Why is The Moon card usually seen as negative?

I have always wondered why The Moon card in Tarot is considered a 'scary', 'dark', and negative card. Personally, The Moon is one of my favorite cards in the Tarot. I like what it represents; intuition, imagination, emotions, dreams. Perhaps I feel a strong connection to The Moon card because Water is a dominant element in my astrological natal chart - The Moon is a watery card. In my opinion what The Moon card represents is very underrated in today's emotionally detached society. Maybe that is why people fear it.

I get that the Death and The Tower cards are feared but why The Moon, this beautiful, feminine and stunning card?

GreenDiamond said:

I have always wondered why The Moon card in Tarot is considered a 'scary', 'dark', and negative card. Personally, The Moon is one of my favorite cards in the Tarot. I like what it represents; intuition, imagination, emotions, dreams. Perhaps I feel a strong connection to The Moon card because Water is a dominant element in my astrological natal chart - The Moon is a watery card. In my opinion what The Moon card represents is very underrated in today's emotionally detached society. Maybe that is why people fear it.

I get that the Death and The Tower cards are feared but why The Moon, this beautiful, feminine and stunning card?

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The obvious answer to your question would be...because it usually IS negative, darling...Charming and hypnotic as the moon is, as a card it stands for all sorts of things from deception to depression, from illusion to mental illness, from things not being what they seem to disturbing thoughts and truths...it can even mean dark thoughts like suicide, and, like the Devil and Temperance rx, it is one of the cards that therapists who use Tarot watch out for, and jump on the chair when they see them...need I continue ?...

As for the feminine association : yes, the Moon represent the feminine in a way ; the disturbing side of the feminine that men are afraid of.

What the Moody Blues said:

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colors from our sight
Red is gray and yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion

In a single word, glamour in the old sense of a magic spell. Things seen by moonlight are often illusory, not what they seem to be under that "false" borrowed illumination, and thus not to be trusted. This is not limited to tarot, it has been a supposition of popular culture for a long time.

GreenDiamond said:

I have always wondered why The Moon card in Tarot is considered a 'scary', 'dark', and negative card. Personally, The Moon is one of my favorite cards in the Tarot. I like what it represents; intuition, imagination, emotions, dreams. Perhaps I feel a strong connection to The Moon card because Water is a dominant element in my astrological natal chart - The Moon is a watery card. In my opinion what The Moon card represents is very underrated in today's emotionally detached society. Maybe that is why people fear it.

I get that the Death and The Tower cards are feared but why The Moon, this beautiful, feminine and stunning card?

Click to expand...

I would definitely not place the Moon on the same category as the Tower. Probably not on the same category as Death either. I don't really see it as bad unless the context implies it. In fact, I think that being afraid of the negative aspects of the Moon is part of what's wrong with it. Imaginary fears, shadows that seem longer and darker than they really are. But that's only the downside. The upside is as you said intuition, imagination, dreams. Just because those things are connected to the un-real and inner world doesn't make them inherently bad at all. They're just as essential as the positive qualities of the Sun.

Sure, the Moon as a card (and the feminine side opposite the masculine-Sun side) can be a treacherous place but it's also beautiful and without it everything would be very boring. It's not as if the Sun can't burn you as well but it rarely gets mentioned.

GreenDiamond said:

I have always wondered why The Moon card in Tarot is considered a 'scary', 'dark', and negative card.

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<slightly surprised> I didn't know it was. Of course, *any* card can have scary moments, in the context of a reading.

I like what it represents; intuition, imagination, emotions, dreams.

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They come as a complete set with illusion, confusion and self-deception <grin>.

Perhaps I feel a strong connection to The Moon card because Water is a dominant element in my astrological natal chart - The Moon is a watery card. In my opinion what The Moon card represents is very underrated in today's emotionally detached society. Maybe that is why people fear it.

Click to expand...

People are taking all the play out of life. Like many cards that are not taken very seriously, the Moon has elements of play in it.

