave-Dore - Death on a Pale Horse 1865

Originally these things, like hearses, plows, chariots, carts and wagons were made either entirely or partly from wood. We call a woodworker a carpenter, however the etymological origin of the word carpenter is actually more specific than "woodworker," or the Old English treowwyrhta "treeman," litteraly "tree-wright, which it replaced. Carpenter is from c. 1300 meaning "artificer in timber, one who does the heavier sort of wood-working," originating ultimately from Late Latin carpentarious "wagon (maker), carriage-maker," from Latin carpentum "wagon, two-wheeled carriage, cart," from PIE root *kers- "to run." 

It is said that Jesus was a carpenter. We might say he literally fashioned the "car"/vehicle of salvation, which was himself.

Jesus answered, "I am the way the and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father expect through me. John 14:16

In this way Jesus could be associated with the chariot and therefore the notion of rising to victory. Notice that the name Jesus which is from Ιησούς (Iēsous), the Ancient Greek form of  the name Joshua, that is, from the Hebrew/Aramaic ישוע Yehoshua/Yeshua, is said to have the meaning "the LORD is salvation," however this word is also at times translated as victory [such as in the NIV of the passage below].

. . . Did you rage against the sea when you rode on your horses[suseka], on your chariots[markeboteka; merkabah] of salvation[yeshua]? Habakkuk 3:8  [BSB]

 So we could say that Jesus carries with it the meaning of victory as well as salvation.

Le Tarot De Marseilles

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name [ονομα] that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord [ΚΥΡΙΟΣ ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ], to the Glory of the Father. Philippians 2:9-11

A carpenter is an artisan/craftsman [τέκτον]; one who is skilled, which is from PIE root *skel-(1) "to cut." A carpenter knows where to cut and how to make things which are balanced, so that they can function as they should.    

Helios, red-figure calyx-krater, c. 430 BC, British Museum

There is a certain skill to controlling a chariot/car and riding it to victory; taming the inherent power of the vehicle and being at one with it, like Helios [Ηλιος] and his chariot of the sun. One clearly has to have skill, be a cut above the rest, in order to steer the most powerful team/vehicle to victory. Simply being the son of the sun god is not enough as Phaethon [Φαέθων], son of Helios, sadly learned. 

Fall of Icarus, Blondel decoration 1819, Louvre

So, the victory of The Chariot has to do with the capability of the one in the driver's seat just as much as the power of the chariot. The two have to be equally matched or balanced and ride to victory together. The excellent driver without the team has no power, and the powerful team without the driver is wild and reckless. 

We could definitely apply an analogy of the chariot to this vehicle of the body(hair suit) that we are incarnated into. We are composed of body and soul. One of the challenges of being human is to wield the body with its passions in such a way that raises our souls to victory instead of being our downfall. 

Copper Merkaba with Amethyst by SacredGeometryHeals, photo by Julie O.

The term merkaba is from Hebrew merkab (m.) "chariot, saddle, seat" / merkaba (f.) meaning "a chariot" [such as in the passage from Habakuk above], from rakab (v.) "ride, ridders, ride in a chariot." It is interesting that this word rakab then, in English, can be broken down to Ra cab which would be like Helios the Sun god/sun = Ra(Egyptian Sun god/sun) with his ride (cab) = the sun chariot.

The Egyptian horse drawn chariot was called:

wrrt [perhaps like whir-ret, like "whirl" or the whirling wheels "chariots"/Ophanim/Thrones of Ezekiel's vision??], or

mrkbt, merkebet, from Northwest Semitic markabt (the 't' ending in ancient Egyptian indicates the feminine form, therefore = merkaba)]. 

Hence, the chariot was of paramount social and political significance since it heralded the appearance of the chariot corps which consisted of a new aristocratic warrior class molded on the ubiquitous Asiatic military elite known to the Egyptians as maryannu (young heroes). The depiction of the triumphant New Kingdom pharaoh as a charioteer shows that the chariot was quickly absorbed into the royal regalia, becoming a powerful symbol of domination. Interestingly, the royal chariot itself was treated as a heroic personality with gods overseeing each of its named parts. The Chariot in Egyptian Warfare

The Universal Waite Tarot - Succor, providence, also war, triumph, presumption, vengeance, trouble.

So, there is a certain elitism to The Chariot, or idea of being the best of the best, fighting the greatest and most important battles and attaining victory. Perhaps such as attaining apotheosis, or liberation for an incarnated soul set upon the wheel of life and fate.

The Chariot is card VII. Seven is often regarded as a number of perfection or completness. In Hebrew sheba or shibah שבע is "seven," and saba or sabea שבע is "to be sated, satisfied, or surfeited." Shabbath  שבת is "sabbath" the seventh day when God's work was completed, it was satisfied, that is, he had "done enough" satisfacere. So it was a day of rest. A day of recreation . . . re-creation . . . a day to start over. Like the spinning wheels of the chariot, creation is in flow and movement. 

What goes up must come down

Spinning wheel got to go 'round

Talkin' 'bout your troubles 

It's a crying' sin

Ride a painted pony

Let the spinning wheel spin 

- Spinning Wheel, Blood, Sweat & Tears

Carousel - photo by J.O. 2016

But like a carousel 

1640's, "tilting match, playful tournament of knights in chariots or on horseback," from French carrousel "a tilting match," from Italian carusiello, possibly from carro "chariot," from Latin carrus "two-wheeled wagon". [OE]

the course (and the horse) is set[does this make it a curse-o-sel?] and the story has been written only to be ridden . . . round and round. Wherein then lies the victory? 

The victory is within. Salvation is within. Christ is within. Punch a higher floor . . .