The Moon – Meanings & Interpretation – Major Arcana

The Moon Meaning In A Tarot Reading

The moon is a tarot card of dualities and dawning enlightenment. It represents the point when our mind lets go of ‘normal’ conceptual reality and starts pondering the abstract points of philosophy.

Under the silver light of the Moon, all things are ready to be considered, and the ‘right way’ we’ve always known is in question. It is this form of critical thinking that paves the way to true enlightenment.

Read on to learn more about this Major Arcana card.

The Moon Tarot Card Meanings – Upright

Overview:

The shimmery light of the moon has blurred the sharpness of absolutes. The idea of abstracts, the knowledge that not everything is as it first appears, is revealed, and black and white have been degraded into a million shades of grey. Now is the time to question what we’ve always known as real and develop our thoughts and opinions on the world.

Past Events:

You have recently come out of a period of enlightenment, the past events utterly changing who you were and how you perceived the world. Your newly opened mind has expanded your world and increased your ability to deal with situations by no longer being locked into old paradigms.

Present Events:

The present places you in a very introspective time. Who are you? Who are they? You likely find yourself not quite confused but not ready to quickly commit to any single opinion or course of action on things. Take the time to examine all sides of a situation and to ponder the true meaning of the things in your life.

Future Events:

You are on the verge of some grand intellectual adventure. It’s just looming over the horizon. There will come a series of events that throw everything you’ve known into question, and it will be great eye-opening for you. It will be a time of incredible growth and insight and a time of true spiritual maturation.

The Moon Tarot Card Meanings – Reversed

Overview:

Just as the light of the moon can blur the edges of everything you’ve ever known, so can the soft shadows conceal the truth of a situation. Often when the Moon appears in this inverted position, you will find yourself gas-lighted, sometimes by yourself, sometimes by others in your life. Brain-washing, obfuscation, and deception are all hallmarks of The Moon reversed.

Past Events:

You have been misled. Someone or some group in your life has been keeping the veil pulled over your eyes. This may even be you trying to ignore some truth you aren’t willing to deal with yet, or it could be someone else trying to keep their reality the only you see.

Present Events:

Be cautious with those you place trust in. Someone is not entirely honest with you. In all likelihood, someone is currently trying to control your life and spoon-feed you only the ‘facts’ they want you to believe—question everything. For the time being, it’s the safest way to make sure you’re getting the whole truth.

Future Events:

There’s a bad moon on the rise. Look ahead to your future and take your steps very carefully. Your future holds certain truths you’re not quite ready to accept, and there may be those around you who are more than willing to help you ignore what’s right in front of you. Be cautious and aware, and try to see all aspects of a given situation to see it.

Associated Colors:

Orange for Intellectual Pursuits

Meditation For The Moon – Upright

This tarot meditation on the upright moon card will focus on the strangeness of ambiguity, that half-space where nothing is quite real and nothing is quite an illusion.

We all reach a point in our lives where we have to question everything. We aren’t sure what is or is not the facts, and it is during that time we start learning who we are by the answers we find to those questions.

Prepare your meditation space, with the card upright on the orange meditation cloth and the matching candle at its peak. As you start fading into the meditation, let your mind and emotions be filled with questioning.

Let your soul be unsatisfied with safe, textbook answers. Let all things be filled with wonder and speculation.

Open your Third Eye

Your inner eye opens on a simple dirt path heading down a lightly forested hill, winding into the distance. Overhead the moon shines its light down, casting odd shadows and shapes over the terrain and disguising the nature of much of that which lays before you.

As you walk down the path, you are joined by a hulking man whose clothes are unkempt, and his beard and hair are wild. His very presence sets you ill at ease, and no less so the stench of long travels unwashed that are about him.

There is a heavy thud every time his walking stick hits the ground. He looks at you with staring eyes and a gap-toothed grin that sets you at ease.

He says not a word but walks down the path with you, making your skin crawl. You try not to be too obviously distant from him, not knowing what will set this wild vagabond off.

As you come around a curve in the path, you hear the sound of something eating hungrily. On the side of the road, you spot a rabbit devouring every bit of grass it can reach. It has already cleared a large patch of ground and is continuing to eat.

Fear of the Unknown?

Your companion stops to watch it carefully, and suddenly his stick flings out and crushes the rabbit’s skull. You look at him with a kind of mixed horror as he picks up the rabbit and dumps it into a bag wordlessly, just looking at you with mad eyes that make you wonder if you’re next.

