Look to the stars
When you look up to the stars on a dark night what do you wonder about the universe? Twinkling lights cover the entire heavens. Planets orbit in gigantic galaxies of whirling gas clouds among masses of stars. Black holes suck up matter. Obviously, we are looking at a vast cosmos far surpassing our comprehension. This brings up a cosmic question: Why is there a Star card in the Tarot? It must be there to motivate us to think beyond our own small world; to contemplate the origin of life and the source of our becoming.The Star card of Tarot of Cosmic Consciousness signifies the experience of the flow of Cosmic Energy in the healing waters of cleansing and purification from a never-ending Cosmic Source. In the painting, this Life-force is symbolized by a prismatic seven-pointed star from which a red river flows. It is pouring forth incandescent gold sparks of Cosmic Energy, a sign of rejuvenation in our lives and a promise of progress toward spiritual insight and rebirth. Gold dots in the red river appear to flow in an orderly pattern comparable to “Prana” in Eastern yogic practices. In Chinese Medicine, it is “Chi.” An acupuncture treatment stimulates the meridians of Chi in order to bring healing to our cells. The “Mother” (wife of Sri Aurobindo) claims to have somehow seen the sparks or dots in her mind’s eye as, “…a powdering of warm gold. I can’t say bright or dark; it wasn’t luminous either; a multitude of tiny gold dots…” Her statement was recorded in “The Mind of the Cells” by her assistant, Satprem, (Institute of Evolutionary Research, 1982, p. 89)
In Arthur E. Waite’s “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot” (University Books, 1910, 1959 p. 136) the artist Pamela Colman Smith, has depicted a woman pouring water from two vases, one into a pool and the other on the earth. Waite describes the woman as “the Great Mother” pouring the “…Water of Life from two great ewers irrigating sea and land.” In a biblical context, “…the river of water of life, bright as crystal…” is mentioned in Rev.22:1.
The heptagram star has been considered a symbol of the Eternal, containing the seven attributes of the Divine, all reflecting one another. To make a drawing of a heptagon that will yield a seven-pointed star, it cannot be exact because the angle needed to mark it on a 360° circle is a numeral of infinity (51° 428571….). In Tarot of Cosmic Consciousness, The Star card has been painted with the 7 colors of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple: a promise of hope for the future. Madeline Montalban states in “The Prediction Book of the Tarot,” (Blanford Press, 1983, p. 115) “The Star is hope; it tops the good fairy’s wand…hope signifies regeneration.” 