Starlight, Silence and Stillness
Ambience of the Uncanny #3
Reminders:
January Consultations Now Available
Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide To Divinatory Literacy available for Pre-order
Dear Reader,
Recently I had a client asked me “how do I confront the fear”, which in the context of the reading was really “What do I do when the devil’s lies keep me bound tight, struggling in shame and subjected to their unending domination.”
And so I shuffled the deck and the next card that came was the Star.
And maybe looking at the arcanum, the first thing that your spirit hears too is, Be Still.
Both The Devil and the Star come under the domain of Saturn, and so fear is always in relation to hope. But in this particular depiction we see that stuckness is a contradiction of stillness. To be stuck is to be beholden and entrapped by treachery. The Devil is a blood-stained gate. Because this a card in decks in so many hands, and so probably pulled daily, means that we must think anew about how we are positioned within intimate brutalities everyday. The Devil is a slavery we may or may not survive and so in its dailiness we know slavery is not yet past and continues to shape subjectivities in the present.
The Devil has burned into the flesh and so it takes so much time to understand the manner in which we somatize such deep seated generational trauma. So the Star sitting naked with her defenses stripped away tells us we can afford to take time for recovery in a peaceful, reflective solitude.
Something of silence is unsettling. We fidget or we feel forsaken. But fear need not be fought so much as sat with.
The Devil’s torment attempts to unmoor our sense of meaning. And so we get activated, we are triggered, we respond to fear in a frenzy and all of sudden there seems to be no place to put our faith. And how are you to act in good faith to your calling even though success is not guaranteed?
But the Star says to be steadfast. It says to be still and silent and let forces more ancient and more capable continue to care for you, let them settle your spirit. Let them continue to guide you. Fear has a common face in rejection, so the Star’s simple advice of stillness does not mean it will be easy to embrace an apparent evil within our without. What, when and who we righteously condemn is often a conciliatory approach toward our own short-comings that perhaps we secretly hate. But beneath all of that hard, harsh judgement is such a fragile well of grief, the depth of which I could not imagine if I tried.
And it’s the sorrow of abandonment that only wants for some company through the tears that all others leave behind. So the Star prays for us that we finally find some peace, and that for a moment our soul will be set at ease floating through a moment of release. So if nots prayer, let your words be few in the face of fear. Let your focus settle on ephemeral forms of a fixed numinosity, see your own sacred face.
In some Star cards you see Pandora’s box open, releasing all the Spites and Furies that flood the mind, body and being of humanity, but somehow the Star of Hope was locked in too, yet when emancipated does not fly away. And thank Goddess because this Star can transfix our gaze, steady our uncertainties and fortify our spirit to believe that all is not lost. This is the Star that will never leaver your side.
For some Saints the love of God is truest when it is too deep for words, but I try not to measure the felt force of faith. Christmas has always been a hard holiday for me but never more than this winter season have I wished for a silent night of peace. And for so many, many reasons never have I prayed for a miracle more.
Maybe we are being made into saints who endure hellish darkness but still they strive to speak of peace.
Certain modes of knowing are untranslatable. So for the word to not forsake us it must be an event, or it must empty us of that which would cause us to renege on our integrity, on the vows and oaths we make before the Divine, for the benefit of all.
So for a story that may be more customary to express these considered soulful concepts I can tell you that the Star is a grandfather swearing to God, swearing to his grandchildren that Santa Claus is real. And his testimony keeps them believing. And he keeps them hoping and meditating on the miraculous through the late night of Christmas Eve turning into Christmas morning, and he says if they keep watching and truly believe then these young children will see some evidence of their faith, even if just from the corner of their eyes.
When faith gets passed down, starlight preserves our innocence too.
Sadly, sacred sites are being deliberately targeted by colonial states, so we must keep demanding for an end to genocide. Stars endure and so will we.
-Christopher
My decan course in the Tarot, TENZ, is course guided by Starlight. Its a shepherding, whereby we walk together toward a dignity that defies that dehumanizing domination. This class is a hybrid course, whereby you will learn queer, feminist, and ecological, and more frameworks to consider the cards and charts of the cohort. Each month we cover everyone’s chart one house, one planet and placement at a time, providing ongoing counseling, collaborative consideration, and cathartic ritual. We establish a tarot practice that is anchored in astrological historic cosmic coherence. Committing to this offering is to accept invitation to a field and frequency of devotion, right relations and revelation.
And for the holidays, for you my red readers, I am offering a 20% discount (thats $400!) from now till the New Year for you to sign up. Use the code “STARSHOWER” to redeem on my site. I’ll be here if you have any questions.
And if you prefer to do a solo decan walk, the workshop bundle of TENZ is on sale for self-paced study and divinatory application.
Lastly, Thank you for reading The Red Read — your support allows me to keep doing this work.
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