Planetary and Stellar Concepts in Playing Cards

This book displays images of cards designed for new card games based on the 88 constellations, the 12 signs of the zodiac, as well as the planets, dwarf planets, minor planets and their moons. The historical and cultural origins of the 215 images I have drawn for these card games are fully explained in 220 pages of text. Ancient legends surrounding the Ptolemaic constellations are examined in detail as are the Greco-Roman myths related to the planets and their moons. Chinese mythology related to the Shang Dynasty sun birds, the moon goddess Chang E and the Chinese equivalent of planet Venus are also included. The first game arranges the 88 constellations around the celestial sphere and divides them into four suits. There is a special symbol for each of the four suits and each suit contains three signs of the zodiac. There are also families of cards which have special scores. The constellations of the larger and smaller bear, the larger and smaller dog, Leo and the smaller lion and other similar pairs have a special function in the game. The next game, of 126 cards, is based on the sun, planets and moons of the solar system. There are four basic suits which include 10 images of the sun, followed by 10 images of the planets, dwarf planets and minor planets. Then there are four dependent suits (or sub-suits) of 13 cards for the 13 largest moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The images of the sun include Greco-Roman images of Helios and Sol Invictus "the Invincible Sun". These are complemented by an image of Pharaoh Akhenaten (reign 1353-1336 BC) making offerings to the Egyptian sun god Aten. Then the emphasis shifts back to 1600 BC, to the Chinese Shang Dynasty when people believed that the 10 suns of a 10-day week were carried across the sky by 10 sun birds. I have created an image of a sun bird resting with its sun in the Fu Sang Tree in the east and preparing for its long flight across the sky. On arrival in the far west it needs to cool off and extinguish the flames of its sun in the waters of the dark Yu Gu Valley and then sleep in the Ruo Mu Tree before taking the extinguished sun back to the east to begin the procedure again. There is also a card devoted to the Chinese culture hero Fu Xi carrying the sun and its sun bird. He was regarded as a sun god during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD). The suit of planets is next and it also has 10 cards even though there are only eight planets in the solar system, including Earth. A Chinese female version of the planet Venus together with grey-haired Tai Bai Jin Xing brings the number to 10. Then there are four images of Earth's moon, two of them of Greco-Roman origin and two of Chinese origin. The Chinese moon goddess Chang E is one of them and Nu Wa the wife of Fu Xi is the other. Nu Wa was regarded as a moon goddess during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Four dependent suits (or sub-suits) of the 13 largest moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are used in this game. The idea of a suit within a suit was inspired by my study of the numbering systems of the world entitled The Book of Numbers: Images of the World's Ancient and Modern Numerals with Explanations, Amazon 2017. There we can see a base-10 system within a base-60 system employed by the ancient Babylonians and the ancient Mayan base-20 system has a base-5 concept in the design of symbols. The remaining two suits are of 10 Dwarf Planets with 13 of their moons and 10 Minor Planets with 13 moons. My books on playing cards include the following: The Invention of Playing Cards in China, their Arrival in Europe and their Role in the Development of Mahjong, Amazon 2016; New Concepts in Playing Cards and Tarot: Five Newly Designed Packs of Cards with Chinese Symbolism, Amazon 2016; A Chinese Version of Tarot explained in Detail: Five Suits based on the Five Elements, Amazon 2017; Fortune Stars, Immortals and Dragon Sons: Three Newly Designed Packs of Cards based on Chinese Cultural Concepts, Amazon 2017.