March 2-4, 2014: XVII. The Star

[Al-Shariyf]

XVII
THE STAR
(Aquarius)

“In the silence of thy Night, Thou art beautiful, my Silver One, dancing, O my Golden One, ablaze & forth pouring the unending river of the stars. Let me die in thy stream of the many, of the none.”

MEDITATION COLOR: Violet.

HEBREW LETTER: Hé, window. An aperture for allowing Light and Air into the house (Beyth) and for permitting sight. That which admits the Life-breath (Alef) and Light into the Mind. Hé is an aspirant: breath, creative spirit; and the Great Mother of Qabbalah, the Supernal Waters. Second and fourth letters of Yod-Hé-Vav-Hé, with correspondent meanings. Literally, the Hebrew definite article.

CARD NAME: An essential characteristic of a “star” is that it is self-luminous; or (whether in astronomy, art, or entertainment) is radiating or radiant. Its Indo-European root, ster-, resulted in a nearly identical word in numerous ancient languages (Greek aster, Persian sitareh, etc.).

ESOTERIC MEANING: The Constituting Consciousness. It constitutes the Substance of Creation in pure darkness. According to masters of contemplation, this is that darkness referred to in scripture, “and thick darkness its swaddling band.”

TREE of LIFE: Tifereth to Chokmah. (Links ‘Beauty’ and ‘Wisdom’; or the Ego-center and Infinite Will; or ‘the Son’ and ‘the Father.’ The Sun newly understood in the context of the entire universe of stars. Tifereth is one star’s incarnated extension; Chokmah is the fundamental Wisdom-Will that motivates it and sets its course in the universe.)

ESOTERIC TITLE: The Daughter of the Firmament, the Dweller Between the Waters

TANTRIC & ALCHEMICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Female orgasm.

DIVINATION: Hope, faith, revelation, insight, unexpected help, clarity of vision, realization of possibilities, spiritual insight. Or, if badly configured, dreaminess, deceived hope, judgment errors, disappointment, etc.

[Ankh]

I imagined my aura and body are filled with a Violet liquid fire, while slowing counting my breaths.; the Goddess is looking deeply into the chalice, (which could also serve as a caldron) it is a microcosm of the macrocosm to the left. I get the feeling that she is drawing substance from the limitless with her right hand while condensing it through her left hand into material forms.

[Takamba]

By all means, the spine is straight.

[Al-Shariyf]

I didn't think I did so well with this card but here are my results:

Day one
The violet sphere feels velvety and is silent. I am profoundly aware of the silence and the activity happening in that silence.

I am present to space, first and foremost. This card, more so than the others draws my attention to the space in which the rest of the activity in the card is taking place in.

The space, although it has the appearance of being empty, has a form to it, shaping and molding the direction & motion of the energy - the energy has conformed to it. It gives shape to the light force emanating from the Star in the upper left corner - The Star of Babalon.

The light & Star dust of the Star of Babalon has created everything else in the card, except for Nuit.

I'm absolutely mesmerized by the infinite swirling of this card.

Day Two t
Tonight I am fascinated by the way the spiral pattern repeats itself all throughout the card.

In a very real sense, this card is all about as above, so below.

Star of Babalon - desire, higher desire, inner light, wisdom, intuition & true love

True Love creates a space for works of love. Which, in essence, is what that gigantic planet in the center of the card. It's cyclical in it's nature, like the motion of the star that wove it into existence.

And here, at the forefront of the card, we see the creator of it - the mother of it all, Nuit made manifest, preoccupied by her love of all of her creations - She is Nothing, creating Something from Nothing, with Love.

Day Three
Tonight I am struck by the idea that I am a reflection of the universe. Not my ego or my personality, but that Star that I truly am, in the company of stars moving in the direction of universe.

There is an experience I have when I look at this card that I just can't put into words. The sensation of this experience is one of being lit up from within.

Is this world that we see in the center of the card not a world created, governed and ruled by love itself?

Nuit bathes herself in the possibility of her love being shared and fulfilled

[danica]

-Flow, openness...
- Her body serves as a channel for Starry Fluid from above into the lower spheres, from the sky to the Earth.
- She carries through Wisdom and Truth; on Earth, it immediately gains stable forms (crystals).
- The Truth. Purity. The Secret Light.
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- A Star: supreme Initiator for human being. It’s enough for a human to look at the stars, to communicate with the night sky (however he/she finds it possible), to gain all the Wisdom and knowledge needed. This is how the first human became human – evolved into what human is now, by his own definition: by looking at the night sky. Human being essentially is what he/she is in and through his/her relationship with the stars.

