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Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot – Key XVIII – The Moon

Qabalistic Path of Qoph – “Back of the Head”
Pisces – Mutable Water

Hermetic Overview: The Shadowed Womb of Becoming

In the RWS tradition, The Moon presents the psychic landscape before dawn—the realm where the familiar dissolves and the subconscious begins to speak. Its imagery is deeply initiatory: the card does not simply portray illusion; it portrays the gestational matrix of consciousness where both delusion and revelation are possible. This is the “dark mirror” of the Path of Qoph, the nocturnal current that winds between Netzach (desire, instinct, emotional surge) and Malkuth (manifested reality).

Much like the Thoth Tarot’s more alchemical representation, the RWS Moon teaches that before any adept can claim solar clarity, they must traverse lunar distortion, meeting their own reflected shadows.

Iconographic Breakdown

1. The Moon Itself – Two Faces, One Light

The RWS Moon shows a crescent within a full orb, suggesting a dual nature:

• the reflected light (borrowed consciousness, learned identity, social conditioning), and

• the occluded light (the hidden Self, instinctual wisdom, primordial memory).

In Hermetic terms, this is the “double current” of Yesod—what you believe you are, and what you truly are before belief.

2. The Towers – The Twin Pillars of the Unseen Temple

Two stone towers mirror the Boaz–Jachin polarity, but here they are stripped of temple ornamentation. They are raw, primitive sentinels, marking the liminal threshold where reason can no longer guide the traveler. These are the “gateposts” of the dreaming mind.

3. The Path – Winding from unconscious to horizon

The pale road leading into the mountains represents the aspirant’s journey from instinct to spiritual dawn. As in the Thoth card, the path is long, obscure, and fraught with psychic eddies. This is the serpentine movement of Qoph, for Qoph rules the back of the head—the seat of the autonomic and dream mind.

4. The Crawling Crayfish – Emergence From the Primordial Waters

This creature is the Nephesh’s ancient ancestor—the proto-self rising from the waters of Yesod. It symbolizes:

• the ancient survival drives hidden in the unconscious

• the evolutionary memory encoded in the astral body

• the first stirring of spiritual instinct that begins the journey

It is the embryonic self emerging from the womb of the Great Sea (Binah’s reflection in Yesod).

5. The Howling Dog and Wolf – Conditioned vs. Untamed Psyche

The domesticated dog and wild wolf mirror the dual nature of the human psyche:

• the trained self-image

• the raw instinctual essence

Together they represent the psychic polarization that must be reconciled before Solar consciousness in Tiphareth can arise. They cry out to the Moon because they sense the stirring of forces greater than the waking mind allows.

Hermetic and Qabalistic Significance

The Path of Qoph (29th Path)

Qoph governs dreams, cycles, instinct, imagination, and psychic osmosis. It is often called the Path of:

• dissolution of certainty

• purification of emotional residues

• initiation through reflection and distortion

Here the aspirant confronts the astral world in its raw, unfiltered form—an environment where fear, memory, fantasy, and truth intermingle.

This is why Crowley refers to this Path as the “darkness before the dawn,” for the Moon’s light is deceptive, refracted through emotional filters rather than pure intellect.

Astrological: Pisces

Pisces, ruled by Jupiter and Neptune depending on system, contributes:

• psychic permeability

• heightened sensitivity

• dissolution of ego boundaries

• mystical longing

• archetypal dream imagery

Hence, the RWS Moon is not merely illusion; it is the psychic sea where identity is softened and reshaped.

Initiatory Lesson: Facing the Reflective Abyss

The RWS Moon tests the aspirant with four Hermetic trials:

1. The Trial of Reflection

Everything encountered on this path is a projection—your fears, your desires, your ancestral memory. You must look without flinching.

2. The Trial of Instinct

Qoph forces you to rely not on thought but on inner resonance. True instinct is a Solar voice speaking through Lunar channels.

3. The Trial of Distortion

You must discern truth from glamour, symbol from delusion—an alchemical separation of subtle from gross.

