The Star Tarot Card and Kwan Yin
The Goddess Kwan Yin
The Star – Kwan Yin, Guan Yin or Quan Yin
When The Star comes up in a Tarot Reading, it often signifies healing energy, as well as a connection with nature.
This connection with healing and nature bring to mind Guan Yin, a Buddhist deity beloved in East Asia. There are many legends about Guan Yin, but her origin story typically depicts a kind princess who leaves home to help others. One day, she must return home to heal her father.
Some legends say that her name was Miao Shan. From an early age, she felt a calling to become a Buddhist nun, but her father, a cruel prince, would only let her spend time at the temple, not take vows. He asked the monks to give her difficult and unpleasant tasks to accomplish – and yet, she thrived. It’s said that she was so kind that animals came to help her. Sadly, Miao Shan was murdered, but as she began her journey to heaven, she heard someone calling out for help and turned back. It was her father. He was sick with a disease that could only be cured with medicine made from an eye and arm of someone pure. He was given these and healed – and then found out it was his own daughter, to whom he had been so cruel, who had given him her eye and arm. Miao Shan ascended to heaven, where she became Guan Yin, and her father asked that statues be built in her honour.
Today, you can find depictions of Guan Yin in many Asian countries. But like a figure on a Tarot card, her image can change dramatically. In a number of places, she is portrayed as a kind-faced woman in white. But in others, she is a many-armed deity. The arms symbolize how she reaches out to help others.
People pray to Guan Yin for healing and other blessings, and it’s said that she listens with compassion. In fact, her name was derived from the phrase Guan shi yin – “she who hears the sounds of the world”.
Sometimes she’s also shown with many eyes, to show that she witnesses the suffering of all and tries to help. In some depictions, she may also have eleven heads, since the sound of suffering split her head into eleven pieces, and she was given eleven new heads to bear the misery. What a stirring way to show a sense of empathy and compassion, but also the way we can be overwhelmed by suffering. Have you ever felt that way?
The Star of the Rider-Waite deck shows a woman holding a vessel in either hand. From the vessels water flow, back into water as well as onto the earth. Some Chinese depictions of Guan Yin show her as a maiden holding a willow branch and a pitcher of water. Like The Star, she can also represent nature and working with it to heal; some say that you can pray to Guan Yin to stop droughts.
This compassionate goddess’s energy is so similar to The Star. Both remind us to listen and let compassion and healing flow from us, out into the world. That healing energy will also bring healing to us, so it’s a real win-win. Guan Yin was able to ascend to heaven for her kind deeds, but even on a small level, when we help others, we feel a positive flow of energy that does our spirit so much good. May there be much more ‘Star energy’ flowing in our world - lets hold that as a vision shall we?