Nü-kua is the Chinese divine foremother of humans who
repaired the sky, and invented marriage. Some tales make her
the wife of her older brother, Fu-hsi, one of the first sovereigns,
whom She later succeeded. She was said to have created humans
from yellow clay, but grew bored before She finished, and left
some of them more blob-like. This is explained that the more
finished ones represent the nobility, the blobs the poor.
Nü Kua was variously said to have the body of a serpent
and the head of an ox, or ox-horns on a human head. She is
also depicted as a serpent with a woman's head and may be of
both sexes. Some legends seperate Her into a male named Nü
and a female named Kua who were the first humans.
In a great battle, the monster Kung-Kung wreaked a lot of
havoc, flattening mountains, tilting the earth and tearing
a hole in the sky. Fires raged out of control, the waters overran
the world, and the cardinal points became misaligned. Nü
Kua restored order with five colored stones, fixed the directions
on the legs of a tortoise, controlled the water and put out
the fires, and repaired the sky.
Another version of the myth calls Nü Kua a goddess-Queen
who defeated a powerful King; angered at being beat up by a
girl, he ran to the top of a mountain and pulled down the Heavenly
Bamboo, tearing the sky in the process, and letting in floods
of water from the heavens beyond. Nü Kua then repaired
the sky and restored order. The Heavenly Bamboo can be seen
as a variant of the axis mundi, or axis or the world,
representing the mythical center of the world.
She is also said to have tamed a dangerous giant called King-of-Oxen,
by running a rope through his nose. She was said to have brought
civilization, taming wild animals and teaching humans irrigation.
Nü Kua represents the restoral of order and innocence
after chaos. She is the tempering influence that calms situations
and brings level-headedness. This card is also representative
of a return to innocence, the ability to adopt a new positive
attitude after events threaten to make one jaded.
Alternate names: Nü-kua, Nü Kua Shih, Nü Hsi,
Nü Wa, Nugua
Titles: "Mother of the Gods", "Defender of
the Gods"
