The Star

Major Arcana XVII

UprightReversed

In short

Upright: Hope, healing, and renewed trust in the future.
Reversed: Discouragement or difficulty believing recovery is possible.

What the card shows

A great yellow star with eight points fills the top of the card, ringed by seven smaller white stars, each also eight-pointed. Below them a naked, fair-haired woman kneels on her left knee at the edge of a pool, her right foot resting on the water. She holds two jugs. From one she pours into the pool, sending out rings; from the other onto the bank, where the water runs off in little streams. On a hill to the right stands a tree with an orange bird perched in it, and lilac mountains lie in the distance. She hides nothing and hurries nowhere.

Upright

Hope on this card doesn’t shout; it comes back a little at a time, after a loss, a divorce, a redundancy, a long hard year. Upright, the Star can point to the moment when the storm is behind you and there is room to breathe again. Not everything is fixed at once, yet you can lift your head and see the sky. The woman on the card has no defences, and she no longer needs any.

Look at what she’s doing: she is watering the pool and the land. Recovery here means quiet care for yourself and what’s around you, such as sleep, walks, making things, anything that brings back your appetite for life. Inspiration returns with the Star too, the wish to draw or write or plan again. Big decisions can wait; small actions that give you strength matter more for now.

Keywords: hope, healing, renewal, inspiration, trust in the future

Reversed

Turn the card over and the jugs run dry before you’ve had a drink. The card can then point to discouragement: after a long run of setbacks it feels as if things will never improve, and even good news is met with suspicion. Tiredness turns everything grey, and it says nothing about your character. Try to remember when you last let yourself want something without bracing for disappointment.

Things are already improving, yet you won’t admit it: “it’s temporary”, “don’t celebrate yet”, “something will go wrong again”. Months can pass like this, braced for the next blow. Note the small signs that strength is returning: you sleep a little better, you want to see friends, the work interests you again. The stars shine whether or not you believe in them.

Keywords: discouragement, lost hope, doubting recovery, weariness, grey days

The Star in relationships

In love, the Star describes a bond where you can be yourself without armour. For a couple it can mark recovery after a crisis: trust comes back slowly, but it does come back. Reversed, it asks whether you’ve closed your heart in advance so you’ll never be disappointed again. If you’re single after a painful breakup, warm yourself first; a new connection under this card is often quiet and careful.

The Star at work

A project failed or a team broke up, and now the wish to start again is returning, with ideas you haven’t had in a while: that is the Star’s picture of work after a hard stretch. It’s a good card for creative tasks, study and long-range plans. Reversed, it speaks of professional disillusion, when effort seems to lead nowhere. Begin with one small task you’re sure to manage, and set goals you can actually reach.

The Star as advice for the day

Do one thing today that leaves you with more strength than before: a walk without your phone, half an hour of something you love, a talk with someone who’s easy to be around. This evening, step outside or go to a window and find at least one star. Write down one thing you hope for, with no conditions and no deadlines.

The card’s lesson

The Star offers quiet hope after a hard stretch.

A question for yourself

What helps you gradually get your strength back?

Place on the Fool’s journey

Major Arcana: Major life themes and turning points.

Once the Tower’s walls are down, the Fool finds himself under an open sky for the first time, and the stars come into view. The seventeenth card opens the three lights of the sky: the Star, the Moon (XVIII) and the Sun (XIX). The light here is still distant and quiet, but it already shows the way, through the Moon’s uncertainty to the full day of the Sun, and on to the reckoning of Judgement and the World.