It’s best to approach the subject of UFO’S (Unidentified Flying Objects) with some skepticism. Instead of the question: “do they exist, or do not exist,” this discussion is more about the multifarious interpretations of the concept of UFO’S, now called UAP’s (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). A lot of this discussion is based on pure speculation, imaginative fantasy, and even science fiction, although current information about UAP’S has recently been reconsidered and, yes, it’s been confirmed that they are a reality and have been photographed with certainty.
“…the whole propaganda on the subject has been handled very badly driving countless individuals away who might otherwise be genuinely interested” (Brinsley Le Poer Trench)
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| The Chariot TOCC |
What does this have to do with Tarot? The Tarot card, The Chariot, in Tarot of Cosmic Consciousness, depicts elliptical shapes that could be interpreted as UFO’s. Why did Arthur E. Waite include The Chariot in The Rider Tarot Deck? [1910] (U.S. Games Systems, Inc.) A chariot implies movement; a cart enabling one to move forward at a rapid pace. In the ancient past, chariots were used in warfare to carry soldiers and weapons or to move goods and people from place to place. In Tarot, The Chariot represents a more transcendent purpose, for instance, as a symbol of divine power. In Hebrew mysticism, the Merkabah, the name of a divine chariot, symbolizes the movement of the Throne of God.
In the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, The Chariot card depicts a King or Knight driving a team of black and white sphinxes, odd creatures which add to the mystery of this card. Waite says in the Pictorial Key to the Tarot (University Books 1959 [1910], that the sphinxes refer to the “Mystery of Nature.” According to Waite, the symbol of the human figure resembling a knight riding in a victory chariot celebrates the achievement of success, either in battle, passing an initiation, or in overcoming conflicts in life.
UFO/UAP Sightings and witnesses:
In 1959 or 1960, I was first introduced to the UFO phenomenon by a young man who was stationed in the Air Force in Alaska. He showed photographs some airman had taken of UFO’s that were seen flying around their base. I was interested and amused and, of course, I was left wondering what that was all about. Then, personally, in 1967, I saw two strange round disks speeding through a dark night sky at high altitude over central California, which I interpreted as UFO’S. My Mother and I were sitting in the yard on our farm (where there are no city lights or street lights) and we saw two huge round orange-colored disks sweep across billions of stars at thousands of miles per hour, heading South. Earlier, I had watched a passenger jet slowly cross the sky, although when compared to these fleeting things, the jet was slow as a turtle. What did we just see? What were they? Where did they come from? Were they from outer space or something from another dimension? How were they piloted at that enormous speed? They were obviously not some US military space rockets.
After that experience, I read several books about UFO’S by well-known authors such as Jacques Vallee, Whitley Strieber; watched the movies Encounters of the Third Kind; E.T, and of course, Star Trek. I was entertained by UFO encounters on the X-Files TV program, especially the abduction of the one called “Max.” Eventually, some friends and I visited alleged UFO landing sites in Roswell and Aztec, New Mexico. We loved the UFO Museum and Crash Down Diner, a great place for entertainment and laughs. A friend who was traveling the “Extraterrestrial Highway” in Nevada bought a book for me from the “Little A’le’Inn” Restaurant titled UFO Highway: Are You Ready for the Truth? by Anthony F. Sanchez. That story is about military discoveries in Dulce, New Mexico and tells of skirmishes with “little grey men” in deep underground caverns. If it is a true story and not science fiction, this is the scariest book I’ve ever read. This report can really bring out the fear of “the unknown.”
The past few years, UFO/UAP witnesses have been asking a lot of questions about what they were seeing and how the government has denied their existence. Are the white semi-transparent airborne globes we are seeing from another dimension? Are they some kind of projection from beings on another planet? Are they biblical-type angels talked about for centuries? Because of reliable witnesses and legitimate photographs, we now know certain UFO’S appear to be solid metallic, mechanical devices. Who made them? What are they doing here? Are they hoaxes, or some kind of top-secret spaceships made by other countries?
Chariots of the Gods:
Briefly, stories about mythological people (gods) riding around in chariots in the sky is a very old concept about supernatural activity. On ancient Greek vases, Apollo, the Greek sun-god, is depicted riding in a celestial chariot drawn by two Griffins. In the Orphic mysteries, white winged horses drew Helios, their sun-god, in a golden chariot across the sky. In early Greek literature, the gods had the power to travel to the stars (Ovid, Metamorphoses). In Roman astronomy and astrology, the planets were given Latin
names of the gods: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Mercury, Saturn, Pluto, and this included the meanings roughly associated with the gods they represented. So, in an age that doesn’t believe in sky-gods anymore, why symbolize the super-powers of ancient gods in the Tarot? Today, most of us grind along roads in cars (modern-day chariots) and very few still use horses to pull their buggies or carts. Yet, it seems we have a new group of sky-gods such as UFO’S to tantalize us, scare us, and even entertain us now. Consequently, there some people (as in UFO cults) who image that these might be advanced beings from other planets coming here to “save us or rescue us,” obviously — from wars, destruction and so on, in the wake of our warlike plight on earth. Professor Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind, (Ballantine Books 1991) refers to Greek gods as “personified archetypes” which have been interpreted as symbolic of transcendent ideas or archetypal models:
“In the pre-philosophical Greek mind, these archetypal principles took the form of mythic personifications such as Eros, Chaos, Ouranos, [Heaven] Gaia [Earth] as well as more fully personified figures such as Zeus, Prometheus and Aphrodite.“
Jacques Vallee, French scientist, stated in his book about UFO’S, Anatomy of a Phenomenon (Ace Books, 1965) that “…a dispassionate, scientific debate be established concerning UFO phenomena and that such a discussion could well be conducted within the boundaries set by rationalism for the purpose of objective acquisition of knowledge.” Senator Harry Reid tried to start congressional investigations in 1969 but was poo-pooed and laughed at and nothing happened. Project Blue Book, an Air force investigation by Allen Hynek followed, which concluded that no so-called UFO sightings posed a threat to national security.