Still, you wonder and pass another corner. On this corner, a badger is scowling angrily, growling, and bristling in the middle of the road. You look at your unwanted companion and see him carefully examining the situation again. He steps off the road to the right and walks around the badger, motioning for you to follow.

Tarot Meditation Techniques For The Moon Upright Card

You come to a small clearing, where he builds a fire. He looks at you as he does so and takes out a small silver cross hidden inside his robes.

With reverence, he removes the rabbit from his bag and digs a hole to bury it, saying last rites over it as he does so. He looks up at you, explaining that he is a priest of St. Assisi, living his life in the wild to be closer to those his Saint protects.

The rabbit, he explains, suffered from a disease that made it constantly ravenous, and the creature would have eaten until it ruptured its stomach, leaving it to die a painful death.

The badger was protecting its den, which lay off the road just to the left of the road. He explains that in many things, especially nature, it takes a broad eye to understand the implications of what seems obvious on the surface.

With that, he offers to let you join him in a meal of foraged plants from the woods and hills and to talk more about his experiences in nature. You may join him if you wish or move on if you feel that is your need.

When you are done here, leave the tarot meditation on the moon card and record your thoughts on the events that unfolded in your journal. Remember that not all is as it first appears, and it is well worth careful consideration to understand the inner workings behind things.

Associated Colors:

Black for obfuscation, the dark of ignorance

Meditation For The Moon – Reversed

There is a danger to the questioning nature of the Moon, and it lies in questioning what we know is true. While this is a healthy activity, all too often, that questioning is a matter of fear and inability to accept what we see truly. The tarot meditation on the reversed moon card shows that others will sometimes lead us astray for their ends, merely because they are compelled to and don’t know any better.

As you prepare your meditation area, turn off the lights after having the card, candle, and cloth set up, ensuring that the moon card is inverted.

As you settle in, find yourself in a state of suspicion, believing that those about you are attempting to deceive you, especially those you have known a great while.

Alone and Lonely?

You find yourself on a dark street at night, the street lights are all out, and the moon shines overhead. As you walk down the road, you find yourself accompanied by a well-dressed man in a black suit. Nicely tailored and very well-spoken.

As you travel down the road, you come across a table piled high with produce. All forms of food are on the table, tomatoes with odd color patterns, purple carrots, and blue potatoes. They all carry information about where they’re from, and their native roots.

You find yourself intrigued as they talk to you, but the man whispers in your ear. “These are insufficient, they are not protected against disease, and whoever heard of a blue potato? Look how spindly some of them are, how weak. You know Vitamin A is orange. Why is that carrot purple? Besides, shouldn’t we shop local?” He points across the way to a storefront where you see all the familiar things of your world.

Orange carrots, white potatoes, and red tomatoes are all the staples of growing up. Nothing unusual there, and look, it’s all on sale! You see a sign above it that indicates it’s from a locally operated co-op and farm, and he leads you over to it. “Look! The produce is all grown locally too!”

Intrigue with the Moon Card

He smiles as you walk in. This place is much better. He pauses and hands you a bottle of water. “Look! It’s gluten-free!” Sure enough, it’s labeled on the side as gluten-free! Who knew that water had gluten in it?

As he walks through the store with you, he stops and hands you a cereal box with big blueberries listed on the side. “And what about this? Blueberries are so good for you! And it has anti-oxidants in it!”

You start to look at the ingredient list, but he quickly takes it away from you and places it back on the shelf. “No time for that. They told you everything you needed to know on the surface.”

Tarot Meditation Techniques For The Moon-Reversed Card

As you head towards the front with an armful of groceries, you reach for your wallet. He stops you again, “No need, no need! Here, use this card, you can pay for it later, and there’s no interest!”

You flip it over to look at the back, and suddenly you are in front of the cashier, and he quickly hands it to her. “Here, use this! Look, they’re a member!” You wander out, feeling very confident in everything you bought today until you start to think about it.

This man who walked with you seemed to tell you everything but teach you nothing. He was very persuasive, but out of his presence, you wonder… How honest was he?

As you come out of the reversed moon tarot card meditation, think about the people in your life who feed you information—the people who tell you what to believe, even though you have your own opinions.

Take a moment to wonder whose interests they truly have at heart. Some of it may be simple, but some of it was complex and perhaps truly nefarious. Record your thoughts on this, and bundle up the tarot reading.

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