Rachel Pollack's Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings by Pollack Rachel

Author:Pollack, Rachel [Pollack, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fortunetelling, tarot0210, tarot cards, tarot reading, major, reader, tarot spread, suits, arcana, tarot, spread, minor arcana, major arcana, cards, samhain09, samhain20, reading, divination, minor
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2014-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Visconti (the oldest version) shows a different picture than the Marseille—still a woman, and still graceful, but clothed, with a dress that may contain stars. She resembles the figure of Temperance, who holds two ornate cups, so that at first glance we might think she represented the Star.

Both women stand high above a landscape, at a cliff edge, with hills or mountains dwarfed behind them. The imagery suggests the Queen of Heaven, a title Christians give to Mary but that goes back to a series of goddesses, such as Babylonian Ishtar, Hebrew Astarte, and Greek Aphrodite. The English word star probably derives from Ishtar/Astarte. Istahar, from the story of the fallen angels (see Hanged Man, Devil, and Tower) is a version of Ishtar. All these figures, these Queens of Heaven, refer to that beautiful light, brightest after the sun and moon, yet soft and seemingly sensuous, the planet Venus. The morning star. And in Tarot, the term recalls the Empress, top of the third triad, with the Star at the bottom.

And, as we saw with the Devil card, the ancients identified another figure with Venus, Lucifer—Light-bringer—Morningstar. As a rebel against the divine, Lucifer was cast into darkness to become Satan (an action by Michael, the angel of Temperance). When we ourselves lose our understanding that we are part of the divine, that in fact no separation exists, we cast ourselves into darkness and sometimes despair. We believe ourselves chained. The Tower liberates us with its revelations, but the Star returns us to ourselves.

Astronomically, the Devil signifies the time of year when Venus—planet but also goddess of love—is missing from the sky. When it returns in the Star, it brings hope and restoration. We have not so much escaped from the Devil, or overthrown it, as liberated the light.

Not everyone accepts the definition of the Star as Venus. Some Tarot interpreters see it as Sirius, a star whose appearance every year coincided with the flooding of the Nile that made life possible in the otherwise desert country of Egypt. Both Venus and Sirius disappear—get lost in darkness—and return, so that both symbolize hope and restoration. Another candidate is the Star of Bethlehem that the magi—a Persian word, plural of magus, from which, of course, we get magician—followed to find the Christ child, yet another symbol of hope and salvation. The Star of the Magi shone at the beginning of the old Aeon, the Age of Pisces. The new Aeon belongs to Aquarius—the Star card.

When we look at the old meanings, we discover, in fact, that Sirius goes back to the very beginnings of the Tarot’s occult tradition, with the magi not far behind.

Some Star Meanings

Excerpted from Mystical Origins of the Tarot by Paul Huson.

Pratesi’s Cartomancer (1750): Gift.

De Mellet (1781): The Star. The creation of the stars and fishes.

Court de Gébelin (1773-82): Sirius the Dog Star with Isis.

Lévi (1855): The Hebrew letter Peh. The Blazing Star. Heaven of the soul, outpouring of thought, moral influence of idea on form, immortality.

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