The Chariot from the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck

Arcana	Major · VII
Suit	—
Element	Water
Attribution	Cancer

Major Arcana · VII

The Chariot

In shortYou can win this if you hold your nerve.

Upright

willpowerforward drivecontrolvictorydetermination

This is progress made by holding a course under pressure. The Chariot does not win by getting rid of the conflict — it wins by harnessing two things pulling in opposite directions and going somewhere anyway. It rewards concentration and nerve, and it generally means this can be won if you refuse to be pulled off course.

Reversed

losing the reinsforcing itopposing pullsaggression without direction

You have lost the reins. That looks like effort scattering, momentum draining away into competing demands, or pushing so hard that you are creating the resistance you then have to fight. It can also mean travelling fast in a direction you never actually chose, or winning something that stopped mattering to you a while ago.

In the pictureHe carries no reins — control here is exerted by will alone. The black and white sphinxes are contradiction itself, yoked. The city behind him is the safety he has left; the starry canopy above marks a journey under a larger pattern.

The turn

Hold the line for a defined stretch. Decide the distance now so you are not renegotiating at every mile.