THE MOON CARD
By Cal Garrison
On the surface The Moon is a deceptively simple image. Despite its visual simplicity, it is one of the hardest cards to read well. In the Rider-Waite Deck, the 18th card of the Major Arcana portrays a full yellow moon, with its half and crescent phases delineated, glowing above a blue and green landscape. Fifteen small Yods, or points of light, float beneath the lunar orb seeming to emanate from it.
The sky meets a mountain range that descends into fields that touch a body of water in the lower portion of the foreground. A winding yellow path divides the landscape vertically. This by-way leads the eye of the viewer from the water's edge to the point where it vanishes on the horizon line.
On the left side of the road we see a dog barking at the Moon — a wolf stands howling on the right. Positioned between the dog and the wolf, a crab, or a crayfish crawls out of the water and up onto the bank that leads down the central pathway.
Near the point where the Earth meets the sky, two watchtowers flank the mid-section of the picture. It appears to be dawn or dusk, or the point in the daily cycle where the wild things feel free to go about their business unafraid of any human interference. Unlike all the other cards in the deck (With the exception of the Aces) the Moon displays not one, two-legged creature.
Dogs and wolves have the same ancestry but the primal instincts of the wolf are tamed in its canine relative. The two embody forces that live inside all of us. Their presence in the image speaks to our ability to remain in touch with our instincts with enough presence of mind to keep them in their place.
Taken one step further, the wolf could be seen as the right brain, or the imaginal world of the subconscious and the dog could be a symbol for the left brain, or the logical, linear thought processes that allow us to make sense of what the unconscious offers up. The pathway that separates them is analogous to the corpus collosum. As the howls from the wolf echo across this membrane the dog interprets those messages with enough unconditional love to be able to accept what it hears and integrate it without destroying or succumbing to its wilder counterpart.
The third creature in this image is a crab. It looks more like a lobster or a crayfish, but it really doesn't matter which brand of crustacean is crawling out of the water. The crab is an emblem for the sign Cancer. Cancer is the astrological ruler of the Moon. In esoteric astrology this point in the Zodiac is where the soulbeginsto wake up. It represents mass consciousness as the first level of awareness and the natural precursor to the Christ Consciousness that develops in Virgo, and the Universal Consciousness that awakens in the sign Aquarius.
The crab inches out of the water's depths to explore the banks of the landscape and perhaps move up the pathway to some higher place. It hints at evolution and thus becomes a symbol for the journey we take from the womb to the grave and past the vanishing point, where the road disappears at the skyline. Any enlightenment we receive along the way is in large part a product of our ability to sense things that don't make sense, guided by our instincts and our intuitive processes.
There isn't a whole lot of certainty here. Looking at the crab and the winding road that stretches out before it, there are no signposts or landmarks to indicate what it might encounter along the way. One wonders if this tiny creature will continue on its journey or go back from whence it came.
The two watchtowers are emblems for the polarity that exists even in the shadow world of The Moon. Nothing is clearly defined here and it's interesting that the double pillar symbol that shows up in so many of the cards surfaces as two watchtowers in The Moon. It's as if the duality one finds in the potential craziness of this place is extreme enough to warrant being watchful at all times. One wonders if there's anyone in those towers, or if it's up to us to keep watch on our selves when The Moon appears in our cards.
The road that courses between them is the center line, that point in our consciousness where common sense meets up with instinct and intuition to discuss where the balance lies — where the dog and the wolf decide to cooperate and guide us along our evolutionary path or keep us running back and forth between chaos and confusion.
The predominance of the color blue is obvious. It fills up half of the card. The Throat Chakra and everything associated with it are keynotes to The Moon's interpretation. The barking dog and the howling wolf could be mouthpieces for some ancient wisdom — or perhaps, the Truth finds expression when the civilized mind is balanced with what is instinctive and natural in us.
The color green equates with the heart. The green frequencies of the Heart Chakra are so important when The Moon shows up in our lives. The dark light of this shadow world can't be seen or navigated with the mind. It is experienced through the senses and translated by the heart, on another level of consciousness.
