The Moon (Tarot card)

The Moon (XVIII)

The Moon (XVIII) is the eighteenth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.

Symbolism

• Two large, foreboding pillars are shown. Some see them as tombstones, others relate them to Karma.
• A wolf and a domesticated dog howl at the moon.
• A crayfish appears in the water.
• The Moon is "shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops". These are numbered 18 in the Rider-Waite deck and are all Yodh-shaped. On this basis, some associate this card with impregnation.

Rider-Waite specific

• Very clearly, the figure in the moon is frowning, reflecting displeasure.
• The waxing moon has 16 chief rays and 16 secondary rays.
• The beasts are a dog and a wolf, which represent "the fears of the natural mind".
• The crayfish crawls from the water onto the land.
• There is a pathway into the distant, dark unknown.

Interpretation

According to Waite's The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit. 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. This reference is a key to another form of symbolism. The intellectual light is a mere reflection and beyond it is the unknown mystery which it cannot reveal. 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 even than the savage beast. 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. The face of the mind directs a calm gaze upon the unrest below, and 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 form.

Some frequent keywords are:

• Lack of clarity ----- Tension ----- Doubt ----- Fantasy

• Deception ----- Psychological conflict ----- Obscured vision

• Confusion ----- Illusion ----- Fear ----- Imagination ----- Worry

• Romanticism ----- Anxiety ----- Apprehension ----- Unrealistic ideas

Other meanings

This card has to do with sleep patterns. This can mean both dreaming and nightmares. If one gets this card, one may be going through a particularly difficult emotional time. Rather than losing yourself in the overwhelming imagery and fantasy that signal the presence of the Moon, give form to this imagery through the creative arts (painting, writing, or dancing). The association this card bears with imagery and fantasy can put one in touch with visions and insight, creativity and psychic powers.

The Moon can be interpreted with the feeling of uncertainty, where the past still haunts, unsure of a journey but still going ahead with it, feeling watched and because it is commonly associated with dreams, fantasies and mysteries this card can also be interpreted with surreal feelings and situations in your waking life.

Alternative decks

• In the "Flemish Deck" by Vandenborre, the moon shows a woman seated in the right-hand corner with a tree in the left hand corner. The moon is directly above her. She is shown with a distaff in her right hand and spinning thread with her left hand.
• In the old Italian Tarot decks, instead of the above scene there is an astrologer measuring the large moon above him in some way.^{[citation needed]}
• In Mythic Tarot decks, the moon is depicted by Artemis, Selene and Hecate.

In pop culture

• The Moon is a monster card in the Yu-gi-oh! card game, as part of a group of cards called the Arcana Force.

• Deep Blue Moon is an enemy stand in JoJo's Bizzare Adventure, taking the form of a humanoid fish monster.

• Persona 3 has a Moon Social Link represented by a gluttonous boy known as the 'Gourmet King'. He feels overshadowed by the memory of his dead brother. Persona 4 has Ai Ebihara a girl thought to be heartless ice queen as the Moon Social Link. She feels that no one accepts her even though she has changed her appearance.Persona 3 Portable The Moon Social Link in the Female Protagonist route is Shinjiro Aragaki. He feels that he shouldn't leave any traces of his existence behind and distances himself away from others.

• In the SNES video game Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, the Moon Tarot card depicts a woman in a long white dress soaring on a moonbeam through the night. On drawing the card after liberation of one of the towns, it changes the time of day to midnight, and also changes the rows of enemy units to a different position when used in battle.

References

• ^ The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by Arthur Waite
• ^ The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, by Arthur Waite
• A. E. Waite's 1910 Pictorial Key to the Tarot
• Juliette Wood, Folklore 109 (1998):15-24, The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making (1998)

External links

• "Moon" cards from many decks and articles to "Moon" iconography
• The History of the Moon Card from The Hermitage.
• The Moon from Joan Bunning's Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners
• Symbolism of the Moon arcanum