The Star
The Star is hope and healing after the storm, a quiet renewal of faith in which the spirit is replenished and the future feels possible again.
Major Arcana XVII
Upright keywords
- hope
- renewal
- healing
- inspiration
- serenity
- faith
Meaning when upright
After the Tower's upheaval comes the Star: a naked figure kneeling beneath a great eight-rayed star, pouring the waters of life onto the land and into the pool. The card brings hope, renewal, and a sense of being guided and restored, often after a period of difficulty. It favors healing, inspiration, and trust that things can get better. Waite's list begins with loss, theft, and privation, but he also records another reading of hope and bright prospects, and that is the sense modern readers follow.
On the card
- great yellow star of eight rays
- Waite's l'étoile flamboyante: divine guidance, hope, and the radiance of the heavens.
- seven smaller white stars, also of eight rays
- The seven classical planets, the ordered harmony of the heavens surrounding the central light.
- naked woman kneeling by the water
- Truth unveiled and the soul with nothing to hide; Waite says the figure expresses eternal youth and beauty.
- water poured from two ewers onto the land and into the pool
- Waite's Water of Life irrigating sea and land: nourishment for both the material world and the unconscious.
- one knee on the land and one foot on the water
- Balance between practical reality and intuition.
- water on the land running off in several rivulets
- Renewal spreading outward, often read as the five senses refreshed.
- bird perched on a tree on the rising ground
- Often identified as the ibis of Thoth: wisdom and the soul's aspiration alighting.
- distant mountain
- Future goals that now seem reachable again.
In Waite’s words
A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars—also of eight rays. The female figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the water. She pours Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising ground and on the right a shrub or tree, whereon a bird alights. The figure expresses eternal youth and beauty. The star is l'étoile flamboyante, which appears in Masonic symbolism, but has been confused therein. That which the figure communicates to the living scene is the substance of the heavens and the elements. It has been said truly that the mottoes of this card are "Waters of Life freely" and "Gifts of the Spirit."
The summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of hope. On other planes it has been certified as immortality and interior light. For the majority of prepared minds, the figure will appear as the type of Truth unveiled, glorious in undying beauty, pouring on the waters of the soul some part and measure of her priceless possession. But she is in reality the Great Mother in the Kabalistic Sephira Binah, which is supernal Understanding, who communicates to the Sephiroth that are below in the measure that they can receive her influx.
- Divinatory meaning
Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says—hope and bright prospects,
- Reversed
Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.
Correspondences
- Element
- Air
- Astrology
- Aquarius
- Hebrew letter
- Tzaddi (צ)
- Path on the Tree of Life
- Path 28: Netzach – Yesod
- Number
- Seventeen (1 + 7 = 8) turns eight's power into quiet renewal; after the Tower's shock, the spirit regains its strength through hope.
To reflect on
- What gives me hope right now?
- What in me needs healing and replenishment?
- How can I share what I have been given with others?
In your readings
Hasn’t appeared in your readings yet.
Ask about this card
Marguerite, the traditionalist, answers from Waite’s text, what is drawn on the card and its correspondences. You can choose another reader in settings.