Major Arcana · XVIII
The Moon lights a path that isn't quite what it seems — shadows, dreams and half-truths.
The Moon lights a path that isn't quite what it seems — shadows, dreams and half-truths. Not everything here is clear, and fear can dress up as fact. When it appears, trust your instincts but check your footing; let things come into focus before you judge them.
Element
Water
Planet
♆Neptune
What the card says to you is truer than what anyone else says it means.
Cards often seen near this one
The Moon by life area
The distinction between this card and some of the conventional types is that the moon is increasing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is the issue into the unknown.
The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it. The last reference is a key to another form of symbolism. The intellectual light is a reflection and beyond it is the unknown mystery which it cannot shew forth. 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 lower than the savage beast.
It strives to attain manifestation, symbolized by crawling from the abyss of water to the land, but as a rule it sinks back whence it came. The face of the mind directs a calm gaze upon the unrest below; 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 a form.
Source: “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot” by A.E. Waite (1910). Public domain.
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