The Moon

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 12 Jul 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Shoshin	12 Jul 2003
Hello everyone, Happy full moon. :) I read this article the other day: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0702_030702_dungbeetle.html Here's a brief quote. "S. zambesianus is the first animal known to use the million-times dimmer polarization of moonlight." Now, take a look at the Thoth moon card!: http://www.angelfire.com/celeb/Crowley/thoth/s_moon.jpg I find it extremely interesting that this beetle, with it's scientifically proven relationship with the moon was depicted on a Moon card decades earlier. Perhaps Crowely "knew" something about that special link that we only now can put our finger on?

Thirteen	13 Jul 2003
Neat article, thanks! Quote: [i] Perhaps Crowely "knew" something about that special link that we only now can put our finger on? [/b] Well, he certainly knew Egyptian mythology. In Egyptian mythology, Khepri (an aspect of Ra) was associated with the rising sun. As dung beetles rolled their balls along, so it seemed to the Egyptians that Khepri pushed the Sun across the sky. In addition, dung beetles lay their eggs in the ball, and so they seem to be born out of it--birthed out of the dark as the sun is born out of the night. And so Khepri is associated with transformation. It's interesting that Crowley puts the beetle in the Moon card. In Egyptian funerary amulets the beetle is often shown at the center of a sunbark, holding onto the sun while the boat makes its journey through the chaos of night. We might say that the beetle is holding to the soul (sun) on it's journey through the darkest and strangest mystical/psychic landscape. The individual, his reason, intellect and persona, are thus kept safe from the "Lunacy" and chaos that threaten the boat. Whatever waters or monsters may rock it, the beetle won't let it fall overboard. The beetle promises that when the boat finally docks, the sun will rise again--and so it does in the next card with much joy and acclaim.

Yatima	14 Jul 2003
Has anyone seen (or got an idea of an consistent interpretation) of the fact that the Moon is virtually (except the Wheel of Fortune) the only arcanum that has no himan being in it? In a certain sense, I think it could be seen as sign of the journey of the soul that begins (precisely) with the Wheel of Fortune: a journey to selflessness, through dying, hell, fall, but also of strength and fluidity. The journey of dying (XII) does not end with Death (XIII), no, it now begins to be a sould-journey of regeneration, of fluidity of our self (XIV) in which we loose all we may have been: selfishness (XV). In the "House of God" (XVI) we die the "mystical death" (the Christian and Neoplatonic mystics talked about from the 5. century on)--only the dead can "see" God. Than we pour out all what we have been back to the eternal "sea of God" (XVII). But in the Moon (XVIII), we are gone! We are really gone! Just to be reborne as child in the sun (XIX)...

The The Moon thread was originally posted on 12 Jul 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.