The Star Tattoo Meaning
Hope, renewal, inspiration, and the waters poured out after the Tower falls.
The Star is the tarot's card of hope and healing — card XVII, a woman kneeling by a pool pouring out water beneath a great shining star in a clear night sky, the calm that comes after the Tower's destruction. It is not naive hope but earned hope: the serene faith and renewal that arrive after the worst has happened and one is still here. To carry the Star is to carry hope, healing, and renewal — the calm clear sky after the storm, the gentle replenishment after devastation, the earned hope and quiet faith of one who has come through the worst and is still pouring, still here, still guided by the light.
The Star is card XVII of the tarot's Major Arcana, and its image is one of the most serene and beautiful in the deck: a naked woman kneels at the edge of a pool, one foot resting on the water and one on the land, pouring water from two jugs — one onto the earth and one back into the pool. Above her shines a large radiant eight-pointed star, surrounded by seven smaller stars, in a clear and peaceful night sky. Significantly, this calm comes immediately after the catastrophe of the Tower: the sky has cleared, the destruction is past, and a gentle, healing peace has descended.
Every element speaks of renewal and replenishment: her nakedness is vulnerability and openness with nothing to hide; her two feet on water and land join the unconscious and the conscious, the spiritual and the material; the water she pours nourishes both, replenishing the world and the soul. The great star above is hope, guidance, and inspiration shining in the dark. The Star is the card of hope, faith, healing, serenity, and renewal — the gentle dawn of the spirit after the dark night. The tarot Star is the waters poured beneath the star — card XVII, the woman kneeling at the pool pouring water onto land and water beneath a great shining star in a clear sky, the serene image of hope, healing, and renewal after the Tower's destruction.
The Star directly follows the Tower in the Major Arcana — the sky that was lit by lightning is now clear, filled with stars. The woman is naked — stripped of everything false, as the Tower stripped the world — and she pours water from two jugs: one into the pool (replenishing the unconscious), one onto the land (nourishing the earth). One foot on water, one on land — she moves between the elements as Temperance's angel does, but here the movement is effortless, natural. A bird (the ibis of Thoth, the god of wisdom) sits in a tree behind her. The large central star has eight points — eight is the number of Venus, the morning star, which appears after the darkest part of the night. She corresponds to Aquarius in astrological tarot attribution.
The Star across cultures
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