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- The predominant tone of the color-experience is: Home.
- Love, pure Love. Not as an affection, emotion, fondness etc., but the essence of that all, that which expresses itself through these various phenomena we call “love”, but is much wider, impersonal, creates the Universe as it is.
- The Love of God toward Man.
- This card seems more mystical than any other thus far…
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- Window: a specific, “non-corporeal” passage into other dimensions (we do not go through it as we do through the door, but we do go with our sight/eyes, and we breathe the air that enters through it).
- I can not analyze, nor think or speak about this card; I’m overcome in something that can only be described as trance of surrender… Love… (without warmth, without desire, somehow completely empty, but there is such Fullnes in this Emptiness!)
/Adoration in silence/

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- The card is a pictorial representation of direct communication between the conscious mind and the Will. Insights, intuition. Adept as an open channel for Wisdom.
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- In the vast dark space there is nothing but small dots of light, scattered around, in the distance; a male figure, sitting in lotus asana, appears; I imagine going up, and up, and up, as much as I can stand it, to the brick of feeling that I will faint; I’m in the same vast, dark space; but wonderful feeling of Peace pervades it; I see dots of light exploding into greater dots in the distance, then groups of stars, and trails of them, like parts of a galaxy. This Path is called “star” and not “stars” because it represents an individual relationship of Hadit with everything else, with Nuit – I am being told this, but without words, without images.
- I focused on my physical body again, and finished the meditation. I feel that a seed of something completely New is planted in my mind regarding understanding of the relationship of Will and Freedom, something so strange for the mind that it needs time to process it in order to make it actually conscious, as if the conscious mind would crack now if I tried to fully perceive it.

[Indigo32]

Behind in regular Theta's. Been working on Holy Day Med's.

Very welcoming, comfy card. The stars of Babylon manifest waves of light/energy throughout the card. Out of the darkness. Everything is transfixed with the stars' energies. Outer space, planetary, and personal. She pours the energies on and into herself, absorbing them. And then passes them on until they crystalize beneath her feet. Soaks the everything through herself, and exudes them in reality.

[Anael Lucis]

Meditation 1

Predominantly feminine energy reinforced with feminine symbolism – Star of Babalon; cups and also small rose flowers on the lower right – both – metaphorical Yonis, pouring water – Yin nature – waters of Binah; lines are organic, curvilinear, flowing and elegant in a liking of a feminine polarity; color scheme is cooling, Lunar. The feel of the card is dreamy, sense of intuitiveness, it embodies Lunar quality. Sense of solitude, soul searching; retrieving from noise of the mundane world and going within.
Letter He - here it reminds me of an image of a window into one’s soul; also looking out from within, from the perspective of being rooted deeply within oneself.
There is a sense of gentle slow perpetual motion.

Meditation 2

Nuit energy – all pervasive vastness and the dwelling habitation of the stars; blue color prominent in the image.
Three 7-pointed stars appear in the elements of air, water and earth in the card. From the edges of the stars swirl out lines of flow and motion within each element, it is a spiral which is a sacred geometric form pervading numerous forms of life and elements of the Universe in both miniature and vast scales. Galaxies are in the form of a spiral, and so is DNA. Spiral is also representative of hypnotic state of mind, which is a state in which the conscious mind retrieves giving way for the unconscious to take over. This ties into the dreamy appearance of the card. Dreams are the domain of the unconscious, and we normally sleep and dream in the night-time when the stars are out. Hence stars are connected to the unconscious, and not to mention Moon and water – both of which are present in the card. Therefore there is a strong sense of tapping into one’s unconscious, and with the Hebrew letter He we could conclude that the card might represent a window that reveals the working of one’s unconscious mind.

Meditation 3

The woman pouring the waters is the same image portrayed by the Aquarius which is the corresponding sign of the card; her hair is reminiscent of a watery wave; by her feet is what seems to me like a clear crystalline substance – in appearance like crystalized water. The purifying quality of crystals and the purifying attributes of water could indicate purification/refinement of the Self through the gate or window of the unconscious. By her feet on the lower right are a few small butterflies indicative of transformation. The image has a strong surreal quality as if it has been dreamed up. The scale of various elements are not at all reflecting the scale in reality which makes it more-so dream like, again alluding to the realm of the unconscious. There is a sense of solitude, which further points to the inner experience of an individual as she journeys through the landscape of her archetypal inner world.