4. The Trial of Surrender

One must relinquish the false ego’s need for certainty. The Moon is a crucible that softens identity so it may be recast on the Path of Tzaddi and ultimately reborn in the Sun.

Divination Meanings (Hermetic Depth)

Upright

• Psychic awakening; dream messages; intuitive sensitivity

• The surfacing of repressed emotions or memories

• Disorientation as the psyche reorganizes

• A liminal threshold before major spiritual discovery

• Movement through shadow-work

Hermetic message: “The darkness is the womb of your rebirth.”

Reversed

• Confusing fear with intuition

• Emotional overwhelm

• Psychic interference or unhealthy fantasy

• Ignoring an inner truth

• Attempting to force clarity before its time

Hermetic message: “You cannot bypass the Moon; you must pass through it.”

Hermetic Takeaway

Rider–Waite–Smith’s Moon is the psychic crucible where the aspirant leaves behind the safety of familiar identity. The Moon dissolves, distorts, and reveals. It breaks the shell of the old ego so that the Solar Self may rise unimpeded in Key XIX.

Where the Thoth Tarot leans heavily into the initiatory machinery of the Moon’s forces—scarabs, jackals, and the path of Anubis—the RWS Moon externalizes the dreamscape, offering a more narrative-based, mythic descent into the interior world. But both share the same Hermetic truth:

To behold the Sun, you must first pass through your own night.

The Corporeal Intelligence – The Hidden Mind Beneath the Mind

(Path of Qoph – as taught by Paul Foster Case & the Western Hermetic Tradition)

Dr. Paul Foster Case, founder of the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), identified the Path of Qoph as the domain of the “Corporeal Intelligence.”

To modern ears, the phrase may sound merely “physical,” but in the Hermetic Qabalah it signifies something far more profound and initiatory.

This Intelligence is the deep subconscious wisdom of the body itself—a biological and psychic ecosystem composed of trillions of individual living units, each carrying the echo of the One Life. The ancients called this the “lower astral,” but Case understood it as a fractal consciousness, where every cell is both autonomous and yet part of a unified bio-magical field.

In other words:

Your body thinks—but not in words.
It remembers—but not in concepts.
It responds—but not in logic.

It is a vast, responsive dream-mind that functions beneath the waking intellect, pulling data from instinct, memory, sensation, epigenetic imprint, and ancestral residue.

This is why Qoph, “the back of the head,” is so accurately named. It operates behind thought, behind identity, behind the rational gaze.

The Esoteric Body as a Collective Soul-Field

In Hermetic physiology, the body is not a lump of matter; it is a hierarchical Temple of intelligences:

• Each cell is an entity of life-force.

• Each organ is a choir or “order” of these entities.

• The body as a whole is a microcosmic universe—a living Sephirotic field.

Case saw this as the literal expression of the Hermetic axiom:

“As above, so below; as within, so without.”

Just as the Tree of Life reveals the graded emanations of the macrocosm, so does the human body reveal the graded emanations of the microcosm. The Corporeal Intelligence is therefore Malkuth in its most intimate, inner form—the subconscious Earth of the personal psyche.

It is the living astral-material interface through which emotions crystallize, trauma imprints, intuition signals, dreams gestate, and desires take form before they rise to the self-conscious level as thought.

When the Corporeal Intelligence Falls Out of Alignment

Though it is inherently sacred, this body-mind can enter a distorted state.
This is the central spiritual danger of the Path of Qoph.

When unbalanced, the Corporeal Intelligence becomes the garden in which the false ego takes root—the infamous “mind virus” described by mystics, gnostics, and depth psychologists alike. This parasitic construct arises when the body’s subconscious fear-patterns solidify into a pseudo-identity.

