I WILL BE WORKING USING THE RIDER WAITE TAROT DECK AS A BASIS FOR THIS EXPLORATION.

Easily one of the most mysterious cards in the Major Arcana, The Moon holds so much depth and meaning. I find this card so comforting and it is definitely the card that speaks to me the most out of them all, but that might just be because I’m a Pisces and letting my imagination run away with me is just about my favourite thing!

There is so much going on in this card, so we will begin by looking at a little bit of numerology. This card is number 18, which can be reduced to 9. Nine tends to represent reflection and intuition. It is also the number of universal love, faith and spiritual awakenings, or a mental journey. Through 9 we can relate this card to The Hermit, we can also relate this card to 3 thus forming a connection between this card and the idea of the Triple Goddess. This then creates a connection between The Moon and The High Priestess.

There is a path leading off through two pillars and up to mountains in the distance. On one side of this path is a dog and on the other there is a wolf. This is representative of the divide between our civilised and wild aspects. It can also represent our conscious and subconscious, the material and spiritual worlds, or our inner and outer world. There is much in this card about the intersection and separation of opposites which can be interpreted in many ways depending on the spread. The wolf is also a symbol of Artemis, who can be associated with the maiden of the Triple Goddess. Emerging from a pool is a crayfish, or lobster, which represents us in a primitive form. It is possible this pool is the same one that we have seen already in many cards across the Major Arcana and will see later in the cards of the Minor Arcana. In this crayfish we can see ourselves emerging and embarking on a new journey, the one that we started with The Star previously.

The towers also represent this idea of opposites. We must pass through them and walk the line without relying too much on either aspect of ourselves. Above the path is the moon with a face. Many have associated this lady in the moon with Artemis looking down. Others have associated her with the Divine Feminine or our higher selves. The lady in the moon has her eyes closed and so does not appear to be looking over the crayfish, but rather in her own inner world.

When The Moon appears in a reading it may suggest that you are losing yourself in your inner world. You need to crawl out of it, as the crayfish crawls from the pool. The crayfish is entirely oblivious about the world before him, this echoes sentiments from earlier in the Major Arcana of us living in a bubble and not understanding the universe. In this way, the crayfish may be more mentally and spiritually evolved than we currently are as he has now emerged from that murky, unknowing place and can see the path before him clearly as it is illuminated by The Moon. Although it is nighttime, the crayfish is not going forward into the dark- a light shines the way before him. This links to our subconscious and our intuition and allowing it to guide us. We must walk that line however and not allow our inner world to take over. We still exist physically and must treat both our inner and outer world with respect.

When The Moon comes to us reversed, it may suggest that we are stuck in that pond. We can see the path, but we have no clue how to get out of the water. We may not even realise that we can get out of the water- if we have lived our entire lives there then we have no concept of anything else. This manifests as confusion and a longing feeling that sticks with you through everything. You must take time to process your emotions and objectively assess your situation. When we are panicking, we may not see the shore of the pool, but once we take time to see the situation we can see where the pond is more shallow.