La Lune (the Moon) - how may it be read?

XVIIII Le Soleil
aka
XIX The Sun

Likewise, does not show "the Sun" (planet) either,
but rather the 12th Month ~ Pisces.

This speaks to the designation "Major Arcana" or Greater Secrets.

roppo said:

I am under the impression that in early cards the astronomical three, Star & Moon & Sun, are interchangeable in their designs. If the crayfish of Marsaille is another figure of Diogenes, then the dogs might be easily explained; the philosopher is often depicted with his canine friends.

Click to expand...

I never thought (or knew) of Diogenes and the moon - nor of the crayfish, or hermit crab, as Diogenes. But it would make sense - if he cannot find a man in broad daylight, perhaps he will in the veil-like light of the moon? For Diogenes looks not with his eyes, but his spirit...and he has the strength and sense to follow Silvia's road through illusion, through the dark night of the soul, to the other side. But where is that?

Moonbow* said:

I see the Moon as being more about emotions and the Papesse as being the holder of secrets, maybe they are right there written in her book.

Click to expand...

a good Papesse doesn't hoard secrets ...but doles them carefully to those who truly seek I have always seen her veil as the light of the moon - or vice-versa. She sees where others are lost and tentative.

Helvetica said:

a good Papesse doesn't hoard secrets ...but doles them carefully to those who truly seek

Click to expand...

I agree Helvetica, I don't see her as a Hoarder but a Holder or guardian.

Fulgour said:

NO 18

Letters that indicate Planets are:
2 - 3 - 4 - 11 - 17 - 20 - 22

Even by the Golden Dawn's angle:
1 - 2 - 3 - 10 - 16 - 19 - 21

XVIII The Moon never alphabetically aligns with a planet (or satellite).
Tsade is Letter 18 and signifies the 11th Month ~ Aquarius.

Click to expand...

The hebrew word Tzadiq [righteous, just] is an old name of Yesod, to which in some old sources is attributed the 'moon', suggesting a reasonable 'fit' with the continental attribution of the card 'moon' to the letter Tzade [through correlation of the name of the letter to the word]. Though the attribution of the moon to Yesod is non-standard in Jewish Kabbalah, following the widely accepted redactions of the Gra, this attribution was retained in some of the more obscure schools of mainly Christian Cabalah and Hermetic Qabalah. In Jewish Kabbalah, of the Lurianic/Gra tradition, the moon may be either attributed to Chesed or Malkuth [as Tzadiqim are also attributed to Chesed this also is possibly a connection between Tzade and the moon, but in relation to Malkuth also to the letter Qoph]. Qoph [or kuf] also has lunar symbolism:

quote:
The most fundamental significance in Torah of the number nineteen, the ordinal value of the kuf, is the nineteen-year cycle of the moon in relation to the sun, the basis of our Jewish calendar. The moon represents the female figure, the secret of the sefirah of malchut ("kingdom"), personified by Eve (Chavah = 19, as above). The sun represents the male figure (the bestower of light, whereas the moon is the receiver of light), and in particular the sefirah of yesod ("foundation"; yesod = 80 = 8 · 10, chet times yud = chai), as personified by Adam.
end quote from:

http://www.inner.org/hebleter/kuf.htm

Kuf is said to be made of the letters Zayin [lovers in GD] and Resh [Sun in GD] and contains the 'mystery of the crown', of which it is said that Zayin represents a woman of valour, the 'crown' of her husband [adam - the sun, letter Resh in GD]. Of this 'mystery' it may be worth noting in trying to decipher it that one of the hebrew words for 'crown' aterah is both a name for Malkuth and for the corona of the phallus [attributed to Yesod]. Thus we have Kuf - zayin, resh; Moon, lovers, sun; Eve, the crown of her husband, adam.

The letter Kuf has the astrological attribution Pisces, consignificator of the 12th house, thus the end of the zodiacal and diurnal cycles, by analogy to the moon corresponding to the end of the lunar cycle; the dark of the moon under which cloak, as under the canopy of the bride and bridegroom, the sun [resh] and moon [kuf] conjoin in mystical union [lovers-zayin].

Kwaw

Cool Kwaw!
I like to learn that kind of thing.

But how would you use that in a reading?

My Moon

The cat and the moon

The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet.
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.

WB Yeats

Yeats captures the magic of the Moon so powerfully. In considering this image, we need to think about how Moon has been perceived by man throughout the ages. It is such a powerful symbol. Unfortunately, my Fournier Marseilles card illustrates Moon at her darkest. I think the artist must have been a male. A female artist (if there were such people in those days) might have drawn something much lighter. Moon seems always to have had an association with the feminine. Some project that in dark forms whilst others see it as much more gentle and mysterious. The Moon can be as much a symbol or romance and love as she can of the darker attributes of femininity

The Fournier Moon is darker than other Marseille Moons. The water is a royal blue and the night sky and the face of the Moon are just a shade lighter. A sparse and haggard landscape greets our enquiring eyes. The crawfish represents the most primaeval of creatures. Baying dogs are often symbols of guardians of the underworld. The Moon herself has been endowed with a face whose severity could be male or female. The ground around the pool of water is like a desert with minimal plant life. In this version of the Moon card, it is almost impossible to discern the path which leads to the Sun . The Moon is often seen to contain material belonging to the unconscious, the instinctive, and the primaeval. This image in the Tarot represents that. It is saying essentially that this part of our humanity is intrinsic to identity and the soul must traverse the unwelcome ground of the unconscious on its journey. We can all identify with this. The saving grace of this image is the rays of light sparking from the Moon. They seem to promise more than just reflection of the light of the Sun. They hint at a unique energy belonging to Moon herself.

