They were made in Taiwan in the late 80s and I got them in Taiwan. I’m not entirely sure why there’s English on these cards. I’d imagine that the characters from the epic that showed up in that layout of cards was telling me something prophetic and magical. Instead of playing card games with it, I’d shuffle, focus on a question or thought, and then pull a string of cards onto the table. And from the imagery on these cards, paired with the playing card correspondence, and those captions with each figure’s name, you can easily see how I’d intuit that.
Without knowing a single thing about cartomancy, or even that cartomancy was a thing, I’d attempt to (or fantasize myself) divining with this deck of cards. I believe I made reference to this deck in Holistic Tarot. This deck I’m showing is at least 34 years old. =)Ĭlick on any of these image files for an enlarged and close-up view of the illustrations. I thought the Monkey King was an asshole and she was every bit justified in the actions she took. You were supposed to root for the Monkey King. I just loved her few scenes and her story arc. Princess Iron Fan was a minor character in the epic, and yet for some reason, she was the most memorable character for me. It’s a quest story about a virtuous, principled monk and a band of misfits who fight or outsmart demons and survive supernaturally perilous terrain. Pigsy, a philandering and gluttonous warrior general banished from Heaven’s army after he offended Chang’er, the moon goddess, is also tasked to accompany Tripitaka, as is Sandy, another former warrior general in Heaven exiled to the mortal realm due to anger management issues. At the end of the journey, the horse becomes a bodhisattva and is restored to his original white dragon form. White Dragon Horse, a banished dragon spirit transformed into a horse, serves as Tripitaka’s steed. In exchange for helping the monk on his quest, the Monkey King will not only be freed, but will achieve enlightenment.
Kuan Yin frees the Monkey King, a trickster figure with magical abilities, from his incarceration, who was punished by the Buddha and imprisoned after he stole peaches of immortality from Heaven. It’s about Tripitaka, a Buddhist monk from China’s ancient capital (think: somewhere in the central north of the modern-day country you’re familiar with) who is tasked by Kuan Yin to journey to India to receive Buddhist scriptures. Journey to the West is a Chinese epic from the 1500s. While I don’t have that, and don’t know if one exists, I do have this very cool Journey to the West themed deck of playing cards. I was listening to her chat with Wai here where she talked about wishing there was a Journey to the West tarot deck.