78 Weeks: Moon

[Wendywu]

Ironwing - The Moon

Ironwing - The Moon

I have to say straightaway that The Moon is not my favourite card in any deck. Having said that, Ironwing’s Moon is a deep and meaningful card.

The central figure of this card is a coyote. We see her head as a normal animal head but her body is shown as an abstract that is made up of many things. What I see is what I see and not necessarily what the artist intended, or what anyone else will see.

The coyote body has paws, and they are each in the waters of a river that runs either side of her body. As usual with tarot, I see the river as the River of Life. Are her paws adding to the river, taking from it or just dabbling in it? (Which I could see as – is this person enhancing her life, diminishing it – or just playing at it now and then?). The Moon of the card is at the top and curves round quite tightly. Coyote has her head and (very nearly) shoulders in that gap but it is a tight squeeze. Within the enclosure formed around Coyote’s head by The Moon I see bubbles which I interpret as fizzing life going back and forth between the living coyote and the skeletal coyote head. It forms an ongoing dialogue that spreads out around them.

The Moon that encloses the coyote looks like one large eye. If it were an eye, then staring out of it as us is a coyote skull, which is nose to nose with the live animal. Traditionally Death is shown as a skeletal figure. Is the skeleton coyote skull intended to illustrate her eventual death (which she both faces and learns from, or as a sort of shadow figure? Possibly a counterpoint to the warm life of Coyote who has her paws firmly in the River? Nose to nose; skull and head, life and death, shadow and light. But all contained within that single eye (Moon). Now, if it were an eye – whose is it? Yours, or mine? This eye makes me think of how I am made up of shadow and light, or guilt and innocence. All that is light co-exists with all that is dark within me. And on a daily basis I waver between the two.

Looking at the bottom of the card the motif is, in a way, repeated. The figurehead shown is a mask of the Moon Goddess – this is indicated by the upturned crescent moon and facial features beneath. See how the hair is jagged on one side but smooth on the other? It twists itself round on the smooth side, forming itself into coils that in this deck symbolize love and emotion (I think of the suit of Coils/Cups). The eyes in the mask are indicated by two hands; one held up in the traditional “No” gesture and the other beckoning with a “Come here, come inside” gesture. The Moon Goddess is a trickster – you don’t know what you’re going to get from her until it’s too late, and you’re slap bang in the middle of it.

As I say, the card discusses opposites. Even in the small snail shells at the top of the card. One shell is turned so that the smooth shell faces us, the other shows us the inviting depths within and asks us to explore what lies inside those coils. (Inside our emotional selves?)

For me the forces shown in this card are huge and terrifying. It shows me mood swings; it shows me how I can so easily turn enthusiasm into obsession. And then crash out of it again …

Head talks to skull. If they are symbols of different states of being, at what point do they connect? Is the skull – pure structure – capable of understanding the head, where structure is just a part of the whole? Looked at the other way round, can the head strip away all the extra matter and learn to understand its own underlying structure? And doesn’t this overflow into so many other aspects of life…. There’s a tremendous amount to think about in this card.

I see also the theme that underlies the whole deck (for me). The coyote has her paws in the River of Life. The Moonwort ferns grow up out of the water. The snails are utterly dependent upon the water. I see so many connections in the card. And as soon as I hear the word “Connection” I think of that particular card and realize that there are echoes of it card in this one. Also I see a bell in the shape of the nose in the mask of the Moon Goddess, and have already mentioned the coils developing from the tendrils of hair. The jagged hair reminds of the serrated edged blades shown in other cards, and I see spikes in the cacti like plants growing from Coyote’s shoulders.

So, I have seen Connection, Death, all the elements/suits, and opposites of many kinds. No wonder this is a card of confusion! As ever, for me, the message is that we are connected through the River, and that every single part and aspect of me is required in order for me to be my real true self. I don’t need to act out my darker self’s desires but I gain nothing by pretending she doesn’t exist. Indeed, she is an integral part of me and influences all I do, say or think (whether I care to acknowledge this or not).