Instead of being the temple of the living Divine Soul, the unbalanced Corporeal Intelligence becomes:

• a reactive survival module

• ruled by primitive fight-or-flight imprints

• fused with emotional shadow-complexes

• hypnotized by social conditioning

• divorced from the Solar Self of Tiphareth

This false ego does not think in the true sense—it reacts. It continually projects:

• fear (resistance to growth),

• illusion (misperception of reality),

• compulsive identity (the mask mistaken for the Self).

It is the uninitiated animal soul masquerading as the sovereign I AM.

In Jungian terms, this is the Shadow, not as a mere psychological backlog but as a psychic force with its own primitive momentum—animated by fragments of memory, sensation, and unresolved emotional charge lurking in the Corporeal Intelligence.

Why This Matters for Key XVIII – The Moon

This fallen version of the Corporeal Intelligence is exactly what the Moon card confronts the aspirant with.

The RWS Moon shows a path bordered by primal guardians—the dog and the wolf—representing the domesticated and feral aspects of the psyche. The crayfish rising from the water is the instinctual root of the Corporeal Intelligence emerging into awareness. The entire card is a mirror of the body-mind’s unconscious life.

The Moon is not illusion merely—it is the source of illusion:
the body’s dream-field reflecting fragmented instinct, old fear programs, distorted memory, and ancestral residue.

The Path of Qoph teaches that before one can see the Sun (Key XIX), the aspirant must pass through this somatic labyrinth, where every unintegrated piece of the Corporeal Intelligence becomes a symbolic creature on the path.

Hence, in both B.O.T.A. and Thoth tradition:

The Moon is the trial where the false ego is dissolved
and the Corporeal Intelligence is purified into a receptive vessel
for the Solar “I AM.”

Hermetic Takeaway

The Corporeal Intelligence is a sacred power. When purified, it becomes the instinctive instrument of the Soul—a finely-tuned subconscious compass that guides without distortion.

But when clouded by fear, trauma, or conditioning, it becomes the breeding ground of the Shadow’s phantoms.

Thus, Key XVIII is the alchemical process where:

• somatic memory is illuminated

• instinct is transmuted into intuition

• the body becomes a temple of the Solar Will

• the false ego dissolves back into primordial Waters

• and the traveler prepares for resurrection in the Sun

This is the rite of passage every adept must face:
to confront the lunar mirror and reclaim the body as the living throne of the Soul.

Interestingly, the Hebrew root of “corporeal” also means “to rain upon,” and we see this depicted visually on the Thoth Moon card. The Yod-shaped droplets—tiny golden flames of divine will—are seen raining down from above, symbolizing the influence of the solar consciousness (the Higher Self or Tiphareth) attempting to illuminate the dark waters of the subconscious below.

This is the initiatory ordeal of the Path of Qoph: to walk through the moonlit illusions of the astral realm, to recognize and dissolve the deceptive constructs of the false self, and to reintegrate the sacred body-consciousness into alignment with the Solar Will.

The Arcane Tarot – Key 18 – The Moon

(Shadowed Reflection, Triple Goddess, Lunar Initiation)

In the Arcane Tarot, The Moon presents a powerful and unsettling image: a young woman gazing into a mirror under the illumination of a full moon. Before her is an altar—candle burning, silver necklace gleaming, Tarot cards arranged with intent—suggesting an act of lunar invocation or scrying. But the true mystery lies in the reflection.

Where the woman is youthful, her mirrored image is that of the Crone.
This reversal immediately establishes the Moon’s central teaching:

Reflections are not you. Shadows are not you. They are the echoes of your unintegrated depth.

The card cleverly invokes the Triple Goddess—Maid, Mother, Crone—but it does so in a way that collapses past, present, and future into a single moment of recognition. The Woman (Maid) gazes at the Crone (Wisdom) through the lunar portal of the Mirror (Mother). It is a symbolic convergence of all three aspects of the Feminine Self meeting in the deepest layer of the subconscious.

The Mirror as Astral Gateway

In Hermetic Qabalah, the Moon rules Yesod, the “Treasure House of Images,” where the subconscious generates dreams, fantasies, memories, fears, and projections.

