The vessel in the picture symbolizes our body-mind-soul vehicle. The two sphinxes represent our senses, which the charioteer (the magician) controls with the invisible reins of his mind.
The respective faculty of consciousness is influence, which we exert through our minds. The ancient epithet of this card is the intelligence of the house of influence. This refers to the influence over our body-mind-soul vehicle but also over external circumstances (the meadow), relationships, and society, which the city in the background symbolizes.
We exert influence over the external world through actions, speech, and the law of attraction. Speech is an important attribute of this card. Speech stands both for normal and internal speech. Internal speech, aka the internal dialogue, is the stream of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and imaginings in our minds, which call out to the law of attraction.
The higher self is the true influencer. Hence, another important attribution of this card is receptivity-will, which tells us that influence doesn’t originate in us. Our inner magician channels cosmic intention and extends it into the external world. The less resistance we offer, the better.
The picture shows that our body-mind vehicle is layered. Simplified, the highest layer is the starry canopy, which stands for the spiritual-intentional level. The pillars represent the creative and intellectual level, which connects the above with the below, and the cubic body of the vehicle signifies the body. The horses signify the senses.
Higher layers influence lower layers, but not vice versa. A lower level may resist the influence of the level above it, but it cannot affect it. For instance, the sense that other people, circumstances, or adversity can overpower us is an illusion.
Cultivation would be a fitting title for this Tarot card, too. Mind the Influence card is the seventh major arcana (Spirit is 0). The Generation card is the third, and the Reason card is the fourth.
3 + 4 = 7 → Generation + Reason = Cultivation.
Remember that Generation and Reason are engaged in teamwork? The Influence card shows this teamwork, which cultivates the various contexts of our lives. Mind the Influence card shows spiritual and benevolent cultivation.
While we take part in existing cultivations, such as nature and society, we also create our own fields of cultivation, for example, our family, career, and friendships.
An auspicious Influence card calls for benevolent and peaceful cultivation, like the agricultural cultivation of a wild or barren land, a romantic conquest, the perfection of a profession, or the conquest of illusion. Since cultivation takes time, the Influence card calls also for patience.
An inauspicious Influence card may indicate that the querent’s ego blocks the higher self’s influence she is supposed to extend into her life. It may also mean that the querent has lost her influence over the lower personality, e.g., the mind, emotions, bodily cravings, and her senses, and that she needs to come to her senses.
Last but not least, an inauspicious Influence card may indicate forceful cultivation, i.e., subjugation, and the karmic repercussions for trespassing, which may have caused the querent’s challenge.
On the Tree of Life, the path of the Influence card connects the spheres of Understanding (3’s) and Necessity (5’s) or context and laws.
The starry canopy represents Understanding.
The Influence card shows context at work, i.e., the establishment of various contexts or fields of cultivation that pertain to our incarnation, e.g., our personality, relationships, profession, and society.
We cultivate contexts (3’s) according to their respective laws (5’s). For example, we cultivate parks by using the laws of botany. The opposite of cultivation is letting a garden grow wild and beyond its boundaries.
No boundaries, no fields of cultivation. Influence without context dissipates. The Hebrew letter assigned to this Tarot card indicates this. It is the letter Cheth, which means fence, field, enclosure, and container.
The titles and the five core meanings of the Influence card are:
Enlightenment Tarot title: Influence
Traditional title: Chariot
Power of consciousness: Cultivation
Constructive use: Cultivation
Unconstructive use: Subjugation
Auspicious state of mind: Protection, delineation
Inauspicious state of mind: Claustrophobia
On the spiritual-intentional level, the Influence card stands for the sanctuaries.
On the creative-feely level, the Influence stands for culture, i.e. the arts, humanities, education, cultivated behavior, sophistication, the cultivation of good taste, etc.
On the intellectual level, the Influence card stands for competence (insight into particular fields of knowledge) and the cultivation of situational awareness (3’s).
On the bodily-practical level, the Influence card stands for body care and health regimen. An inauspicious Relationship card may also indicate, in particular in children, sensitivity to the following afflictions: coughs, hiccoughs, indigestion, flatulence, gallstones, auto-intoxication, and abnormal growths in this body zone (see body zone below).
More Attributions:
Number: 7
Letter: Cheth, meaning fence (the borders of fields of influence)
Astrology: Cancer (a shelled animal)
Color: Yellow-orange
Body zone: Breasts, stomach, esophagus, the thoracic duct, the lacteals in the small intestine, the upper lobes of the liver, the diaphragm, and the lower lobes of the lungs.