The Star Woman

On the solar eclipse. Imbas Dispatch #52

Hello Shining Ones,

I’ve just spent a magical evening here in Dublin with family, friends and neighbours witnessing moon and sun in a dance of shadow and light. It reminded me of an Irish folktale about a dream of a star that I shared a good while back and which now feels ready to be known again.

So here we are with the Star Hag.

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The Star

‘The Star’ from Leonora Carrington’s Tarot

‘The Star Woman shows, how through our creative imagination, we can be freed from bondage to a cyclic pattern each to live out his individual potential. Like the planets, we are all held within a specific orbit by a power beyond our control, but within our own prescribed boundaries, each of us destined to shine forth in a way uniquely our own.’

Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey

What do you feel when you dream into the image of the star? The symbolism that the star holds for us is as vast as the cosmos itself. Unlike the sun, our earth star, which we have an immediate connection with - it provides us with life, and can also scorch us - the stars of the night hold a different resonance: softer, more ethereal, and ancient in ways, as they connect us to the transcendental. The starlight that glows in the night sky began its journey to us millennia ago, illustrating to us the endurance of its creativity, its destiny.

Our ancestors gazed upon the same stars as we do, and worshipped them. The great megalithic star-temples scattered across this island are testament to this. There are many myths across many cultures about stars. One of the most well-known is of Gilgamesh, the semi-divine Sumerian King, who has a dream of a star falling from heaven, which his mother, Ninsun, the cow goddess, interprets for him and tells him that she herself created the star; it is a gift from the divine.

In Jungian psychology, the star is often associated with the archetype of the Self, the symbol of wholeness. The path towards the Self in this sense is the path to becoming. As the saying goes, we are made from stardust; it’s already within us. Dreams of stars can allude to the symbolism of the star as new awareness, of following our inner compass, of renewal and soul-growth.

Today, it’s interesting to reflect how light pollution can obscure our view of the stars, how we have created artificial light especially in societies where the conscious, logic, rational approach to life is glorified. Whereas stars and the dreaming time are eternal wayshowers into the unconscious, into our inner treasures.

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I created this collage following a dream I had of the Cailleach, the great crone herself and her staff that connected soil and stars. (I share about this dream in this short video).

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Star Hag

As it can be difficult to find material on Celtic Dreaming, I’ve been rooting around sources for the past few years and am finding a trove of dreaming lore. One such example is a folktale I found on Dúchas, our national folklore collection.

In the story, which is said to have transpired not very long ago, a woman dreamt of a star that fell from the heavens. Where it landed pointed to a place near an old church, a holy site, a resting sanctuary of the ancestors. The dream repeated itself for another night, and yet another - three nights in total, a sacred triplicity of dreaming about this star. On the last night, the woman heard a disembodied voice, the dream maker say, “A treasure of gold and silver is there.”

When she woke, she told the menfolk about this dream, who then conspired to go to the spot near the old church at the dead of night, spades over shoulders, and begin to dig for the star treasure. When they arrived at the site, a storm of owls, the cailleacha na hoíche, the ‘witches of night’ in our native tongue, and leather-winged bats, descended upon them, until they found themselves in a dark tunnel.

Out of the darkness, appeared an old hag, holding starlight in her hand. All about their feet lay glistening golden chests and ornaments of silver, as the dream maker had foretold. But they could do nothing with these treasures as they were prisoners of the hag. All they could do was remain as they were until daylight broke, guiding them out of the tunnel. There, they found themselves far from home, in another part of Ireland, unknown to them.

The tunnel was never found again, and all in this tale have passed, but the star still beckons to another spot where this treasure can be found.

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Star Wisdom

This tale is rich with imagery we can work with for our own inner-journey and I invite you, if you feel inspired, to bathe in the dream.

In this tale, a numinous dream is bestowed upon this woman, who then gives it away to the menfolk, she gives the luck of her own dream to those who don’t understand the power of it. They go into the night, into the unconscious, into the Otherworld, armed with spades and materialistic intentions.

The guardians of this sacred place descend upon them in the form of the owl, the bat, and the hag who holds the light. She is a bean feasa, the keeper of this otherworldly knowledge.

They become disoriented in her world as they have approached without pure intention; the inner-riches are at their feet, but they can do nothing with them. They have to wait it out until daylight comes.

They find themselves in new territory, so something has been initiated, but they must find their way back not through the waking world of the seen, of consciousness, but through the unseen realm of intention and intuition.

Still, the star shines eternal, beckoning whoever follows to walk its starlit path home.

The image of the Star Hag also reminds me of the sovereignty goddess in Irish mythology, who appears as a loathly lady who can transform into a starborn goddess when she meets a king worthy of her divine wisdom. He must recognise the value of both shadow and light.

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Journal Prompt

What does the star symbolise for you?

Draw a star and write in, on or around it words you associate with this archetype, creating a constellation of meaning. Notice any illuminations that feel like they’re guiding you at this eclipse portal.

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Celtic Dreaming

If the Star Hag calls you deeper in your dreaming, I recently launched a new self-guided workshop, Celtic Dreaming: A Voyager’s Guide to the Otherworld of Sleep. It includes video teachings on the dreaming traditions of our ancestors along with a downloadable guided eBook.

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I hope the sun, the moon and the stars rain their blessings down upon you on this eclipse threshold.

Croí isteach,

Jen x

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Sources

Carl G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation, Collected Works, Vol. 5, paragraph 77

Dúchas

Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey: The Jungian Path from Darkness to Light

This Jungian Life