By extension I must realize that just as I am connected to everyone and everything through the All Spirit – I am connected to the shadows within them too, as they are connected to my shadowy self. I must accept them as they are. I cannot accept someone conditionally; it just doesn’t work.

Confusion, acceptance, light, shadow.
Connection and Death.
Those are extremes to swirl between!

As I say, this is not my favourite card, but it really does have an enormous amount to teach me!

 

[ragman]

2010 Study - The Moon

RWS: The Moon
Description:
Of the seven or so elements that make up this card, the image of the Moon itself is somewhat conflicted. For a start, it is coloured yellow and appears to have the Sun's rays emanating from it. Within the circumference is a face in profile, perhaps the 'man in the moon' in front of a more familiar crescent.

Tongues or tears of flame appear to decent from the great orb between two great towers at the left and right of the card. Two dogs are in the foreground and appear to be howling at the Moon. One orange with a skinny tail, the other yellow with a puffy tail.

Closer to view is a bank and body of water out of which a crayfish crawls up onto a path that leads between the dogs, the towers and up into the distant mountains.

Interpretations:
I've read about these towers and these dog in my recent research but can't recall exactly where. They represent the extremities of the path of the Sun and Moon. For the Sun at least, the towers represent the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn beyond which the Sun does not stray. This in itself lends me the greater meaning of this card for I see it as a card of long evolution.

It depicts the beginning of the journey between the two great occult gates of the zodiac, Cancer, at the fore, through which a soul begins its long journey into deep manifestation, and the distant peaks of Capricorn, through which the soul attains the spiritual initiation that releases from that cycle of manifestation.

It shows the lowly crayfish emerging out of the waters that so hold and sway the emotions and ripple with astral illusions. Before it is the 'path' of evolution. It must learn to breath the 'air' of the mind to survive.

I ponder if this 'Moon/Sun' is not an eclipse? The face downcast but the eye is closed. I take it to be the 'soul which is hidden' at this very early stage of evolution. As it is hidden, it is also unaware or uninterested in the form to which it gives life by the energy of the descending tears.

It is curious that these same towers containing the Sun also appear in the distance of the Death card. So in the Moon we have the involution into form but in Death we have the form's destruction. In this sense the Moon card is Cancer while the Death card is Capricorn.

Love all
ragman

 

[tarot heart]

2010 Study - The Moon card from Deviant Moon deck

Well, I said I was going to try and here goes:

I am using a deck which is probably one of the more challenging moon cards but I have been wanting to use the Deviant Moon for a long time.

The moon card of Valenza's deck depict a full moon looking down on what appears to be two puppets. The puppets' strings are attached to the moon. The puppets seem to be having a grand old time of things. Dancing, smiling, looks like something out of Dancing with the Stars! Yet, the moon is in control..or is it? The strings coming from the moon are very, very lax. So what to make of this? hmmm....I would say the moon gives us an excuse to let loose and have fun. The card is saying "have some fun, even if it's only at night!" I am not looking at any book meaning for this deck. I just want to say what the card is showing me. In the background is a skyline. But all the lights are out. I lived in New York City many years and the lights of the skyline are never out unless there's been an electrical blackout, so what does this mean here? Perhaps it means there has been some sort of outage? We won't be working tomorrow so let's party in the streets by the light of the moon! Yeah, that's what I'd be thinking if it were an outage. Then there's those lax strings. So I'm going to let everyone think that the moon is making me act this way, like a "luna"-tic, but really, I'm just using the moon as an excuse. So outage, excuses..lunatic, partying, fun vs work...what else. Certainly not the traditional meanings attributed to this card. Thankfully, there's no lobster or crab to totally confound things. I just find this to be a generally happy card. I don't know if Patrick Valenza meant it to be so or not, but that is the sense I am getting. If anyone else has this deck, I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

[gregory]

Thoth

Card name: Moon

First impressionsTwo Egyptian Anubis figures standing in front of lighthouse-like towers face one another; each has a dog at his feet, and each has an ankh in his hand. Between them a crescent moon with points towards the ground drops blood It seems to collect into a circle of light whose centre is held by a very odd looking scarab or beetle of some kind, under water. All over the card are curving lines shaped like bell curves.

