Welcome to the 2021 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Tarot Tales. I am making a selection of folktales, legends, and other traditional stories that correspond to tarot cards. Storytelling and tarot go well together. Do other stories come to mind? Let me know in the comments!
The card: The Star
Meanings: The Star is a lovely card. It is about hope, a ray of light in the darkness. It is a promise that things will get better. Things are calming down (probably after some difficult times), there is a breath of fresh air, new inspiration, awakening creativity. It's a very optimistic card.
Selection process: Obviously there are millions of stories around the world that involve stars. I recently ran into a special one that I'd like to share. I also wanted it to be a story about hope in times of darkness.
The story: My Beauty
Origin: Haiti
Summary: A dying mother gives her two sons and her daughter a special parting gift. She puts one seed in the forehead of each of them. The seeds turn into shining stars. She promises that when they need strength, they can touch their star and think of her. Also, each star can fulfill three wishes.
After the death of the mother, the children soon get a stepmother. The boys grow up and move away across the sea, while My Beauty, the girl, stays at home. The stepmother, who is a washerwoman, meets the Devil at the river one day, and promises to give him her stepdaughter. However, My Beauty is loved and admired so much by the children of the village that every time she is sent to the river, they surround her and the Devil can't take her. Eventually he decides to catch her at night, on her way home from a party. When the Devil attacks, My Beauty uses her star to banish him twice. The third time, she uses her last wish to call to her brothers for help. Using their own stars, the brothers come to her rescue.
Once the Devil is killed, the brothers take My Beauty across the sea to live with them. Years later they return and reveal the truth. The stepmother, along with the father who did nothing to stop her (!) is exiled.
Sources & notes: Read the story on JSTOR here.
Runner-ups: How Sasruquo plucked down a star (Nart saga). A story about a hero who is not accepted by his fellow warriors, until he saves them by shooting down a star to keep them from freezing in a blizzard.
Do you have a favorite star? Or a favorite story about stars?
So nice to see the father who did nothing was also punished!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kristin, the father let it happen to his own daughter! Do we know from the story what the step-mother got from the devil in return for the girl?
ReplyDeleteAny good step-mothers in stories?
Yes, in the story the stepmother gets help with her work from the devil.
DeleteThere are a few tales about kind stepmothers as well, although it is not easy to find them. A lot of them are from Iceland, and there is also an Ethiopian tale I know of.
As a kid, I loved the little saying "star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, wish I may, wish I might, grant the wish I wish tonight". I never really wished for anything but would always recite it when I saw the first star for the evening.
ReplyDeleteI do too! I learned it from Mary Poppins :D
DeleteOh is that where I learnt it from?! I love Mary Poppins but haven't watched it in years :)
DeleteNot the movie, the books :)
DeleteGreat tail for the bond between sister and brothers, and yeah, the father must be punished too. I love stars, all of them. My favorites are constellations: Scorpius (from the Pacific Ocean), Orion and Cassiopée from France ;)
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely gift. I only hope I can leave my children with something so valuable. I could use a star card right now.
ReplyDeleteLovely card and a wonderful story. It's full of hope and courage.
ReplyDeleteThe exile at the end made me smile. What goes around, comes around.
Thank goodness the brothers came to her rescue, and the stepmother and father got what they deserved.
ReplyDeleteHere's my S!
I've been fascinated by stars, space, and the night sky since I was very young, possibly because my first real memory of a historical event was related to space (the Challenger disaster). I love looking up at the stars and knowing I'm looking back millions of years in time, to when their light formed.
ReplyDeleteI love stars and all the wonders of the night sky, and this card is one of my favorites. Your tale is a perfect choice. I love that the star was a seed planted in their forehead. A radiant third eye!
ReplyDeleteA wonderful story. I'm glad the brothers came through for her, but I'm not surprised the father did nothing to stop his wife. In many fairy tales, stepmothers are evil, while fathers are passive. Cinderella's father also did nothing to thwart his wife's machinations against his only daughter.
ReplyDeleteI like that her brothers came to save her -- in so many stories, the stepmother always wins.
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting for the A-Z Challenge with an A-Z of Faerie: Solitary Fae
What a fascinating story. There are definitely a lot of layers to this one.
ReplyDeleteAnne from annehiga.com