The Star

✦ I am hoping.

✦ After the Storm

If we follow the Fool’s Journey through the tarot, we’ve been through a lot in the last few cards. We experienced major changes with Death, a realigning with Temperance, and a double whammy with the Devil and the Tower. Things are shaky, and we’re not sure what to think.

✦ Emerging Light

If you imagine the Tower’s collapse, what happens after a building falls? There is rubble everywhere. If you knew the landscape, everything has changed and you’re now disoriented. There are clouds of smoke and the air is heavy with ash. You are heavy, too, with the repercussions of what just happened. You’re not looking for the glaring light of the sun, or the watery-wavery light of the moon. What you need is a light that will fill your soul and shine on you so gently. This light won’t hurt your eyes. The Star peeks out and starts to quietly and slowly illuminate you.

✦ Hope and Healing

Beautiful. That’s what this card is. Hope, beauty, faith restored. This card is like a healing balm on an old wound. Just when you think everything is lost and the dark and twisties have taken you as far as you can go, you see the twinkling of the beautiful stars and your heart lifts—if only just a bit. That’s a start. She’s got one foot on water and one on dry land. She’s got endless resources to renew and rejuvenate herself and her surroundings. She’s balanced and happy. She reminds me of my friend Mary, who is so centered, so confident, and Zen. Her reaction to stress is to chuckle and say, “Oh well, we can handle this.”

✦ The First Drink

The Star is the beginning. It’s the first drink after days, months, years of being thirsty. Do you know that feeling? You’re so emotionally wrought and parched that the first spark of kindness makes you gasp and brings tears to your eyes. That’s this. In readings, I have to remind people that it’s okay to accept gifts freely given. It’s okay to put the sadness down for a minute and refocus on those beautiful things around us. We often get so used to depression and negativity that we get stuck. Even after a crisis has passed, we’ll continue our reactionary and flinchy behavior, even though it’s no longer needed. Almost like post-traumatic stress disorder, really. We have to retrain ourselves to relax and to stop anticipating trauma. It’s very difficult to do and one of the reasons I appreciate how soft this card is. It’s not as “Everything is super!” as the Sun card but is more like a gentle hug and a pat on the back. Everything isn’t “Super!” but everything is going to be okay.

✦ A Gentle Reminder

And sometimes that’s enough, yeah?

✦ The Star Inverted

Inverted, the Star is just hopeless. Imagine that Tower falling around you, and after the dust settles, you’ve got to pick your way free of the rubble in the dark and all alone. It’s a desolate, lonely card and the Star that usually lights the way is cold and distant. Very sad.