The yellow is a Third Chakra symbol. It may be there to remind us that our deepest fears can only be transmuted into trust when we 'let go and let God'. That process doesn't take place in the mind either. Surrendering to what can't be explained and trusting that we will be guided to the next step requires faith in something outside of our selves. Knowing that everything is up to God makes it easier to flow with every uncertainty.
The Yods floating in the sky are the only indication that whatever we have faith in actually exists. I don't claim to understand these symbols in their entirety, but from an astrological perspective, a Yod is defined as the 'Finger of God'. There are fifteen of them in this image, which leads me to believe that the card is telling us that no matter where our journey takes us, we are always in God's hands.
It's much easier to talk about The Moon's imagery than it is to interpret the card when it shows up in a reading. The minute I see it in a spread I know that I have to go into explaining things that can't be explained. The first thing that comes up is the idea that the querent is having an experience that they are totally in the dark about. It usually means that they can't approach it with logic and will need to rely on their instincts or their intuition to tell them what to do. As the reader, there is no way to know what the querent should or shouldn't do, because finding that out is part of an internal process that only they can unravel.
It's cold comfort to pay a reader for advice, only to be told that the answers lie within. As the reader, explaining how to get those answers will inevitably involve using some sort of analogy. I often compare The Moon to the part in Hansel and Gretel, where the two children are abandoned by their parents and left out in the forest to fend for them selves. The breadcrumbs that Hansel had the foresight to leave on the path have been eaten up by the birds and he and his sister are stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way of knowing where they are. The Moon represents life situations that are exactly like this — and because this type of quandary never matches anything we've experienced before, the card is there because the querents' current situation is full of uncertainty.
When there's no light to guide you and no clear path, you can't do anything but trust your instincts. Like the crab, it's a matter of feeling your way around in the dark, inching your way forward slowly until you begin to hear the voice that only speaks its truth when the mind has been lost to things that overwhelm all reason. That other voice is a trustworthy ally when the card is upright. Its signals will lead you out of the place of not knowing and take you exactly where you need to be. This applies to anything that might be troubling the querent. In its upright mode, The Moon indicates that they will survive their predicament one way or another — but no one, not even a fortuneteller, can tell them how long it will be or what course things will take.
The Moon is also a feminine symbol. On rare occasions it will signify a female influence or the influence of a number of women. It can refer to the menstrual cycle, conception, pregnancy, birth, or anything that has to do with the female organs as well. If you're talking to a woman who has health concerns, the heart of the problem may lie in the generative sphere. When The Moon shows up for a man who has questions about his health, it's more likely that the pancreas and the lymphatic system are sourcing the issue. No matter whose health the question concerns The Moon indicates that there won't be a problem if those areas are attended to. On this level of interpretation The Moon can simply be saying that in general, the querents' well being depends upon their ability to remain connected to their female aspect. (There are no guidelines for diagnosing illness with the cards, by the way — but there are times when as the reader you intuit something and wind up saying things that are amazingly accurate)
In its reversed position The Moon takes us beyond not knowing into various forms of lunacy.
It's hard enough to deal with uncertainty but when the mind is unable to add any clarity to the situation it becomes more of a chore. The inverted Moon has to do with the idea that the querent is incapable of translating any of the messages it's receiving from the subconscious. It's as if the wolf is howling and the dog is asleep at the switch, unable to talk sense into its primitive aspect. When the instinctive nature overrides any semblance of rationality it makes people crazy.
This kind of insanity takes many different forms. Sometimes the reversed Moon will show up when the person you are talking to is delusional. They are too involved believing their fantasies to take note of the fact that they might be misinterpreting them. Unable to accept the idea that they really don't know what's going on, they pretend otherwise and use any belief they can latch on to, to justify actions that make no sense at all. In a state of total disconnect they try to function as if they know what they are doing and all it does is add to their chaos.
People manifest the reversed Moon when their beliefs are used to reinforce their denial mechanisms or when they can't ground their beliefs, in the reality of their experience. An extreme example of this would be the Jonestown Massacre. None of Jim Jones' devotees were in their right mind when they poisoned themselves. All of them swallowed their Kool-Aid voluntarily, disconnected from their common sense and any instinct that might tell them not to. A less gruesome example can be seen in the type of individual who is convinced that they're a fairy, or a shaman, or the reincarnation of Cleopatra. At the most mundane level this would be the bored housewife who watches soap operas all day and thinks she's Ruby, or Sierra, or Trinity. Anyone whose sense of self is based on something that isn't true is living in the shadow of The Moon.