Current Congressional hearings on UFO’S/UAP’S:
Congressional hearings were conducted in November 2024 on UAP’S “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.” Several witnesses testified: Pilots from the USS Nimitz presented photographic evidence of strange objects harassing the ship, which also showed up on the ships radar and on radar within the jet planes. Because of their oblong shape and white color, the pilots called them “Tic Tacs.” They moved at incredible speeds and flew around the ship in gimbal-like motions that a human cannot endure. Luis 
Elizondo, former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), who also worked for the office of National Counter Intelligence, testified that:
Elizondo, former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), who also worked for the office of National Counter Intelligence, testified that:
“…information has been obfuscated … and I think that is problematic because at the end of the day, we have a significant situation here. We have something that can enter into our US air space with no attribution.”
Representative Biggs stated at the end of Elizondo’s testimony: “So it’s easier to be quiet and suppress when you don’t have the answers.” Mr. Elizondo responded: “Correct, and still to this day we have to admit we do not know what they are – where they came from, who is behind this and what are they doing here? What are they for?” Those of us who watch the daily media blitz, see posts and photos/videos taken by passengers aboard airliners of UFO’S zooming by the windows or drifting alongside the plane. What? These video reports of UFO/UAP sightings can really frighten some of the public. Are they real or hoaxes?
Roswell and Skinwalker Ranch:
Ever since the reported UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, there has been endless speculation, endless denial, lies, endless secrecy, and cover-ups about what really happened there. Supposedly, “little grey men” were killed in the crash and were taken to a secret location. (Remembering Jonathan Frakes TV program “Alien Autopsy?” Was it fake?) At first, the Roswell Newspaper reported that it was a UFO Crash, but that was redacted and, instead, the US Military said it was a crashed weather balloon. Meanwhile, the town of Roswell has reaped all the benefits of the so-called crash with their UFO Museum containing dummy bodies of little grey men and other memorabilia. Across the street is The Crash Down Diner. Yearly hilarious festivals are held, honoring the crashed UFO and the “alien” occupants all in good humor. There have been several books about Roswell and other “crash” locations such as Aztec in northern New Mexico, all reaping in the dollars over that incident. What about the little “grey men”? Are they real? Who or what are they? Some UFO fans have wondered if the little grey men are some kind of bio-robots or cyber-androids or maybe even insect-like “mantids.”
Skin Walker Ranch, a recent TV program shown on the History Channel, is about UAP’S hovering in the sky over 500 acres of farmland in Utah. Several scientists have put their lives and reputations on the line by conducting ongoing experiments around the property with sophisticated equipment, computers, and machinery. So far, they have lots of evidence of strange UFO/UAP type phenomena but no concrete answers. Transparent floating white blobs or globes of lighted objects were filmed by professional photographers and a film from a very high-speed wildlife camera showed one frame of a silver-like round object suspended over a field. Puzzling invisible columns of what looked like transparent broken bits of rocks soaring high in the sky were revealed by photogrammetry. High frequency sounds were monitored, and high radiation readings were discovered in certain areas. Using lidar, they discovered something dome-like about 400 feet long buried within the adjacent mesa. A weather balloon with radar-like technology picked up an electromagnetic field surrounding the ranch at 70,000 feet. Exploratory rockets fired by the scientists were thrown off course or blocked at 30,000 feet. In addition, on the MGN TV channel, you can download a recent program called Beyond UFO’S and the Unknown, where a group of scientists are discussing the dangers, among other things, of being too close to the moving globes of light, especially the blue globes. People who were too close were injured. Of the X-rays taken of the injured people’s brains, a Stanford brain scientist showed that those people have brain lesions. No wonder these unusual experiences have caught the attention of the Pentagon.
A Chariot Tarot Reading:
• If you received The Chariot in a reading, this is a chance to reflect on finding meaning in your own life in a bigger sense. How do you relate to the Earth, the Universe?
• What is your motivation and power to move forward in your life?
• What is the source of this power?
• Do you believe in Guardian Angels or the divinity of a higher power? If so, how do you process that information?
• What are your successes so far in life? What have you learned from any failures?
• Do you believe the recent information and Pentagon hearings about UFO’S and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena?
• Have you, or someone else you know, seen so-called UFO’S or strange orbs in the sky?
• What meaning do these reported sightings give to your future life experiences? What do you envision for your future?
• Do you think this is a serious matter or just a fun imaginative fantasy?
References:
Luis Elizondo, Imminent, Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFO’S (HarperCollins 2024)
Bruce Handy, The Roswell Files, Time Magazine & Cover (June 23, 1997)
Karl T. Pflock, Roswell (Prometheus Books 2001)
Susan Ressler, Roswell, UFO Festival 2010 (Blurb 2010)
Wendelle C. Stevens, UFO Crash at Aztec (American West Distributers 1986)
Anthony Sanchez, UFO Highway (Strange Lights Publishing 2010)
Whitley Strieber, Confirmation (St. Martin’s Press 1998)
Brinsley Le Poer Trench, The Flying Saucer story (Ace Star Books 1966)
Jacques Vallee, Anatomy of a Phenomenon (Ace Star Books 1965)
Arthur E. Waite, Pictorial Key to the Tarot (University
