The inner Star.
On an inner level, the image of Pandora and the Star of Hope is a symbol of that part of us which, despite disappointment, depression and loss can still cling to a sense of meaning and a future which might grow out of the unhappiness of the past. The Star does not represent a fully formed conviction of future plans, or solution to one’s problems, or a guide to action. Like the cards of the Hermit and the Hanged Man, the card of the Star is a card of waiting, for the sense of hope is a fragile light which glimmers and guides but does not dispel the darkness altogether. Hope is therefore shown as a female figure, because it is the irrational side of us – the intuition – which perceives the Star in the middle of the noxious swarm of Spites. Hope does not make the Spites go away, or undo the vengeance which Zeus has unleashed. But somehow, in some mysterious way, it offers faith, and therefore in the image Pandora’s eyes are fixed not on the unhappiness of the human condition, but on this vague, irrational, inexplicable sense that soon there will be a dawn.
This quality of hope has nothing to do with planned expectations. It is connected with something deep within us which has sometimes been called the will to live, and which – despite being a subjective experience with no visible with no concrete reason – can often make difference between life and death. Physicians know this about an ill patient – that the individual who has a sense of hope and a will to live can often find the inner resources to battle with a disease which would otherwise kill. Likewise individuals who have suffered tragic circumstances or been faced with challenges which are far greater than the ordinary human capacity to cope – such as those who experienced the imprisonment of concentration camps in Germany and Poland during the Second World War, or saw families destroyed in the Russian invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1948 and Hungary in 1956 – have often expressed their belief that it was some inner feeling of faith and meaning that meant the difference between survival and complete collapse and death. Hope is a profound and mysterious thing, for it would seem that it can transcend anything life offers us in the way of catastrophe. Yet it does not arise from an act of will, any more than the Star of Hope appears in the myth of Pandora through any deliberate action on her part. It is simply there, mysteriously locked in the chest along with all woes, and if the individual can perceive its delicate glimmering then one’s response to difficulties is radically altered. Thus the Star, the guiding vision of hope and promise, arises not from intention but out of the ashes of the Tower which has been destroyed. The Fool waits amidst the rubble, without any clear sense of how or what to rebuild. In the midst of this confusion and collapse of old attitudes and structures, the faint, elusive yet potent Star of Hope rises.
Gypsy Magic 
Leave a comment