After the destruction and chaos of the Tower, The Star is like the light at the end of the tunnel, bringing wholeness, healing and peace. She establishes her authority over the physical (land) and spiritual (water) planes, the conscious and the unconscious. From her vessels she pours the waters of life and the gifts of spirit.
The goddess is Venus/Aphrodite, pouring out the waters of fertility upon the earth. Where Temperance pours water between two vessels, blending but not emptying the contents, the star goddess pours the water freely, trusting that there will always be more from the source.
An eight pointed star is above the head of the kneeling goddess. One view is that the eight pointed star is the Dog Star, Sirius. Sirius is associated with the Egyptian myth cycle as it rose on the Summer Solstice and heralded the rising of the waters of the Nile. When the Nile flooded, it brought fertility to the Nile Valley.
Some consider the star to be the North Star, the symbolic centre of the universe. Others say it is the Morning Star, or the planet Venus – it is the last ‘star’ seen in the morning and the first evening star. It’s also symbolic of the descent into the Underworld, the place where our fears are born and live. The pool of water represents our subconscious. Our fears come to the surface of the water from time to time and sometimes we see that they aren’t so terrible after all. Even when our fears surface, we know that they will subside again some point. Nothing is permanent.
The eight pointed star also links the card to the eight spokes in the Wheel of Fortune and to the star in the crown of the charioteer in The Chariot. The pool is also the collective unconscious filled with archetypal knowledge. Everything you need to know is available to you.
The seven smaller stars the might represent the seven classical planets by which astrology charts our lives. It’s worth noting that the number of points on a star give the star different symbolic meanings. For example, in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, a five pointed star was interpreted as ‘rising upwards to the point of origin’.
The Star represents the beginning of an initiatory process that will continue in the next four cards - The Moon, The Sun, Judgment and The world. The Star is the initiation of a vision or dream that has yet to be fully realized.
In a reading, this card is an excellent omen and can also relate to teaching, wisdom and astrology. It indicates success in any endeavor. If this card is representing a person, or the querant, the person is likely to be creative, psychic, or possibly an Aquarian.
When the card appears the Star Goddess gives her blessing, as in Doreen Valiente’s ‘Charge of the Goddess’:
“I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.”
This card is number 17 and added together 1+7 = 8, which is Strength. Here we see “the lion of desire no longer simply tamed but transformed into light and joy” . Our emotional and psychic energy is no longer repressed or misdirected, and we are at a place of inner calm.
Astrologically, this card is linked with Aquarius, the sign of the Water Carrier. Its Hebrew letter is Tzaddi, which means fish hook. You could think of the pool of water as your subconscious and the fish hook bringing things to the surface.
Tzaddi also relates to words such as to lie in wait, capture and adversary. For this reason, some people say that it should be linked with the Emperor, and that the Emperor’s Hebrew letter, Heh.
Heh means window, and might seem at first to be a more apt and feminine correspondence. I think that Tzaddi is an appropriate correspondence because there are many ‘mother’ and creator goddesses such as Tiamat and Ishtar who also had warlike and vengeful aspects to their natures.
This theory also links the card to the myth of the Innana, the mother goddess of Sumeria. She later became the goddess of Ishtar of Babylon. Both goddesses are associated with the planet Venus. Ishtar particularly has two aspects – she is both the compassionate mother and the goddess of lust and war. Others connect the card to the goddess Astraea, whose name means ‘like a star’. Astraea later became the constellation of Virgo.
Recently:
- Learn to Read Tarot - 22 week course @ Newtown, NSW
- Tarot profile
- The Fool - Thoth Tarot 09 - Week 1
- Earth, Air, Fire, Water - The Elements of Tarot workshop
- Tarot Meetup (Sydney Area)
- 12. The Hanged Man
- Tarot Meetup - September
- 22 Weeks of Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot - a study group
- Reading for Kate
- 11. Justice.