Notes on The Star Tarot Card
The Star was the first Major Arcana card I pulled this year, so it’s going to be my focus for the month of February as I continue my series digging into the meanings and symbolism of the Tarot.
Monthy Majors Series
Here’s the plan:
In the first week of each month I will be pulling a Major Arcana card and sharing my personal thoughts on its meaning.
In the second week, I will be digging deep into the symbolism of the cards through the work of influential occultists such as A.E. Waite, Paul Foster Case, Aleister Crowley and others.
In the third week, I will be responding to the card creatively and sharing my process. I invite you to join me and I would love to hear about your thoughts and experiences working with the card too.
Finally, I will be rounding up the month by reflecting on our journey so far.
Let’s get started…
XVII - The Star
To me, The Star has always been a hopeful, aspirational card, reminding us to set our sights high and to shift our focus away from the limitations and boundaries of the physical world — the here and now — onto the possibilities of the future, the infinite cosmos and the mysteries of the divine.
In the sequence of the Major Arcana, it comes after the tumult of The Tower and The Devil, signifying the kind of profound peace and rest which can only be experienced after periods of stress of trial.
I see The Star as a card of release and relief. Traditionally, the figure on the card is kneeling, suggesting stillness and introspection, perhaps prayer. Unlike, say, The Fool, whose energies are directed outwardly, The Star is a moment of reflection, looking down and inward at all that has come so far, re-energising for the final phase of the Fool’s Journey towards the enlightement of The World.
Her nudity could represent a kind of suppender, of trust in the universe, a stripping away of everyday stresses. The water that flows beneath her: a mirror in which see she glimpses her inner self. The water which she pours, a symbol of catharsis, an emptying.
Like many of the Tarot cards, there is a sense of duality, of bridging: one foot on the water and a knee resting on the land. I like to think of these cards as offering different methods of shifting perspective, and The Star’s method is to pause, be still, and to let go. Perhaps it’s an inviation to meditate, to sleep, to have a bubble bath — whatever kind of self-care works for you.
The stars are fixed points, steadfast, reliable. Gazing up at the stars can make us feel small and it can help us to gain perspective, realise that we are a part of something bigger than our own lives, a story which didn’t begin with us, and will continue long after our chapter has ended. The sky is a map which connects us to our ancestors and to one another other.
While some Tarot cards signify change and chaos, The Star reminds us of the elements of our lives which are stable: the truths which we have come to know as certain… the things which ground us… the hopes and dreams which push us forward.
When was the last time you looked up the stars?
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