The Moon (Tarot card)

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The Moon (XVIII) is a Major Arcana Tarot card.

Contents 1 Description and symbolism 2 Trivia 3 Other decks 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Description and symbolism

A. E. Waite was a key figure in the developement of modern Tarot interpretaions.</ref> Wood, 1998 However not all interpretations follow his theology. Please remember that all Tarot decks used for divination are interpreted up to personal experience and standards.

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

The waxing Moon with a scowling face, 16 chief rays and 18 secondary rays. The Moon is "shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops" (Waite). These are numbered 15 and are Yodh-shaped. On this basis, some associate this card with impregnation.

Two large, forbidding pillars. Some see them as tombstones, others relate them to Karma. There's a pathway into the distant, dark unknown. There are a wild dog and a wolf, howling at the Moon. The two canines are said by Waite to represent "the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it". Finally, a crayfish rising from the deeps onto the land.

[edit] Trivia

• In the X/1999 Tarot version made by CLAMP, The Moon is Nataku, a human asexual clone made out of Kazuki Toujyou and his father Masaki's DNA
• Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play Tarot card games such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. In English-speaking and Spanish- speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, Tarot cards came to be utilized primarily for divinatory purposes.

[edit] Other 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.

[edit] References

• [1]:The Moon from Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners - Joan Bunning
• A. E. Waite's 1910 Pictorial Key to the Tarot
• Juliette Wood, Folklore 109 (1998):15-24, The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making (1998)

[edit] External links

• "Moon" cards from many decks and articles to "Moon" iconography
• The History of the Moon Card from The Hermitage.

Major Arcana
0 The Fool	I The Magician	II The High Priestess	III The Empress	IV The Emperor	V The Pope	VI The Lovers	VII The Chariot	VIII Justice	IX The Hermit	X Wheel of Fortune
XI Strength	XII The Hanged Man	XIII Death	XIV Temperance	XV The Devil	XVI The Tower	XVII The Star	XVIII The Moon	XIX The Sun	XX Judgement	XXI The World
Tarot • Minor Arcana