The Arcane Tarot depicts this beautifully:
the mirror is not merely a surface—it is a lunar doorway into the Astral Body.

• The candle represents focused consciousness

• The silver necklace represents the lunar current

• The Tarot cards represent the divinatory language of the astral

• The moonlight is the psychic power that animates the vision

Together they create a ritual tableau demonstrating that the Moon card is the inner rite of shadow confrontation.

The Crone as Shadow-Wisdom

Why does the woman see the Crone?

Because the Crone represents:

• hard-earned wisdom

• death of delusion

• the end of innocence

• deep maturity of the unconscious

• the uncompromising truth one tries to avoid

This is not a malevolent apparition—it is the truth behind the mask, the final form that all illusions must bow before.

The Crone is the initiatrix of the lunar path; she shows the seeker what they must integrate to dissolve suffering at its root.

Loving the Negative to Dissolve the Negative

The card suggests a profound Hermetic axiom:

You conquer negativity not by fighting it
but by loving the rejected parts of yourself.

This aligns with the mystical alchemy of the Moon Path, where:

• fear becomes intuition

• repression becomes wisdom

• shadow becomes integration

• illusion becomes insight

The moment the seeker stops treating the “negative” self as an enemy, the illusion collapses. The shadow dissolves. The Crone smiles.

This is the lunar sacrament of self-reconciliation.

The Moon card signals a period of emotional doubt, inner confusion, and symbolic night-travel. It’s a call to enter the dreamlike waters of the psyche and to trust the journey, even when clarity seems distant. What emerges from this path is not madness, but metanoia—a profound transformation of perception.

The Arcane Moon as Inner Descent

The Arcane Tarot Moon teaches that:

• Light creates shadow

• Shadow distorts reflection

• Reflection reveals what the ego refuses to see

Thus, the lunar path is not about the darkness itself, but about the shadows created by the light of consciousness.

When you stare into the mirror of the subconscious:

• fears rise

• fantasies twist

• suppressed memories stir

• self-image fractures

• old identities crumble

This is necessary.
This is the ordeal.
This is the Moon’s initiation.

The Moon does not deceive; it reveals what the ego cannot yet interpret.

During such times, the subconscious speaks in a language older than words: it communicates through dreams, symbols, and archetypal images. These messages may seem surreal or disjointed, but they hold the key to self-understanding and intuitive survival. That is why I recommend keeping a dream journal beside your bed. Upon waking, record the images, feelings, and scenarios that linger before they dissolve. You may be surprised at the coherent narrative that arises over time.

Remember: the Moon does not deceive—it reflects. It reflects what is already within us, magnifying our inner world so we can meet it face to face. What appears monstrous in the dark may simply be a lost fragment of ourselves, awaiting the healing light of conscious integration.

Core Meaning of Arcane Tarot – The Moon

Upright

• Shadow-work

• Meeting the Crone within

• Awakening intuition through confrontation

• Seeing the truth behind your projections

• Integrating the hidden parts of the self

• Ritual introspection; lunar magic

When surrounded by negative cards in a layout:

• Avoidance of inner truth

• Fear of seeing beyond the mask

• Suppression of intuition

• Denial of emotional or psychic content

• Confusion created by resisting the shadow

• Being trapped in your own reflection

Hermetic Takeaway

The Arcane Tarot Moon shows that identity is a reflection that must be interrogated.
The woman gazing into the mirror stands at the threshold where illusion fractures into revelation. The Crone—her future self, inner self, shadow self—is not a threat but a teacher.

The card insists:

Face the reflection.
Love the shadow.
And the illusion dissolves into wisdom.

This is the lunar path:
the descent into the subconscious, the embrace of what was denied, and the rebirth of authentic intuition.

The Moon has rich symbolism and mythology across various cultures. In the realm of tarot and metaphysics, understanding the symbolism of the Moon is crucial.

