A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars—also of eight rays. The female figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the water. She pours Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising ground and on the right a shrub or tree, whereon a bird alights. The figure expresses eternal youth and beauty. The star is l'étoile flamboyante, which appears in Masonic symbolism, but has been confused therein. That which the figure communicates to the living scene is the substance of the heavens and the elements. It has been said truly that the mottoes of this card are "Waters of Life freely" and "Gifts of the Spirit."
The summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of hope. On other planes it has been certified as immortality and interior light. For the majority of prepared minds, the figure will appear as the type of Truth unveiled, glorious in undying beauty, pouring on the waters of the soul some part and measure of her priceless possession. But she is in reality the Great Mother in the Kabalistic Sephira Binah, which is supernal Understanding, who communicates to the Sephiroth that are below in the measure that they can receive her influx.
the plate, in waite's words · the painted card will hang here in time
In divination
Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says—hope and bright prospects.
Reversed:Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.
The library's note
Past the Tower's ruin, a naked woman kneels at the water's edge pouring two ewers, one foot on land and one in the water, beneath a great eight-rayed star ringed by seven lesser ones. Waite calls the picture's message "Waters of Life freely" and "Gifts of the Spirit," setting aside the "tawdry explanations" that reduce the card to a simple omen of hope. In his deeper reading she is the Great Mother of the Kabalistic Binah, communicating downward "in the measure that they can receive her influx." Coming after catastrophe, the Star is the trumps' first unguarded figure: nothing veils her, nothing armors her.
a young page · the keeper's voice pass on the note is still to come