From the Book of Thoth

XVIII. THE MOON

The Eighteenth Trump is attributed to the letter Qoph, which represents Pisces in the Zodiac. It is called the Moon.
Pisces is the last of the Signs; it represents the last stage of winter. It might be called the Gateway of Resurrection (the letter Qoph means the back of the head, and is connected with the potencies of the cerebellum). In the system of the old Aeon, the resurrection of the Sun was not only from winter, but from night; and this card represents midnight.

“There is a budding morrow in midnight”, wrote Keats. For this reason there appears at the bottom of the card, underneath the water which is tinged with graphs of abomination, the sacred Beetle, the Egyptian Khephra, bearing in his mandibles the Solar Disk. It is this Beetle that bears the Sun in his Silence through the darkness of Night and the bitterness of Winter.
Above the surface of the water is a sinister and forbidding landscape. We see a path or stream, serum tinged with blood, which flows from a gap between two barren mountains; nine drops of impure blood, drop-shaped like Yods, fall upon it from the Moon.

The Moon, partaking as she does of the highest and the lowest, and filling all the space between, is the most universal of the Planets. In her higher aspect, she occupies the place of the Link between the human and divine, as shown in Atu II. In this Trump, her lowest avatar, she joins the earthy sphere of Netzach with Malkuth, the culmination in matter of all superior forms. This is the waning moon, the moon of witchcraft and abominable deeds. She is the poisoned darkness which is the condition of the rebirth of light.

This path is guarded by Tabu. She is uncleanliness and sorcery. Upon the hills are the black towers of nameless mystery, of horror and of fear. All prejudice, all superstition, dead tradition - and ancestral loathing, all combine to darken her face before the eyes of men. It needs unconquerable courage to begin to tread this path. Here is a weird, deceptive life. The fiery sense is baulked. The moon has no air. The knight upon this quest has to rely on the three lower senses: touch, taste and smell. Such light as there may be is deadlier than darkness, and the silence is wounded by the howling of wild beasts.

To what god shall we appeal for aid? It is Anubis, the watcher in the twilight, the god that stands upon the threshold, the jackal god of Khem, who stands in double form between the Ways. At his feet, on watch, wait the jackals themselves, to devour the carcasses of those who have not seen Him, or who have not known His Name.

This is the threshold of life; this is the threshold of death. All is doubtful, all is mysterious, all is intoxicating. Not the benign, solar intoxication of Dionysus, but the dreadful madness of pernicious drugs; this is a drunkenness of sense, after the mind has been abolished by the venom of this Moon. This is that which is written of Abraham in the Book of the Beginning: “An horror of great darkness came upon him.” One is reminded of the mental echo of subconscious realization, of that supreme iniquity which mystics have constantly celebrated in their accounts of the Dark Night of the Soul. But the best men, the true men, do not consider the matter in such terms at all. Whatever horrors may afflict the soul, whatever abominations may excite the loathing of the heart, whatever terrors may assail the mind, the answer is the same at every stage: “How splendid is the Adventure!”

Images and Symbolism
Frieda Harris says in her essays:

19 XVIII. The Moon. This card represents the state of impure horror, hidden darkness which must be passed through before light can be reborn. The Moon is, there fore, the most universal of the planets, partaking at once of the highest and the lowest. At the bottom of the card moves the Sacred Beetle, bearing the Sun through the darkness of night. Above is the evil landscape of the Moon. A stream, or path of Serum, tinged with blood, flows between two barren mountains. On the hills are dark sinister towers. On the threshold stands the jackal-headed god, Anubis, in double form; at his feet are the jackals waiting to devour those who have fallen by the way.

