The next card in our series is the Moon card. I have always found the Moon card to be one of the most interesting cards out of the Major Arcana cards.
The imagery shows a full moon with a crescent in featuring a person who, depending on how you see it, either shows them in a deep contemplation or one who is looking sad and low. On either side of the moon are twin pillars. In between the twin pillars are a shower of 15 leaf-shaped drops (or yods) falling to Earth. There is also a winding pathway that is shrouded in darkness but begins in the light. At the start of the pathway lies a crayfish who, representing our sub conscious has just come out of the pond. Either side of pathway lie both a dog and wolf, both howling at the moon. Both representing our animal consciousness, yet one has been tamed, and the other has not.
Traditionally this card means that the person is feeling confused, lost, or even deceived. They do not know the best way forward, and their way is unclear and dark. Whilst I have found this to be very true with clients who have pulled this card, The Moon also has another meaning. It can signify there has been a shift in one’s intuition. That they are connecting more deeply with their unconscious, that they see the meaning behind their dreams, unfolding in our waking state.
This makes this card so fascinating, both in its imagery and in its traditional meaning. As you move on the pathway, there will come a time when you will move from a place where things are working well. There is clarity, you have a goal, you have structure. And yet you then move to a place of darkness. A place full of uncertainty and fear, where you no longer know where you are in life. You know something is wrong, but you do not know how to change it.
It is only in this place of darkness that some realise that listening to the internal dialogue of our thoughts will not help here. When things were going well, the thoughts left you alone, and you took no notice of the ones that had a darker intent. However, now that you are in a place of wanting change but do not understand how to reach it, those thoughts with ill intent are listened to, believed in and thus become your reality.
The Moon though asks us to instead to listen to our intuition, and even if we can’t see the way, trust in it to get us through. The intuition then becomes our car headlights in a road with no streetlamps. Looking after us in a place full of perceived danger.
How does one access the full power of our intuition? All begins with loosening the influence of our thoughts, but the card also provides its own hints. When the wolf within us has been tamed to that of a domestic dog. That, however, is perhaps a different discussion for a different card.