Birth Card Notes:
Star / Strength

Imagery — Things to Look at and Contemplate:

Postures and Gestures — kneeling and emptying / bending and controlling
(relaxed and gentle vs. focused and strong)

Colors — flesh tones and blue / white, yellow and orange
(ease vs. intensity)

Clothing — nude / robed and girdled
(unselfconscious vs. highly self-aware)

Symbols —


Star: pitchers and pouring streams make patterns in the pool and on the ground that balance the pattern of the stars above
(the effortless equality of Above and Below, near and far, humanity and nature)

Strength: girdle of roses, lemniscate, controlling hands of female figure, teeth, mane and tucked tail of lion
(the difference in opposition between the human and the natural, and the constant tension between them)

Foreground Figures —


Star: nude blonde goddess
(the same woman as in Strength but unopposed by any contradictory impulse)

Strength: lion and clothed blonde goddess
(visual allegory of the relationship between power and control)

Landscapes — prominent pool, sky, and stars with integrated foreground
figure / indistinct, unobtrusive landscape with prominent foreground figures
(the self-regulation of nature vs. the importance of effort)

Astrology:

Aquarius (Star) — peaceful and optimistic; visionary and original; open and approachable; virginal and trusting

Leo (Strength) — charismatic and energetic; loud, proud, powerful and willful; cheerful and confident; sexually potent

Predilection:

Optimistic and relaxed vs. Vigilant and concerned

Flexible and soft vs. Insistent and strong

Accepting vs. Demanding

The Star and Strength share a root in the creative motherhood of The Empress. The women in all three cards are one divine form in different costumes, with different tasks. To The Empress, all her children are beloved, and seen and treated equally. The Star sees benign beauty and goodness in nature and herself. She trusts what she sees and leaves it alone. Strength sees the raw, immediate power in nature and in herself. She controls and contains it like a dam works with a river.

The Star is remote, cool and calm. Strength is hot, intense and close. For the unclothed Star, the world and her own nature are fine as they are, and can only suffer from interference. For Strength, fully clothed, the world and her own nature need restraints to work properly.

The Star is the innate perfection in things, their natural rightness and goodness, and their connection with what is highest and deepest in the creative process. She fears nothing in nature because for her, there's nothing in nature to be afraid of. She sees nothing in nature to fix because nothing in nature is wrong. Her motto is "Leave things alone and they'll be alright." The job of The Star is to cooperate with the nature of things, to witness its perfection, and to resist the urge to improve it.

Strength is the two-fold power at the center of things, the expansive and the contractive power, force and form. She knows they must be kept in balance, and that takes constant vigilance and effort. She cannot press too hard on the source of power or she'll cut off its breath and make it weak. She cannot relax her grip on it, or it will expand violently and swallow her whole. The job of Strength is to keep the power of nature in check, and release it as needed and necessary.

Unintegrated and imperfectly realized, The Star can be amoral, eccentric and cranky. She may be undiscriminating, and unaware and in denial when things get broken or go wrong. She may routinely support lost causes and put herself in harms way, in the belief that she'll be OK no matter what. And she can be peevish, whiney, and aggrieved when things don't work out.

Strength can be moody, sullen and prone to fits of temper. She may eat too much or starve herself. She can be a voracious lover or become celibate without warning. She can go from baseless self-confidence to irrational timidity. She can make herself weak and frightened, a pussycat with a weak meow or she can be larger than life, throw her weight around, laugh, cry and howl at peak volume, a lion out of control.

Together they are graceful, beautiful, peaceful and strong, with their powers and talents in perfect balance and harmony, and all their virtues at the service of the world.

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More Birth Card Notes:

Wheel of Fortune / Magician Justice / High Priestess Hanged Man / Empress Death / Emperor Temperance / Hierophant Devil / Lovers Tower / Chariot Moon / Hermit Sun / Wheel / Magician Judgement / High Priestess World / Empress

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