Also:

The Moon, Places. Qoph.
This is the most sinister card. Through sorcery and witchcraft it is possible to get an understanding of the universe, but the path is dangerous. On each side of the picture are dark fortresses, the Anubis the gods of death are ready to seize the soul of the aspirant and jackals wait to devour those wo have fallen by the way.
The Sun is held by the Scarabeus Sacer under the water.
The design on the card is planned on the movement of the tide whose ebb and flow is governed by the Moon.

This card is linked to the High Priestess, and shows very much the other side of the coin.
I have to say that the “scarabeus” Frieda describes looks a lot more like an ordinary beetle ! (in fact, Banzhaf refers to it as a holy beetle, I now note !) But it is trying to bring the sun to the surface of the water, to indicate that there is an end to night. The disc it holds is the solar disc, the icon of Khephra, representing the Sun and midnight. Here, then, the sun symbolises the unconscious in the dark waters of the night – just as we are supposed to see solutions to some of our problems in dreams, where issues can be addressed and resolved.
Crowley’s BoT statement:

This is the waning moon, the moon of witchcraft and abominable deeds. She is the poisoned darkness which is the condition of the rebirth of light.

relates, DuQuette says, to the unpleasant forms of witchcraft as seen by witchhunters, rather than the witchcraft practised today. The moonlight in the card shows the “dark horrors of our own fears”, our nightmares. Snuffin says that the curved lines in the water are blue and red tidal graphs to indicate the moon’s influence. This makes a lot more sense to me than Banzhaf, who sees them as EEG tracings of our mind in sleep – from REM to deep sleep ! I think this must also apply to some of the other graphlike lines on the card – maybe in reflection, though the blue ones behinn the gatekeepers as mountains, and Frieda refers to the barren landscape of the moon, nevertheless, there does seem to be a powerful feeling – only a feeling as they don’t in fact match up ! - of reflection between those in the water and those in the landscape. Banzhaf even points out that they bring to mind the drawn-up knees of a woman giving birth, with the inside of her belly behind them. I would say this is totally far fetched - but it would then suggest the goddess Nut who eats the sun every night and gives birth to it every morning - rather neat !
The fact that there are two Anubis figures represents him in his dual form, Anubis of the East and Anubis of the West – the guardians of the “Neophyte Hall”. What they are guarding is the door between the conscious and the unconscious. Any neophyte who tries to cross before he is ready may be eaten by their jackals. However, Snuffin suggests that the figure on the left looks more like Set, by the shape of his nose, neck and ears.. This would suggest he was there to provide courage and strength, while Anubis acts as psychopomp. Anubis (the figure on the right) holds an ankh made up of the sigils for Neptune and Venus - very moon like - while the Set figure has one showing Mercury – rational, logical - and not much use in the unconscious ! The card is attributed to Pisces, and Mercury is Both figures hold Phoenix wands (I’m not sure what tells us that they are phoenix wands, but still !) – and the phoenix is of course the symbol of resurrection.
The nine drops of blood are menstrual blood, moon-blood. In context this would suggest failure – the egg was shed rather than coming to fruition. Banzhaf say that looking inward into the soul is the feminine path to truth, so that adds a dimension to menstrual blood – and also suggests feminine loss. But he also says that the spirit must be born again from the waters of life to return to the sun.
Interestingly Snuffin points out that the only way the waning moon could be seen in the position it is shown here is during a partial eclipse (many other decks do in fact show an eclipse – not least several Marseille decks and the Waite !) This would mean that the bluish sphere in front of it would be the earth, coming between sun and moon, separating them.
The card also suggest deception and illusion – not least the self deception in our conscious minds.

Traditional meanings –
Cribbed shamelessly from Wasserman
XVIII THE MOON. Illusion. Deception. Bewilderment. Hysteria Madness. Dreaminess. Falsehood. Voluntary change. The brink of an important change. This card is very sensitive to dignity

From the Book of Thoth:

XVIII.
Let the Illusion of the World pass over thee, unheeded, as thou goest from the Midnight to the Morning.
Illusion, deception, bewilderment, hysteria, even madness, dreaminess, falsehood, error, crisis, “the darkest hour before the dawn”, the brink of important change.

