The Star

Mythological attributions for the water bearer vary widely, from Electra, the missing sister of the seven Pleiades, to Ganymede, to Hapi, the androgynous deity of the annual Nile flood, vital to crop irrigation, to Hebe, who became the young male cupbearer to the Greek gods. We may find it sufficient here to allow this young woman her humanity, perhaps seeing her as performing a rite combining a ritual cleansing and an offering. It is unclear whether the stars represent real stars. This is not the star of the Magi. While much mention is made of both the Pleiades (in Taurus) and Sirius (in Canis Major), these two aren’t close enough to be called an ogdoad. The Egyptians, however, set their flood calendar by the rising of Sirius with the Sun. This at least suggests that we have learned something about the timing of celestial or sidereal events with the seasonal happenings on Earth, connections between the above and below. This refers to real scientific discovery and the original clockworks, and not merely astrol- ogy. This may also suggest the word con-sider-ation, being with the stars, as opposed to dis-aster, going against them. The eight-pointed star is reminiscent of the seasons and their midpoints, and the compass, orientation in time and space, and the regularity of our cosmos. Moving with the stars, giving things their due season, is only inter- preted as favor or grace, but ultimately it’s about intelligibility and intelligence that perceives it. The Ibis in the RWS deck is sacred to Hermes and Thoth. We know not what the nudity might mean here, unless this acknowledges a virtue in truthfulness, or having nothing to hide, and this being perfectly fine, and art on the higher planes. Higher and lower planes of existence are contrasted here, and a degree of connection or attempted connection between them is suggested. We aren’t going to assert here that there is a higher or astral plane of ideas, or mysteries of some higher divine thought, but there are certainly higher or more intellectual levels of abstraction that we use to understand our cosmic context and what this means to us down below. We also perform rituals to put our minds into these higher spaces, rituals of cleansing and purification, of baptism and consecration. We try to recombine thought with feeling, as we do with hope, giving focus and a point to feeling, and content or some charge to thought. We seek to bridge the gulf between high and low, the disconnect that we make between the planes of our existence, between the ideal and the real, between wishing and wanting. But we have yet to learn the unwisdom of severing the pure white lotus from its roots way down in the muck. This connection is what needs to be restored. The spirit of the lotus didn’t descend from the stars, it emerged from the muck, which is made from the dust of exploded stars. The Star presents us with with challenges accompanying farsightedness. This point of light may give us guidance or direction, but it also sheds little light on the path before us. There is information here that may be useful in the long-term, but it’s not accompanied by specific, practical advice. There is also little warmth or energy. This of course is a common critique of idealism. The mindset may even ignore the nearby completely, and do its thinking in meaningless sound bites, formulae, and platitudes with no practical application. The distant view is also more general, and more easily met with consensus. The stars and the sky look very much the same from the other ends of the earth. Without parallax, there is less relativity between points of view. As such, the Star can refer to ideas that bring large numbers of people into agreement. There are also larger scales involved, literally light years, and longer time horizons, when the great clockworks is pondered. Expanding our horizons extends our possibili- ties, as the scientific view has done. This contributes to grander thinking, which is still a good context for looking at our local and short term endeavors. As the slogan goes, think globally, act locally; or as someone added, think galactically, act terrestrially. Yet farsightedness remains a vision problem if we cannot make the adjustment to the local and practical. Clarity of vision is the first of three aspects of the usefulness of this card. While some have mentioned insight and introspection, this is more like outsight and extro- spection. There is an objectivity here that handles the perceptions, turning them this way and that until they make the most sense. While this process may be unconscious and spontaneous, it isn’t innocent. The lenses that we use do things to the light. We will have our signs of cosmos and promise of order, even if we have to turn the truth inside out. The second part is turning this vision into a goal, the use of the Star for guidance, and sometimes for our skyhook, or deus ex machina. Ad astra per aspera. Assuming that all of our problems will have a techno-fix is one example of this. We turn the distant light into a hope or a plan, a better example, a new lease on life, a ruling thought, or a rallying point around which to pull ourselves together. Sometimes we pick the wrong star, or follow for all the wrong reasons, and bright prospects lead to dim futures. Sometimes we learn to do better, and still the stars do not applaud. At least we sometimes make an effort to set our sights above ourselves, on higher standards and purposes, and seek higher wisdom in earnest. The third part is to draw down this higher wisdom into the physical plane. The irrigation pictured in the card is a model of what understanding and science can do, the place of insight or genius, and its ability to change the world. But the big vision is of the distant and not the nearby, where its applications are. Like the dim starlight above, cognitive resources are not themselves energy, and starlight is lacking in knowhow. What we learn must be applied, with our lowly biological forces, before we can call it real. Our biology must adopt it and put it to work or into play. Regardless of how we might think of ourselves, no matter how our philosophers and poets might praise us, human is as human does. A higher vision might lift many of us up, but it won’t do much to elevate the hypocrites and the parasites. The wisdom that we get from above must be lived and practiced, or else it means nothing.