Kuan Yin Book and Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 29 Jul 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

darwinia	29 Jul 2004
This isn't strictly a tarot book, but I came to it via the imagery in tarot decks, so I hope this is appropriate to post this here. Kuan Yin : Myths and Prophecies of the Chinese Goddess of Compassion by Martin Palmer ISBN 1855384175 Okay, I'm way, way behind everybody else in goddess knowledge, I freely admit my ignorance. I first came across Kuan Yin in a distant tarot shop last October. They had some lovely tinted acrylic resin statues of her and I asked the lady who she was, and had no idea who she was referring to. I felt embarrassed to say, so came home and asked some tarot friends and then looked up some articles on the Internet. Then I kept coming across Kuan Yin everywhere. I called my local tarot shop to see if they had statues and she had one that had come from a store that closed and was sitting in a box of discards. So I rescued her for $5. Then the Chinese Tarot came and wasn't Kuan Yin was the Universe card. The she turned up as Kwannon in the Ukiyoe tarot on the Judgment card. And on and on. I've been collecting fables, stories, and mythology books from other countries since I was eleven, so I had to get a book. After doing extensive research at amazon I bought this one. It was more historically-based rather then focusing on the miracles and worship of Kuan Yin. It also contains the 100 poems associated with Kuan Yin and has some interesting notes on translation of these poems. In temples, people go in and pick sticks with numbers on them and then use the corresponding poem for a daily meditation or divination. Quite, quite fascinating. She turns up in Thailand and other Asian countries generally and was originally a male deity of India, which the book explains. Kuan Yin devotees will probably know all this, but for the rest of us, it's a fine book for learning about world mythology and tying in some of your tarot cards to world mythology.

The Kuan Yin Book and Tarot thread was originally posted on 29 Jul 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.