TAROTThe Moon
Upright
Things may not be as they seem. Intuition is high but low on detail.
Intuition tells you the big picture, but may be low on detail.
Wait for the facts to reveal themselves. Don’t let intuition and emotions mix, as they can cause wishful thinking.
Intuition
The card gives a pictorial image of how intuition works. It is shown as the moon’s eye.
The view from the moon is from high, giving a good overall picture but often low on details. Also, The Moon Goddess (Selene) wears a dress that can blur the moon’s vision, making it indistinct. Sometimes only the very practiced can make sense of this viewpoint!
Reversed
Revealing of secrets. The truth becomes clearer
Secrets and previously hidden agendas become revealed.
It is important to take such revelations at face value and not fall into delusion or avoidance.
Astrologia
Empathy and compassionate with deep emotions. Imaginative and creative. Intuitive, with the ability to unlock secrets in others. Prone to being overly sensitive and failing to finish what they start. Re-hiding secrets they previously unlocked.
The Moon
The Moon card represents intuition, emotion, and dreams. It can mean illusion, deception, or a hidden agenda. Most often, it suggests that all is not as it seems, beginning to bring the true situation to light.
The Moon is most associated with heightened intuitive insight and emotional depth. The problem is that these two forces can interfere with each other. Intuition can tell you one thing, but your emotions get in the way, or vice versa. When you see this card, your gut instincts are usually correct on the big picture, but you may lack a full view of the details. You should wait for them to become apparent.
The Moon is also associated with spiritual growth. This is a good time for self-reflection on your true goals or the true nature of a situation.
Intuition should always be balanced with self-reflection and looking before you leap: the Moon reveals hidden dangers, but they take time to reveal themselves fully.
If the Upright card represents the bright side of the moon, complete with its 'big picture but low on detail' view, the Reversed card represents the dark side, signifying the revealing of hidden agendas and secrets. Neither is particularly good nor bad in itself, and surrounding cards often provide more details on direction. This can make the Moon a difficult card to read properly; it always relies on the cards around it to give a fuller message.
Both the Upright and Reversed cards encourage taking a step back to create space, letting things become more apparent. You will have a gut feeling on the big picture, or see the secrets around you begin to unravel. Both take time to finalize; patience is often the watchword.
Selene
The personification of the Moon is the goddess Selene (Latin: Luna). Selene was almost certainly derived from an earlier male lunar god, Men. She was changed to female because the language of the time utilized a grammatical gender system, and the noun 'moon' was assigned as feminine.
Like some other personification gods, Selene is not so much a character in her own right as an anthropomorphism of the moon. Thus, she has very few meaningful myths of her own. Artemis and Hecate are more fully formed as characters, and they tended to supersede her in later beliefs.
Description and Symbology
The Moon card depicts Selene wearing a long, flowing dress that covers the 'eye' of the moon. This eye represents intuition. Although intuition knows everything because it sees from on high, its gaze is obscured by Selene’s dress, masking its vision and preventing it from seeing fine details. Thus, intuition is a powerful eye, but it requires time and mastery; otherwise, its answers remain vague and strictly high-level.
A wolf and a dog howl at the moon. The wolf is lit from behind, representing the dark side of the moon. The dog is lit from the front, representing the bright side. Together, they symbolize the civilized and untamed sides of the human psyche.
A path winds away toward two towers in the distance. The towers remind us of those seen in the Death card, suggesting the end goal is similar: a spiritual transformation. The two towers also echo Hecate’s pillars in the High Priestess card.
If we look carefully at the start of the path, we see the fossilized remains of an ancient creature: an Ichthyostega. This is the first known complex creature to crawl out of the sea onto land, an evolutionary leap it could only have achieved via the tides.
Tides are caused by the moon’s pull, creating a small, intermediate, semi-aquatic zone between sea and land. Complex life may not have moved from the sea to the land without the Moon.
Finally, we see a fish jumping out of the water at the start of the path, representing the Unconscious mind or the higher Self. This symbology harks back to the still waters we first saw in the High Priestess card, confirming that the journey denoted by this path is profoundly spiritual.
Card Symbol
An obvious one; the crescent moon.
The Moon as Selene
Selene appears as the personification of the Moon. She is sometimes called Mene, a reference to the original root Moon God, Men. Selene is seen as a seductive and beautiful but also peaceful goddess. She keeps out of the limelight – much like the moon!
The wolf
The wolf represents the dark side of the moon and our deeper instincts and thoughts. The wolf is shown with light behind it, presenting the side in shadow. Despite being opposite to the dog, the wolf tempers its wild side by conforming to its pack.
The dog
The dog represents the bright side of the moon and our conscious mind. The dog is shown in bright light, presenting its well lit side. Despite being opposite to the wolf, the dog shows it is fundamentally still a wolf by joining the wolf in howling at the Moon.
The middle path
Between the extremes of the dog and wolf, we see a path. This path starts at the water’s edge and starts with the jumping fish, signifying a spiritual or emotional journey. By staying between the two extremes, we stand more chance of completing the journey mapped by the path.
The fossil
The fossil is that of an Ichthyostega, the first known complex vertebrate to move from the sea to the land. It could only do this with the help of the Moon’s tides (thus creating a wet middle-ground between sea and dry land), showing that all life is attuned to (and depends on) the Moon’s cycles. As the Roman Goddess Luna, the moon was later recognized as an important deity to agriculture, giving the moon additional prominence.
