BASIC DESCRIPTION: Two towers appear like standing stones on a rugged landscape. A narrow path winds between them. A stream runs across the front of the scene, and a crayfish climbs out of the water and onto the path. On the grassy river bank, a dog and a wolf appear to be contemplating a waning crescent moon which is eclipsing the sun, whose corona shines out in "sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays." The "dew of thought" (or, some say, yods) falls like flower petals.
What Waite says about the moon "increasing . . . on the side of mercy" indicates that the towers are related to the pillars Boaz and Joachim, severity and mercy, of the High Priestess. I see a lot of resemblance to the High Priestess card, with the yods being the veil between the pillars, and the stream, and the colors, and the moon at top center, and the face could look the same.
FIRST THING THAT STRUCK ME: I was confused about the sun/moon image until I read that it was an eclipse. Now *there's* a Pandora's box of symbolistic possibilities!
TIME: Samhain/Halloween; also nighttime, 28 days.

TRADITIONAL MEANINGS UPRIGHT: Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror, deception, occult forces, error. Illusion. Solitude, imagination and creativity. Hidden talents emerge. Psychic ability. Intuitive reasoning. Mystery. Danger. Secret loves.
ALSO: Love of mystery, secrets. Creative person, emotional and prone to moodiness. Artistic talents. Compulsive urge to create. Escapist. The compulsion to escape into roles, the theater, arts, music, journeys, expeditions. Dreams, messages.

TRADITIONAL MEANINGS REVERSED: Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error. Imagination grounded by reality. Mishaps. Unforeseen perils. Secrets revealed. Nightmares. Intense worries. Inexplicable sadness or irritability. Angst, frustration. Mysteries solved, deceit exposed.

BIBLICAL: Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. -- Matthew 7:13-14 (KJV)
Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it. (NWT)
MYTHOLOGICAL: "Scarab medallions comprised a *coniunctio;* for the scarab (dung beetle) ruled Cancer, and this royal beetle rolled the sun ball before him."--Roberts
ASTROLOGICAL: (1) Neptune--glamor, illusions; (2) Pisces--visionary; (GD) Pisces

ANIMAL/INSECT: fish, all noctures; beetle, firefly

Scarab. According to BRITANNICA ONLINE . . .

Latin SCARABAEUS, in ancient Egyptian religion, important symbol in the form of the dung beetle (Scarabaeus sacer). This beetle may be seen on sunny days forming a ball of dung and rolling it over the sand to its burrow, where the ball is consumed in the following days. The Egyptians apparently shared the widespread belief that the beetle lays its eggs in this ball of dung and saw in the life cycle of the beetle a microcosm of the daily rebirth of the sun; the ancient sun-god Khepri was conceived as a great scarab beetle rolling the sun across the heavens. The scarab also became a symbol of the enduring human soul as well, hence its frequent appearance, often with wings spread, in funerary art.

I also read somewhere that the larvae gestate underground, and come into adult form at about the same time that the Nile floods; the adult scarab appears to come out of the river, just like on the card. This seems to me to signify the "reincarnation" of the land, sun and soul. The Nile floods at the "hottest part of the year" which is the time of Cancer/Leo (Moon/Sun).

This concept is reinforced by the canine symbolism. Also from

BRITANNICA ONLINE . . .

Sirius [the Dog Star] was known as Sothis to the ancient Egyptians, who were aware that it made its first heliacal rising (i.e., rose just before sunrise) of the year at about the time the annual floods were beginning in the Nile River delta. They long believed that Sothis caused the Nile floods . . . The hottest part of the year was associated with the heliacal rising of the Dog Star, a connection that survives in the expression "dog days."

PLANT: moonflower, poppy
CRYSTALS: Moonstone, pearl
SCENT: "Moon" by Planetary Perfumes
COLORS:
the blue-gray of moonlight
MUSIC: Knights in White Satin, Moody Blues
OCCUPATIONS: actor, web developer (!), night shift; astronaut, psychologists & psychiatrists

PERSONAL THOUGHTS: This card makes me think of standing stones marking the solstice (Cancer the crab), while the Dog Star (Sirius) and other constellations observe the phenomenon of the eclipse from their unique perspectives. My impression is of the harmony of the lunar and solar cycles. Sun and moon marry (eclipse) and all of nature dances at the reception.
There also seems to be an implication of cyclical (Moon) and linear (path) time.
The crayfish appears to be crawling forward onto the land, but crayfish also swim backwards with their tails.

