Buddha Tarot - Maya - The Mother (Major Arc. No. 2)

Master_Margarita

This card is based on an icon that is one of the four principal icons of Buddhism. Maya, Siddhartha's mother. It also shows the infant Siddhartha, in a naively adult proportion, having just emerged from the side of Maya at the level of her heart (because he couldn't come into the world from a lower chakra). There are obvious parallels to the birth of Christ that I will not belabor for the purpose of starting this thread.

Maya is underneath a tree during the daylight. Place says that this is a sala tree in Lumbini park, and I note that the tree shedding its leaves in the final Parinirvana card is also supposed to be a sala tree (also called the cannonball tree, for its fruit. It apparently has lovely flowers but an odd scent).

The deck's author suggests, consistent with this card's correlation to the High Priestess, that Maya represents inner, esoteric religious experience, or mystery. She also stands for intuition and great things with humble beginnings.

Your thoughts?

Margarita