The Star Card in the Waite Smith Deck

Just because de Gebelin had a crackpot theory about tarot doesn't mean that the Star can't be about Sirius and the Nile. Waite totally demolished the Egyptian origin nonsense. He did this so thoroughly that he even felt defensive about the Sphinxes in The World and The Chariot.

Another consideration is that Europeans were not totally ignorant of Egypt, well before the development of tarot (think Alexandria). For example, see http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/alexanderthegreat.htm. Why couldn't an Egyptian thematic element have been incorporated into a Tarot card?

Nudity in art often indicates a symbolic meaning. The woman in the card, for example, isn't to be taken as a literal woman, but she represents a metaphysical principle or occult concept. Nowadays, with all of the occult tarots, it just seems to go without saying that the images are symbolic. But the fact that she's nude, even in the very first tarots (that were supposedly just for playing a game), is indicative to me that they've always had symbolic meaning for those in the know.

EDIT: According to Waite, she is "Truth unveiled, glorious in undying beauty." Her nakedness symbolizes this. Also, "But she is in reality the Great Mother in the Kabalistic Sephira Binah..." This seems to be the main occult concept Waite was trying to express.

LRichard said:

Just because de Gebelin had a crackpot theory about tarot doesn't mean that the Star can't be about Sirius and the Nile. Waite totally demolished the Egyptian origin nonsense. He did this so thoroughly that he even felt defensive about the Sphinxes in The World and The Chariot.

Another consideration is that Europeans were not totally ignorant of Egypt, well before the development of tarot (think Alexandria). For example, see http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/alexanderthegreat.htm. Why couldn't an Egyptian thematic element have been incorporated into a Tarot card?

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Oh I agree (being a fan of the Book of Thoth - Egyptian Tarot ) I think many thematic elements have passed into it ... but rather hard to historically track ... we can work it out as a reasonable incorporation ... not the deck as a package though .

ravenest said:

Oh I agree (being a fan of the Book of Thoth - Egyptian Tarot ) I think many thematic elements have passed into it ... but rather hard to historically track ... we can work it out as a reasonable incorporation ... not the deck as a package though .

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Exactly!

Well, Occam's Razor would dictate that as the brightest star in the sky, the Egyptian connection isn't needed for the Star to portray Sirius. Its heliacal rising heralded not only the Inundation, which the Greeks were of course aware of, but also the "dog days" of summer, due to its presence in Canis Major. Were it to be in the constellation of the Big Dipper, these days would be called the "dippy days." If I were to design a deck with cards representing the major celestial bodies, Sirius would be a definite contender.

It is interesting to me that the Star is such a wishful, hopeful card in its very conception, as the name Sirius comes from the Greek Seirios, "glowing" or "scorcher" (from Wikipedia, I don't speak Greek), while the card itself is all watery, as she pours her healing waters on land that may very well be scorched. Of course, this brings us back to de Gebelin and the Inundation, so yes, despite what I said in the beginning, I seem to have come full circle.

On another note, I found an article which mentions the dog in the Fool as possibly having a connection to the Star, which would make sense from an occult point of view. Forgive the Thelemic terminology, but together the couple recalls Nuit as the encompassing All, and Hadit "my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!" Crowley probably didn't see it that way, though, as his Fool has no dog, although the Book of Law does ask if God can live in a dog. God=Dog reversed.

Nakedness and the Star. Hmmm.....

Revelation, realization, naked disclosure, naked truth, clarity of vision, direct insight, direct understanding, etc.

It's a shame that Tzaddi is the wrong letter for all that though...... ahem.

closrapexa said:

while the card itself is all watery

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But Aquarius is an Air sign. Contradiction? Or is she standing between the Waters which are above and the Waters which are below.

closrapexa said:

On another note, I found an article which mentions the dog in the Fool as possibly having a connection to the Star, which would make sense from an occult point of view.

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There is a connection between the Fool and the Star. She (the goddess on the Star card) is the "Woman who maketh Thunderbolts." (See Crowley, The Wake World, and also the link between the number 17 and the Hermetic Cross.) Her symbolic shape is the Swastika because she reflects the Light from the Path of Aleph through the Abyss via the Path of Heh. This mirrors, on a lower arc, the emergence of the Rashith ha-Gilgulim from the Ain.

God - doG

Aeon418 said:

But Aquarius is an Air sign. Contradiction? Or is she standing between the Waters which are above and the Waters which are below.

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I have seen little water in this card, yes air. I see the 'water' as representing another energy, but this is more represented for me in the Thoth version ... as I said above; she is naked star bathing ... and practicing a type of 'fountain technique' ... her energy is 'cosmic' or 'archetypal' and comes from the cosmos ... or I should say; the energy she pours over herself and the 'land' (nature) is archetypal (in plants and agriculture this is reflected in the growth stimulants {fertilizers} of Potassium and Phosphorous {flowering, production of seed and dispersal} ).

So I see 'her' as the 'Cosmic energy' version of Aphrodite or Venus [ these forms represent the cycling energy within nature and earth and can be seen as represented by water, as opposed to air. It is the counterpart of the cosmic energy being terrestrial and relates to 'rampant growth' ( leaves, stems and shoots) and is supported by nitrogen].

'Cosmic Venodite' ... she is naked as clothes restrict the flow of the energy (so the witches tell us )

Air is hot and wet, but the Sun (the source of heat energy) is in detriment in Aquarius, so the Aquarian Air is characterized more by wetness than heat. Hence the Watery ambience of the Star. (Okay, so that's probably BS, but humidity is on my mind right now. The RH has not dropped below 78% in my house for the past two weeks. It's always like this in August in my neck of the woods. It's paradise for mildew spores.)