My impressions (appearance of the card):
Nowhere in any of the books was my – well, second impression ! mentioned – how very phallic this card appears. Two phallic towers, huge phallic curves in the background, a phallus hanging in the middle, with testicles almost suggested at the top ! But it is also sinister and mysterious – an uncomfortable card. Much is said about dreams; I would see it more as nightmares. The water is totally calm – which almost suggest to me no movement below it – no movement of the sun coming out of it – maybe one day it – won’t ! Oddly – except for the moon – it actually doesn’t come over as very feminine to me. And the blood seems almost to be becoming a part of the sun – burned up by it.

My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)
I would see it as illusion and deception – especially self deception - in spades. This is not the case with a lot of moon cards, but this one – sure, dare to go through the gate – but the result will not be what you expect. Probably you have to confront your fears and do it anyway – but be very careful; what happens next may well not be what you expect ! There is light out there – but it may be too bright to bear – take your time. But there will be change - and it may well not be easy. And watch out for people who might stab you in the back. It could also even suggest mental illness – or – as the flip side of that negative, getting in touch with your own spirituality – in that context it feels more positive.

 

[jackdaw*]

XVIII The Moon (Rider Waite Tarot)

First Impressions
This is perhaps one of the cards with the most mystical, spooky-ooky feeling of the whole deck. The scene is dominated by the namesake moon, which is of an odd form. Like a crescent moon with a serious or sleeping downturned face in profile, which eclipses a rayed sun. Either that or the moon has an aura. I don’t want to attribute it to poor illustration or anything, I think instead that it is more that Pamela Colman Smith was echoing the style of the early Marseille decks, which had this simplistic and a little confusing style for the moon. Whatever the case, it’s a big round thing in the sky with a crescent moon face in profile and rays coming out in all directions. There are drops of light or dew that has caught the moonlight falling from the sky. The sky, incidentally, is not dark, at least not in the pocket-sized US Games colouration; I do like the purple Albano Waite sky for this card.

But anyway. The moon takes up most of the sky. It shines down on a strange landscape that begins with a ripply pool of water in the foreground, moves back to green grass and ends with distant mountains that are faded to the same blue as the sky. A crustacean – looks like a lobster to me – is just creeping out of the pool as if it is unaware of the possible danger; there are two dogs, or a dog and a wolf, flanking it and baying at the moon. A path runs from the water’s edge, between the dogs, and undulates through the countryside to be lost in the far distance. Two square grey stone towers flank the path behind the dogs as well; they are featureless but for one small window at the top of each.

The Moon looks stern but benevolent. The dogs look wild, as dogs will, and the intrepid lobster is about to embark on a long and dangerous journey, from the looks of things. It’s interesting that there are no human figures in this card.

Why this card seems to carry so spooky a vibe, I don’t quite know. Moonlight has a bit of a bad rap, what with lunacy and lunatics and the old taboo about sleeping in the light of the full moon. Moonlight casts different shadows than daylight, makes things appear different than they actually are. So it’s come to mean confusion and obfuscation of the truth, lack of clarity, confusion and befuddlement. All of these are common interpretations. Generally this card is kind of an “oh, crap” card for me; it says that matters aren’t as they appear to be, and I’m not likely to get any satisfaction out of it at the moment, because it isn’t going to get any clearer for a while.

Creator’s Notes
When he looked at historic versions of this card, Waite said:

18. The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards shew the luminary on its waning side; in the debased edition of Etteilla, it is the moon at night in her plenitude, set in a heaven of stars; of recent years the moon is shewn on the side of her increase. In nearly all presentations she is shining brightly and shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops. Beneath there are two towers, between which a path winds to the verge of the horizon. Two dogs, or alternatively a wolf and dog, are baying at the moon, and in the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves towards the land.

So aside from the debate over the moon itself (waxing, waning or “in her plenitude”), this is a card that hasn’t changed a whole lot.

