REVERSALS: The Star Reversed

[Thirteen]

The Star is a card of hope and healing. Coming after the Tower, it promises that there is a future, and offers a light to guide the person on their way to that future. It is a drink of cool water (knowledge) in the wasteland, a promise of tomorrow. Reversed....

1) Opposite: Clearly, the opposite is that there is no future, no hope, no healing. Or, more to the point, that any hope or promise offered is going to be false hope. The star one is following is not fixed, and will lead the person astray. There is a feeling of being lost, with no way out.

This interpetation does not speak well for one who is sick or emotionally/psychologically hurt--they're not going to get well any time soon; they may even have taken a turn for the worst.

2) Blocked: We can think of this interpetation as there being clouds at night blocking out the star that one is following. Unlike the opposite, we KNOW the star is there, but we can't see it. The person is feeling hopeless, but that doesn't mean there is no hope. They just can't see it.

I would read this as intense pessimism; the sort of cynical or depressed out-look that insists that the world is coming to an end, there is no future, the class is half-empty, etc. The sick person feels that their illness will never end, that there is no cure.

This, however, is not accurate. There is hope and healing. But something is standing in the way of our querent finding it--either their own refusal to see it, or some other dark cloud.

3) Upsidedown: Reversed, the waters of knowledge and healing that the Star pours out fall into the sky, and both pond and urns and earth are left dry. The Star is no longer in the sky, and so can't shed its light on the earth.

Very like the blocked interpetation, this is a time of darkness. Only in this instance, there really is no hidden promise. Everything has run dry. No one is offering the querent a future or hope for a future. This is a person in a very desperate situation. At it's absolute worse, they are dying or suicidal--and with good reason. They are getting no help; they are alone with no guiding light, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually bereft. It is a very bleak and black time for them.

Other thoughts?

[Lady Orchard]

Kind of echoing what you have said, but as well as not being able to see the hope in a situation, also choosing to ignore the possibilites which are right there in front of you? More a conscious refusal than one stemming from pessimism or depression

[Sobekneferu]

I actually read this card as being about a Star almost in the Hollywood sense. I read it this way:

Upright: Extravagance, wastefulness. She's going to fill up her pond, and dumps half the water out on the ground just because she can.
Reversed: The consequences of this; squandered assets. Flip it upside down and both her jugs of water and the pool itself are drained: there's nothing left. Perhaps she's just out there going through the motions, possibly not even realizing the state into which she has fallen, like some Norma Desmond, or even Michael Jackson or Britney Spears.

[Thirteen]

Originally Posted by Sobekneferu

I actually read this card as being about a Star almost in the Hollywood sense. I read it this way:

Upright: Extravagance, wastefulness. She's going to fill up her pond, and dumps half the water out on the ground just because she can.

The problem with this interpretation is that the upright star is NOT wasting that water. She's not dumping half of it out just because she can. Look at the card again. In Rider she's pouring half into the pool--that's creating that pool. And half on the thirsty ground. What happens when you provide water, either pouring it on the earth or into a pool? On the Earth and things grow. Into a pool, and you create an environment. Think of all the creatures that go to an oasis or how a beaver's dam can create it's own thriving ecosystem.

And this isn't extravagance. The Star has BROUGHT that water to this place, likely from far away. She is providing for the future. Creating a pool, creating greenery. At her own expense and effort. It may *look* wasteful to someone who is thirsty NOW and sees her only pouring the water out, not bringing it, but it's wise and thoughtful beyond measure to anyone who might visit this area in the future. To all the plants and animals that will live off that ecosystem that will be created.

If you must think of it as the upright star as a Hollywood Star, stop thinking of wasteful stars. Not all entertainers are so foolish as a Spears or Jackson who throw away their wealth and abuse their fame. Many donate huge portions of their wealth to good and noble causes and use their fame to make people aware of important problems. Many make an effort to inspire their fans, and visit those in need. Gaining such fame and wealth doesn't mean the "Star" is automatically going to be frivolous. And pouring water on the ground, which might, to the uneducated eye look wasteful, could be for a very important, though distant cause.

[Sobekneferu]

The thing is, the ground next to a pool (of earth) will grow on its own. It doesn't need to be watered individually. Watering it will most likely just make a big old sink hole -- and it is quite a waste of effort if you've been bringing the water from far away.
I myself grew up in LA, land of the stars, and a place where all the water has to be brought by aquaduct from up north (there's no drinking water in the southern part of the state.) People are discouraged from keeping lawns, and definitely advised against using water for purposes like overwatering (my grandmother, who still lives there, once got yelled at for watering her garden and letting the water run into the street -- which happens when the garden is submerged and can't take anymore liquid.)
Just look at the card -- that is not thirsty ground sucking up the water, that water is just running all over.

