I love that the myth of Ox-Head and Horse-Face are featured in this deck, even if I don’t fully get why they’re on The Devil card. The two are guardians of the underworld, but don’t have the same negative connotations that Satan as the Devil has, nor do they make sense as an equivalent to Baphomet as Key 15. If anything, Ox-Head and Horse-Face make more sense on the Death card, with Yama moved over to the Devil card. So like a switcheroo between the two.
With regard to Yama, there’s not so much a Western association with Death or Devil vibe to the Chinese/Buddhist underworld king as there is more an Osiris vibe plus your last clear chance to repent and not go to hell. Let me flesh that out a bit… what I learned about Yama as a kid was this: say you’ve been a horrible human being and you’ve been judged to go to hell. You’ll be taken there by hell’s guardians Ox-Head and Horse-Face to meet Yama. Yama will give you one last clear chance to repent: do you confess the transgressions you committed during life and are you willing to atone for them through your karma? If yes, you’ll get to be reborn as a human rather than continue to hell, but you’ll have, you know, a crappy life, due to the bad karma. But at least you’re in the process of atonement. If you do not confess your sins, then that’s when Yama sentences you to hell, serving a bit as a judge and executioner.  The Tower card features Dianmu, mother goddess of lightning, and Lei Gong, the god of thunder (the calligraphy in the bottom left corner says “Lei Gong Dian Mu”). I talk a bit about Lei Gong in an old Tinkering Bell video on Taoist Thunder Rites. The Star card features the Old Man (or Old Immortal) of the South Pole (南極仙翁). I also love animal symbolism, such as the cranes here symbolizing hope and healing, while earlier in The Lovers card, the two bats symbolizes a prosperous marriage.  The Moon card is none other than Chang Er, the moon goddess (the Chinese calligraphy on the left says as much– “Chang Er flying off to the moon”), and in The Sun card, Houyi, husband to the moon goddess. Houyi is a demigod-like figure and a superhero archer. |