But then he goes on to say of his own version:

The distinction between this card and some of the conventional types is that the moon is increasing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays.

This is a reference to the Tree of Life, in which the right-hand pillar is the pillar of Mercy. But what the significance of sixteen is, or thirty-two, I’m not sure.

The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit.

I think I understand this. It’s a card about the boogeyman under the bed, not about the pure upwelling of hope in the Star. It may indicate our intuition, but our imagination is more of a factor when the Moon comes up.

The path between the towers is the issue into the unknown.

This is the long and winding path, of which we can’t even see the end. Such routes, into uncharted territory, can be fearful and it can be very hard to see where it will end.

The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it.

The last reference is a key to another form of symbolism. The intellectual light is a reflection and beyond it is the unknown mystery which it cannot shew forth. It illuminates our animal nature, types of which are represented below--the dog, the wolf and that which comes up out of the deeps, the nameless and hideous tendency which is lower than the savage beast.

So the dog and wolf represent our more base instincts, our animalistic rather than rational minds. It is this part of our mind that is prey to these unreasoning fears of the shadows.

It strives to attain manifestation, symbolized by crawling from the abyss of water to the land, but as a rule it sinks back whence it came.

Maybe it’s because I was always told that the crayfish or lobster or whatever represents the subconscious, but I see Waite as saying here that these irrational fears bob to the surface from time to time, but they almost always end up sinking back down eventually, forgotten again until the next time.

The face of the mind directs a calm gaze upon the unrest below; the dew of thought falls; the message is: Peace, be still; and it may be that there shall come a calm upon the animal nature, while the abyss beneath shall cease from giving up a form.

So the dew, which looks almost fiery in the reflected glow of the moon, is actually a calming dew of thought. I assume the rationality that showers on the more primal animalistic instinctual nature of the dog and wolf below. The Moon is a calm, expressionless face that stills the savage beast.

Others' Interpretations
Waite says that the Moon can mean:

18. THE MOON.--Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.

No real surprises there, but a little focused on the dark side of the Moon

I like this interpretation as well, from Paul Hughes-Barlow:

The Moon indicates deception, chaos and confusion. If this card comes up in relationships, expect a foggy picture - does the client have a boyfriend? She isn't sure. Does she want the man? She isn't sure. Does she want to keep him? She isn't sure. What is he up to? She isn't sure. Whatever the case, lower your expectations of bringing clarity, however long the reading. Boundaries are ill-defined, vague or non-existent. [...] Of course, deception, chaos and confusion can also work to the client's benefit, so if she does not want people to know what she is up to, the Moon is an excellent sign she will not be discovered. This card is good for spies, illusionists, stage magicians, politicians, and anyone else who do not want others to know what they are really doing.

Things that are hidden or not as they appear to be, these are common interpretations for the Moon, then.

Symbols and Attributes
The Moon in the Tarot is ruled astrologically by Pisces, the Fish. Funny that the key symbol relating to marine life is a crustacean; I would have thought that more applicable to Cancer. But I guess a fish is a fish is a fish. The last zodiac sign in the traditional Western astrological arrangement, Pisces falls at the point where winter winds down and spring begins. This time of year, in many parts of the Western world, can be cruelly deceptive, throwing out the odd nice day where spring is in the air, only to plunge one back suddenly to howling winter. I sort of doubt that this was what they had in mind, when they first tacked the associations on there, but it is interesting.

Astrologically, Pisces is a Water sign and is ruled by Neptune and, obviously, the Moon. As one of the four classical elements, Water is changeable and intuitive. Modern astrologers apparently associate the planet Neptune's influence with confusion, illusion, even deception, and it seems that this is taken to heart in this card.

Wikipedia says about Pisces:

According to Western astrology, the Pisces sign is characterized as being perceptive, emotional, and reasonable. Pisceans are also said to desire reasoning for all actions, and are always capable of giving a reason. Notorious for being highly sensitive, they are also said to be desperately afraid of ridicule, as the sign is deemed "unfortunate." Pisces are a mutable sign, which makes them susceptible to change.

