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The Moon card guides you into the darkness and the night, into the mysterious worlds of the soul, showing our beliefs, desires, and dreams. The bright side of the moon denotes romantic dreaming, vivid fantasy and highly sophisticated sensitivity. Still, the card shows the dark side, the depths of the soul. It symbolizes our fears, insecurities, nightmares, dark conjectures, the horror of the invisible, elusive things, and the shiver. We feel this fear when we pass through the night forest, which we cut through in the daytime, but in the dark it teaches fear. It may also be the fear of old-time demons that have been given a new name in our enlightened age: bacteria, virus, milirem, becquerel, lead-contaminated air, acid rain.

XVIII. THE MOON

The Eighteenth Trump is attributed to the letter Qoph, which represents Pisces in the Zodiac. It is called the Moon. 

Pisces is the last of the Signs; it represents the last stage of winter. It might be called the Gateway of Resurrection (the letter Qoph means the back of the head, and is connected with the potencies of the cerebellum). In the system of the old Aeon, the resurrection of the Sun was not only from winter, but from night; and this card represents midnight.

“There is a budding morrow in midnight”, wrote Keats. For this reason there appears at the bottom of the card, underneath the water which is tinged with graphs of abomination, the sacred Beetle, the Egyptian Khephra, bearing in his mandibles the Solar Disk. It is this Beetle that bears the Sun in his Silence through the darkness of Night and the bitterness of Winter. 

Above the surface of the water is a sinister and forbidding landscape. We see a path or stream, serum tinged with blood, which flows from a gap between two barren mountains; nine drops of impure blood, drop-shaped like Yods, fall upon it from the Moon.

The Moon, partaking as she does of the highest and the lowest, and filling all the space between, is the most universal of the Planets. In her higher aspect, she occupies the place of the Link between the human and divine, as shown in Atu II. In this Trump, her lowest avatar, she joins the earthy sphere of Netzach with Malkuth, the culmination in matter of all superior forms. This is the waning moon, the moon of witchcraft and abominable deeds. She is the poisoned darkness which is the condition of the rebirth of light.

This path is guarded by Tabu. She is uncleanliness and sorcery. Upon the hills are the black towers of nameless mystery, of horror and of fear. All prejudice, all superstition, dead tradition - and ancestral loathing, all combine to darken her face before the eyes of men. It needs unconquerable courage to begin to tread this path. Here is a weird, deceptive life. The fiery sense is baulked. The moon has no air. The knight upon this quest has to rely on the three lower senses: touch, taste and smell. [See: The Book of Lies - Chapter 82, Bortsch.] Such light as there may be is deadlier than darkness, and the silence is wounded by the howling of wild beasts.

To what god shall we appeal for aid? It is Anubis, the watcher in the twilight, the god that stands upon the threshold, the jackal god of Khem, who stands in double form between the Ways. At his feet, on watch, wait the jackals themselves, to devour the carcasses of those who have not seen Him, or who have not known His Name.

This is the threshold of life; this is the threshold of death. All is doubtful, all is mysterious, all is intoxicating. Not the benign, solar intoxication of Dionysus, but the dreadful madness of pernicious drugs; this is a drunkenness of sense, after the mind has been abolished by the venom of this Moon. This is that which is written of Abraham in the Book of the Beginning: “An horror of great darkness came upon him.” One is reminded of the mental echo of subconscious realization, of that supreme iniquity which mystics have constantly celebrated in their accounts of the Dark Night of the Soul. But the best men, the true men, do not consider the matter in such terms at all. Whatever horrors may afflict the soul, whatever abominations may excite the loathing of the heart, whatever terrors may assail the mind, the answer is the same at every stage: “How splendid is the Adventure!”

