There’s the work from last night. Almost done. I know I had lot of things to say about it last night but now that it’s morning I’m drawing a blank. The kids have all been sick still and I have only been sleeping sporadically, I’m so tired!
I did have an idea the other night that I forgot (or avoided) to mention. As I’ve said I have been working on making larger images of all the completed cards and it’s getting me to thinking about some of the cards I am less than happy with. The Star card is front and center – it totally doesn’t work for me now. Plus, the Star is a big part of he 8s so it is high on my mind.
As I do all of this linework my mind tends to drift and I was thinking about the Star and what I would like it to be. I have had a vague image of it for a long time, just an angle of a head and I always pictured it as a mother with a child, something infinitely more warm than the current version. I was imagining the colors I would use, and all of a sudden the image popped in my mind and I thought, holy crap! I realized all of the things I was describing to myself , the image I was seeing, was the old/new/middle Hierophant. I know, I know, I hate doing that! But I think she might be the Star! Instead of a mother looking down at a baby or child it is more like a mother spirit looking down at all of us souls, very much like Grace. Standing in the dark night glowing down upon us. So I have been thinking a lot about this, and I think it may solve that problem. I just knew she wasn’t the Hierophant for such a long time! In case you don’t remember her:
She might need a few adjustments, but basically if I was to paint the Star from scratch it would be something just like this. So, what say you?
I have to wonder, is there some link between the Hierophant and the Star? Is it odd to think that she just couldn’t reveal herself until now, when I worked on and understood (in whatever limited fashion I am capable of) the number 8? Perhaps she is a symbol of my personal fulfillment, me being the Hierophant, that is where I began. The old Star is so cold and distant and faceless, just didn’t see it.
I find myself wondering, why we as people are so wont to see a reflection of ourselves in the stars? Is it the ultimate in Rorschach tests, where we project our internal view of things onto their ambiguous patterns? Perhaps, perhaps. To me I am endlessly fascinated by the numbers and patterns of the celestial objects including the sun and moon. Is it truly just me that finds meaning in them or do they really reflect a general pattern of life n the universe? For me that is a big question, really, what is inside as opposed to what is outside. Probably like all things with me it is something that should be balanced, it is a little of each. The stars do have an archetypal pattern and we do project what is inside of us onto them. Again with the 8s, reflecting!
That reminds me, I thought of some new definitions of the elements:
(one of but a million possible, I’m sure)
External
Wands – transcendent
Swords – pragmatic
Internal
Disks – consciousness
Cups – subconsciousness
I wanted to mention too that one of the things I was thinking about with all the lines in Ariel’s mane was the storms on the surface of Jupiter. For some reason they reminded me of the spots and swirls. There are 8 yods in there too, stirring up bands of storm clouds.
Tarotora 
I do like the idea of re-casting your old Heirophant card as the Star. She is like a bridge to the Stars, welcoming/inviting/enticing her children to journey back to the Source.
I also like the warmer colors of this Star. That inspired me to some web searches, where I came across the Brown Dwarfs, which are at the dividing line (or bridge) between planets and stars, and generally have masses between 15 and 75 Jupiters. There’s that Jupiter connection again! The brown and red colors of the lower mass stars I think fits well with your new Star imagery.
Thanks Gary! I was totally forgetting that stars were actually distant suns! That really brings it together with the lion symbolism for me, and is a good argument for the 8/Strength people!
I’ll have to read about dwarf stars now.
To me the Hierophant and the Star are indeed connected, both give Guidance. The Heirophant is guidance from a human place so it has it’s faults and difficulties. The Star however, is guidance from something very much NOT human, something perfect and pure and exact. Stars are the map that exist without us, know absolutely nothing about us but we made them into one of the most powerful tools humanity has ever discovered. They made our world, perception and, experience bigger than what it was. I like the idea of ancient sailors sitting on the deck of their creaking, rolling ships using the stars to navigate their travels AND to sweeten their dreams. The stars just shine and shine and we see ourselves in them because we see ourselves everywhere. We have no other way to perceive, we are our own and only basis for comparison. So I have to say that the original Star is to me the perfect one. It is cold and distant and faceless but that is what makes it beautiful and perfect and exactly what a star is. I wonder if that beautiful lady, the original hierophant, is the woman that rode on the back of the Lion in Strength?
Thank you for your thoughts on the Star Tallierae, beautiful. I hadn’t thought of it but you’re right, she might be the woman who rode on the lion! Even beyond what I have done there is the Babylon story riding on a beast and she is often interpreted as being the church although a corrupt one. Thanks for that line of thought.