Shields and coats of arms in tarot
A shield protects, and in heraldry it became the surface on which a family or office displayed its arms. The Empress rests against a heart-shaped shield marked with the sign of Venus. On the front of the Chariot a plain shield carries a red emblem beneath a winged disc. In the Six of Cups a stone block in the foreground bears a shield with a diagonal cross, and in the Ten of Pentacles coats of arms hang on the archway of the family's house. Readers take shields as protection, identity and lineage: what a person or family stands under.
Cards that show shields and coats of arms
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The Empress
The Empress: The Venus shield
A grey heart-shaped shield rests against her seat, marked with the symbol of Venus. It names her as a figure of love and beauty, and makes a heart, rather than a coat of arms, her emblem of authority.
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The Chariot
The Chariot: The winged disc and shield
On the chariot's front is a winged sun disc, an Egyptian emblem of the divine, above a white shield bearing a red device like a spinning top. Its meaning is disputed; it is usually read as a sign of opposites joined.
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Six of Cups
Six of Cups: The stone pedestal and shield
On the left one cup stands on a stone block carved with a shield bearing a diagonal cross. It gives the scene a sense of something inherited and established: family, place and tradition.
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Ten of Pentacles
Ten of Pentacles: The archway and coats of arms
The foreground is framed by a stone arch, with heraldic shields on the left pillar, one showing a castle. Heraldry is the visible sign of a family's name and lineage, and the arch is the threshold of the estate.