Star Above, Star Below

Page of Cups ~ The Star, Tarot de St. Croix ~ The Stars, Devas of Creation Oracle

Stars are the theme today in both my Tarot and Oracle card draws. We tend to think of stars as occupying a place in the sky but I recently learned of something called the Earth Star, a chakra that is the grounding point of the whole chakra system and which each of us has located in the soles of our feet connecting deep into the earth to a place of light. I love this idea of light in matter, like the lotus in the card above, life-giving and grounding roots hidden in the muck, flower blooming in the light. I've been working with both this and the root chakra and today after drawing my Tarot cards I brought my earth star chakra consciously into the mandala asking for guidance from it through the devas in the Devas of Creation Oracle by Cilla Conway.

Tarot de St. Croix by Lisa St. Croix

Seeing all the stars in this reading made me smile. Nothing like a bit of literalism from the cards. At the same time I felt a depth of gratitude for the wisdom and inspiration of my own internal star. This depiction of The Star from the Tarot de St. Croix shows Nut, Egyptian goddess of the heavens. Her body arches across the sky wearing a robe of stars that reaches the length of her body and up onto her head to form a crown. Here, in the deep velvet night, she is bending over a desert village below her. She directs her blessings onto a small pool of beautiful, clear water which flows outwards and into a generous river to run beside the village.

In the desert water is a valued element, sacred and, for its scarcity, to be used with intention and gratitude. Here she gives what is most precious, water. Her pose is one of ease, there is no effort here, she simply Is, flowing with and as beauty, inspiration, guiding light, life. I tend to think of The Star as muse and inspiration rather than hope, as she who nourishes hope rather than hope, the inner vision which sustains the heart, itself.

Beside her the Page of Cups, she of imagination and dreamy visions, sits on the water's own version of a star, a lotus. Her nakedness speaks to her vulnerability, her shining unadorned spirit. She wears a garland of flower-stars on her head, echoing both Nut and Innana, Babylonian queen of Heaven and Earth, who is often depicted wearing a crown of stars. Behind her three smaller lotuses are in bloom speaking to her creative powers. In her hands she holds a small pool of water and she meditates here on the waters of life, her head naturally inclined towards and in deference to the heart. In so doing she naturally and unselfconsciously calls forth the majestic and inner life-giving energy of The Star. The Universe can't help but respond as we offer it the gift of our presence unmediated by the egoic self. In many ways this card echoes for me that biblical line, Ask and ye shall receive. Which doesn't mean, ask and you'll get what you asked for, but instead something subtler, more lasting than that to the effect of, in the asking itself is the receiving. Asking opens us, it softens us. To ask is to be vulnerable, to hope, to dance with the unknown. To ask is to claim space on this earth. 

The Stars ~ Devas of Creation Oracle ~ Cilla Conway

Claiming space is an integral part of both root chakra and earth star chakra work. With the latter one connects to the very energy of the Earth herself as we're asked to visualize long roots growing from the soles of our feet downwards some 18 inches into the earth and connecting to a source of light there, our own Earth Star. In this way She roots us deep into her womb. Today I brought my earth star chakra into the mandala asking for guidance through the devas from the Devas of Creation deck. I drew the Deva of Stars 👁👁

The LWB describes this pic as the dance of twin beings who comprise a star: light and energy. It goes on to speak of Inanna and her crown of stars. The synchronicities between the three cards I drew today abound and are compelling in their clarity, their stark 'hello'. Together they form a strong affirmation for me to continue working with a focus, the earth star chakra, that I kind of tacked on to by whim.

But whim is the point of The Star card. It's an inspirational impulse that bypasses reason, logos and the analytical mind and goes straight to the heart of what engages our creativity, our sense of beauty, our healing for at its root The Star energy is healing energy. Sometimes it's as simple and as clear as that.