top of page
Writer's pictureKirsten Weiss

Today's Tea and Tarot Card: The Star


The Rider-Waite Smith Tarot's Star card. A naked woman pours water from two vases - one into a pool, one onto the ground. Eight stars surround her. In the background is a mountain and a tree with a bird on it.

Hope. Optimism. Renewal. Transcendence. Tranquility.


I missed last week's blog. Sorry about that. But my schedule was interrupted when I received a phone call from a friend's son. "X is in hospice. He's asked to see you."


X was an elderly friend of my parents. I'd known him since I was a kid, and when I got older, we stayed in touch, going out for lunch once every couple months. He was a bit like the grandfather I'd never had. Wise. Kindly. Funny.


It was a stormy spring night, and I hurried to the hospice at the top of a multistory, impersonal hospital. By the time I got there, he was unresponsive. His son and ex-wife had been there all day and needed a break, so I sat by his bed. His breathing changed, growing raspy. I hurriedly got his son from the cafeteria and we returned to the room.


His son and X had had a fraught relationship. It's their story to tell, so I won't elaborate here. But the son was clearly at a loss and didn't know what to do. I told him to say his goodbyes, that X could still hear him. To be clear, I didn't know this, but I believed it. I took one of X's hands and his son took the other, and we told X he was loved. His son said goodbye, and X passed away. (And I know some people get tetchy about euphemisms for "died" but I really do think he went somewhere else, so the expression seems apt).


We cried. I went home.


And then the next day happened, and I was filled with a blissful joy I've only encountered once before. I can't explain it. I certainly wasn't happy X was gone. But I couldn't and didn't want to shake the pure light that filled my heart. I don't know if that feeling was X, letting me know he was well. Maybe it was something else. But everything felt right and good. The feeling stuck with me until I fell asleep that night. The next morning I was back to "normal." But I won't forget that feeling.


Whatever caused it, it was a deep Star moment. In Tarot's Major Arcana, the Star follows the destruction and disaster of the Tower card for good reason. Out of disaster can come renewal. The Star reminds us that there's something beyond, something bigger and better, and all we have to do is trust in it. The woman in the Tarot card is naked, representing purity, the ego dissolved and laid bare. The pouring of water suggests a spiritual cleansing. And notice that the woman's foot is on top of the water, not in it? We know this Tarot artist can draw feet in water, because she has done so in the Temperance card, so we can assume Pamela Coleman Smith wasn't just being sloppy here. She meant that foot to be on top of the water, as if the figure has transcended the mundane material world.


When this card appears in a reading, consider if you're ready to take positive action and turn your dreams into reality, because now is the time for optimism. If you've recently been through a difficult time, meditate on how it may have affected your view on life. And take this time to release your worries, relax and recharge.


It will be okay.

35 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page