The XVII of Trumps, the Star, is the card I drew for myself on my 40th birthday.

This card represents the year to come. (For previous cards I have drawn on birthdays in the past, go here: https://caelanhuntress.com/tag/tarot)

What is interesting about this card, in addition to being elegantly symbolic for the year ahead of me, is that I drew it in 2014 as well. Then, as now, I was in a period of poverty and upheaval, and the next 2-3 years were a time of professional and creative growth and recognition.

The Star is in the journey of the Trumps is situated directly after the Tower, the tearing down of old constructs, and offers reprieve and balance after turmoil. The Star is the receiver of divine flow, and the channel from one realm to another.

From the Corax:

The Star is also called the ‘Guiding Light’, and is taken as a symbol of the deep realization that the chosen way is the right one, that the end of this way will be a good one, and that there is perfect harmony between the psychical feeling and the physical doing.

Stars are brilliant, and Brilliance is one of my Core Desired Feelings. My 40th year started with a moment of brilliance. One of my best friends in the world got married on January 6, and he lives in New Zealand, on the other side of the North Island from where I am living. On the morning of the 6th, I took a free rental car (courtesy of transfercar.co.nz) from Wellington to Hamilton, and attended his nuptials. It was a beautiful ceremony, and they asked me to be the MC. As a former circus performer with a decade of experience in the theatre, I find myself most comfortable onstage, and they handed me a microphone for the evening and told me to shine.

Then there was a dance floor. And we danced. At the stroke of midnight, the groom stopped the music, took the microphone, and called me up onstage, to lead the crowd in singing me ‘Happy Birthday.’ It was one of the best birthday presents I have ever received.

My 40th year was started in a moment of brilliance, under the spotlights, onstage, with happy drunken people singing to me. It was marvellous.

This year, I hope that the Star will give me many opportunities to shine onstage, and bring the energy and light of the divine realms into my everyday life. There is so much that is going right in my life right now – my family, my country, my career, my relationships, my health – I’ve got a lot to be grateful for. But in one area of my life – my finances – I’ve been a breath away from disaster so many times recently, and the stress and management of these problems overshadow the rest of my gratitudes.

My hope is that this is the year it all turns around for me. I hope that Ripple gets really big. The Star is a card of hopes, and dreams, and the visual manifestation of those dreams becoming.

Stars are only seen in the dark, and they are dim, distant, and seemingly tiny; but in truth, they are enormous, massive, and so bright that they can pierce the darkness across the cosmos.