So this seems applicable to the Moon as well – the perceptiveness, emotionality, changeability, sensitivity. This changeable nature is reflected in part of the Golden Dawn title for this card (emphasis is mine): The Ruler of Flux and Reflux. The Child of the Sons of the Mighty.

It’s kind of interesting to note that despite all the romanticizing of moonlight and its silvery glow, what we actually see derives from the sun and its illumination of the moon. The moon itself gives off no real light. It’s reflective, literally as well as symbolically. The face in the Moon (capitalized here because I’m referring to the Moon as the Tarot symbol, not the moon as the rock orbiting Earth) separates the fuller waning side from the narrow crescent that is waxing, and it faces the waning side too.

[of course, I suck at astrology and lunar stuff, so I may have that completely backward! So as not to appear a complete idiot I will leave off on that line of reasoning.]

The face in the Moon is calm, if serious; I see it as impartial and impassive. Like the feminine and passive element of Water embodied so well by the High Priestess, the Moon watches and observes without getting involved. Its face is in profile, facing left. I see this as another example of the “dark” passive, feminine aspect: it looks to the past rather than actively moving forward. Waite refers to the Moon as “increasing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer.” Mercy, as opposed to Severity. Again, a more traditionally feminine aspect. Me, I had always assumed that the crescent and face combined to make the moonshine itself, while the fuller part was in fact just very bright earthshine. But who am I to argue with Waite?

There are sixteen major rays and sixteen lesser rays emanating from the Moon, and fifteen drops of dewfall that catches the Moon’s reflection so it looks like a rain of light. These drops of light look to me like the same shapes as those that fell from the sky in the Tower. As then, they are in the shape of the Hebrew letter yod.

The yod shapes represent life force, potential. The rain of yods represents not only the greatest potential there is and the stuff of creation, but also the “dew of thought” to which Waite referred in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. So I would view it as thought of great potential. But really, when you get right down to it. We’re looking at something more than your everyday run-of-the-mill idea. Rather, this is heavy stuff, the thoughts with which the universe can be created. I found the below quote on one website, and thought it pretty appropriate:

Although the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, yod contains as much meaning as the rest of the Hebrew alphabet combined. Yod signifies Creation itself and all of the metaphysical processes and, on its own, stands as an important symbol for the Creator.

See that bit about the “metaphysical processes”? Very weighty. All in all, this is a more cerebral, idea-driven card than I realized.

What about the moonbeams or rays? I found a neat allegory somewhere online that likens the Moon’s role in relation to the Sun’s to that of a prophet in relation to his (or her) God. That essentially the Moon and its rays diffuse the intensity of the Sun, that it makes visible, enlightening, accessible, the brilliance that would otherwise dazzle and blind those unprepared for it. So does the prophet, who as a medium for God’s word, brings His ideas and enlightenment without completely overwhelming His followers.

Okay, that’s all very cool. But why sixteen and sixteen? And if so, why are there only fifteen yods, why not sixteen too? To be honest I wonder a little if that wasn’t a glitch on Pamela’s part, that she missed one! But the sixteen, especially when coupled with the glowing yods in the sky, makes me think there’s a connection to the Tower card. Perhaps in the Tower, that’s what happens when God’s word arrives unfiltered? When the kindly Moon and its rays aren’t there to diffuse the brilliance? See what happens? Kablooey! So the Moon’s role is not to just bop around out there and block the Sun’s light and rhyme with June in soppy love poems, but to filter the too-harsh light, to make it more acceptable, more tolerable. The yods represent massive ideas, massive potential. It needs something to soften it, diffuse it a little or it will just blow your mind.