The end of the journey
Through the mist, we see the end of the journey loom close. The end of the journey looks familiar, resembling both the two towers seen in the Death card and the High Priestess’s pillars.
The fish
At the path start, we see a fish in still water. Both represent symbols of higher consciousness and intuition, plus have spiritual and religious connotations in many religions. This points to the path leading to a higher mental or spiritual state, perhaps leading to a transformation.
Tips for Readings
The following table shows the upright and reverse meanings for general questions. The last row ('Yes/No') is useful when you are picking a single card to decide a yes or no decision.
Upright
Reversed
Your intuition and gut feeling will be strong, but you may also be too emotionally attached, clouding your intuition and allowing deception.
Wait until the situation becomes clearer
Hidden truths and secret agendas in the relationship will come to light (which may be good or bad). Other cards will cast more light on this.
You may have been previously ignoring reality. Now is the time to face it.
You will find yourself thinking outside the box and creative thinking, but be wary of becoming too emotionally attached, especially as there may be miscommunication or hidden agendas in the air.
Any unknowns in your career journey will start to clear up. This may be good or bad (and other cards will make this more clear) but at least now you will know where you stand and can start to plan with more confidence.
There will be a strong connection between your physical wellbeing and emotional health. Look after your mind, and your body will follow.
Now is the time to follow up on any niggling health fears. Your intuition will be right.
A period of clarity. Anxiety or lack of sleep will start to clear. Any other health issues will start to become obvious. Whether they are positive or negative will be shown by other cards.
Now is the best time for anything involving self-reflection or deepening spiritual connections because intuition and self-awareness is high.
Your intuition is clouded. You may be ignoring the truth or sliding into delusional beliefs, or holding on to a previous and outdated self.
Create some space between yourself and the surrounding issues, revisiting later.
Your intuition will be high on the big plan at the expense of the small details.
Check the fine print and make sure everything has been agreed. Better still, make big decisions in principle but do not commit until the small details make themselves clearer.
The fine details and results of plans put into place previously now become clear.
Deception in money matters will be high, so tread carefully; other cards will make this clearer.
Uncertain (trust your instincts, but hold off committing until the fine details become clearer).
Uncertain (trust your instincts, but hold off committing to any irreversible decisions until the finer details are clearer).
Reading the Card
The Upright Moon is often a difficult card to read, as it denotes a lack of clarity. The nature of this lack is typically indicated by surrounding cards or is already known by the questioner (though often unconsciously, meaning it may take some gentle prying to surface).
Remember: intuition gives you the high-level view, but is often blurry on the details. If the devil is in the details, your best option is to treat the feeling as a direction to investigate further, or a message to pause and consider.
Intuition often gives you the high level view, but is also often blurry on details.
The Upright Card
The Moon tells you that something is hidden or 'not quite right'. Intuition gives a general indication of what it is: a relationship with a secret, a workplace with a hidden agenda, or simply a questioner who is not being entirely honest with themselves.
Intuition is strong on direction and overview, but low on detail. Sometimes, waiting for the details to reveal themselves is the best way forward. Of course, the person harboring the secret could be the seeker, so do not discount that option.
The Upright Moon can also point to being too emotionally vested in an outcome, leading to anxiety or worry irrespective of whether the event is 'good' or 'bad'. The best route forward is patience. Wait for things to become clearer; now is not the time to make irreversible decisions.
Finally, the Upright Moon can suggest a creative force or lateral thinking. If the question concerns a task requiring creativity, the Moon suggests trusting yourself. Your ideas may sound odd, but if you possess a strange conviction that is neither purely emotional nor strictly technical, you are being driven by pure intuition. Trust it.
The Reversal
The Reversed Moon represents increasing clarity in a situation. It implies that a secret or truth is being revealed, or a hidden agenda is about to become obvious. This has the most impact on relationships and the workplace. There is a need to adapt to the news, whether good or bad, without falling into delusion or feigned ignorance.
There is also a chance that you are the holder of the secret. If so, it is time to ensure you are ready for an unintended truth to be exposed.
If something has been lost and the reading concerns that loss, the Reversed Moon points to it being found. Again, this can be either good or bad news; the message of the card is simply to be ready for it.
Card Design Process
One of the few myths of Selene suggests it was difficult to tailor a dress for her because her size would change so drastically in a month. As the personification of the moon, she cycles from crescent to full. One aim of the design was to create a dress that would always fit the moon by employing a trailing train that covers it.
This led to a secondary idea. The moon sees everything, but intuition is often difficult to use because it is easily clouded. The concept of Selene’s dress being the very thing that clouds the Moon’s 'eye' was added to the image.
Another issue addressed in the card is the size of the moon. Many Tarot decks attempt to make the Moon the size it appears in the sky, but that is unnecessary, as Tarot cards function as dream symbols. Literal reality matters far less, and an accurate scale detracts from having the moon as the central focus.
Thus, the Moon in this card fills the sky, because everything is possible in a dream.
Final Words
The Moon represents intuition, secrets, mysteries, emotional depth, and the vital connection between the conscious and unconscious mind.
Intuition is a strong force in practice, but it can be weak on details. Unless you are highly skilled in its use, the Moon is usually a message to slow down and consider that something may be hidden just beneath the surface.
