The Star

Major Arcana · number 17 · La Stella

The Star, plate by Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1910

Upright

The Star shines after the storm. Waite records two opposite readings, loss, theft, privation and abandonment on one side, hope and bright prospects on the other, and the truth is that they belong together: hope is born exactly where something was missing. If these days you feel drained, perhaps after a farewell or a failure, it is no accident that a horizon opens up now. In love trust returns, in health energy, at work a new idea. The practical advice: do not spend this light on too many projects. Choose one and water it every day, without hurry.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says—hope and bright prospects.»

Reversed

Reversed, the Star looks into the mirror instead of the sky: arrogance, haughtiness, and in the end impotence, because whoever believes they have already arrived stops trying. If you notice you are treating the people around you with condescension, a colleague, a partner, a relative asking for attention, it is no accident that you also feel strangely stuck. Be careful: pride isolates, and once you are alone hope goes out. It is not a sentence. The practical advice: ask for help with something you think you can do alone, and listen to the answer without defending yourself.

Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
«Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.»

Source

Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) Part III, § 3, The Greater Arcana and their Divinatory Meanings https://archive.org/details/a.-e.-waite-the-pictorial-key-to-the-tarot