The Star tarot card meaning: upright, reversed and symbols

The Star is card XVII of the Major Arcana, the quiet card of hope that comes after the Tower. Under a great star a figure kneels by a pool and pours water onto the land and back into the water.

The sky is open again. This page explains what the Star means upright and reversed, the symbols in the 1909 card and how a card once read as loss became the card of hope.

Here is the Star at a glance.

The Golden Dawn gave the Star the sign Aquarius, the water-bearer, and the letter Tzaddi, the “fish-hook”. Crowley later swapped Tzaddi with the Emperor’s Heh, after the line “Tzaddi is not the Star” in his Book of the Law (1904), so Thoth-based books give the Star Heh. Air as an element follows from Aquarius, an air sign, even though the figure pours water: the sign is named for the jug, not for its element.

The card: what Pamela Colman Smith drew

The 1909 card shows an unclothed woman kneeling by a pool under a sky of stars, pouring water from two jugs onto the water and the land. Waite described “a great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars”, and a figure who pours “Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and land”.

The great star and the seven stars. One large star with eight points shines among seven smaller ones. Many readers link the seven stars to the seven classical planets, or to the Pleiades. Whatever the reading, they are guiding lights in a clear sky.

Pouring water. The figure pours water from two jugs, one into the pool and one onto the land. Feeling flows back into life and into the earth. Renewal in this card is quiet and gradual.

One knee on land, one foot in water. Like the angel of Temperance, the figure balances between land and water. The healing touches both the practical and the emotional.

The bird in the tree. On a tree in the background a bird sits on a branch. Readers often call it an ibis, the bird of the Egyptian god of wisdom, Thoth. It is a small sign of thought returning after the storm.

Upright meaning

Upright, the Star is hope after the storm. A naked woman kneels by a pool under a night sky, pouring water from two jugs, one into the pool and one onto the land, where it runs back in five streams. Above her shines one great eight-pointed star and seven smaller ones. A bird sits in a tree on a hill behind her.

Coming straight after the Tower, the Star describes healing: calm after a crisis, renewed faith and the sense that the worst is over. It is a gentle card. It does not promise sudden success. It promises that you can recover, that your inner resources are flowing again and that the future is open.

The Star also speaks of honesty and vulnerability. The figure is unclothed and unhurried. She does not need to protect herself. In a reading she often invites you to rest, to hope and to share your gifts without fear.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, the light is still there but harder to see. The card can describe discouragement, loss of faith or a recovery that feels slower than it should. It can also describe giving so much to others that you have nothing left to pour.

Sometimes the reversed Star points to hope placed in something unrealistic, or to cynicism adopted as protection after a disappointment.

Ask where you can find one small source of hope today, such as a walk, a friend or something beautiful. The reversed Star is rarely the end of hope. It is a reminder to refill your own jug.

In love, work and spirituality

In love. Upright: Healing, openness and hope; a gentle, sincere relationship. Reversed: Disillusionment, or holding back out of fear of being hurt again.

At work. Upright: Inspiration, renewed motivation and recognition for your gifts. Reversed: Lack of confidence, or creative work that feels uninspired.

With money. Upright: Recovery after loss; optimism with steady care. Reversed: Pessimism about money, or unrealistic hopes of rescue.

In spiritual practice. Upright: Renewed faith, meditation and connection with something larger. Reversed: Spiritual discouragement; feeling disconnected from your guidance.

As feelings. Hopeful, sincere affection. The person feels calm and open with you.

As a person. Gentle, idealistic and generous; someone who inspires others.

As advice. Rest, hope and pour from what you have, steadily.

Reading the Star: positions, pairs and yes or no

In the past position: Healing after a hard time. In the present position: Hope is returning. Let it in.

In the future position: Renewal and a calmer, brighter season. As advice: Water one small hope every day.

When the Star shows up among mostly Minor cards, give it extra weight: the theme of hope runs under the whole question.

Pairs matter too. Next to The Sun, it can mean hope turning into joy and success. Next to The Moon, it can mean hope in uncertain times: keep the light in view. Next to Temperance, it can mean healing that takes patience.

In modern yes or no readings, the Star leans yes. It is one of the most hopeful cards in the deck, so it says yes.

The history and art behind the card

In the Tarot de Marseille pattern the card is called L’Étoile, the Star. The early Italian Star cards show a woman holding a star, or astronomers looking up at the sky. The pouring figure under the stars became the standard image in the Marseille pattern.

The meaning changed over time. Waite was dismissive of the hope reading and wrote that “the summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of hope”. Modern readers chose hope anyway, and today almost everyone reads the Star as the card of healing after the storm.

That change is a good reminder of how tarot works: meanings are not fixed by any single author. They grow out of the picture and the community of readers who use it.

When A. E. Waite published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910, he listed these divinatory meanings for the card: “Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says: hope and bright prospects.”

Reversed, he gave: “Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.” Waite himself called the fortune-telling meanings of the trumps “artificial and arbitrary”, and on this site I read the picture first and treat lists like this as history.

In the modern Fool’s Journey, the Star is the first calm after the Tower. The traveler, stripped of false structures, kneels at the water and finds that hope survives when everything else has fallen.

Common questions

Is the Star a yes or no card? Yes. It is one of the most hopeful cards in the deck.

What does the Star mean in love? Hope, healing and gentle openness. It often comes after heartbreak as a sign that love is possible again.

Try this

Try this small spread for the Star. Use it after a hard time, when you want to find hope again.

Affirmation: I renew myself with steady hope and simple care.

Reversed affirmation: I tend one small light when larger faith feels far away.

If you keep a tarot journal, take one of these questions to it: What small hope can I water today? What has healed in me since my last hard time? Where do I find my guiding light?

What next

Cards that sit close to this one are The Tower (the storm before the Star), The Moon (the next card: from clear starlight into the uncertain night) and Temperance (another card of pouring water and gentle balance).

The Star is part of the lesson The Devil to the World in my free Tarot for Beginners course. To keep walking the Major Arcana, read the card before it, The Tower or the card after it, The Moon, or go back to all the card meanings.

For every card with keywords, affirmations and examples, see my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot. If you would like a printable cheat sheet for all 78 cards, my 45-page Tarot Workbook is on Etsy.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), Part II and Part III, section 3.
• Pamela Colman Smith and A. E. Waite, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (London: Rider, 1909).
• Nicolas Conver, Tarot de Marseille (Marseille, 1760).
• Eden Gray, A Complete Guide to the Tarot (New York: Crown, 1970), epilogue “The Fool’s Journey”.
• Lauri Mukkala, The Novice’s Guide to Tarot, entry for The Star.
• Aleister Crowley, 777 (London: Walter Scott, 1909), columns of the Hebrew letters, paths and Tarot trumps.
• Israel Regardie, ed., The Golden Dawn (Chicago: Aries Press, 1937 to 1940), “Book T” and the titles of the trumps.