XVIII. THE MOON

Moon in Scorpio as the dark knowledge of the depths of soul Zodiac: Pisces Tree of life: The connection from Netzach to Malkuth Element: Water Number: 18 as the return of the animal (turnus of sun- and moon eclipse) cross sum is the 9

The Moon will lead us into the blackest depths of our soul, into the world of the subconscious, where there are no more words, just images and notions. It represents a journey into the darkest night, a look behind our own face. 

The Moon isn't the most comfortable trump - though everybody likes to equate it with the mysteries, rarely someone really enjoys the look into their own abyss, where sometimes the unvarnished truth is not too pleasant. Embarrassingly enough, the Moon tends to show up what we generally ignore, refuse to see, or even deny all the time. 
But the step has to be taken, for without facing up to darkness, we will never see the light. 

Unlike most trumps, the Moon has no real negative aspect, but it implies a serious danger. The journey into night could be too much when we're not prepared and we might get lost in our own shadow.

Drive: Entering the underworld, exploring the depths of soul, confrontation with the dark side 

Light: Intuitivity, wisdom, maturity, deepest selfrealization 

Shadow: Illusion, hysteria, fear, rejection of reality

XVIII. THE MOON - Moon - Scorpio - Deep Vision

Keywords: Pisces, Final Trial, Bad Turns, Illusion, Delusions, Karma Fulfillment, Facing the Unconscious, Threshold for New Levels of Consciousness

Advice: You heard an unknown call. You're on the brink of new experiences. Listen to the voice of your heart. Examine carefully and calmly the opportunities available for your help and guidance.

Questions: Which inner areas do you feel strange, alien, or unknown? Where are your blind spots? What experiences are you most afraid of?

Suggestion: Meditate regularly! Choose a technique that is comfortable with this and practice it daily for at least three months. Pay attention to the quality of your thoughts, your imaginations and occasionally write, paint or draw them. Listen to your night dreams as well.

Revelation: It is darkest just before dawn.

Analogies:

Ji-Ching: 29. K'an (Depth, Abyss)

Mythology: The Ascension (Pluto ♇, Teseus, Orpheus, Odysseus, Heracles, Psyche, Aeneas)

Keywords: dark knowledge of the fundamentals of the soul, underworld, occult knowledge, vivid imagination

The fantasies we devote ourselves to, divert us from the path.

XVIII. THE MOON

General Meaning

The Moon card refers to a deep state of sensitivity and imaginative impressionability, developed within a womb of deep relaxation. Here we dream and go into trance, have visions and receive insights, wash in and out with the psychic tides, and experience deep mystical and/or terrifying realities beyond our ordinary senses. In a state of expanded consciousness, we cannot always control what happens. The Moon card represents the ultimate test of a soul's integrity, where the membrane between the self and the unknown is removed, and the drop of individuality re-enters the ocean of being. What transpires next is between a soul and its maker.

In the Reversed Position

The Moon card reversed suggests that you might be deluding yourself, exaggerating or embellishing your version of a situation. Consider whether you are repeating an emotional, dramatic rendition of events rather than keeping to the bare facts.

The temptation to let yourself be swept away emotionally or psychically is understandable, but it doesn't help you find your balanced center in chaotic times.

In the Advice Positon

The Moon card advises that you trust your instincts and intuitions. Your aboriginal body, which is connected to all living things, is sharper and quicker than the cultivated, civilized self. The everyday mind may not be prepared for strange oceanic circumstances. Plus, it has no game plan. Your intuitive body will support you unerringly if you do not interfere with or try to control what you perceive. A better approach would be to meditate. Try to just be a witness. Do nothing; let nature carry you forward. This may be your best option in this situation.

Read more:

• » The Book of Thoth - A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians by Aleister Crowley.
• » Liber LXXVIII - On the Tarot - A complete treatise on the Tarot giving the correct designs of the cards with their attributions and symbolic meanings on all planes. - A description of the Cards of the Tarot, with their attributions, including a method of divination by their use.
• » Manuscript N - The Tarot - A Golden Dawn Manuscript - A Theoricus Adeptus Minor Paper.