Two cards in conversation

The Fool + The Star

People often bring two cards with a question about what will happen. Olivia reads a pair as a conversation instead: what each card brings, and what appears between them.

  • Both Major Arcana

Carved on both cards

  • The gold eight-pointed star · Seven silver stars

Five ways to read this pair

Try one lens at a time. Write a sentence for each before you read anyone else’s version.

  1. Story

    Read The Fool first, then The Star, as two scenes of one story. What changes between them?

  2. Contrast

    Where do The Fool and The Star pull in different directions, and what does each ask of you?

  3. One colours the other

    Let The Star describe the way of The Fool, as an adjective describes a noun. Then swap them.

  4. A shared symbol

    The same symbol is carved on both: “The gold eight-pointed star” and “Seven silver stars”. Follow it from one image to the other: what stays the same, what changes?

  5. Number, suit and element

    Two Major Arcana: two large themes side by side. Which one is the ground, and which the movement?

One reader’s version

In the Waite-Smith Star a great eight-pointed star shines over the pool; here the Fool already walks beneath one. Together they draw attention to a hope noticed at the start and trusted again after harder passages.

Written for the page of The Fool