Mary El Tarot - The Star

Bat Chicken

http://www.mary-el.com/17.html

I have always struggled with this card. This one sheds a little more light on it for me. The nearly monochrome orange colour makes me think again of the sacral chakra. The only other colour is indigo and it is the only indication of water.

The woman (angel?) whose pose is similar to Christ on the Cross bears the circles of stigmata. She seems to float above in infinite crowd of people who seem to fade into the landscape.

Her image reminds me of a peaceful Hierophant, the ideal that does not exist and is as distorted in that card as it is calm in this one.

Then there is the 6 pointed star on her dress. I have come across this before and thought I’d repeat part of the quote here from J.E. Cirlot's Dictionary of Symbols:

… it is a symbol of the human soul as a 'conjunction' of consciousness and the unconscious…

In most depictions of the symbol, the center of the symbol is implied. In this one (also seen on the hand of the Emperor) the center is marked by lines and is actually there. The word that comes up under similar symbols in the alchemical term ‘coniunctio’

Coniunctio is synonymous with the red and white rose, the snake or dragon that bites its own tail and the sun and the moon that are united.

These are all images that appear in the Mary El Tarot and the last one seems to predict the two following cards.

Thoughts?
 

Eyebright

Wasn't this card the Heirophant in the majors only version of the deck, I don't have it but I seem to remember something from earlier discussions?

I feel like she is Christ who died to clean away our sins and was resurrected to heaven, smiling over all the people in the world. Very forgiving given what happened to Christ I say! Offering hope to everyone that we can make our way to heaven, that God is listening and things will get better.
Like a metaphor that there is something divine and bigger than us out there, "as above" if you will....
The circles (one on each hand, on the visible foot and her forehead)...any idea what they mean? I get the stigmata reference, but why a circle? Because it had no beginning or end, as a symbol for infinity?
 

Elendil

Wasn't this card the Heirophant in the majors only version of the deck, I don't have it but I seem to remember something from earlier discussions?

I remember reading this in discussions on here also...but have been unable to find an image online. I did find one of an alternative Star (though in that collection of images the Hierophant is pretty much the same as the one we now have).

Alternative Star
 

Bat Chicken

Yup. You're right. The current Star was the Hierophant in the original Majors deck.
 

Debra

The Star she uses in the deck is lovely, but the original one--the one that scares the bejeezus out of me--is more cosmic--it captures the bizarre hugeness of the night sky; I wish she'd kept that.
 

Bat Chicken

I understand that and to a point agree, but then, that sense of 'hope' one is supposed to get from the Star is more difficult to achieve. Something cosmic can feel too remote, even if it is more accurate to the spirit of the card.

The old Star had the HP's hands....
 

Debra

Four of the points on the Star's belly star are labelled with Roman numerals.
 

Bat Chicken

I was wondering about that... Any ideas?
 

Bat Chicken

OK - an idea. 5 numbers - 5 elements? Why the 6th point with no numeral?
 

Debra

It's hard to tell if such things have real meaning, intended beforehand, or if they were added decoratively with meaning discovered or attributed after the fact, or if they're simply aesthetic decisions.