1. Archetypal Symbolism:

   • The Moon often represents the subconscious mind, intuition, and emotions. It symbolizes the hidden, mysterious aspects of life that are not always clear or visible.

2. Tarot Symbolism:

   • In tarot, the Moon card is associated with illusions, dreams, and the unconscious. It encourages introspection and exploring one's inner world. The presence of a dog and a wolf on the card can symbolize domesticated and wild aspects of our nature.

3. Mythological Connections:

   • Various mythologies incorporate the Moon into their stories. For example, in Greek mythology, the Moon is associated with the goddess Selene. In Roman mythology, it's Luna. These goddesses are often depicted driving a chariot across the night sky, illuminating the world with the moon's light.

4. Lunar Phases:

   • The separate phases of the Moon also carry symbolic significance. The waxing and waning of the Moon can be seen as cycles of growth, decay, and renewal, reflecting the cycles of life.

5. Feminine Energy:

   • The Moon is frequently linked to feminine energy. Its cycles are often compared to the menstrual cycle, and it is associated with nurturing qualities and the mother archetype.

6. Transformation:

   • The Moon's changing appearance symbolizes transformation and the cyclical nature of life. It encourages individuals to embrace change and acknowledge the impermanence of things.

7. Cultural Variations:

   • Different cultures may have unique interpretations of the Moon. For example, in Chinese mythology, the Moon is associated with the Moon Goddess Chang'e, while in Hindu mythology, it's linked to Chandra, the lunar deity.

Understanding the symbolism of the Moon can add depth to tarot readings and metaphysical practices. It encourages individuals to explore their inner selves, embrace change, and connect with the mysterious aspects of life.

The Moon Pool – The Abyssal Womb of the Subconscious

(RWS Key XVIII & its Arcane Tarot Mirror)

At the base of the Rider–Waite–Smith Moon card rests a deceptively simple symbol:
the Pool of Water—often called the Moon Pool.
In its Arcane Tarot counterpart, this same pool becomes the mirror the woman gazes into. Yet in both decks, the meaning is the same and far deeper than mere imagery.

This is not just water.

It is the Abyssal Womb, the Great Deep—the undifferentiated Matrix from which all forms arise.
 

It is the Ocean Before Creation, the silent reservoir of the prima materia, the raw, pre-manifest substance of the cosmos. In Hermetic terms, this pool represents Mind before form, Consciousness before identity, Potential before actualization.

Just as in the opening verses of Genesis:

“Darkness was upon the face of the deep…
and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

The ancients knew that all existence begins in the Deep, and so does all inner transformation.

Yesod as the Great Subconscious Ocean

The Moon governs Yesod, called the “Treasure House of Images,” but more accurately understood as the astral ocean, the fluidic matrix where thought, memory, emotion, and imagination swirl together as undifferentiated potential.

The Pool in the RWS Moon symbolizes this astral liquidity:

• A womb of images

• A sea of instinct

• A substrate of psychic impressions

• A cradle of dreams

• A cauldron where shadow and revelation blend

Before anything appears in Malkuth (the physical world), it first stirs within Yesod’s waters.

This is why the crayfish emerges from the pool—
it is the symbol of the Nephesh, the instinctual animal soul rising from the subconscious to initiate the journey toward consciousness.

The Pool as Prima Materia

In alchemy, prima materia is the unshaped chaos from which the Philosopher’s Stone is ultimately born. It is indeterminate, receptive, formless—precisely the qualities embodied by the Moon Pool.

This pool is where:

• unresolved fears lie dormant

• forgotten memories drift

• ancestral patterns reside

• archetypal images gestate

• the ego’s illusions are born

• and the Soul’s intuitions shimmer beneath the surface

To gaze into this pool—whether as water in the RWS card or as mirror in the Arcane card—is to confront the undifferentiated origin of the Self.

This is the womb of the Shadow and the womb of Insight.

Genesis and the Emergence of Form

To view our reference to Genesis correctly: dry land emerges from the ocean just as physical form arises from the astral depths.

