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The Moon (Tarot card)

 

 
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The Moon (Tarot card)
 
 
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The Moon (XVIII) is the eighteenth trump
Trump Card

Trump Card was an American syndicated game show that aired in the 1990-91 television season and was hosted by Jimmy Cefalo. Debi Massey served as hostess and Chuck Reilly was the announcer....
 or Major Arcana
Major Arcana

The Major Arcana of occult or divinatory tarot consists of twenty two cards. The name Major Arcana was first used by Jean Baptiste Pitois....
 card in most traditional Tarot
Tarot

The tarot is typically a set of seventy-eight cards, composed of twenty-one Trump , one The Fool , and four Suit of fourteen cards each?ten pip and four Face card cards ....
 decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.

Rider-Waite specific

rding to Waite
Arthur Edward Waite

Arthur Edward Waite was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite tarot deck Tarot deck....
's The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the card represents life of the imagination
Imagination

Imagination is the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses, and the action or process of forming such images or concepts....
 apart from life of the spirit
Spirit

The English word "spirit" comes from the Latin "spiritus" . The term is commonly used to refer to a supernatural being which is transcendence and therefore metaphysical in nature....
. The dog and wolf are the fear
Fear

Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of pain....
s of the natural mind
Mind

Mind refers to the aspects of intellect and consciousness manifested as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, free will and imagination, including all of the brain's conscious and unconscious cognitive processes....
 in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it.






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Encyclopedia


The Moon (XVIII) is the eighteenth trump
Trump Card

Trump Card was an American syndicated game show that aired in the 1990-91 television season and was hosted by Jimmy Cefalo. Debi Massey served as hostess and Chuck Reilly was the announcer....
 or Major Arcana
Major Arcana

The Major Arcana of occult or divinatory tarot consists of twenty two cards. The name Major Arcana was first used by Jean Baptiste Pitois....
 card in most traditional Tarot
Tarot

The tarot is typically a set of seventy-eight cards, composed of twenty-one Trump , one The Fool , and four Suit of fourteen cards each?ten pip and four Face card cards ....
 decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.

Symbolism


  • Two large, foreboding pillar
    Pillar

    A pillar is similar to a column which is a vertical support structure in architecture, but the base section is any shape but circular.Pillar may also refer to:...
    s are shown. Some see them as tombstones, others relate them to Karma
    Karma

    Karma is the concept of "action" or "deed" in Indian religions understood as that which causes the entire cycle of causality originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhism philosophies....
    .
  • Two wild beasts howl at the moon.
  • A crayfish
    Crayfish

    Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads are fresh water crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related. They breathe through feather-like gills and are found in bodies of water that do not freeze to the bottom; they are also mostly found in brooks and streams where there is fresh water running, and which have shelter ag...
     appears in the water.
  • The Moon is "shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew
    Dew

    Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening. As the exposed surface cools by thermal radiation its heat, atmospheric moisture condensation at a rate greater than that at which it can evaporation, resulting in the formation of water droplets....
     in great drops" (Waite). These are numbered 15 in the Rider-Waite deck and are Yodh
    Yodh

    Yodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic History of the alphabet, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language Yud , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
    -shaped. On this basis, some associate this card with impregnation.


Rider-Waite specific

  • Very clearly, the figure in the moon is frown
    Frown

    A frown is a facial expression used to indicate displeasure, or disapproval.The appearance of a frown varies from culture to culture. Although most technical definitions define it as a wrinkling of the brow, in the USA it is primarily thought of as an expression of the mouth....
    ing, reflecting displeasure.
  • The waxing moon
    Moon

    The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
     has 16 chief rays and 16 secondary rays.
  • The beasts are, according to Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot
    Pictorial Key to the Tarot

    The Pictorial Key to the Tarot is Arthur Edward Waite's influential guide to divinatory tarot, published in England in 1910 in conjunction with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck....
    , a dog
    Dog

    The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
     and a wolf, which represent "the fears of the natural mind."
  • The crayfish crawls from the water onto the land.
  • There is a pathway into the distant, dark unknown.


Interpretation

According to Waite
Arthur Edward Waite

Arthur Edward Waite was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite tarot deck Tarot deck....
's The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the card represents life of the imagination
Imagination

Imagination is the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses, and the action or process of forming such images or concepts....
 apart from life of the spirit
Spirit

The English word "spirit" comes from the Latin "spiritus" . The term is commonly used to refer to a supernatural being which is transcendence and therefore metaphysical in nature....
. The dog and wolf are the fear
Fear

Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of pain....
s of the natural mind
Mind

Mind refers to the aspects of intellect and consciousness manifested as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, free will and imagination, including all of the brain's conscious and unconscious cognitive processes....
 in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it. This reference is a key to another form of symbolism. The intellectual light
Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
 is a reflection and beyond it is the unknown mystery which it cannot reveal. It illuminates our animal nature, types of which are represented below--the dog, the wolf and that which comes up out of the deeps, the nameless and hideous tendency which is even lower than the savage beast. It strives to attain manifestation, symbolized by crawling from the abyss
Abyss

Abyss may mean:Sciences and philosophy* Abyssal zone, a deep extent of the sea.* Abyssal plain, a flat area on the ocean floor.* Abyss , is a bottomless depth....
 of water to the land, but as a rule it sinks back whence it came. The face of the mind
Mind

Mind refers to the aspects of intellect and consciousness manifested as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, free will and imagination, including all of the brain's conscious and unconscious cognitive processes....
 directs a calm gaze upon the unrest below, and the dew of thought falls. The message is: "Peace, be still," and it may be that there shall come a calm upon the animal nature, while the abyss beneath shall cease from giving up form.

Some frequent keywords are:
  • Lack of clarity ----- Tension ----- Doubt ----- Fantasy


  • Deception ----- Psychological conflict ----- Obscured vision


  • Confusion ----- Illusion ----- Fear ----- Imagination ----- Worry


  • Romanticism ----- Anxiety ----- Apprehension ----- Unrealistic ideas


Other meanings

This card has to do with sleep
Sleep

Sleep is the natural state of bodily rest observed in humans and other animals. It is common to all mammals and birds, and is also seen in many reptiles, amphibians and fish....
 patterns. This can mean both dream
Dream

Dreams are sequence s, sounds and feelings experienced while sleeping, strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep. The contents and biological purposes of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history....
ing and nightmare
Nightmare

A nightmare is a dream which causes a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear or horror, being in situations of extreme danger, or the sensations of pain, bad events, falling, drowning or death....
s. If one gets this card, they may be going through a particularly difficult emotional time. Rather than losing yourself in the overwhelming imagery and fantasy that signals the presence of the Moon, give form to this imagery through the creative arts (painting, writing or dancing). The association this card bears to imagery and fantasy can put one in touch with visions and insight, creativity and psychic powers.

Alternative decks


  • In old Italian Tarot decks, instead of the above scene there is instead an astronomer measuring the large moon above him in some way.


  • The Moon is a monster card in the Yu-gi-oh!
    Yu-Gi-Oh!

    is a Japanese manga created by Kazuki Takahashi, which has spawned a franchise including multiple anime series, a trading card game, and numerous video games....
     card game, as part of a group of cards called the Arcana Force.


External links

  • from The Hermitage.