18-The Moon – Upright Thoth Deck

When upright, the Moon suggests that circumstances may be elusive, unclear, confusing, fluctuating, or unsteady at this time. The Moon has a dark side, always hidden from human view. Individuals under the influence of drugs or alcohol can cause problems. Important information may have been misunderstood or may not yet be within your grasp. Unseen influences may be at work, and matters are likely to look different in the light of day. You may be in one phase of a cycle, and only with the passage of time will the next phase reveal itself. Don’t jump to conclusions or act on impulse. Be sure you have accurate and verifiable information before making a major decision.

Keywords Upright: Illusion, mystery, haziness, unseen influences, intuitive knowledge, things are not what they seem; voluntary change, phases, cycles, dreams, imagination, psychic awareness, unconscious knowledge, introspection, gut instincts, the menstrual cycle, facing one’s fears.

Key XVIII: The Moon
Myths/Archetypes: The Moon Goddess. Hecate, gatekeeper between the worlds and the Queen of the Night. Diana, goddess of the moon, birthing, and the hunt.
Dates of Pisces: 18 February–19 March (tropical); 14 March–13 April (sidereal)
Astrology: Pisces, the Fishes (a Water sign ruled by Jupiter and Neptune)
Numerology: 9 (The Hermit) = 1 + 8 (The Moon)

Hebrew letter: Quph or Qoph (the sun on the horizon; a Hebrew word meaning the sun, revolution, a compass, circuit, cycle, circular motion, going around, behind, the back of the head, horizon, a revolution of the sun, time, or to condense). The moon is known for its dark side (back of the head) hidden from our earthly viewpoint and for its phases that resonate with natural cycles on earth.

When The Moon is upright you can pretty much take it that life is going well but that’s when life takes us by surprise.  If The Moon is unclear it may help to choose a card from the Major Arcana to provide more insight into what it is The Moon is trying to tell you.  If you had a particular issue in  mind, or want to seek clarification on something else, you can also choose again to get more guidance.

This chosen card is part of your upright card reading for The Moon using cards from the Thoth Tarot Deck. You will find many more tarot pages that will be of great help if you need tarot card meanings. Use the search at the bottom of the page. We have some amazing tarot books for you to browse. Please see below.

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Here are some snippets from a few of my favorite books

Complete Book of Tarot: In this card, a woman sits blindfolded on the shore of a body of water. She holds aloft two swords, evenly balanced. Above her hangs a crescent moon, symbolizing her changing emotional state. She may be trying to resolve conflicting feelings or attempting to choose between evenly matched options, represented by the dual swords. The tarot appears to be saying that it can help us to sort out our feelings, clarify our choices, and assist us in making more reasoned decisions. The eighteenth-century French occultist who popularized tarot, Etteilla, considered the Two of Swords as a card of rapport and affection, so the tarot may be also saying that it can bring new friendships into our lives.

Tarot Books

Creative Tarot: Yeats used many occult systems in his writing. He was married to Bertha Georgie Hyde-Lees, a skilled medium who was also a member of the Golden Dawn. Together they used Ouija boards and automatic writing to contact the spirit realm, but also more classic systems such as astrology and tarot. This renewed interest in the occult reinvigorated his dedication to poetry, and led to some of his greatest work. Much of Yeats’s late-career poems drew directly on the revelations he received through séances and divination rituals. He stated that the spirit realm gave him the metaphors he used in his poetry, and many of those metaphors—“Slouches towards Bethlehem” and “the centre cannot hold,” both from his 1919 poem “The Second Coming”—have become common phrases in our culture.

Complete Book of Tarot: In recent years, the Tarot of Marseille has enjoyed increasing popularity, spurred on by the writings of authors like Alejandro Jodorowsy and Yoav Ben-Dov, who offer beautiful modern reproductions of antique tarot decks in the Marseille tradition. The influential tarot teacher Caitlín Matthews has endorsed the use of the Marseille deck, as can be seen in this article about tarot mythology (italics mine):

• Do get in touch if you looked for The Moon and we don’t have it listed. We would be more than happy to source the information for you. We hope you visit again for more online tarot information!

Tarot Triumphs: But you do not have to take up card collecting or be a Tarot historian; acquiring just one Tarot deck for your use is the main thing here. My advice is to start with the most traditional style of Marseilles pack that you can get hold of, and branch out from there if you wish. But keep the Marseilles Triumphs at the center of your Tarot practice if you plan to follow the sequence in this book.