18. The Moon
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Card Title: The Moon
Esoteric Title: Ruler of Flux and Reflux
Child of the Sons of the Mighty
Astrological Atttribution: Pisces
Elemental Attribution: Water (cold, wet)
Dates & Timing: February 19 to March 20
Hebrew Letter: Qoph Back of Head 100
Color: Red-Violet
Intelligence: Concealed or Corporal Intelligence
Esoteric Function: Sleep
Qabalistic Path: Path 29: 7 Netzach to 10 Malkuth
Translation of Path: The Victory of Kingdom
Keywords: Unknown, Feminine Energy, Corporal Intelligence, Instinctive Energy, Body Consciousness, Nature, Art, Lunar, Unconscious, Emotions, Intuition, Secret & Hidden Fears, Deceptive, Illusion, Imagination, Bewilderment, Dread, Foreboding, Law Of Balance.
Ill-Dignified:Lying, Falsehood, Deception, Schemes, Threat, Insecurities, Despair, Fear, Misunderstandings, False Accusations.
Interpretation: Meditate! Emotional and Psychological Development. Self-Examination. Unknown talents come to light. Get in touch with body’s rhythms. Dark night of the soul. Hidden from consciousness. It’s out of your hands. Burning Karma. Threshold to new levels of consciousness. What are you afraid of? Things that go bump in the night. Follow inner light. Subtle changes. Be guided by intuition. Make notes of dreams. Learn to be more independent. Threshold to new levels of consciousness. It’s always darkest before dawn.
Reversed Interpretation: Hidden comes to light. Possibility of misunderstanding. Don’t let imagination run wild. Don’t be deceived by false promises. Emotional crisis. Fear & insecurity can prevent spiritual transformation. Mystery solved. Deceptions unmasked. Love will win. No risks should be taken.
Rider-Waite Imagery
A dog and a wolf bay at the moon eclipsing the sun. The wolf represents our animal nature. The dog tamed instincts. The Crayfish crawls up from the muddy depth of the mundane world believing there has to be something more.
The path of the moon is dark and full of dangers. It is difficult to see in the light of the moon. A rope could look like a snake.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)
Part I: The Veil and its Symbols
18. The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards show 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 shown 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.
Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil
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. The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is the issue into the unknown. 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 show 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. 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; 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.
The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]
Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot
18. 18th Hebrew letter (Tzaddi).
ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE EIGHTEENTH CARD OF THE TAROT.
The hieroglyphic idea connected with the Tzaddi is the same as that of the Teth (9th card); but it chiefly signifies a term, an aim, an end. It is a final concluding sign, relating to all the ideas of term, of secession, division and aim. 1
The Tzaddi is a simple letter; it corresponds with the zodiacal sign of Aquarius.
THE EIGHTEENTH CARD OF THE TAROT.The Moon.
We have now traversed the steps which the spirit descends in its gradual and utter fall towards the material world. All is now ended; the spirit is completely materialized, and the change is indicated by the eighteenth card.
A meadow feebly lighted by the moon.
The light, the symbol of the soul, no longer reaches us directly; the material world is only lighted by reflection.
The meadow is bounded by a tower on each side. Drops of blood are falling from the moon.
The material world is the last point which the spirit can reach, it can descend no lower; this is shown by the boundaries of the field. The drops of blood represent the descent of the Spirit into Matter.
A path sprinkled with drops of blood loses itself in the horizon. In the centre of the field a dog and a wolf axe howling at the moon, a crayfish is climbing out of the water between the two animals.
The entry of the Spirit into Matter is so great a fall that everything conspires to augment it.
Servile spirits (the dog), savage souls (the wolf), and crawling creatures (the crayfish) are all present watching the fall of the soul, hoping to aid in its destruction.
End of divine Materialization. Final point of involution–CHAOS.
End of the Materialization of man THE MATERIAL BODY AND ITS PASSIONS.
End of physical Materialization MATTER.
18. The Moon.
Affinities
- Primitive Hieroglyphic: A Roof
- Astronomy: Aquarius
- Month: January
- Hebrew letter: Tzaddi (simple)
Significations
- CHAOS
- THE MATERIAL BODY AND ITS PASSIONS
- MATTER
Involution, that is to say, the descent of the Spirit into Matter, ends with the 3rd septenary.
The three last cards of the Tarot will show us how all the emanated forces gradually return to their common principle by evolution.
Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View
18. The Moon signifies HIDDEN ENEMIES. DANGER.
The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]
Symbolism of Each Key
18. The Moon. The moon shining in the heavens, drops of dew falling, a wolf and a dog howling at the Moon, and halted at the foot of two towers, a path which loses itself in the horizon (and is sprinkled with drops of blood, a crayfish emblematic of the sign Cancer, ruled over by the Moon, crawls through water in the foreground towards the land). It symbolizes Twilight, Deception, and Error.
Meanings of the Cards
18. The Moon.Twilight, Deception, Error; R. Fluctuation, slight Deceptions, Trifling Mistakes.
The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]
What is the Tarot? Card XVIII.”The Moon”.
The Astral World as it is seen by the artificial means of magic. “Psychic”, “spiritistic” world. Dreads of the night. The real light from above and the false representation of that light from below. Pseudo-mysticism.
CARD XVIII. THE MOON.
A desolate plain stretched before me. A full moon looked down as if in contemplative hesitation. Under her wavering light the shadows lived their own peculiar life. On the horizon I saw blue hills, and over them wound a path which stretched between two grey towers far away into the distance. On either side the path a wolf and dog sat and howled at the moon. I remembered that dogs believe in thieves and ghosts. A large black crab crawled out of the rivulet into the sands. A heavy, cold dew was falling.
Dread fell upon me. I sensed the presence of a mysterious world, a world of hostile spirits, of corpses rising from graves, of wailing ghosts. In this pale moonlight I seemed to feel the presence of apparitions; someone watched me from behind the towers,–and I knew it was dangerous to look back.
The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.
XVIII. THE MOON
Here also is a river but it is the troubled waters of Night, wherein is to be described a crayfish, counterpart of the Scarabeus. It is guarded by the threatening watch gods, seeking to intimidate the wayfarers, while in the distance the barren hills are surmounted by the frowning fortresses still further guarding the way to attainment. It is the path of blood and tears in which fear, weakness, and fluctuation must be overcome. The colors are dark crimson, reddish brown, brownish crimson and plum colors – but their somber hues are lightened by the translucent faint greens and yellows to be found in their counterparts.
Book “T” The Tarot
Brief Meanings of Twenty-Two Keys
19. Dissatisfaction, voluntary change. Error, lying, falsity, deception. This card is very sensitive to dignity.