The Moon Pool is the symbolic equivalent of:

• Genesis’ great primeval sea

• Tehom (the Deep)

• Nun, the Egyptian Waters of Chaos

• Binah’s dark womb reflected in Yesod

• The Qabalistic Ain Soph Aur descending into form

Thus, manifestation unfolds in a threefold movement:

1. Absence → Potential

The Great Deep holds undifferentiated consciousness.

2. Potential → Form

Images arise in Yesod, forming reflections, fantasies, fears, and intuitions.

3. Form → Reality

Those images condense through the paths into Malkuth as physical events, behaviors, and identities.

All creation—inner or outer—be

Why This Matters for the Moon Card

Every version of the Moon card—RWS, Thoth, Arcane—shows some iteration of this Pool because it represents the initiatory ground. The aspirant must confront:

• the origin of their fears

• the birthplace of illusion

• the genesis of self-image

• the raw chaos where identity has not yet congealed

• the mirror of the rejected or forgotten self

In the RWS, this pool is literal water.
In the Arcane Tarot, it becomes the ritual mirror—the conscious act of gazing into the subconscious.

But in both cases, the Moon Pool is the threshold of transformation, where the seeker must descend into the primordial deep to reclaim their authentic Self.

Hermetic Takeaway

The Pool at the base of the Moon card is not merely symbolic background. It is the origin point of the entire Moon Path. It teaches:

• All illusions arise from unworked subconscious material

• All transformation begins in the depths

• The Shadow is born in the same waters that give rise to intuition

• Prima materia is not evil; it is raw potential waiting for the magus

• Creation and self-creation begin in the Abyssal Womb

Thus the Moon Pool is the mirror of becoming, the Great Deep from which the Seeker emerges reborn—
not through avoidance, but through conscious descent.

On a psychological level, this is the seat of the Vital Soul or Nephesh, expressed in humans as the automatic consciousness—what we commonly call the instinctual subconscious. It governs involuntary processes like breath, heartbeat, and emotional response, operating silently below the surface of our waking awareness.

Emerging from this mysterious pool is the crayfish—or crab, depending on the interpretation—a symbolic creature with deep astrological significance. It corresponds to the 4th House of Cancer in astrology: the sign of the womb, the home, and the hidden roots of being. The crayfish’s act of shedding its shell becomes a metaphor for psychic regeneration and growth. To evolve, it must become vulnerable—exposed and soft—before forming a new protective layer. In this, the card subtly teaches us the necessity of shedding outdated emotional patterns if we wish to expand into new levels of self-awareness.

Thus, the Moon Pool is not merely a background feature—it is the symbolic threshold of the subconscious, the gateway between inner potential and outer form, asking us to dive inward, trust the currents of intuitive wisdom, and embrace the cyclical nature of transformation.

The astrological sign of Cancer, the fourth sign in the zodiac, is ruled by the Moon and spans from June 21 to July 22. Here are the key characteristics of Cancer:

Personality Traits

1. Emotional and Sensitive: Cancer individuals are deeply emotional and highly sensitive. They feel things profoundly and are often in tune with their own emotions as well as those of others.

2. Nurturing and Caring: Known for their nurturing nature, Cancers are often seen as the caregivers of the zodiac. They are compassionate, empathetic, and have a strong desire to take care of their loved ones.

3. Intuitive: Cancers possess a strong intuition and often rely on their gut feelings to make decisions. They can sense the moods and needs of others, which makes them excellent at providing comfort and support.

4. Loyal: Loyalty is a hallmark of Cancer. They are devoted friends and partners, always standing by the people they care about through thick and thin.

5. Protective: Just as the crab, their symbol, has a hard shell, Cancers are protective of themselves and their loved ones. They can be fiercely defensive when it comes to safeguarding their home and family.

Strengths

• Empathy: Cancers have an exceptional ability to understand and share the feelings of others.
• Tenacity: When they set their mind to something, Cancers can be incredibly persistent and determined.
• Creativity: Many Cancers are highly creative, with talents in art, music, and writing.

