Up: [[Tarot]] Created: 2022-11-03 Updated: 2025-08-19 > [!leaf] In Brief > Illusion, [[shadow]], hidden truths, the unconscious as revealed in dreams and intuitions > [!Leaf] What Matters The Moon doesn’t generate its own light. It reflects the hidden light of the Sun. If you go out into a moonlit night without flashlight or light from buildings, the scene is shadowy, illusory. It is this sense that has given us the word ‘lunacy’ from the Latin word ‘luna’ or moon. Expect intensity when you pull the moon card. Intensity, confusion, and often fear. [[Alyssa Polizzi]] describes it as the quintessential [[Shadow]] card. *Star Tarot* says that all of the fears and demons you’ve been carrying are *bigger, scarier and meaner*. Situations often aren’t as they first seemed. Emotions seem to come out of nowhere and behaviour can be erratic. If you can stand it, if you can allow the darker, more hidden aspects of yourself to rise to the surface, the reward is a clarity and confidence in yourself that will allow you, in the next card [[19 - Sun]], to unapologetically shine your light out into the world. If you can’t stand it, if you’re living the shadow of this shadow card, you are either refusing to see the unknown, including your shadow qualities. or you are living in a fantasy world and not recognizing the illusions, ![[Moon RWS.webp|300]] > [!Leaf] Symbols Notice that in the Rider-Waite-Smith card, there are animals but no people. Tarot expert Rachel Pollack suggests that *In the half-light, the sense of ourselves as humans breaks down.* Our animal instincts, domesticated (dog) and natural (wolf) take over, responding to the raw emotions evoked by the moon. Also, the dog was sacred to Hecate, Greek goddess of the moon. Pay particular attention to the crayfish. It’s representative of deep and primal fears, the kind that haunt us without ever fully taking shape so that we could do something about them. They’ll emerge from our unconscious (universally symbolized by water), come partway to meet us in our nightmares, then fall back into the unconscious again. This card from *Tarot of Mystical Moments* turns the crayfish into even more of a monster of the deep, accentuating the terrors that can emerge when we are in the otherworldly strange light of the moon. ![[Moon Mystical Moments.webp|300]] However, all is not lost. The yellow pieces falling from the moon are called yods, symbolizing divine energy. If we are open to accepting what emerges from the unconscious, we can go through the gateway or portal between the two pillars and follow the winding path to spiritual wisdom. *Spiritual Tarot* suggests that the undulations in the path refer to different planes of consciousness that would be open to us in [[Active Imagination]], sleep, or meditation. > [!leaf] Actions 1. Let dreams, intuition, and emotions be your guide. 2. Try to not close down mystery and confusion. Be willing to be in a state of not knowing. 3. Accept the natural ebb and flow of life. Are you completing a phase of life or beginning a new one? What phase of your creative practice are you in? See [[Phases of the Moon for the Artist]] 4. Accept whatever emotions are coming to the forefront without judgment. At the same time, when you pull the moon card it can be a time of high anxiety and fear. If that’s happening, check to see if there’s a realistic basis for it or if it’s illusion. 5. Journal or freewrite responses to [[Quotes - Moon]] or to any of these questions: * Which cycles or phases feel most natural and/or supportive to me? * What is influencing me that I’m maybe not fully aware of? * What choices can I make that will allow me to embrace all aspects of my personality, including my wild side?