Tarot Symbolism: The Initial Vehicle

by Odyn PenDragon

I consider Atu VII to be the first “real lesson” in the Trump Series. Atus I-VI have been of the nature of preparation. (It can be argued that Atu VI, due to the complex nature of its depiction, is the first lesson. I would simply argue that it is the last, and most important, lesson in the preparation*.)

The metaphor of “The Chariot” has been a favorite amongst many traditions as a standard for describing the status of “an ordinary being”. Even Gurdjieff, who did not subscribe to the standard “occult” retinue, unhesitatingly used the “chariot” metaphor to describe “the beginning status” to his students. The metaphor is utterly simple. There is the Main Vehicle. Added to that is the Conductor and the Moving Force. The ‘reigns’ connecting the ‘conductor’ to the ‘moving force’ is the first auxiliary metaphor-extension.

(For those who play with the Crowley-Harris version of this image, there are no ‘reigns’ connecting ‘the driver’ to ‘the driving force’. But the ‘reigns’ are apparent if you view the surrounding rings radiant from the ‘held cup’, which is like “a steering wheel”. This “steering wheel” is very much equivalent to “a scrying medium” (cup-of-water, crystal-ball, etc.).)

This icon is very much The Somatic Vehicle. It is What We Begin With!

With Atus I-VI, the initiate has been ‘prepared’ with a diet of concepts that build from “relative nothing-ness” to “relative something-ness”.

Atu VII is that “slam” of “this is actually what you have to deal with, in the beginning”. You have this Bio-Form! It has some basic intrinsic properties. It is “the first consideration” in all of your consideration(s) of “How Am I Going to Navigate ‘This’ Universe?” It is rather ‘the question from very birth’. From the very beginning of stumblings, that ‘question’ is all-pervasive. This is ‘the lesson’ of this Trump: “how do I deal with this stumbling temple?”

The “lesson” takes on properties of cognizing a kind of “visceral” cognizance. “The Body” has a kind of ‘wisdom’ of its own. We use the metaphor of “feeling my way” through “all of this”. The basic english language has the one handicap of using the term “feel” in both a bio-sensory and an emotional way. It doesn’t help that this dual definition is equally valid. (Thus the association of this Trump with the Astrological Cancer.) That is why I have chosen to use the metaphor of “Visceral Navigation” with this Trump.
But Atu VII is much more than mere “visceral navigation”. It rather epitomizes the Entire Body Sense. To actually “feel” that ‘this body’ is ‘a vehicle’. To cognize that you are “navigating a vehicle” is of supreme importance!

O-A-Hum
OPD

* Atu VI has the awesome responsibility of transmitting the most primal lesson of “The Metaphor of The Student”, who must principally cognize Two Key Ingredients in One’s Composition, which the “Gnostics” labeled ‘The Eidolon’ and ‘The Daemon’. They are “the intimate lovers” co-existing in “one house”. The average description to this image is that “a marriage is occurring” — but “the awful secret” is that “there really was never a separation”, and that “the marriage” is kind of “after-the-fact”. The metaphor of “a marriage” is based on a delusion that there was ‘a separate status’ that ‘had to be married’. The “marriage ritual” is as a formality, in the sense that “the separate two” were never really “separate” — it only appeared as such. The “marriage” has “been arranged” from the very beginning.

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