Pictorial Key to the Tarot: the Moon
The moon is a major symbol of the High Priestess. Therefore it is no surprise that the Moon card in the Tarot deck is linked to the subconscious. Unlike the High Priestess, however, the Moon carries undertones of unsettling things lurking in the shadows, of unpleasant fears and personal demons watching and waiting for us. Thus the Moon card is representative of fears and illusion, of imagination and confusion. It can also be an indicator of expanded psychic awareness.
In the Moon card, we see a large and bright full moon shining in the night sky over a path leading off into the distance, beyond the horizon and into the unknown. The two pillars at left and right stand for the portals dividing the conscious and the subconscious. The two canine animals represent our basest, most primitive fears. The kraken emerging from the water in the foreground stands for our personal demons, our dark side, our shadowy selves - the side of ourselves that we don’t let into the light of day but that nevertheless needs to be acknowledged and integrated.
The Moon is a celestial object that reflects the light of the sun. It does not generate its own light. Therefore, what it illumines is seen by a skewed lighting source. Nothing is quite as it seems. Only by facing our fears and demons squarely can we hope to reclaim the true light. In the meantime, we trust fully to our feelings and intuition and we plunge into the murky waters, wrestling with our shadows and preparing to re-emerge, rediscover our true path and continue our journey.
When the Moon card appears in a reading, it is asking us to stop and examine the underlying motives buttressing our actions, intentions, thoughts, goals and aspirations. It is showing us that we have deep-seated fears and issues that we need to reckon with before proceeding further. If we don’t, we are in some way deceiving ourselves from what is really driving us forward. It is time to face the beasts and shadows that darken our spirit, bring them to the surface and come to terms with reality.