The Star of Hope - How Not to Ruin Your Life

 It's synchronicity that caused me to draw this Major Arcana card, The Star of Hope today. Since I learned of the death of my friend Lillian, I've thought about how death can bring us unexpected inspiration and hope. These are the lessons in the fragility of life, often giving us the deepest sense of meaning that grows out of unhappiness, pain, shame, crisis, depression, and loss.

 Life is full of irony and we can often think that these are unexpected sources of inspiration and personal transformation, but the truth is, they certainly can be. Things aren't always as the appear to be.

 The Star is a card of waiting, which offers hope, urges us to to trust our intuition and to have faith in the midst of difficulties and that there will soon be a dawn.

Life if really about a series of losses, but with loss are also gains, but I believe it depends on our own level of acceptance, grace, and it helps a lot having a really good sense of humour that enables the ability to not take yourself so seriously and can be a powerful healing tool for some.

 J.P Sears has really learned how to do this. Simultaneously he seriously coaches a whole lot of people, helping them to find hope and to understand that pain, shame and broken hearts don't have to ruin our lives.

Listening today to a great program about aging versus ageism, midlife crisis, and transformation I thought the topic this program Out In The Open is aligned with much of the general meaning to be found in The Star.

Nine of Cups - Finding the Fruits of Your Labour

I don't usually have any question when I spread out my deck to pull a daily card. But this more I asked a specific question, and it was really a wish, or a desire or a prayer and very happily I then drew the Nine of Cups, commonly known as The Wish Card!

I've be actively involved for sometime now in figuring out my purpose and mission in relation to my business. In other words the Why, What, How and Who of my creative enterprise. This last week I've really dug in and clarified each part and am making some significant head way at connecting the dots that reinforce, affirm and enable my purpose and mission.

As I have said in my past posts, I'm not a person who believes in luck. I think we can bring about or own luck in that we make things happen with passion, inspiration, commitment and work. Sounds simple enough, but it's not.

 It's a nice fantasy to think about having a magic wand,  a special potion of maybe a fairy god mother to grant us our wishes. But that's not reality and in the long run, it would ask nothing of us in terms of personal growth.

Finding the fruits of my labour involves a lot of repetition and effort. I go over and over the steps, practicing, which is how we learn a skill. There is also a commitment involved to learning, even the things I'd rather avoid learning for one reason or another. However I've found the kind of learning I avoid the most is where I will find the most important lessons that I need to learn. Instead of looking at these as a hurdle, I need to see it as a challenge, that will get me out of my comfort zone, resulting in my personal growth.

The Star - Hope

The Star is always a welcome card to draw, full of inspiration, possibility, creativity, insight, understanding, and new ideas.

It's lovely to have drawn such a hopeful positive Major Arcana card today.

As I reflect on what hope means and where I have found it, I conclude that hope means everything to me, because there have been many times in my life, when I felt like there was no hope. No hope for happiness. It was for others, but was elusive to me.

In 1994 I finally came to the realization that I was responsible for my own happiness. This gave me hope. Fortunately, I had a belief in the God of my understanding, that also gave me a lot hope, and after learning to care for myself, it I was able to care for others, and to understand hope, which I believe is a spiritual gift given through Grace.

Humility, humour and having a love for all humanity gives me hope.

The great hope I see, that others possess, in spite of having been through so much suffering and adversity, gives me hope.

Appreciating and being grateful for the little things, helps me to maintain hope.

Mostly hope is about trust, persistence, and prayer.

I would love to hear what hope means to you, and what gives you hope.

 “But let us not put our sights too high. We do not have to be saviours of the world! We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time.”
― Jean Vanier, Becoming Human 

Three of Wands - Initiative

I've noticed four out of five of the Minor Arcana cards I've drawn over the past week have been all the suit of Wands. This caused me to notice and realize, I am partial to Wands (Rods), as I strongly identify with what they represent, action, energy, ideas, creation and expression of spirit. Being an artist I particularly love that last description , expression of spirit.
Wands symbolize spiritual consciousness, intuition, inspiration, determination, and strength, all characteristics needed to be reflected in the core of your being. They address what motivates and energizes us.

Like all the Threes in the Minor Arcana, represent the beginning stage of completion. Everything is coming together but there is still more hard work ahead, perhaps more work that was first anticipated. In order to take further action, you may have to take a gamble or the idea cannot be realized.

Many folks are great at beginning ideas and projects. They maybe good at endings as well. But they miss all the hard work, and effort required in between the start and finish for a number of reasons. Enthusiasm and creative energy must be applied from start to finish. This is an important lesson to learn and to actualize in your life.