QUOTES FROM OTHER SOURCES: All of life is moved to increase by The Moon, whose rhythmical waxing and waning tell of life's power to cast off the shadow of death through tireless rounds of rebirths in unending cycles of time.--Joseph Campbell

OTHER DECKS: The Thoth card is a more Egyptian motif, with a scarab rather than a crayfish, and jackals and Anubis "guarding" the gate.

SOME SYMBOLS: MOON corresponds with spiritual gifts and their application.--Mary Summer Rain
Dog and Wolf: man's civilized/dependent and uncivilized/independent nature(s); also, friends and enemies.

A RANT

What does the Moon have to do with darkness? The night is as dark as it is, and the moon brightens it (or fails to brighten it). But the moon doesn't *add* any darkness to the night. The moon is up just as much during the day as it is at night. And also, there is no dark side of the moon**. This is a geocentric "illusion." Since the moon travels with and around the earth, each side experiences equal exposure to the sun (with the possible exception of the poles).

**According to The Nine Planets web site: "the Moon rotates synchronously, i.e. it is locked in phase with its orbit so that the same side is always facing toward the Earth.

ÝÝÝ"Actually, the Moon appears to wobble a bit (due to its slightly non-circular orbit) so that a few degrees of the far side can be seen from time to time, but the majority of the far side was completely unknown until the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 photographed it in 1959. (Note: Some uses of the term "dark side" in the past referred to the far side as "dark" in the sense of "unknown" (e.g. "darkest Africa; but even that meaning is no longer valid today!)"

Nine Planets is a very informative site at: http://bill.nineplanets.org/offerings.html

The words "deception," "illusion" etc. keep coming up, but what does that mean? This card kept coming up at a certain time when a person was deceiving me, helped along by my own illusions. So I always associated it's meaning more with interpersonal relations (on the negative side). But this card brings to my mind the solar and lunar cycles. And one of the things I most associate with deception and illusion is the Gregorian calendar and all it's holidays (God's Clock vs. Swiss timing!). I'm a holiday purist, and only mark those which are marked in heaven. IMAGINE! There's a Columbus Day! For what? Talk about deception! Here in Switzerland, we have off for "Pfingstmontag."

So what I'm basically trying to say is, what about deception and illusion on a grander scale. What about the top weapons exporters being the top seven countries of the U.N. Security Council? How backwards is that? Your money is so safe in a Swiss bank that if you die, it will just stay there. And what about people who give money to churches that kill and encourage killing -- and the average Joe thinks he's being a really good guy by giving money to his church because they are leading him to heaven. And Joe Average would tell me I "think too much." Oops.

Well, they *say* the world is round, too. But the part I'm standing on is thankfully rather flat, so I can walk upright. It's all PERCEPTION.

Reminds me of the Moody Blues: "red is gray and yellow, white; but we decide which is right, and which is an illusion."

On the positive side, I always thought of this card in a way beyond words. Like when I wake up on the weekends, and let my dreams linger in my head, and while I'm waiting for the coffee, I do my daily reading and just let whatever other brain waves are still in my head from sleeping float me along til I get inspired, then creative. My dad always said I wasn't a good "waker-upper." And he always stressed the importance of being a good "waker-upper." (He was *such* an Emperor!)

The Moon: dreams/deceptions, fantasies/illusions, man-made time/God-made time

Sorry if I've stepped on any toes, or if my point doesn't come across. I guess it's something like: make sure you're in control of your illusions. Because illusions aren't always necessarily bad. But they should be your own.


I recall a book I once had that had a drawing of a woman standing in a doorway, holding a lamp. She was wearing a hoop skirt, but the sunlight shining through the doorway revealed her true, scrawny figure underneath. The caption read: "What is true in the lamplight is not always true in the sunlight." But what's true is always true; the light just changes how we view it.

To me, the Moon shows that maybe there is not enough light being shed on something, or that I should look at something in a different light, i.e. what I'm being told vs. what I believe/know, in either individual or societal interactions. The key phrase I've chosen for this card is: "Choose your illusions." And this applies to all areas: intellectual, spiritual, creative, emotional and physical.


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This page is excerpted from my original contributions to an online Tarot course discussion of this card graciously sponsored by Pandora's Bookstore.
http://www.moonchild.ch/Tarot/major/Moon/18IMHO.html