17- The Star

This article is part of a series of posts that will compare each card in the Tarot across different decks in order to study and explore each archetype and concept more deeply. This is not necessarily meant to be a teaching tool for others, but if you like to study the Tarot as much as I do, I hope you find it interesting. Enjoy!

For more on the decks referenced here please see this page in my blog: Tools of the Locksmith https://wordpress.com/page/theramblinglocksmith.com/163

A major reference for this study was “Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom” by Rachel Pollack.


The Star

As we move along the road of the major arcana we now come to the Star after the Tower. The Star is the calm after the storm. It represents hope and maybe a little emptiness as you take the next steps after a big upheaval or loss from the Tower. Its a little bit like Temperance coming after Death, where you have undergone a major change and are now dealing with what you have left, only The Star is on another level.

In the Star a major structure in your life has fallen away, and you are no longer experimenting with what your medicine and you path are as with the Temperance card. In the Star you have clarity and connection with the path and important truths discovered by the Tower falling. At this point you are taking a brief pause to sit with this peace and this clarity before continuing.

Standard images from Rider-Waite in the card include:

  • Naked and relaxed figure representing freedom and relief
  • Two vessels of water being poured
    • One is being poured back into a body of water representing the faith that any contribution of your energy will always be supplied with new energy
    • one is being poured on the land representing the energy freed from the Tower flowing outwards as well as inwards
  • A pool of water even if small with the figure stepping into it – representing easy access to the subconscious. The figure still has one foot on the land representing the connection between the two
  • An ibis – symbol of the Egyptian God Thoth – an inventor of all arts.
  • Eight-pointed stars – reference back to the number 8 in the strength card now raised to a higher level. Also there is one main star, but its surrounded by 7 others.

The Way Home Tarot shows only the path and the 8 pointed star. In this way you can envision yourself in this scene instead of trying to relate to a figure already present in the picture. It also doesn’t show you the source or resolution of the path, just the path itself in the clarity that comes with the dawn after a long dark night of the soul.

What does clarity look like for you? Have you found it or are you still searching for peace? Are there more towers that still need to fall and choices that need to be made before you can see yourself in this card? What are they? Would it help if you try to only see the path itself?

The Artist Decoded Tarot visually highlights the Star itself and its proximity to the figure. It feels like the figure is connected or being pulled by the Star in a strong way. It gives the impression of an unmistakable sense of purpose that can no longer be detached from the self. Its so materialized and clear its almost heavy.

Have you ever felt this way about your own purpose? Do you feel this way now? If so sit with this feeling of being grounded and having extreme clarity at the same time. Let your muscle memory absorb it. You may need to remember it further down the line.

In the Sufi Tarot the start is prominent and patterned, and the figure contributes her own emotional and spiritual energy to the path leading to it. The two themes that seem to emerge here are weather the patterns in the star are newly formed and how much the person drawing the Star card is contributing to their own path.

Have you made a major change to your process or beliefs, so much so that you are able to see a new pattern emerge for yourself? Did you contribute to that change and are you still doing so? Is it a pattern you have fully embraced, or are you still getting used to this change? If so take the time to settle into it so it can stick, but embrace it. You did the work and you continue to do the work. Its your path, you built it with your own blood, sweat and tears.

The Brady Tarot embraces the Ibis as the central figure of the Star. And why not? All the other aspects of the card are almost identical to the Ride Waite Smith card except that the landscape is brought out in the block print artistry of Emi Brady representing the Everglades, where the separation between land and water is unclear.

If the Ibis is the inventor of all arts this card focuses on a renewed sense of creativity that is connected to your life’s purpose, maybe even a move toward a more creative path in your life. Would you like to be in more creative control of your life, or be allowed to use your creative side in a much stronger way? What are some ways you can see clearly and what are the steps you can take to get there? You are the writer of your own path, pick up the pen and draw where you want to be next.