I still see it as an extravagance, and this fits with the Rider interpretation of the star as a mostly negative card, even while upright. The positive aspects come from the fact that you can't be an extravagant star without having had some good fortune to get there in the first place. The reversal comes when the good fortune has gone away.

[Thirteen]

Originally Posted by Sobekneferu

The thing is, the ground next to a pool (of earth) will grow on its own. It doesn't need to be watered individually. Watering it will most likely just make a big old sink hole -- and it is quite a waste of effort if you've been bringing the water from far away."

Literally, maybe yes. But it's a symbolic picture, and the SYMBOLISM is that the Star gives water to those that need it, both the dry, dry, dry, dry earth that cannot grow without it, and that pool which will act as a reservoir for later.

I myself grew up in LA, land of the stars

And so did I. You don't have to lecture me about the history of water in LA, nor the need to wisely use it during drought. Nor about actors, of which I've seen--and personally known some awful, and some wonderful. But you ALSO seem to forget the native wetlands, and, as I said reservoirs needed to provide water during years of drought. THAT is what I see as the water the Star is providing. Water to keep the wetlands wet--not to create sink holes, which, come on, is stretching things don't you think? I really don't believe our Girl there is stupid. That, I believe, is the symbolism. Bringing in water, and making sure that what you do with it creates a future, maintains the wetlands, and fills up the reservoirs.

I still see it as an extravagance, and this fits with the Rider interpretation of the star as a mostly negative card

I beg your pardon????

"Courage, hope, inspiration. Gifts of Spirit. Improving health. Love will be given and received. Temporal nature of destruction. The meaning of life."--Waite.

That "Temporal nature of destruction" means that the Star reminds the reader that destruction is temporary, things can be "re-grown" and restored. As the Star is doing.

Also noted by Waite: "She pours Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising ground and on the right a shrub or tree, whereon a bird alights. The figure expresses eternal youth and beauty. The star is l'étoile flamboyante, which appears in Masonic symbolism....That which the figure communicates to the living scene is the substance of the heavens and the elements. It has been said truly that the mottoes of this card are "Waters of Life freely" and "Gifts of the Spirit."

So. Exactly what is this "mostly negative" interpretation of which you speak for the upright star? Even with a negative or two tossed in, the upright of this card would seem to be overwhelmingly positive.

And here is Crowley from the Thoth deck which I think is just beautiful:

"Pour water on thyself thus shalt thou be
a Fountain to the Universe.
Find thou thyself in every Star.
Achieve thou every possibility.

Hope, unexpected help, clearness of vision, realization of possibilities, spiritual insight, with bad aspects [reversed], error of judgment, dreaminess, disappointment.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realized."

[afrosaxon]

In the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot, The Star is called Z'Etoile.

The card shows a baby gestating inside an egg, which is streaking through the heavens. Stars are in the nighttime background and the egg is golden and tinged with lavender/purple. The image speaks of possibilities, and the hope that is in life...albeit a bit far away (as the stars are far away). The baby is in the egg in an approximate position that a baby would be in the womb, as it continues to develop during a pregnancy.

Reversed, and the baby is in a birthing position: head down, ready to come through the birth canal. In this deck, I interpret this as the hope is not far away...it's much nearer than you think (as when one begins pregnancy, the birth day is a long ways off...but once that baby shifts into proper position, it's showtime NOW! [relatively speaking]).

The reversed image in the NOVT is a bit more uplifting than in the RWS.

Just my $.02.

T.

[Sobekneferu]

Originally Posted by Thirteen

And so did I. You don't have to lecture me about the history of water in LA, nor the need to wisely use it during drought. Nor about actors, of which I've seen--and personally known some awful, and some wonderful. But you ALSO seem to forget the native wetlands, and, as I said reservoirs needed to provide water during years of drought. THAT is what I see as the water the Star is providing. Water to keep the wetlands wet--not to create sink holes, which, come on, is stretching things don't you think? I really don't believe our Girl there is stupid. That, I believe, is the symbolism. Bringing in water, and making sure that what you do with it creates a future, maintains the wetlands, and fills up the reservoirs.


I beg your pardon????

Jeez, no need to get offended, yaar. The card's always given me accurate readings as a mostly negative thing, maybe it works different to you.