XVII Letoille

The history of the Star card is spotty. The Visconti-Sforza's version is one of the six pictures done by "the other" artist, and these six are either replacements for lost or damaged originals, or were the emergency products of a decidedly inferior hand, recruited because the original contractor didn't finish the work. In either case, the result is uninspiring -- a full-figure depiction of a woman holding a star in her upraised left hand. The Sun and Moon cards also reproduce the same configuration almost exactly, and taken as a group these three cards suffer from a lack of both vision and originality. The earliest woodblock prints of the Star follow the Visconti-Sforza example, and as usual these works are considerably cruder than the model from which they are drawn.

The earliest version I've seen that bears any resemblance to the picture we've all come to know and love is the one on the Cary Sheet. The kneeling woman, emptying her vessels into the water most certainly possesses strong Aquarian overtones, and conveys the distinctly Aquarian message of renewal and hope. If anyone knows of an earlier ancestor for this picture than the one I've cited, I would very much like to know about it. There's a good chance that the Visconti-Sforza card that still exists replaced a lost original which was totally different, and that the new artist felt he was under no compulsion to remain faithful to the original design. But that's something we'll never know for sure.

The interpretation of the Marseilles decks' star almost universally hinges on the notion of hope. It almost seems as if the noise level and degree of turbulence shown in the cards immeditely preceding this one rises steadily, starting with the Hanged Man and progressing through Death (but not Temperance), the Devil, and the Tower. Then suddenly, we find ourselves in a quiet, tranquil spot in the trump sequence, in which peace of mind is restored and the perturbed state brought on by the middle tier of cards is dispelled. I think it's because of this that the star is a lot of people's favorite card.

This is one of the few standard tarot images that is completely a product of the Marseilles tradition.

catboxer, this is interesting - what are the other five cards?

symbolically, this card shows a pretty obvious pure and innocent image, not too many inner conflicts such as other cards of the major arcana. everything is nice and streaming, pure, naeve, open, almost infantile. yey.
one vessel (i learnt a new word, thanks catboxer ) is poured into the water, the other into the ground, everything falls into its place.
one vessel is pouring from the bowels area, might stand for expressing things "from the stomach" and acting intuitively and impulsively.
in most new decks, what you see in this card is a beautiful young girl, but in the marseilles decks, she isnt so beautiful, and the intense firm lines at the lower parts of her body make it even more obvious - that might show that the truth is exposed as is, no attempts to make it look better on the outside.
the body looks very much like a face, with the breasts being "eyes" and the button being the "mouth". in camoin's version it is even alot more clear, since the button actually has lips around it. that could show that the body is the one in control in the situation, and not the mind. "thinking through the body", in a childish way (and not in an erotic bold way like in the devil card).

the star right above the girl's head is almost touching in, which is very obvious in marteau/grimaud's card. in addition, the hair is drawn just like the water, and they are colored alike (in marteau's card they are both blue, in camoin's card they are both yellow). that looks like the card is streaming the liquid to the vessels, through the body. the body passes on to the surrounding what it receives from higher sources.

that bird on the tree is one of those symbols, that from my point of view, kinda "weirdly" survived in the cards. like the moon's lobster, you can find this bird in most versions of the star card, even those who have almost nothing to do with the original model. in most new decks its a pretty bird that suits the enviroment perfectly, referred to as "the bird of the soul", but in the marseilles decks, the bird is black, obviously opposed to the dream-like background. that bird might show the danger is this state of optimism and naevity, over-exposure might be taken advantage of by external factors, the bubble might explode.

not too many little details to notice and interpret on in this card, pretty much what you see is what you get (and heh, when i come to think of it, thats about the actual meaning of the card).

A much earlier thread which partly discussed this card, though in its myriad forms, is the one started by AmounrA quite a while back, and which I periodically refer to: Sanctum Sanctorum.

I think that catboxer and Supletion have very much captured essential characteristics of this card: purity and hope.

As with any card, however, there are always various elements which can be read much more straightforwardly, and others which very much require far greater penetrating insight. It is this latter, of course, that we always struggle with - in the sense that symbols both point to and reveal their referent, and yet simultaneously conceal much.

Is the bird, so keenly observed by Supletion, an indication of contrast within the card, or one of added depth along intrinsically similar lines? In other words, could the bird not indicate precisely which direction to take as one seeks to further penetrate the depths of this card?

I would answer precisely in the affirmative.

Allow me flights of the mind here: The bird, perched upon the very top of the tree in the background, points yet again to, amongst other possibilities, the heights from which the divine flow travels. The Ba, the bird-like depiction of the Soul, can ascend beyond its physical perch. In the whole deck, only two cards appear to have an animal with a human somewhat 'un-necessarily' there: the Fool and the Star... two cards which appear to share aspects of positivity, hope and innocence.

It is also quite significant, to my mind at least, that the bird appears to have similarities to Phoenix depictions, and that the 'leaves' of the Tree are flame-like.

As to whether the waters are being poured into the waters, or partly on land, is at best ambiguously represented in certain versions of the Marseilles. One of the aspects of the Camoin I particularly like is the added clarity of the 'platform' upon which the figure kneels.

Attached is the 1998 Camoin version.

What I also found striking about the Star card is the fact that the depicted stars have either 7 or 8 points. Ok, the 8 known as infinity symbol was widely discussed but what about the 7 related to Medieval and Enlightenment thinking?

visconti sforza

kaz

cary yale visconti

kaz

edited

Diana said:

(Pollux: seeing as you're reading these threads is there a word in Italian that sounds like Le Toule, and which would mean a Well, or a place from which to draw water?)

Click to expand...

The italian for well is pozzo.
Pozzo: from the latin puteus (meaning first "hole" and then "well")
Another synonim for pozzo is puteale, clearly deriving from the latin, and actually in use in Naples - evn though not by the upper class
That is the closest thing I can think of.
I will try to find a decent vocabulary online, and research, or ask my mother for something more...

It may help if you could tell me how you pronounce the word - and the French modern word for well.

edited

Some brief notes which will require further investigation.

Firstly, the title given on most early decks is not, as Diana writes it (and how one would expect it written - L'e(s)toile), but how catboxer has titled the thread: L(')e(s)toiLLe. This 'ille' ending would render its pronounciation as a 'y'.

As pointed by catlin, seven was certainly very important, not the least of which seven was linked with the liberal arts and sciences, the planets (in the original sense of the word, and thus including the Sun and Moon), and alchemical stages. It is also significant, as pointed out by Diana, that the stars on the Star card may indicate the Pleaides.

But the main purpose for this post, posted in between rushed work, is for the attachment of the reconstituted Noblet version of the card - upon which there is no bird!

Attached, then, is the (reconstituted) 1650 Noblet version.