The Moon

Hope was restored by The Star. But hope does not eliminate the darkness it simply makes it navigable. The Moon reveals the terrain the Fool must cross: a path between two towers, a dog and a wolf howling at the sky, a crayfish emerging from the water. This is the deep unconscious the place where fears wear familiar faces, where dreams and reality blur, where the path is visible but uncertain. In the journey, The Moon is the final ordeal before dawn: the long night of not-knowing.

The Moon governs the unconscious, dreams, intuition at its most unreliable, and the anxiety that comes from not being able to see clearly. It appears when confusion, illusion, or hidden influences are at work when things are not as they seem, or when fears from the past are distorting the present. It can signal deception (by others or by oneself), psychic sensitivity, creative depth, or a period of liminal uncertainty. Reversed, The Moon often signals that the confusion is lifting the hidden is becoming clear.

The moon's face shows a human profile she is not the cool, distant satellite but a presence, watching with her 32 rays (15 light, 15 dark, 2 in between). The two towers represent the boundary between the known and the unknown. The dog and wolf are the tamed and wild aspects of the unconscious both present, both howling. The crayfish emerging from the pool is the creature of the deep unconscious beginning to surface. The path leads between the towers: we must cross, even in uncertainty.

• The Moon is associated with Pisces the most psychic and intuitive sign of the zodiac, ruler of dreams, dissolution, and the collective unconscious.
• In astrology, the Moon governs our emotional nature, our instincts, and our habitual patterns all themes central to this card.
• The crayfish on The Moon card is sometimes identified as a cancer (the zodiac sign) creating a visual link to The Chariot, which is also ruled by Cancer.
• The number 18 reduces to 9 (The Hermit) in numerology suggesting that navigating The Moon requires the same interior light The Hermit carries.
• Some tarot historians suggest The Moon card originally depicted a woman weaving by moonlight a symbol of Fate, time, and the working-out of the unconscious over long periods.