Saturday, April 16, 2016

The Star: Hope Springs Eternal

The Star
from The Phantomwise Tarot by Erin Morganstern
Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood

No matter how bad it gets, there is always Hope. I love the Star – as most of us do – because it is the Tarot’s promise of beauty and balance, guidance and direction. The previous card in the Tarot is the Tower of Destruction. Lightening has hit the Tower and it is falling down…I have written before on this card ( please see my blog at http://kathrynravenwood.blogspot.com/) and how I think it is one of the best allies in the deck, even though it can also be one of the most devastating. However, fall it does and with it are clouds of debris, ashes, flames, and great wailing and gnashing of teeth. It is sometimes hard to see our way through a Tower event – no matter what has caused our world to fall apart we feel hopeless, shot down, ruined. And yet, when everything settles down- there is the Star shining in the darkness, the Hope of better things to come. 

There is a Haiku that always reminds me of the Tower and  the Star:  "Barn's burnt down… now I can see the moon. (Masahide, Japanese poet, 1657? – 1723). The lesson of the Tower is the removal of obstacles and barriers and the Star is the reward. In the featured card we see a woman in balance. She sits on a rock emerging from water, and is centered between the two pyramids in the distance. Her long braid falls neatly down the middle of her back. She holds a pitcher of water in each hand, the contents of both equally flowing into the water around her as she faces the starry sky. This is a time of reflection and soul searching, a time to refill what has been depleted and feel the balance returning. We have had to let go and we have learned that even though we fell from the Tower we were not destroyed; the destruction was of that which was blocking us from seeing a higher vision, from connecting with the Guidance that is always there to help us re-connect with our higher self, to know ourselves to be both physical and spiritual beings, to feel the alignment with our mortal and divine natures. 

The Star is that new vision and it calls us to transformation, to use conscious awareness and intention to access the tools of the Magician to reform our lives. Those tools are the Swords of Clear Thinking, the Wands of Right Action, the Cups of Intuitive Emotions, and the Pentacles of our Manifestations in the physical world. The way is clear now, free of encumbrances, peaceful. As Tom Petty said, the future is wide open.” 

It is time to be the Star of your own life and realize the fulfillment of your dreams,  all those times you wished upon a star, all the nights you sat under the vault of the heavens and cried out for guidance and vision. Nothing is holding you back now. You are poised to go forward and upward from balance, vision, peace, and purposeful intention.  

Shine on.

…Kathryn Ravenwood 4.16.16