Meaning
Smith's Star is a naked woman kneeling at the edge of a pool, one knee on the land and one foot in the water, pouring from two jugs, one onto the ground and one into the pool. Above her shine a great eight-pointed star and seven smaller ones, and a bird sits in a tree behind her. Waite dismisses the usual reading, a card of hope, as a summary of poor explanations, and offers instead immortality and interior light, and the figure of Truth unveiled.
The Golden Dawn gave the card Tzaddi, a simple letter glossed as fish-hook, and the sign Aquarius, and titled it the Daughter of the Firmament, the Dweller between the Waters. On the order's tree the Star is path 28. Crowley exchanged its letter with the Emperor's in his Thoth deck, after a verse of his own Book of the Law that says Tzaddi is not the Star, but kept the Star with Aquarius; we keep the Golden Dawn's letter and note his.
We read the card as openness after the break: nothing hidden, the waters poured out freely, a calm that follows the Tower. Waite's fortune-telling list for it is oddly split, loss and privation in one reading, hope and bright prospects in another; it is quoted below as his.
In the birth cards
The Star belongs to Greer's eighth constellation, with Strength, 8. It is the Personality card of everyone whose total is 17, with Strength as Soul card, on 4.5 percent of the days from 1900 to 2030. A 17-8 reaches both cards and has no Hidden Factor; the Star is the Hidden Factor of a single 8, on 6.6 percent of days. With the Marseille numbering, where trump VIII is Justice, the same total would pair the Star with Justice.
As a natal-chart card the Star is the Sun-sign card of Aquarius. As a year card it comes 10 times in the 201 years from 1900 to 2100 for a 15 June birthday.
History and names
In the Marseille decks the card is L'Étoile, a kneeling woman pouring from two jugs under a large star, much as Smith drew it. Crowley's Thoth deck keeps the name the Star.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Golden Dawn title (Book T)
- “The Daughter of the Firmament; the Dweller between the Waters” sourced
- Waite's fortune-telling list (1911), upright
- “Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says, hope and bright prospects”, quoted as history; Waite called such meanings artificial and arbitrary sourced
- Greer's name for the constellation
- Courage and Self-Esteem (1987, 2021) sourced
- Our line for the birth-card chain
- 17-8: Unmasked and unafraid our construction
- Letter in the Thoth deck
- Heh (path 15), exchanged with the Emperor; the sign does not move disputed
- Sun-sign card
- For the Sun in Aquarius; also the Moon card and the Rising card for Aquarius sourced
How the schools read it
- Game decks (15th to 18th century)
- L'Étoile, a kneeling woman pouring from two jugs under a large star.
- Golden Dawn, Book T
- Tzaddi, the fish-hook, a simple letter, and the sign Aquarius; path 28. Book T titles it the Daughter of the Firmament, the Dweller between the Waters.
- Waite and Smith (1909 to 1911)
- Immortality and interior light, Truth unveiled; he dismisses the usual reading, a card of hope, as a summary of poor explanations.
- Mary K. Greer (1984 to 2021)
- In the constellation of 8 with Strength. The Personality card of a 17-8, a chain with no Hidden Factor, and the Hidden Factor of a single 8.
- Crowley, Thoth deck (1944)
- Moves the Star to the letter Heh and the Emperor to Tzaddi, after his own Book of the Law; Aquarius stays with the Star.
- EsoTerrier
- Read here as openness after the break: nothing hidden, the waters poured out freely, a calm that follows the Tower.
Claims about it
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The Golden Dawn gave the Star the letter Heh.
disputedWhat the record shows: That is Crowley's change of 1944, after a line of his Book of the Law: Tzaddi is not the Star. The Golden Dawn's table has the Star on Tzaddi, path 28.
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In the Thoth deck the Star is no longer the card of Aquarius.
falseWhat the record shows: Crowley exchanged the letters, not the signs: the Star stays with Aquarius in both systems, so the Sun-sign card is the same.
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The Star and Strength always make the pair 17-8.
disputedWhat the record shows: Only with the 1909 numbering. Under the Marseille numbering trump VIII is Justice, and 17-8 gives the Star and Justice.
