Courting the maiden

[Jade]

I think a fruitful exploration would be discussing why it's mostly the men who have a problem with the analogy.

Is this indicative of the struggle of the conscious mind in the mind cycle, which struggles with the idea of surrendering itself to the subconscious mind? That tangle...

I think you are right, Ricdaw, in most of your analysis. However, the Transformation card is paired with the Great Way, which is the active card. Think of the Chariot as a locomotive stopped at a fork, and "releasing one of the hands of the maidens" as "lifting up one of the impeding cross-bars", which allows the train to continue going along the path. Or, at least, that's how I conceptualize it. Neither path is accessible until a choice between the two is made.

The significator of the spirit is the two 'lovers' linked, and "walking towards the sun" as Ra describes it, so it is this action that allows the manifestation of spirit into 3rd density, the act of beginning to pierce the veil by linking up with your subconscious.