This is the card after the Tower. A naked figure kneels at the water pouring two jugs, one large star above and seven small ones. Nothing is worn because there is nothing left to hide.
The Star usually comes after the bad thing. It promises recovery but not a quick one — it arrives at the speed water soaks into ground. So in this stretch, watch your state rather than your output. Slightly better than yesterday is the whole assignment.
The hope in this card is not confidence that it will work out. It is closer to the sense that continuing is worth it. That feeling of wanting to try something again after a collapse is the Star itself. Once it is back, the rest is a matter of time.
Reversed, it has not come back yet. You know what you should do and cannot want to; the certainty that it will fail arrives first. What helps here is not a large goal but one very small success. That is why there are seven small stars as well as the big one — this is not a card about steering by a single light.
Read the Star as 'everything will be fine' and disappointment follows. It speaks of recovery, not of a guarantee. That the Tower comes just before it matters: this is the card that arrives after a collapse, so it assumes the bottom. The hope here is not returning to how things were — it is starting again from what is left.
With the Moon you are still in the fog but the direction is set. With the Sun the recovery is nearly complete. The Star takes its sense of progress from the card next to it.