The Chariot in Love: What Are You Both Willing to Fight For?
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This is Part 8 of a 22-part series: The Major Arcana as a Love Story — tracing the complete journey of love through all 22 cards of the Major Arcana.
Card 7: Love Is Not Enough. Will Is.
You have chosen each other. The angel has blessed the union. The world knows you belong together.
And then life happens.
The job offer in another city. The family that doesn't approve. The old wound that keeps surfacing at the worst moments. The fundamental difference in how you handle conflict, or money, or time, or the future. The moment when the ease of early love gives way to the reality of two complex human beings trying to build something together.
This is The Chariot.
Card 7 of the Major Arcana shows a figure in a chariot pulled by two sphinx-like creatures — one black, one white, pulling in opposite directions. The charioteer holds no reins. They control the sphinxes through will alone — through focused intention, through the refusal to be pulled apart by opposing forces. Above their head, a canopy of stars. On their chest, a crescent moon. In their hand, a wand.
The Chariot is moving forward. Despite the opposition. Despite the tension. Despite the fact that the forces pulling against each other could, at any moment, tear the whole thing apart.
In love, the Chariot is the energy of choosing to keep going.
What the Chariot Feels Like in Love
The Chariot in love is the feeling of a relationship that is worth fighting for — and the willingness to actually do the fighting.
It is the feeling of a difficult conversation that you have anyway, because avoiding it would cost more than having it. Of showing up to couples therapy when part of you would rather pretend everything is fine. Of making the long-distance work when every logistical obstacle is telling you it's too hard. Of choosing, again and again, to stay present with someone even when presence is uncomfortable.
It is also the feeling of moving forward together — of two people who have aligned their wills toward a shared destination and are moving toward it with focused, coordinated effort. The Chariot is not about one person dragging the other. It is about two people who have decided, together, where they are going — and who are both willing to do what it takes to get there.
The Chariot energy in love is not romantic in the conventional sense. It is not soft or easy or effortless. It is the energy of earned love — love that has been tested and has held, love that has faced opposition and has not collapsed, love that both people have worked for and therefore value more deeply.
The Two Sphinxes: The Opposing Forces in Love
The black and white sphinxes pulling in opposite directions are the heart of the Chariot's meaning in love. They represent the opposing forces that every relationship must navigate:
Internal Opposing Forces
- The part of you that wants closeness and the part that fears it
- The desire for security and the desire for freedom
- Your needs and your partner's needs, when they conflict
- Who you are now and who you are becoming
External Opposing Forces
- Families with different expectations or values
- Careers that pull in different directions
- Distance — geographic, emotional, or both
- Timing that doesn't cooperate
- The world's opinion of your relationship
The Chariot doesn't eliminate these opposing forces. It doesn't pretend they don't exist. It holds them in tension and moves forward anyway — not by suppressing one force in favor of the other, but by finding the direction that both forces can serve.
This is the Chariot's deepest wisdom: the tension between opposing forces is not a problem to be solved. It is the engine of forward movement. The chariot moves because of the tension between the sphinxes, not despite it.
Fighting For vs. Fighting With
The Chariot makes a crucial distinction that every relationship needs to understand: the difference between fighting for your relationship and fighting with your partner.
Fighting with your partner treats them as the opposing force — as the black sphinx pulling against you. This is the relationship where every conflict becomes a battle for dominance, where winning the argument matters more than resolving the issue, where the goal is to be right rather than to be close.
Fighting for your relationship treats the challenge as the opposing force — and treats your partner as your co-charioteer. You are both in the chariot. You are both holding the reins. The sphinxes are the circumstances, the obstacles, the differences that need to be navigated — not each other.
The Chariot in love asks: are you fighting with each other, or are you fighting for each other? The answer to that question determines everything.
The Chariot's Shadow in Love
The Chariot's shadow is willpower without wisdom — the determination to make a relationship work regardless of whether it should. The shadow Chariot stays in a relationship out of sheer stubbornness, confusing persistence with love. Refuses to acknowledge when the sphinxes are pulling in fundamentally incompatible directions. Mistakes the effort of maintaining a difficult relationship for the value of the relationship itself.
Not every relationship that requires effort is worth the effort. The Chariot's will must be in service of genuine love and genuine compatibility — not in service of the ego's refusal to admit defeat.
The test: are you fighting for this relationship because it is genuinely worth fighting for, or because you cannot bear to lose?
When the Chariot Appears in a Love Reading
- A relationship is facing obstacles that require focused will and effort to overcome
- Check whether you are fighting for your relationship or fighting with your partner
- Forward movement is possible — but it requires both people to align their will toward the same destination
- A long-distance relationship, or one facing external opposition, is being supported
- Victory is possible — but it will require sustained effort, not just good intentions
- Ask: what are you both willing to do to make this work?
The Chariot's Question for You
What are you willing to do to make this work?
Not: what do you wish were different? Not: what would make this easier? But: given the reality of this relationship, with its opposing forces and its obstacles and its complications — what are you actually willing to do?
The Chariot doesn't promise that love is easy. It promises something better: that love, fought for with focused will and genuine commitment, can move through almost anything.
The sphinxes are pulling. The road is not smooth. The destination is worth it.
Pick up the reins.
Next in the series: Strength in Love — the card that reveals the most powerful force in any relationship is not passion or will, but the quiet courage of unconditional acceptance.
As you and your partner reflect on what you are truly willing to fight for, let the energy of the celestial forces guide your journey—consider syncing with the cosmic alignment ritual kit for syncing with the celestial flow to align your intentions with the stars. Deepen your exploration of tarot's wisdom with the the 52 week tarot journey a year of weekly spreads daily pulls deep reflection, and uncover hidden truths about your bond through tarot journaling prompts 100 questions for self discovery. For a focused practice, try the 30 day tarot practice workbook to strengthen your intuitive connection, and immerse in the sacred partnership field with divine union alignment sacred partnership field audio wav pdf to foster a deeper, more devoted love.