If you understand the Moon in mythology, you do not feel afraid of this image. As the Moon reflects the light of the Sun, her changing face reflects Man’s projections, positive or fearful. This is fascinating in itself. Moon’s silver radiance shows things we just don’t see in the bright light of day. If we are comfortable with the darkness, our faith, our selves we need have no fear. So this image invites us to know ourselves. It invites us into the mysteries of our own darkness. If we know ourselves and are comfortable with our shadows. If we have faith we have nothing to fear. We know that evil and the unknown can strike just as much in the light of day as at night, and more frequently do. What we have to fear is fear itself and the symbolic fear of darkness, deep in the human psyche.

This image invites to confront our fears. I could spend hours describing how Moon has been chosen by Man to signify much which he does not understand. If we forget all mythology and simply follow the Moon through her monthly cycle one can easily see how the projections developed. Changing shape, light, the influence on water. Here is a photograph of a Pisces Moon I took with my tiny Canon A80 in August this year.You and see how from just this image how Moon is sometimes seen to be magical and strange: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/Firepeace/IMG_0869.jpg

In its symbolism, the Marseille does not so directly connect the Moon with II La Papesse as do the later Tarot decks. In my Marseilles La Papesse is simply a woman. There is no Moon in her image, unless one counts the jewels on her headdress. I wonder in fact, if the designers of the first Marseille ever made the connection in the way that we do now. In one way this is interesting because it invites all of us, male and female, to confront the stereotypes, the ancient constructions in a slightly different way.

Dark Inquisitor said:

The wolf totem of one of the original Italian witch families,the Lucani , of course.

Click to expand...

MM ~ Hey, I like this D.I. person! Remember, too, in spite of the Hebrew influence, these cards are European and there is a heavy undercurrent of classical mythology. Diana has traditionally been pictured with dogs - or else with a stag for the waxing year, and a wolf for the waning. One could argue that the tendency to interpret this card in a strictly negative light (deception, danger, etc.) is a hangover from the days of the demonization of the Goddess. BB, Stella

Helvetica said:

But how would you use that in a reading?

Click to expand...

In ancient descriptions the 12th house was:

"... called the House of Evil Daemon, because it injures the
emanation from the stars in it to the Earth and is also declining, and the
thick, misty exhalation from the moisture of the Earth creates such
turbidity and, as it were, obscurity, that the stars do not appear in either
their true colours or magnitudes." -- Tetrabiblos, III.10 (Loeb p.275)

As the shape of the letter Kuf too suggests the shape of the back of the head and neck, so some modern astrologers have described idea of the 12th as:

“being like the back of our head; more easily seen by others than by ourselves. That's why it's a mystery to the 12th house person himself, but not to other people.”

A time then for serious reflection, or to seek and listen too the objective advise and opinion of others.

Magically the dark of moon period is traditionally the best time for rites of invisibility and 'deceit'. It is traditionally the time for evoking the fith fath (pronounced fee fah), the lying spirits of celtic mythology and friends of the thief who operates under the cloak of darkness. From the similarity in sound and meaning there may well be a common root among the words fith fath (feefah), fibber and thief; and also with the Goetic demon Furfur, the lying spirit. One of the reasons for evoking the fith fath was to obtain the magickal powers of Glamour. Basically a power to deceive people to either see what is not there, or not to see what is. Pisces, consignificator of 12th house, is both the 'fall' and 'detriment' of Mercury, trickster and god of thieves.

The most prevalent of magickal glamours in myth are the tales of invisibility and those of the old crone who, casting of her ragged cloak reveals herself to be a beautifull maiden. The symbolism is quite literal, as with most type of traditional spell. Dark of moon provides the cloak of darkness in which one becomes invisible; it is also the transitional stage between the waning moon (the Crone) becoming the new moon (the Maiden). A time to cast off the darkening cloak of the past to start anew.

Working with the fith fath is reputed to be dangerous in that who they wish to deceive most are those that call upon them. The tales of Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune walking around the streets of London in fantastic garb in the believe they were invisible comes to mind, the only ones being deceived were themselves [perhaps]. And this element of self-deceit may also relate to the 12th house association with self-undoing in that one is led to make errors through a false perception about how others see you, or how you see them.

There is the possibility of confusion and being subject to irrational fears, suspicions, paranoia.

In mundane astrology the eclipse is usually interpreted in terms of catastrophe and disaster, in natal astrologer in terms of the individual though it is not always negative, in artists, writers and musicians it can indicate a time of great inspiration and creativity. But good or bad, it is usually indicative of a period of dramatic change or transformation. Mystically it is viewed as forming a hole in the sky, a gateway of ascension between heaven and earth, a tunnel within which the soul of the mystic may be called upon to do battle with monsters, to suffer the dark night of the soul, before ascending through into the light to commune with the gods.

Kwaw

Wow! That was fascinating kwaw, thank-you