The Star (XVII): Tarot Card Meaning
The seventeenth trump. Not a card about luck arriving — a card about what it costs to be seen hoping again, after the last attempt failed in public.
- Numeral
- XVII
- Sign
- Aquarius
- Element
- AirAir explains, argues, and needs a reason before it will move.
- Mode
- FixedKeeps the position long after the argument for it has moved on.
- Stage
- Reckoning
- Charge
- Light
- Keywords
- hope · stillness · guidance
Argues for how the thing should work for everybody, from slightly outside it.
Upright
Quiet hope, after everything came apart.
Hoping again is a risk of a specific kind, and it is not the risk of being disappointed. It is the risk of being seen. If the last attempt failed where people could watch, starting a second one means announcing that you have not learned your lesson.
That exposure is why the recovery from a public setback takes so much longer than the setback did. The work is not difficult. Being visibly in the early, unconvincing stage of it, in front of people who saw the last one, is.
Upright, the card says do it anyway and expect no cover. It answers yes, and it is a slow yes: to something whose progress will not be legible to anybody, including you, for a while.
Reversed
Hope set on the wrong light.
Reversed, hope set on the wrong light. Not the loss of it — this reversal is rarely about somebody who has given up. It is about a full tank of it aimed at something that is never going to respond.
It is recognisable from outside. One thing that nearly happens, repeatedly, and is called off each time for a fresh and entirely reasonable cause. The reasonableness of the causes is what lets it run for years.
The verdict inverts to no, and what it refuses is the aim rather than the hoping. Nobody needs less of this; the same amount, pointed somewhere capable of answering, is usually the entire fix.
Yes or no
- Upright
- Yes
- Reversed
- No
Upright, yes, and a slow one: to something whose progress will not be legible for a while. Reversed it turns to no — the hoping is not the problem, the target is, and a target can be moved.
Where the card comes from
Aquarius, and standing slightly outside
The sign is Aquarius: air, and fixed. The water-bearer is drawn pouring, which makes people file it under water; it is an air sign, and the misfiling is so common it is worth stating twice.
Fixed air is one idea held for a long time. Not a mood that persists — an idea. For a card about hope after a failure that distinction carries the whole weight: what survives is not the feeling but a conclusion you reached and have not withdrawn.
Aquarius is also the sign that stands slightly apart from the group, which suits a trump about being visibly out of step with the sensible people who have stopped trying.
Tzaddi, and a dweller between waters
The letter is Tzaddi, read in several traditions as a fish-hook: a tool used where you cannot see what is under the surface, which works by waiting. The Golden Dawn title is Daughter of the Firmament, the Dweller between the Waters, and the position is literal in the picture — one part of her in the pool and one on the bank.
What she is pouring
Ours kneels in the shallows of a black pool, and what comes from both jugs is thick and red: one stream into the water, one onto the ground. One large star and seven smaller ones hang above her, exactly as in the older card.
The tree on the left is dead. The familiar version puts a bird in its branches; here the branches are empty, and what survives from the original composition is the stars and the act of pouring.
Her reflection is in the water, and it is the only thing on this card facing us.
she is the Great Mother communicating to those below in the measure they can receive
Seventeen, and its root
Seventeen folds to eight, which is Strength. The gentlest-looking card in the deck stands on the most demanding one, and the pairing is the best explanation of either: both are about doing an unremarkable thing again tomorrow, with no evidence yet that it is working.
In a reading
As a Daily Card it is usually not news. It is permission to do one small thing whose result will not show this week, and to do it anyway.
In a three-card reading, ahead of you it rarely indicates an event — it indicates the conditions afterwards. Behind you it marks a recovery that did not feel like one while it was happening.
Common questions
What are the eight stars?
One large and seven small. The seven are usually read as the classical planets, with the eighth as the star of the querent themselves — which makes the card less about receiving guidance than about being counted among the lights.
How long does The Star last?
Longer than it feels and shorter than you want. It is filed under the reckoning stage rather than the beginning, so it describes conditions after an event rather than a run of good fortune.
Does The Star mean everything will be fine?
No, and it never claims to. What it says is that the worst has already happened and you are still here, which is a fact rather than a forecast — and unlike a forecast it cannot be cancelled by the next piece of news.
The Star or The Sun for a question about optimism?
The Sun is broad daylight with nothing left in shadow. The Star is faint and far away and offers just enough bearing to walk tonight.