One of the best experiences I had growing up was to have had the opportunity to work voluntarily on a farm. I learned the value of hard work, and got the satisfaction of a job well done. I learned through growing things you reap what you sow. I knew I loved being country, and digging into good earth, but I had to take the initiative, follow through and then the harvest came. I attribute this experience as being the reason I bought my house in the country 20 years ago, and I have never regretted it. This year I am happy to say my mortgage will finally be paid off. It was with a great deal of hard work and sacrifice, but it has been so worth it.

The Star - A Time of Hope

 "There shall be signs in the Sun, Moon, and Stars" -  Jesus Christ

I cannot study the Sun and Moon without including the Star, as they are, and have always been closely connected to one another, dating back to ancient days.
The Star being the 17th, card, Moon the 18th, and Sun the 19th, are the order in which these cards come within Major Arcana in the Tarot deck.

The Star portends experience of hope, meaning and faith, where we find inspiration, generosity, and serenity.  It is a very positive card, though a realistic one. It is about turning the negative into the positive, overcoming difficulties and rising above them, remaining hopeful, and becoming a stronger, a better person  with depth, of character, because of our struggles, not just in spite of them.
We can fulfill our highest human potential. We look to heavenward, lightening the burdens and struggles of the earth.
Many dreadful afflictions have been released into the world from Pandora's box but the promise of hope remains, always.

The Star card - A Time of Hope 

The Star card always gives me a feeling of hope. It's an important card for the times that we are in right now. Following the Tower card, the Star is a guiding vision of hope and promise that arises from the ashes of the Tower which has been destroyed. In the journey of the Mythic Tarot, the Fool waits amidst the rubble, and has no clear sense of how or what to rebuild - all he is left with is hope, and a sense that all is not lost.

The Star card is the 17th card of the Major Arcana, and the next step on the Fool's journey in the Mythic Tarot. The card of the Star portrays Pandora as a beautiful, young woman with long, fair hair, kneeling before an open chest. From the chest, a swarm of flying creatures rise including dragon flies, wasps, bees, flies, moths and spiders; and they fill the sky with darkness. Pandora's eyes are fixed on a bright star symbolized by a female figure in glowing, white robes with a rainbow shining behind her.

In Greek mythology, Pandora is a lot like Eve, who represents the feminine side of human nature which includes feelings, instinct, imagination and intuition along with the need to probe for the truth despite the consequences. The wooden chest that Zeus, the father of all the Greek gods, sends to mankind is a lot like the apple in the Garden of Eden which Eve found hard to resist. The chest like the apple is something which is forbidden, but yet impossible to resist. It contains knowledge of the reality of human life which means the death of innocence and childlike fantasy, but it also contains the most precious attribute of the human spirit which is hope.

When Pandora opens the box, the terrible afflictions of human life that had been locked away by Zeus were now released which included - old age, labor, sickness, insanity, vice and passion; and they spread all over the world. Hope alone, which had also been locked in the chest, did not fly away.

On an inner level, the image of Pandora and the Star of Hope, is a symbol of that part of us which, despite disappointment, depression and loss can still cling to a sense of meaning and future which can still grow out of the unhappiness of the past. The Star does not reveal the future plans, or solution to one's problems, but like the cards of the Hermit and the Hanged Man, the Star is a card of waiting, for the sense of hope is a fragile light which glimmers and guides us through the darkness. Somehow, it offers us faith, and therefore in the card's image, Pandora's eyes are fixed not on the unhappiness of the human condition, but on this intuitive feeling that a dawn of a new day is coming.

The quality of hope has nothing to do with planned expectations, but is connected with something deeper which has sometimes been called the will to live. Doctors experience this with their patients – those who have a sense of hope and a strong will to live - will often find the inner resources to face a life-threatening dis-ease, and beat the odds. Likewise, individuals who have suffered tragic circumstances, or have faced challenges which are far greater than any human should have to go through such as those who experienced the concentration camps in Germany and Poland during World War II - have often expressed that it was some inner sense of hope and faith that meant the difference between survival and death. Hope is a profound and mysterious thing, for it would seem that it can transcend anything life offers us.

In a reading, the Star card represents the experience of hope, meaning and faith in the midst of challenges. It's a sign that there is new and better life coming in your future if only you can believe.

The Star is a symbol for all of us right now as we face a challenging world. If we can believe and envision a better life, we can co-create this life for each one of us. If you need some hope right now, have a reading to shed some light on your future path.

By Donna M. Fisher-Jackson, MA © 2010

Thanks to Juliet Sharman-Burke, and Liz Greene, the creators of the Mythic Tarot for their insightful comments.

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