This is such a lovely and symbolically rich card which really does paint a thousand words.

Found in the final section of the major arcana, the MOON along with the STAR and the SUN are cards of illumination, the MOON actually sits between the two others, and whilst it is brighter than the STAR it does not offer as much clarity as the SUN.

The number on the MOON card is XVIII (18) which in numerology gives 1 + 8 = 9, 9 is the number of integrity and wisdom so when the MOON is pulled out it is often a time to put ourselves under the spot light and to look at our integrity and how this can lead to a level of wisdom. Remember wisdom is knowledge with experience, what are those two factors telling us.

So how do I do that? I always like to firstly look at who is on the card and what are they doing, if we start at the bottom of the card we have this funny looking crayfish/lobster creature climbing out of a pool of water! Now the water represents the sub-conscious, this is not the same as the un-conscious but rather something we have taken from our conscious mind and suppressed, so the crayfish represents something in our sub-conscious that has come to the surface. If we ignore it, it will sink back into our sub-conscious self until next time.

The next thing I notice are the two very central characters, the dog and the wolf, classically these are often viewed as two opposing factors that under the moon are united in their attention to it and their inability to do anything about it, I often feel however that they are a little more involved, throughout the Tarot there are several pictures of people with a dog, the FOOL card shows a young ‘fool’ with his best friend and in the 10 of pentacles there is a very family orientated scene that also shows a dog. I see the dog here again and the wolf I see as a werewolf, a human when the sun is out, but when they are exposed to the moon they turn into a wolf. We all have a more animalistic side to ourselves and our friend the dog is always there to help us control that side. But are we the wolf or dog?

At the two edges of the card we can see two TOWERS, they offer a ‘man-made’ structure and setting to the scene and often they show structure and stability whilst hinting at the ‘man-made’ nature of our story, whilst the card offers us the chance to bring some illumination to some factor hidden within our psyche it is unlikely to effect the structure of our material world.

At the top of the card sits the MOON itself, split into three parts of the lunar cycle the face within the moon looks slightly serene, serious and has a closed eye, so it actually doesn’t see a great deal. Coming off of the moon are strands of light and small dots, these dots are actually Yods, which is the first letter of God in the Tretragrammaton, and when there are two Yods linked together the spell Lord. This part of the card shows us there is a divine presence at work.

What this card does quite nicely is link the three parts of our psyche together, the lower sub-conscious aspect with the conscious mind and then the higher-super/ un-conscious mind.

Maybe the illumination of the MOON draws from our sub-conscious something we have suppressed, and if the two sides of our conscious self were to turn and confront it could be conquered. Then we could enjoy the radiance of that super un-conscious realm without that niggling feeling at the back of our mind.

So for today, shine a bit of light onto the pool of your sub-conscious and see if there is anything that needs some attention.

If you would like to know more about the MOON then please get in TOUCH.