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The Star (Tarot card)
Encyclopedia
Trump Card
Trump Card was an American syndicated game show that aired from September 10, 1990 to September 6, 1991 and was hosted by Jimmy Cefalo. Debi Massey served as hostess and Chuck Reilly was the announcer. The show was produced by Telepictures Productions, Createl, Ltd., & Fiedler-Berlin Productions...
or Major Arcana
Major Arcana
The Major Arcana or trumps are a suit of twenty-two cards in the tarot deck. They serve as a permanent trump suit in games played with the tarot deck, and are distinguished from the four standard suits collectively known as the Minor Arcana...
card in most traditional Tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.
Description
A naked woman kneels by the water; one foot is in the water, one foot is on the land. Above her head a star shines out. In each hand she holds a jug. From one jug she pours a liquid into the water. From the other jug she pours a liquid onto the land. In other, older decks, a woman (or sometimes even a man) is simply looking and sometimes gesturing at a large star in the sky.Interpretation
Some frequent keywords are: http://www.learntarot.com/maj17.htm- Calmness - Free-flowing love - Trust
- Tranquility - Peace of mind - Pure essence
- Hope - Serenity - Inspiration - Generosity
- Optimism - Joy - Faith - Regeneration
- Good will - Optimism - Harmony - Renewal of forces
Rider-Waite symbolism
A. E. Waite was a key figure in the development of modern Tarot interpretations; however, not all interpretations follow his philosophy.- The bird nested on the tree bears resemblance to the Ibis, a bird which was venerated by the ancient Egyptians as a symbol of the god ThothThothThoth was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat...
. - There are altogether 8 stars which account for the 8 minor astrological planets (excluding the sun and moon which have their own respective cards). This is inclusive of PlutoPlutoPluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
- at the time of the deck's illustration an unknown planet X (Pluto was officially discovered in 1930). According to Waite the main star is l'Etoile Flamboyante of the MasonicFreemasonryFreemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
tradition.
Interpretation
The pool of water refers to the subconscious or the universal. The land refers to the material world. The natural woman or goddess of Nature renews both. The two pitchers represent integration of the two opposite sides of our nature. Usually divined as hope for the future, it may indicate good things to come in the things represented by cards that may be close to the star in a reading layout.The Star represents a moment of renewed hope, inspiration and discovery. The turmoil of escape from the Devil depicted on the previous trump in the series (The Tower) is over, indicating calm after the storm. It is a breakthrough, a new opportunity to rise to higher state of consciousness. It is the first of 3 cards of increasing light, indicating we may be receiving greater clarity. A higher pathway is becoming visible. We may solve a mystery, discover secrets, or gain ideas in meditation.
The ladder of planets by which we climb the mystical journey is visible in the sky. In the Fool's or Hero's Journey, the Star indicates that we are approaching the goal of enlightenment.
Alternate Decks
- It is also called The Astronomer or The Navigator.
- In the "Flemish Deck" by Vandenborre, Le Etoille ("The Star") shows an astronomer seated at the left-hand corner with a tower in the right-hand corner. Above him is a large star surrounded by smaller stars. He is looking at the stars with a divider.
In popular culture
- In The House of the Dead 4The House of the Dead 4The House of the Dead 4 is a light gun arcade game with a horror theme and the fourth installment of the House of the Dead series of video games, developed by Sega. The game is an interquel and takes place between the events of The House of the Dead 2 and The House of the Dead III, and introduced...
, part of SegaSega, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's House of the Dead seriesThe House of the Dead (series)The House of the Dead is a video game franchise published by Sega and created by in-house designer Atsushi Seimiya of AM1....
, The Star appears as a levitating humanoid able to control projectiles of light and serves as the penultimate boss of the game. All bosses in the House of the Dead seriesThe House of the Dead (series)The House of the Dead is a video game franchise published by Sega and created by in-house designer Atsushi Seimiya of AM1....
are named after the Major ArcanaMajor ArcanaThe Major Arcana or trumps are a suit of twenty-two cards in the tarot deck. They serve as a permanent trump suit in games played with the tarot deck, and are distinguished from the four standard suits collectively known as the Minor Arcana...
. - The main character of the third series of JoJo's Bizarre AdventureJoJo's Bizarre Adventureis a manga written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. Every main character's name in each part can be read as JoJo. The manga, published by Shueisha, first ran in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1987 to 2002, before being transferred to the seinen magazine Ultra Jump in 2004. The current story...
, Kujo Jotaro, is the wielder of Star Platinum, a powerful StandStandStand may refer to:*Stand, Greater Manchester, a residential area in the Metropolitan Borough of Manchester, England*A partnership in cricket*STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition...
that enables him to stop time. It was named after this tarot card. - In Persona 3Persona 3Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, originally released in Japan as simply , is the fourth video game in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series of console role-playing games developed by Atlus, which is part of the larger Megami Tensei series of video games...
video game Mamoru Hayase is the Star Arcana (Social Link), while its PSP remake, Persona 3 Portable features Akihiko Sanada as the Star Arcana (Social Link) if the player chooses to follow female main character's storyline. In Persona 4 Teddie (Kuma in Japanese version) the walking empty bear suit is the Star Arcana Social Link. Star Arcana features various figures relating to the stars and light, such as LuciferLuciferTraditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
/Helel and KaiwanHasturHastur is a fictional entity of the Cthulhu Mythos. Hastur first appeared in Ambrose Bierce's short story "Haïta the Shepherd" as a benign god of shepherds. Robert W...
. - In X/1999, a manga made by CLAMP, the Star is Kusanagi Shiyuu.
- In the Mythic Tarot deck, the Star is depicted by Pandora's BoxPandora's boxPandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation around line 60 of Hesiod's Works and Days. The "box" was actually a large jar given to Pandora , which contained all the evils of the world. When Pandora opened the jar, all its contents except for one item...
. - The Star card is a major theme in Tom RobbinsTom RobbinsThomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins (born July 22, 1936 is an American author. His best-selling novels are serio-comic, often wildly poetic stories with a strong social and philosophical undercurrent, an irreverent bent, and scenes extrapolated from...
' "Half Asleep in Frog PajamasHalf Asleep in Frog PajamasOne of Tom Robbins' less well-known novels, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas was published in 1994 by Bantam Books. Like Robbins' other books, the plot involves an eclectic mix of characters and complicated scenarios, and mixes the mundane with the mysterious, in the form of the Sirius mysteries and...
." An altered version of the card appears in "Part One" and is discussed throughout the book. - Founding father of surrealism André BretonAndré BretonAndré Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
's 1945 book "Arcanum 17" invokes The Star as a figure of healing and reconciliation in post-war Europe. - In the SNES video game Ogre Battle: The March of the Black QueenOgre Battle: The March of the Black Queenis a 1993 real-time strategy role-playing video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, directed by Yasumi Matsuno with artwork by Akihiko Yoshida...
, the Star Tarot card depicts a woman in a white dress standing on clouds and pouring two jugs of water from the starry sky onto the world. On drawing the card after liberation of one of the towns, it increases characters' agility by 1 point, and also increases their agility more when used in battle than when drawn on liberation, but only until the battle ends.
External links
- "Star" cards from many decks and articles to "Star" iconography
- The Star from Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners - Joan Bunning