The Chariot

Upright

The seventh term is always the transition, and Zain is the arrow — that which crosses from one place to another. Papus's Chariot is the first septenary completed and carried over: will, knowledge and action have produced a result that now moves under its own power. Victory, but victory as a passage rather than an arrival. The two sphinxes pull in different directions and are held to one road by the driver alone.

Reversed

Motion with no one driving — momentum carrying a thing well past the point at which it should have stopped. Reversed can also mark the victory that turns out to have been the easy half: the crossing made, and nothing prepared for the far side.

Correspondences

Papus's number

7

Hebrew letter

Zain (ז)

Hieroglyph

An arrow; a weapon — that which crosses

Septenary

First septenary (1–7), the Divine world — seventh and transitional term, carrying the Divine series over into the world of Man

Divinatory sense

Victory

In a Spread

At the commencement the matter starts already in motion, carried over from something the querent finished earlier. In opposition, a force with its own momentum that argument will not slow. At equilibrium the Chariot is unstable by nature — it holds only while it moves. As the result Papus means victory literally, but read the position after it: a transition always hands on to something.