The Moon

Origin and iconography

In the Visconti-Sforza Tarocchi of c. 1450 the Moon is rendered as a single female figure holding the lunar crescent, in the style of medieval astrological allegory. The Tarot de Marseille of the 17th century introduces the dog, the wolf and the crayfish in their canonical positions: two canids facing the moon and howling, and a freshwater crayfish climbing from a pool toward the path. Sixteen drops or rays fall from the moon's face, and two crenellated towers stand at the rear of the scene. The colours are blue, yellow and red.

Pamela Colman Smith's 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith Moon retains and intensifies this iconography. A face appears in profile within a full moon partially eclipsed by a crescent. Yellow rays alternating with curved drops fall toward the earth. A path winds from the foreground pool, between the dog and the wolf, between the two grey towers, and over distant hills toward an unseen destination. The crayfish, half-emerged from the pool, faces the path. The colour palette is dominated by yellows, blues and earth tones. The Thoth deck of Crowley and Harris (1938-1943) replaces the towers with Anubis figures and emphasises the underworld journey.

Upright and reversed meaning

Upright, the Moon signals a passage through territory that is real but uncertain. It marks the surfacing of unconscious material, vivid dreams, intuitions that arrive as feelings rather than thoughts, and the work of facing fears that have lived long enough to become familiar. The card describes creativity that draws on the night side of the psyche, recovery from trauma, and the long road that crosses ambiguous ground. It is not deceptive in itself, but it requires the seeker to distinguish projection from perception, and to walk anyway when certainty has not arrived.

Reversed, the Moon can describe deception cleared, illusions seen through, or, alternatively, anxiety that has gripped the seeker and prevented honest reading of the situation. It may show the resurfacing of repressed material that asks to be acknowledged. As a phase, the reversed card invites you to write down dreams, to consult someone whose discernment you trust, and to slow any decision that is being driven by fear rather than information. The Moon returns upright when the path is walked rather than analysed from outside, and the towers are passed.

In readings

When the Moon appears in your spread, look at where you are walking by feel. In love readings she often marks affairs charged with projection, partnerships in which one party hides something, vivid erotic dreams, and the slow revelation of a partner's shadow. With The High Priestess she deepens into intuition and the unconscious; with The Hermit she sustains contemplative practice through difficult terrain.

In professional readings the Moon favours work in psychology, dream therapy, the arts, night shifts, and any role that involves discerning what is not yet visible. She often appears around uncertain phases of negotiation, projects shrouded in confidentiality, and creative work in incubation. In a Celtic Cross she may occupy positions of hidden influence or near past. Spiritually she is the practitioner of attention to the night side of the psyche. In a Marseille reading the crayfish emerging from the pool is the cipher: something old is rising toward consciousness.

Symbolic depth

In the Golden Dawn system the Moon is assigned to the Hebrew letter Qoph, the back of the head, and to the path connecting Netzach to Malkuth on the Tree of Life. Its astrological attribution is Pisces, the mutable water sign of dissolution, compassion and dreamlife, ruled traditionally by Jupiter and modernly by Neptune. The number 18 (1+8 = 9) returns to The Hermit, indicating that the lantern's wisdom is now being tested in the dark.

Mythologically the trump draws on the Greek Hecate of crossroads, on Artemis-Diana of the hunt, on the Egyptian Khonsu, and on the Babylonian Sin. The dog and wolf represent the domesticated and wild aspects of instinct, the crayfish the oldest layer of the unconscious. Carl Jung read this archetype as the encounter with the personal and collective unconscious, the realm of dreams, anima and the night sea journey. In Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey the Moon corresponds to the Magic Flight or the road of return through the unfamiliar, before The Sun brings full daylight.

Also known as

• La Lune
• La Luna
• Key XVIII
• Selene
• The Night Mirror