But I will have to move on

The pool of water is, of course, a reference to the element of Water, and I think a throwback to the calm nighttime sea we catch a glimpse of behind the High Priestess (who is ruled astrologically by the Moon). But there’s something a little ominous about it. Like Loch Ness. So deep, so fathomless, who knows what prehistoric marine beasts are lurking below? And in this way it represents the subconscious. So deep we can’t even begin to plumb the depths; whenever we try, and sometimes when we don’t, things bob to the surface that we don’t expect and aren’t prepared to address. In this case it’s just a little old crayfish or lobster that comes out. So hard-shelled and protective, they can represent secrecy and mystery and self-protection. And of course, it’s a fish and so represents Pisces. True, it’s a shellfish, and one you might think better embodies the sign of Cancer, but we’ll take what we can get. It’s a Water sign too, and one also under the Moon’s influence.

Whyever he is there, this poor little shellfish is emerging from the water, exposing itself to danger. And now he’ll compound it by setting off on the long windy path that extends from the water’s edge to the farthest horizon. Combined with the mountainous terrain in the distance it represents obstacles and the twisty-turny route the mind takes. It represents fear of the unknown, as Waite points out. What you can’t see, or the looming shadows that are so scary in the child’s bedroom by moonlight. Once something comes up from your subconscious and is free to run amok, who knows where it’ll go?

The animals are sometimes shown as two dogs, or in this case a domestic dog and a wolf. They represent our animalistic natures, that part of our mind that isn’t going to be reasoned with and make sense of things, but the part that is purely reactive and instinctual. I think it is this part of our nature on which Waite saw fit to shower the “dew of thought”.

The two towers that flank the path are echoes of the ones in the Death card. Or they are echoes of one another. And they recall the twin pillars that are found in the High Priestess, Hierophant and Justice cards as well. On the simplest level they represent duality, the thread of male and female, light and dark, above and below, that runs through so many of the cards. But I think in this case they serve more to illustrate the space, the path between them. They stand like sentinels of the path, illustrating that beyond this point, you’re on your own, venturing into the wild. This is the “You are Leaving Civilization” sign.

My Interpretation
Essentially, this card is about the unknown. Things aren’t clear, they’re murky and confused and not what they appear to be, and you just aren’t sure what’s what. This makes for a fearful frame of mind, when the subconscious takes over and the animalistic “fight or flight” instinct kicks in. Rational thought doesn’t play much of a role at times like this, and it’s important to realize that. But you have to remember that there’s nothing in the dark that isn’t there in the light.

But it's also the Moon's influence, and the unknowable thought processes that go on in our subconscious, that can make the most astounding leaps of judgement. In medieval times there was really a very fine line between one's impressions of a genius, a madman and a holy fool. The Moon's influence isn't linked to lunacy for nothing. So the obscurity of the moonlight can be a mask or a filter for genius, for strokes of brilliance, for mind-blowing illumination. There's a lot that isn't seen, that is perceived differently, and that goes on below the surface. And the Moon has that effect on people.

 

[spiraling]

First Impressions
Astrologically, Pisces is a Water sign and is ruled by Neptune and, obviously, the Moon. As one of the four classical elements, Water is changeable and intuitive. Modern astrologers apparently associate the planet Neptune's influence with confusion, illusion, even deception, and it seems that this is taken to heart in this card.

Pisces is peregrine ("wandering") when placed within the Moon, and has term by face within the second decan. Moon in Pisces bestows impressionablity, hypersenstivity, experiencing life as a waking dream, profound emotional states-- which may not even be theirs to begin with! The primary issue with moon in pisces is its lack of boundaries, esp. on the 'psychic' level, as their psychic 'antennae' is such that they immediately intuit another's overall state, or current thoughts with great clarity -- whether they'd like to know that information or not. Their inner lives are often profound, and are most likely overactive, thus seemingly taking on a life of its own. It possesses imaginative ingenuity, but it just as easily sends one spiraling into bouts of self-victimization, martyrdom, and morbidity. "Wandering" fits the Moon card adequately, as to have this sign placement is like constant groping in the dark for reality, through all its psychic naunces (which most people are ill-equip to perceive), and between one's over-active imagination inferring that which is insubstantial into situations, while fighting an oversensitive emotional nature.