You can be pretty sure that the mind and the instincts have their circuits crossed when this card's reversed. That which should function to keep us clear, becomes a slave to misguided intuitive processes that fool us into rationalizing any form our lunacy takes. The belief in things that aren't real, and the inability to edit our instincts with any semblance of common sense are all aspects of the reversed Moon. As you can imagine, all this does is cause trouble — trouble that infects the person who's manufacturing it, and everything they are connected to.
Unfortunately when you have to read this card in its reversed position, the person you're talking to won't understand anything you say. There are different degrees and different varieties of craziness to be sure, but they have one thing in common: denial. Telling someone that they are out of their mind never goes over too well, so you have to approach it another way. All you can say is, 'Your intuition is totally 'off' at the moment. Everything is so confused it is impossible for you to see you self or anything clearly. You need to step back and get some objective input. Share what you're experiencing with others. Talk about it and see if they can offer you another perspective. If you keep it inside you will only become more confused'. You can also say, 'Right now you just don't know what's going on, so don't feel obligated to pretend that you do. We all go through times like this. Part of being human has to do with feeling lost. It's the only thing that prompts us to find our selves'.
The female energy that comes with The Moon gets afflicted when the card is reversed. Cramps, bitches, petty gossip, hysteria, abortions, frigidity, PMS, obnoxious women in general, anything we generally associate with the worst part of being female is represented by the downside of the Moon. In a health question it can signal reproductive issues, growths, cysts, tumors, calcium deposits, congenital illness, and/or memory problems. Before you say anything specific to the querent about a health issue, be more than sure that your signals aren't crossed. Even the reader can get sucked in by their delusions when this card shows up — don't ever offer any kind of information that isn't based on absolute certainty, intuitive or otherwise.
What I have to say next I am saying because if I don't, someone will ask me why I didn't. The Moon rules the past. It also rules public opinion and the public in general. Sometimes you will get questions that don't fall into the usual category, and it helps to have a good understanding of the full breadth of a card's meaning. When the querent doesn't seem to have any connection to any of the customary interpretations of the card, The Moon usually refers to their past. Something in their past is haunting them — either that or the past is up for review. Reversed or upright will tell you whether this is a nightmare or just a healthy reality check.
The card can also refer to the querents' reputation in the community — good or bad. I once read for a local selectman and when The Moon showed up in the spread I couldn't place it right away because he was the kind of guy who knew who he was and what he was doing. The card was upright at the top of the layout. The rest of the cards had nothing to do with personal issues and the nature of the question was career related. Looking at The Moon, not knowing what else to say I told him that popular opinion was high and that he was on his way up. It helped my reputation to know about the cards' connection to the public because he got elected Mayor six-months later!
The Moon works in mysterious ways. Its meaning is particularly significant now because all of us are dealing with such a high level of uncertainty, in our lives and in ourselves. These times we're in don't look like anything we've ever been through before, and it seems as if it's our job to feel our way through the dark, because there are no clear signs to show us the way.
If our animal instincts are strong enough to give a voice to the messages they receive from the heart and the senses, and if those impressions are strengthened by reason and discretion, it's quite possible that this new world we wish to create will come into being naturally — and whatever we experience in the process will be supported by our faith in the idea that all we have to do to make that happen is accept the uncertainty and trust what comes from within.
About Cal Garrison
Cal is a writer with four books to her credit. ‘The Old Girls’ Book of Spells’, ‘The Old Girls’ Book of Dreams’, and her latest book, ‘Witch On the Go’ were published by RedWheel/Weiser Press and are available in bookstores or on Amazon.com. In addition to her own work, she also writes for Slim Spurling. Her first book with Slim, ‘Slim Spurling’s Universe’ is being followed up by their second book together which, with any luck, will be out in 2008—2009.
A professional astrologer with 35 years experience Cal has cast over 6000 charts and is one of the best in her field. She is also an expert on the Tarot. When she’s not running the Spirit of Ma'at office, or working on her books, Cal spends her time doing in depth astrology and tarot readings for people all over the country.
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