Le Chariot Flesh Colored Front

[anubis777]

Hello,
I finished scanning & translating the book Le Livre d'or on the 22 trumps. It was an excellent book that answered so many of my questions regarding the symbols on the cards.
However it didn't explain why or what the reason is for the flesh colored front on the box of the chariot so can anyone tell me why it is flesh colored? It took me a week to translate each card but it was worth it............

[TdM lover]

Hi all,

It would help if you posted a picture to illustrate your question. Don't expect evryone here to own a Rodes-Schansez deck.
I checked my Jodo-Camoin deck (the one Rodes-Schansez copied): the lower square of the chariot is also flesh colored.
Well what does the book say about that?
It's very clear to me: the card is divised in two equal parts: one down, one up, and the frontier is a huge red board. Down side, one sees two animals (horses), thus this is the animal part of man. Up side, one sees half a man, with royal attributes. Thus this is the divine part of man.
Not that hard to figure out hein? ;-)

If you wanna dig deeper, don't read Rodes-Schansez, read the Mahabaratha. It's older, wiser, and thought billions of people for centuries :-) Btw: it's also about a Chariot of course...

Be good,
TdM lover

[Alta]

Here is the image:

[Rasa]

I don't know about the deck creators' concepts of colour symbolism, but to me, the Chariot being the colour of flesh would connect it to the body of the driver.. His vehicle is an extension of himself.
I carry myself, and I am the vehicle of my own transformation.

[Moonbow]

Thats quite a feat anubis and I'm sorry I can't answer your question. *The opinion of the authors of how they would read the flesh coloured part of the Chariot is their own, perhaps you could write to them if you intend to read the Marseilles with their meanings. Then there is the 'artistic licence' by the deck designers as the their colour choices. Historically of course there were only so many colours used in printing at the time, and the decks weren't made for divination.

TdM Lover and Rasa have given good examples which show that the Marseilles deck is a fluid and freeing one to read with and each reading can bring something new from the same card.

Personally I don't put too much emphasis on the colours in a deck at least not in a rigid way. *I may see that flesh part as important one day and not the next, or even for its meaning to change depending on the other cards and the situation at the time.

[venicebard]

You know, I consider myself a walking expert on the TdM and I never noticed that before! Yes, it seems to be flesh colored also in the Grimaud version, which I consider (for several reasons) to be the closest we have to the original coloration.

I think Rasa's answer is essentially the correct one: it is an extension of the driver. In other words, the discipline being symbolized (the poetic mysteries, to be exact) entails or enables restraint of the flesh, that is, of the sensual, in deference to something deeper and more lasting. Its number, 7, makes it the symbol of the seven steps of initiation, of alchemy, of the great Mystery (Orphic, as I think of it). It helps us see that this trump represents the Ma'aseh Merkavah, the 'Work of the Chariot', the inner mysteries that preceded Kabbalah and on the basis of which (that is, of the meaning of Ezekiel's wheels) the latter took its being. The flesh color, then, asks us to internalize this trump especially, rather than thinking of it as some equestrian noble passing us by on the street or something.