Heraldic shield of the Chariot

Frater Benedict

In many hand painted decks of the 15th century, The Chariot is an open one, and therefore do not carry any heraldic shield at all. In the inadequately named 'Gringonneur tarot' the chariot is decked with a patterned cloth with shields depicting a dot surrounded by six other dots. Early printed decks may show either a wheel (Rosenwald sheet) or a fleur-de-lis (Rotschild sheet). Almost all decks from the 17th and 18th century use the shield on the chariot to show the letters of the cardmaking company. When Gebelin wanted to render av version of The Chariot, the shield was left dark, at least in my reproduction. It is not until Levi, in 1856, the shield is depicted with the winged sun as a crest over a phallic symbol. This pattern is then followed by Wirth and Waite (and probably implied by Crowley). I have somewhere seen the letter Zajin depicted on the shield. Are there any other versions of the shield a deck creator have to consider, before choosing which version to follow?
 

Zephyros

I think it depends on the symbolic language one wishes to use. The symbol on the Waite card seems to be the lingam and yoni, expressing perhaps the "male-ness" in the "female-ness" (the Venusian figure's warrior aspects), this card descending from Binah to Geburah. Crowley expands on the alchemical aspects of this card in the BoT.
 

Frater Benedict

But application of the lingam-yoni symbol on The Chariot originated among French occultists who considered The Chariot the path between Binah and Tiferet, corresponding to Gemini.

I have looked through at least eight different attribution-systems of trumps to paths, and I am not convinced that Hebrew letters and paths of the Tree of Life necessarily enhance understanding of the trumps, but I am still willing to listen to good arguments for any such correspondence.

Of course the choice of heraldic symbol depends on the symbolic language one wishes to use, but I am ready to listen to different opinions about the reasons why one or another shield ought to be used. I suppose each choice ought to be coherent, but I will avoid alternatives lacking in reasonableness and internal consistency.
 

Zephyros

But application of the lingam-yoni symbol on The Chariot originated among French occultists who considered The Chariot the path between Binah and Tiferet, corresponding to Gemini.

And it still works there, although perhaps for different reasons. I believe the reasoning is the same, though.

I have looked through at least eight different attribution-systems of trumps to paths, and I am not convinced that Hebrew letters and paths of the Tree of Life necessarily enhance understanding of the trumps, but I am still willing to listen to good arguments for any such correspondence.

The system at large aims to give the esoteric deck a cohesion, a method, and interconnection. It is a matter of personal preference whether one sees any worth in that. People far wiser than I have praised its merits in published works far more eloquently than I could.
 

Frater Benedict

Thank you, Doctor Arcanus, for bringing this to my attention. Some of the fotographs I have seen of the Cary-Yale card were so indistinct, that I could hardly see the dove.

Do you know if the dove was chosen only just because a family member of the first owner used a dove in his/her shield, or because of any allegorical reasons more general in nature? If the one and only reason the dove is there, is to indicate who is the owner of that particular deck, it is of less significance, than if the dove is intrinsic to the artistic motif as allegory.

Since one possible (or even probable) interpretation of the card is 'a victory which ends a conflict', a dove representing Peace would be reasonable, but, then, the dove of Noah and the dove of Aphrodite too are part of the Western cultural legacy.