Master_Margarita
I find this card one of the most interesting of the deck in the way it incorporates a huge body of philosophy, actually two bodies, completely unrelated, AFAIK, to the original meaning of the card, and grafts it onto the card quite successfully. The two philosophies are Buddhism proper, of course, the theme of the deck (der!) and the chakra system.
Place's ever-provocative commentary to this deck notes that "Although Tantric Buddhism teaches us that Gautama's kundalini would have activated his chakras on the night of his enlightenment, the chakras are not mentioned directly in the ancient text." His image adds the chakras to the image of the Buddha still sitting in meditation after enlightenment into the beginning of the monsoon season (monsoon not depicted on the card). Mucalinda, the king of the nagas, coiled around the Buddha's body seven times and protected his head with his own seven heads as an umbrella.
I'm thinking that the card depicts the moment after the rains have stopped (hence the morning star, which is a pretty thin tie-in, actually, to the original Tarot meaning of this card) and the moment before Mucalinda takes the form of a beautiful youth and bows to Buddha.
Whew! The keywords for the RWS star are along the lines of health and healing, hope and optimism, peace and serenity, the dawn of better times. This card seems just as positive as the usual Star, but holds a much more strongly transformative message in its evocation of the kundalini.
In short, this card blows my mind.
Place's ever-provocative commentary to this deck notes that "Although Tantric Buddhism teaches us that Gautama's kundalini would have activated his chakras on the night of his enlightenment, the chakras are not mentioned directly in the ancient text." His image adds the chakras to the image of the Buddha still sitting in meditation after enlightenment into the beginning of the monsoon season (monsoon not depicted on the card). Mucalinda, the king of the nagas, coiled around the Buddha's body seven times and protected his head with his own seven heads as an umbrella.
I'm thinking that the card depicts the moment after the rains have stopped (hence the morning star, which is a pretty thin tie-in, actually, to the original Tarot meaning of this card) and the moment before Mucalinda takes the form of a beautiful youth and bows to Buddha.
Whew! The keywords for the RWS star are along the lines of health and healing, hope and optimism, peace and serenity, the dawn of better times. This card seems just as positive as the usual Star, but holds a much more strongly transformative message in its evocation of the kundalini.
In short, this card blows my mind.