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Traditional interpretation According to A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe. Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.

Calamity befalls us all. Some of us constantly; some of us when we expect it least; some when we expect it most. Tragedy is cruel and unpredictable. Much like entrapment in a burning tower, we cannot always escape with creativity or ingenuity. Do bad things happen to good people? Are there good people? Do bad things happen at random? If disaster is in fact democratic, there is a sense of anarchical justice to that. But who is in fact to say? The beauty of disaster is the opportunity for choice in the face of it: not a choice whether or not it strike, but what to do when it does. Your actions may not save your fate or anyone else’s, but always we have the choice between what is upright and what is easy. 

Traditional interpretation According to A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says--hope bright prospects, Reversed: Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.

Some readings of this card suggest negativity, but as evidenced most of my interpretations of these cards, I think that a large part of negativity is outlook. How could one interpret the stars in any way other than wondrous and hopeful? If nothing else, that is the world as I believe it should be. So here she is- a star. She fills the frame with her visibly strong yet vulnerable form- pouring water into the water and onto the land. She seems magical and of religious importance, but we don’t quite know what she is in fact up to- much like the stars. 

Traditional interpretation According to A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.

The moon does bring a sense of foreboding, doesn’t she? Why else would we have prolific fear of the dark, endless lore of terrifying creatures that only come out by moonlight? There’s also a certain mystery and romance to the moonlight- a sensual danger that only comes with a hint of uncertainty and melodrama. We are all of us creatures of the day. And of the night. We are all different by moonlight than by daylight. Psychologists and doctors call it “our shadow.” How very appropriate. By moonlight we have no shadow at all; we are the shadow. 

Traditional interpretation According to A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot: happiness and contentment, vitality, self-confidence and success

There are always times in every life that represent simple, honest celebration- unadulterated, uncomplicated victory. Our sun- we see her as warm, life-giving, hot even. Places closer to the equator and therefore the sun teem with heat, life forms, and tropical waters. It was recently pointed out to me that even our beloved sun must also be feared- come to close to her you’ll die. Remain exposed with no shelter, you’ll die. Even our warmest, most simple, glowing celebrations and victories must be balanced, tempered and even feared. 

Traditional interpretation According to A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot: judgement, rebirth, inner-calling, absolution, karma, causality, second chance

Human beings fear death. The most enlightened among us try to claim we don’t fear death, but dying. We all fear both. Human beings fear the unknown, and unless there is a totally unpublicized level of attainable enlightenment, then no one does in fact know precisely what dying, death and the afterlife entail. At best, we have our conjectures- everything ranging from superstition to faith to possible echoes of other lifetimes or whispers from the other side. The nature of the human condition is in large part a confinement to the human condition. Dogs are furry balls of basic instinct and impulse; they likely do not consider or solve eternal problems because it would seem that their senses respond to their temporal needs for the sake of their bodily survival. Humans are much the same, and vary a little in our ability to perceive other, larger frequencies so to speak. We all find ourselves alarmingly equal in the face of death and the afterlife. If we have any merit, we at the very least have no idea if that has any bearing on the afterlife. It would seem that at death or at the judgement, the slate is cleaned; we are rendered equals; judged by otherworldly standards; laid bare; in a new game entirely. It would seem that very few cultures believe in death as the end; we seem to believe it’s a new birth of some kind. Even total oblivion would be a new beginning of some kind. Natural law indicates that nothing really dies; energy is recirculated, reincarnated and reborn. Matter as well. I personally believe that- regardless of what corner of the world you hail from and whatever you believe- that facing that uncertainty with love, bravery and humility behooves us all. 

Traditional interpretation According to A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot: Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.

The World as a woman becomes sort of the Venus of our deck. She’s our eve- standing alone in space with her serpent companion. Representing the earliest of all archetypes, she is mother of all; she is the whole thing; she is the world.