The figure in the Star of the Santa Muerta Tarot has been here before. This person has been through so many iterations of this path that they are fully submerged in it and its work. They keep being reborn into it in fact. In this version of the life they keep repeating they are finally fully immersed in their environment and full of hope. They are not treading water, they are so deep and grounded they stand on the foundation of the emotional waters themself, and they can now move the water in subtle and important ways.

What iteration of your path and purpose are you on? Are you able to be fully submerged, and make your own waves, or are you still tiptoeing in the shallows and wondering if this is your true purpose? Stop wondering! Dive in! Be who you were born to be.

The Voyager Tarot Uses the figure of Kuan Yin as the prominent image in the Star. She is the water bearer of the universe and a Buddhist boddhisatva of compassion who pours out life giving waters and nourishes the universe. This card represents the law of luminosity in this particular deck where you recognize that you are the light that can lead others forward toward their own hope and their own path. You are the guiding light.

How do you relate to Kuan Yin? Are you looking for a version of her in your own life to help you find your way forward? Or have you realized that you posses your own light, and that you more than anyone else can show you the way? Or are you on a path that allows you to light the way for others? Reflect on how you relate here and above all recognize your own inner light in the process.

In the Osho Zen Tarot the moon is the star and the third eye of the figure floating through the universe. Its not on land, its not in the sea, it just is. The inner peace of the figure is fully met with the that of the Universe. The only resonance that is sought here is peace.

Are you in a peaceful place? If not what would it take to get there? Your minds eye needs silence in order to light the way for your intuition and show you your path. Surround yourself with environments and other people that have found a way to resonate with silence, and you will find your Star.

Lost in utopia

The lizard has lost its manners and is pulling a grumpy scowl across its face
The blue flower strays lackadaisically in the wind
Tall towers stroke the sky

We’ve lost our minds but we haven’t yet lost the universe

A half formed thought streaks across the sky in plaid letters
What do the letters say?
We don’t know.
We’ve lost our language and misplaced all our punctuation.
We flow through abstract sequences, colors bleeding into other colors.
Inanimate objects tell us what to think
Until…

We finally hit our head
feel our own blood run down our forehead
and wake up.

stillness

stillness halts and lingers
ignoring the fantasy of truth
ignoring the framework of deception
and puts me on my guard

I cancel the stillness with an obscene amount of mental motion
my stillness feels like boredom
so I break its bonds
and think I’ve found freedom

but until stillness can be still
fleeing it only leads to an illusion of freedom
a sticky web of the subconscious
that knows what it wants but keeps forgetting
simple steps

be still everywhere
except your breath
be still-breath-be free

Be free of ugliness
of never ending cyclical motion

let stillness linger
find freedom

The Point

Slogging across dewy fields of tall grass she faltered 
searching through mossy swamps
she got lost in the depths
of her own thoughts

She pierced herself on her own pointed arrow
that she spent a good amount of her life staring at and sharpening
with her mind

And she perished this way

And the world kept turning
and the grass continued to grow high
and confuse those who wandered through it

This angered her
how could she not be the key to the grass and the swamp and the arrow
how could she spend her life dedicated to slogging through these fields
and sharpening this arrow
when its point only directed her own path in the end

She was not the solution, she was only her solution
and this sorrowed her

She was missing something big
she had searched for that something big
until she perished and never found it
all the while not seeing that
all she had to do was……

look up.

The grass isn’t meant to be sorted through…its meant to grow
There is no secret in the swamp
The arrow is not the way.

You are part of the path only if you look up
and see that you are not the only one walking it

look to the stars to see this
look to link souls with other beings to learn this
until you learn this
stop sharpening your arrow
and look up.

the goal is not to have one

dreaming without sleeping 
faltering she fell
and yet she flew
and landed on a single petal

wind through her hair found
blinders for her eyes
and still she saw waves of madness
through the moonlight

the silence wasn’t really there
but she heard it
with words on the tip of her tongue
never spoken

breeze high
crouch low
see far
and hear nothing