Weaknesses

• Moodiness: Due to their emotional depth, Cancers can experience mood swings and may withdraw when feeling hurt or overwhelmed.
• Over-Sensitivity: They can be easily hurt by criticism or harsh words, taking things more personally than others might.
• Pessimism: Cancers sometimes struggle with negative thinking and may need reassurance to stay positive.

Relationships

• Romantic: In relationships, Cancers are affectionate, romantic, and deeply committed. They seek a strong emotional connection and a partner who can provide security and stability.
• Friendship: As friends, Cancers are loyal and reliable. They are always willing to lend a helping hand or a listening ear.
• Family: Family is paramount to Cancer individuals. They often prioritize family bonds and traditions, and are dedicated to creating a loving home environment.

Career and Finances

• Professionally: Cancers excel in careers that allow them to care for others, such as nursing, counseling, and teaching. They also do well in creative fields like writing and art.
• Financially: Cancers are generally careful with money, preferring to save for the future rather than spend impulsively. They seek financial security and stability.

Element and Modality

• Element: Water – This element represents emotions, intuition, and the subconscious. Water signs are known for their sensitivity and emotional depth.
• Modality: Cardinal – Cardinal signs are initiators and leaders. Cancers are good at starting new projects and bringing ideas to fruition.

Symbolism

• Symbol: The Crab – The crab symbolizes Cancer's protective nature and its ability to navigate between the emotional (water) and physical (land) worlds.
• Ruling Planet: The Moon – The Moon influences Cancer's emotional nature and their cycles of change and mood swings.

Understanding these characteristics can provide deeper insights into the nature of Cancer individuals and how they interact with the world around them.

In all ways, the Moon -Key-18, symbolizes the rebirth of light out of hideous darkness; bright intellect overcoming the dark denizens of our subconscious, i.e., the illusions of instinctual fears that rise from the depths of the subconscious.

The Moon as the Womb of Becoming: A Hidden Symbol of Childbirth

All shadowy aspects aside, the Moon card can also be seen—perhaps surprisingly—as a symbol of childbirth. At first glance, this may seem contradictory, especially given the card's traditional association with fear, illusion, and the subconscious. Yet, within the framework of the Triple Goddess—Maiden, Mother, and Crone—the Moon indeed encompasses all phases of the feminine cycle, including the mysterious threshold between life and death. And what is childbirth, if not precisely that?

Childbirth is not only a miracle of life—it is also an ordeal of pain, surrender, and transformation. The Moon card reflects this with haunting accuracy. It is the passage through the unknown, the descent into the dark waters of the subconscious, and the emergence into a new state of being. It is the archetypal gateway, where spirit takes on flesh and the unseen becomes seen.

To fear pain is, in a sense, to fear life itself. Pain is a byproduct of transformation—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. Just as the Moon card teaches us to face our shadows and illusions, it also calls us to move through the contractions of spiritual rebirth. It reminds us that growth comes from discomfort, that awakening is often preceded by disorientation, and that new life is often birthed through anguish.

So, in this deeper light, the Moon is not merely a card of deception or confusion. It is the secret chamber of becoming. It is the dark womb where soul meets body, where consciousness is tested, and where the Self is reborn—bloody, howling, and awake.

(Got questions? Log onto: Eli's Thoth Tarot Guide, for answers and greater insight into Western Hermetic Qabalah or email me at: eli@elitarotstrickingly.com for more information.

When the Moon- Key 18- is thrown during a divination, it implies:

• Journey into subconscious depths.
• The eerie path into the dark depths of the Soul. 
• Confrontation with the night.
• Encounter with fears.
• Deepest self-knowledge.
• Devotion to intuitive knowledge.

When Reversed:

• Illusion.
• Hysteria.
• Persecution complex.
• Hallucinations.
• Drug abuse.
• Flight from reality.

Thank you for your interest, comments, and supportive donations. May you live long and prosper.

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