Does anyone else feel uneasy when they see the Moon card?

I totally get what you are saying about the uneasiness JMI_Tarot but we have been social conditioned to be wary or afraid of the moon and the night. History has given it a bad rap of craziness and danger and "lunacy".

Our Moon side is as much a part of us as our Sun side and in astrology and in Tarot, we can't escape that. It rules the tides which keep the earth from being destroyed and rules our moods and emotions. I try to take a neutral stance about the Moon, yes it makes you uneasy but it's a part of me I am working through in my life. I try to embrace it these days

I've never had the Moon for romance. Like you said, for me the Moon is much more related with fear and psychological chaos.

But it sometimes meant artistic inspiration, which was the most positive case in my experience.

(see The Moon card I designed here: https://www.cultofweimar.com/major-arcana )[/QUOTE]

JMI_Tarot said:

Or for that matter, the Moon itself.

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Not really. I am not afraid of my subconscious or my inner emotions, so the card is not something that makes me uneasy. It just tells me I'm due for an emotional grease-and-oil-change and I should get onto it.

And thie Moon itself? Well, a shaman very dear to me once told me many years ago thagt I wasn't just an Earth-person, I was made of earth, I *was* Earth. Thus, the Moon is my little sister.

I'm always happy to see her and greet her as a sister: full, gibbous or crescent. Waxing or waning. She's my sister, dammit - all sisters have moods, but we love 'em all.

Barleywine said:

I've experimented with swapping around the astrological correspondences for the Major Arcana to suit my own astrological sensibilities. Supposedly the High Priestess is a purer and more noble expression of "Moon energy" while the Moon card is more insidious and takes on the interior, secretive nature of Pisces. But as the second most important "planetary" body in astrology, the Moon should really be assigned the Moon in the same way the Sun applies to the Sun; the intuitive, psychic nature of Pisces seems like a better fit for the High Priestess. The secretiveness would still be there, but it would be more sublimated, not so untrustworthy.

This also seems to make better sense from a qabalistic perspective since the modern ruler of Pisces, Neptune, is a "trans-Saturnian" planet that seems better situated "crossing the abyss," and I also like the idea of associating Neptune with Da'ath on the Middle Pillar, so there is a convergence of ideas there.

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Barleywine, your knowledge never ceases to amaze me!

Being Pisces myself, I find the Moon more fitting my personality, though and I found the High Priestess often hiding just as much as you assume the Moon would.

About the personality traits of fish-people: as a card of illusions I think the Moon fits very well my habits of secret dreams and plans that may never come true, my melancholic shifts of mood, my pretending to be someone I don't feel I am. I often feel alienated from the rest of the world, misunderstood by all but my brother (who, as equal twin, is Pisces as well). But from all this darkness springs sensitivity, creativeness and spirituality at the best of times.

Judging just from myself, maybe we Pisces can be like the High Priestess, serene, solemn and mysterious, but only if we accept the wilder side of the Moon in us, that is much more prevalent in our daily lives.

There is another reason why the Moon does not unsettle me. If it wasn't for the Moon, this card would simply be called The Night or something like that. The Moons light may just be a reflection but it illuminates what is hidden rather than clouding it. That may feel uneasy at the beginning, but it enables us to travel unharmed through the night of our souls.

As I said, in practical issues, I found the High Priestess hiding much more than the Moon. When the Moon is around, there's at least the possibility to uncover the truth... with the High Priestess? No chance!

Farzon said:

As I said, in practical issues, I found the High Priestess hiding much more than the Moon. When the Moon is around, there's at least the possibility to uncover the truth... with the High Priestess? No chance!

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I've thought some about this before. It seems to me that, in practical terms, both of these cards can show being visited by unforeseen "surprises," but those of the High Priestess, because of its exalted nature, are less likely to be unpleasant, although probably more abstract and puzzling to get one's head around. Once attained, the vision would likely be clearer, but getting there would be more difficult since it's more of a "higher mind" emphasis than the Moon, which appeals more to the emotional "gut." The High Priestess is at the top of the "Path of the Arrow," the Moon (both the path and the corresponding Sephira) are well down into the realm of the material.

Barleywine said:

Once attained, the vision would likely be clearer, but getting there would be more difficult since it's more of a "higher mind" emphasis than the Moon, which appeals more to the emotional "gut."

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Maybe in line with this: I have the Moon usually coming up for things that concern my own subconscious, while the High Priestess often shows other people who hold a secret.

The Piscean way of getting lost, or losing oneself, in things - from trance or spiritual ecstasy to alcoholism or mental illness - is more Moon than HP, to me.

And as for the first question I don't feel uneasy around this card, unless the rest of the reading gives cause to. My first thought is usually instinct, intuitive knowing. The HP to me is knowledgeable intuition... sounds no different but she has experience and has learnt from it, whether or not she puts it into words. (Being her she probably won't.) whereas the Moon is that gut feeling that anyone may have and most people push it aside, dismiss it or even disapprove of or fear it. Or don't recognise that they have it at all. Until later maybe... "You know, I think I always knew...!"

Sometimes the Moon is deliberate deceit but for me, not often.

Farzon said:

Maybe in line with this: I have the Moon usually coming up for things that concern my own subconscious, while the High Priestess often shows other people who hold a secret.

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This, me too.

I think we tend to miss the "higher calling" of Pisces, which can be quite transcendent as long as it doesn't wander off the path.

Barleywine said:

I think we tend to miss the "higher calling" of Pisces, which can be quite transcendent as long as it doesn't wander off the path.

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Yes, it's definitely not all about being underhand and slippery.