The Star

Upright

The binding term of the material septenary. Pe is the mouth and the tongue — expression, that which is poured out. The Star follows the Tower in Papus's order and the sequence carries the meaning: after a structure has failed, what remains is the capacity to pour again. Hope in his reading is a mechanism rather than a mood — the resumption of flow, demonstrated by a figure emptying two vessels onto ground that has just been cleared.

Reversed

Pouring into ground that will not hold it — effort resumed too soon, before there is anything for it to fill. Or hope kept deliberately as a substitute for a plan, which in the material septenary is the most expensive possible error.

Correspondences

Papus's number

17

Hebrew letter

Pe (פ)

Hieroglyph

The mouth; the tongue — that which pours out

Septenary

Third septenary (15–21), the world of Nature — third term, the neutral principle binding necessity to ruin (Vau)

Divinatory sense

Hope

In a Spread

At the commencement, the matter begins immediately after a loss — read the whole reading as recovery. In opposition, an optimism that is not doing any work. At equilibrium the Star holds the situation open, which is its proper use. As the result Papus is measured: what is promised is the capacity to begin again, not the thing that will be built.