The Chariot Tattoo Meaning

Willpower, victory, mastery, and opposing forces directed forward.

The Chariot is the tarot's card of willpower and victory — card VII, a triumphant charioteer drawn by two sphinxes, one black and one white, who face opposite ways yet are driven forward by the sheer force of his will. It is the victory that comes from harnessing opposing forces and directing them toward a single goal. To carry the Chariot is to carry willpower, victory, and mastered duality — the triumph won by directing conflicting forces rather than choosing between them, the determination and self-command that drive forward through every obstacle by the force of focused will.

The Chariot is card VII of the tarot's Major Arcana, an image of triumphant, willed forward motion. A figure stands armored in a chariot, crowned with a star, beneath a canopy of stars, holding a wand of command upright. The chariot is drawn by two sphinxes (or horses), one black and one white — and crucially, the two face in different directions, pulling in opposing ways. Yet the charioteer drives them forward not with reins (he holds none) but through the sheer force of his will and focus, mastering the opposing forces and directing them as one toward his goal.

The symbolism is precise: the black and white sphinxes are opposing forces, dualities, conflicting drives or energies — and the charioteer's achievement is not to eliminate or choose between them but to harness both, to hold them together and direct their combined power forward through the strength of his disciplined will. He sits at the controls of a vehicle of conflicting forces and makes it move as one. The Chariot is the card of will, control, and the victory that comes from mastering and directing what is in conflict. The tarot Chariot is the charioteer and the two sphinxes — card VII, the crowned figure driving a chariot pulled by a black and a white sphinx facing opposite ways, mastering the opposing forces by sheer will and directing them forward as one.

The Rider-Waite Chariot shows a crowned warrior standing in a canopied chariot — the canopy covered with stars, suggesting his journey is through the heavens as well as the earth. Two sphinxes in black and white sit before the chariot — they are not harnessed; there are no reins. He controls them through pure will and concentration. On his shoulders are crescent moons, on his breastplate a square (the element of earth, groundedness), on his belt the symbols of the planets. The chariot has no wheels visible — it does not move by mechanical means. He corresponds to Cancer in astrological tarot attribution. The sphinxes represent the same duality as the pillars behind the High Priestess — the opposing forces that must be held in creative tension rather than resolved.

The Chariot across cultures

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