Star

Two Moons followed by a Star..... the heavens seem to be getting their heads together about what in the cards for me ;)

This Star from the Tarot of the Silicon Dawn has all of the elements of the star we are used to in the Rider Waite Smith tradition, and some. There are the trees, the water being poured maybe onto earth and sea, the star and the female figure, as well as the stars that show the night sky.

When I first glanced at this card I thought the water flowing down from the vessel was actually a dripping candle. Then, when I thought about it, it makes some sense, as much as any can be made from a blob of ink, anyway. The candle melts and becomes liquid and then cools and sets and becomes consumed again in it's own heat and flame. Just as Stars consume themselves over millions of years. As the water would fill the vessel, evaporate, condense and refill itself.

The goddess like creature leans out from the Cosmos and pours out the water, emptying the vessel ... of emotions? She wears a mask with a star symbol painted on it, and a feather suggestive of Carnival. The pouring out of emotion could be a ritual in the realisation that we are all the same piece of rock, and we all feel and we all cry, and we all hide it behind a mask at times.

Masks remove individuality, they can make you larger than life or invisible, in old times the peasant could become the nobleman and the lord become the serf. Wearing a mask you can be anyone you please, no one knows who is hiding behind the disguise. At the same time a mask sets you free to be totally and completely yourself, to say and do the wild and wonderful things you would maybe not be able to do if you were not in disguise. Masks are great levelers like stardust. Perhaps the star on the mask is showing that we are indeed all stardust... and so free to be, without restriction. After all we are just a miniscule, invisible part of the whole universe and all the other universes and everyhting that is out there. Does it really matter if we sometimes look the fool? Mask or no mask.

Star - Tarot of the Silicon Dawn

There is quite the creation story in this card, and the butterfly adds to this effect, bringing to mind the  quote by Richard Bach:

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly."

As something ends, so something is beginning. If there were no changes, then no one would move on, we would remain stagnant. Night ends ... in dawn, as day dissolves into the shadows of night. Nature cannot be stopped and neither can we We have to allow change or we commit ourselves to life as a chrysalis ... bound tightly, dried up and dormant.

The Star lights the way. On the darkest nights it is easiest to see the stars... like tonight, the very darkest night of the Moon. Stars are for everyone, no one is excluded, except by choice. Another quote, this time from Oscar Wilde

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at stars.