I get that the Death and The Tower cards are feared but why The Moon, this beautiful, feminine and stunning card?

Click to expand...

Because of the fear that illusions, confusion and self-deception might get the upper hand in your life, I think.

GreenDiamond said:

...are feared but why The Moon, this beautiful, feminine and stunning card?

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I also am fond of the Moon. It has -occasionally- signaled "wrong belief" (e.g., will I get the job, etc.) But it's also what connects us to the dream-world. And whereas many say the Moon makes us crazy, it's probably better to say that crazy is what happens when we're -disconnected- from the dream-world. Moon is just the portal.

As for why it's feared, Moon of course is mother, and goddess. Both have a nurturing, life-giving, benevolent aspect, but also a terrifying aspect -- they can symbolically "annihilate" us via re-absorbing, destroying our individuality. Of course, this is exactly what Death is (we are re-absorbed into the "womb" of Mother Earth).

Someone said there are 10,000 names for the one original goddess.

SkylerK said:

As for the feminine association : yes, the Moon represent the feminine in a way ; the disturbing side of the feminine that men are afraid of.

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Pardon ?


Hey GD , IMO all the cards have a + and - . Even the Sun card ... and the Emperor and that 'Mars card ' (Tower) ... have a negative side ... the disturbing side of the masculine that women are afraid of. ( Actually I dont like that side of the masculine either ) .

Barleywine said:

What the Moody Blues said:

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night
Removes the colors from our sight
Red is gray and yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion

In a single word, glamour in the old sense of a magic spell. Things seen by moonlight are often illusory, not what they seem to be under that "false" borrowed illumination, and thus not to be trusted. This is not limited to tarot, it has been a supposition of popular culture for a long time.

Click to expand...

Thanks for this fascinating post.

GreenDiamond said:

I have always wondered why The Moon card in Tarot is considered a 'scary', 'dark', and negative card. Personally, The Moon is one of my favorite cards in the Tarot. I like what it represents; intuition, imagination, emotions, dreams. Perhaps I feel a strong connection to The Moon card because Water is a dominant element in my astrological natal chart - The Moon is a watery card. In my opinion what The Moon card represents is very underrated in today's emotionally detached society. Maybe that is why people fear it.

I get that the Death and The Tower cards are feared but why The Moon, this beautiful, feminine and stunning card?

Click to expand...

If one considers the Papus Bohemian spread you will see that the third septenary which represents the "Dark Night of the Soul" or the "Night Sea Journey" where transformation is accomplished......begins with Death (13) proceeds through Temperance (14), Devil (15), Tower (16), Star (17), and ends with the Moon (18). The next card, 19, is the Sun, then 20, Judgment (resurrection of the self) and finally complete transformation in the World Card where the Dancer is none other than the Fool who has completed the journey through the major arcana. The Moon card is the gate card out of the "dark night".....through the path you see in the Moon card that leads to the 2 towers, after which you emerge into the bright day of the Sun card. If you don't make it through the moon card you are lost in the dark night....equivalent to the Bardo. It is the final trial prior to breaking through to the bright day of the Sun card (which immediately follows the Moon)..... and the new "child" full of joy.....the Moon is the "ship in the night." In itself it is beautiful, but its character is elusive and often lost when it is "void of course" leaving us all in the dark. The Fool's path is about transformation and the journey begins when the Magician calls him into the material world and he passes through the veil of the High Priestess who is the lower vibration of the Moon card....When the Fool's journey through the "dark night" of transformation ends as he passes out of the Moon card, which is the higher vibration of the High Priestess, and he finds himself in the Sun card, his transformation is accomplished. The Moon is the final trial as part of the Night Sea Journey....and therefore, perhaps the most precarious and frightening part where one can easily get lost. This may seem a rather convoluted and confusing explanation which hopefully, you can wade through. It is difficult to comprehend without looking at the Papus layout.