Tarot Shadow Work: Stars of Illumination/Chapter 6

Chapter 6 of this book, "Embracing Your Shadow," contains a number of exercises and a shadow work spread, the Star of Illumination.

I am starting this thread for discussion of the all the processes of chapter 6, including the stars of anyone who wishes to share them (though they could be placed in a "Your Readings" thread as well). ETA: I posted mine as a Your Readings thread here.

I have found the meditations very supportive and appropriate, and, as usual, working with the spreads themselves quite challenging.

M_M~

The first exercise is to have a talk with my higher self. I am still working on understanding the concept but the gist is a pure , spiritual me . The exercise had me walk into a museum with beautiful works of art.

Part of these works of art is my a sculpture of a perfect me. It looks like Apollo at first in sculpture form. The Greek idea of perfect form.

We talked and the fool was there and a few others from other meditations . We all talked and the message was love, acceptance, surrender and learning to laugh and not take things personal is a fix for many if not all issues.

The second exercise was about healing my self spiritually very much like the healing heart from chapter 2. I had a nice tingeing sensation and felt more relaxed when i completed. Normally I my alter is Quan Yin, she came into my vision as I was doing this , she held my hand for a bit and helped me.

Star of Illumination
The idea is when the shadow is illuminated and integrated with the rest of me in the open the healing will begin. Earlier in the book the author stated healing is to become whole.
Positions
1: Center it is the Empty Vessel, one of the cards from my star of discovery spread
2: top of center The Beginning what will begin the healing process for card one
3: right of center Formation what will give shape of form to the healing process
4: bottom right the Center what is center or central to the healing process of card one
5: bottom left the Need what is needed to heal?
6: left of center the Gift what gift of healing will I receive as the result of this work

We will use the appendix A to get started and the author suggests that these definitions are only a beginning and it takes some meditation, journaling and such to get the most from this work. Instead of using the shadow definitions we will use the shadow gifts definition.

I will be doing a star spread for each of my shadow cards from the discovery spread.

Hello All

1: Empty Vessel, The Moon from denial
2: The Beginning, The High Priestess
3: Formation,The Death card
4: The Center, The Empress
5: The Need, Wheel of Fortune
6: The Gift, The Emperor

I will read the definitions in Shadow Work , and companion book for my deck latter. Now the first impressions from the star were the Moon High Priestess after one another and the Emperor and Empress in the same spread and what has to be beyond chance yet again a card from my Star of Recovery comes up in a reading, in this case the Wheel of Fortune.
The Moon is what is beyond the stairs, curtain behind the High Priestess and I believe the beginning starts with trusting and connecting with the spiritual, intuition side.

The formation this will take is cutting ties with old behaviors, thinking, and feelings about my self then I can stop with denying my spiritual side and trust in my inner voice.

What will become central to healing my intuitive side is meditating, prayer, asking for help from my inner source to my higher power. Find my soul , by nourishing it with more use and confidence it will work out in the end

The need and wheel of fortune together plus the fact it was my anxiety card tells me; I need to accept change and trust in the unseen side that things will work out better in the long run.

The gift of the Emperor I believe is realizing my need to control my future and become a trusted person to lead projects and take on more responsibility instead of hiding from it. Also I will be able to accept responsibility for what actions I can and what I can't give it to my higher power.

Next Star reading

Hello All

1: Empty Vessel, Wheel of Fortune (Anxiety)
2: The Beginning, The Star
3: Formation, The Sun (Inferiority from star of discovery)
4: The Center, Judgment
5: The Need, Tower
6: The Gift, Hierophant
Another reading and a card from my star of discovery coming up. I like how the deck is choosing what card to do next. The Star at the beginning is about spiritual healing becoming whole. The sun as the formation I believe is about me feeling I can be in charge or at least I am really good enough to lead if I need to.
Judgment at the center is me believing in the spiritual healing I will receive as a result of working this process. The tower making a first showing in my shadow work, I think it means if I will no longer have to fear every bad situation that is out of my control will lead to disaster. Or it could just be a more upfront in your face version of the Death card about old way and thought not being valid anymore.
Hierophant as the gift I think means enlightenment

1: Empty Vessel, The Sun( Inferiority )
2: The Beginning, The Empress
3: Formation, The Emperor
4: The Center, The Moon
5: The Need, The Hierophant
6: The Gift, The Star

The first impression was how all the cards from today were in the last two readings. Also the emperor and empress followed one another. The Sun, Moon, Star were almost diagonal and the hierophant was just one space away from the last reading.
The Empress in the beginning is about neutering my inner self so I can have a stronger outer self-based on confidence, faith not manipulating or control.
Emperor in form is a lot of what the emperor stands for. But building it and having the inner strength also as an aside I am an Aries so he fits well.
The Moon at center is great because it is about trusting and having faith in my intuition not just logic or what I can control.
Hierophant as a need is interesting but I think it refers to 12 step recovery as my spiritual basis I need to use the emperor and Hierophant to make a solid plan and more structure in my meditating and spiritual path. I seem to go in spurts I think I need to make it more sold and not rigid but regular.
The star as a gift is awesome as she always make me feel safe and whole just looking at the star in most decks she is just a beautiful card and the spiritual healing essence fits her well

1: Empty Vessel, The Fool (self-loathing)
2: The Beginning, The Sun( inferiority from discovery spread)
3: Formation, The Hanged Man
4: The Center, The World
5: The Need, The Magician (anger from discovery spread)
6: The Gift, The Empress

The beginning and the Sun lead me to believe it is about the optimism and positive energy the card brings. So start this reading off and assume it will work out well.
Hanged Man is generally looking at another points of view but the book added the conscience decision to turn my will over the higher self. This is like the third step in AA/NA “I made a conscience decision to turn my will over to a power greater then myself”
The World as the center is pretty powerful, I believe if I let go of the need for control and except the world will move and I am part of the greater whole it is easier dealing with stress and anxiety. Also less self-loathing I am “the world dancer “and I have no rhythm so it can be funny.
The need and Magician at first gave me a mixed message until I went over the definitions a bit. At first the Magician seems to me to indicate self-will making stuff happen and the need to do that has caused me anger. But what the card is really saying is the god/goddess higher power inside me is creating I am tapping into that source.
The gift and Empress mean I will learn to see the higher power inside me. We are all part of the great source and each of us has a “little god in them “

1: Empty Vessel, The Magician (Anger)
2: The Beginning, The Sun( inferiority from discovery spread)
3: Formation, The Death Card
4: The Center, The Empress
5: The Need, The Tower
6: The Gift, The Hermit
Many cards showed up again in the same place they were at in other spreads. The sun as the beginning, and Death as foundation, The Empress as center and the Tower as need. I know the Hermit occupied that location on the star but it had a different meaning still worth looking at.
This time the cards seem to be telling me to reach the real me through my higher conscience that was I can approach the higher source. I must begin with the proper attitude of optimism. Death at formation and the Tower at need seem to be telling me to let go of past ideas or modalities of thinking. The empress as the center tells me I need to feed my soul. The gift of the hermit is being able to connect to my higher source, higher self through introspection and meditation.
All this combined is telling find the real me the higher self-inside me and let the soul grow and trust my higher power is there for me and I will not be so angry about things I can’t control.