Cosmic Tribe Tarot

XVIII - MOON

Silver beams net me in dreams
while waning tides expose me
O shimmering mistress of the night
this gypsy heart howls to you
abandon me to your arms
drown me in shadowy seas

The cycles of the Moon reflect the cycles of our lives. Each month a new moon is born in darkness passing through the portals of the celestial womb. As a youth, she hangs tenderly as a crescent befriended by Venus who teaches her the ways of beauty. Quickly she waxes and blooms in fullness, in menses, as her flower is potent with the magic of creating children. And oh how her light shines! And the Moon children, drunk with adoration, dance in fields at midnight to honor her. Gracefully she ages, waning with acquired wisdom. She contemplates the power of the sun and reflects it into our emotional bodies as passion, intuition and illusion. In old age she buries herself in earthshadow leaving us in darkness, a short life of 28 days. But soon she resurrects, different yet the same as before - just as beautiful, just as potent, just as wise.

In the card, an elegant siren Moon draws us into her dance. She is irresistible. Her outstretched arms welcome us to dreams. They are the gates we must learn to pass if we are to have a fertile sleep. She floats ghostlike in the night above the deep waters of the unconscious. Her embrace submerges us in fantasies and illusions both beautiful and dangerous. The Moon is benign illusion and harmful delusion; fantasy and nightmare. In her world, time bends and distorts. Visions loom from the past and tickle from the future blending with the present in fanciful ways. Dream characters could be themselves, the dreamer, or maybe some kind of archetype from the pool of human experience. The Moon speaks intuitively and powerfully, her ebbing tides expose the wrecks of ships that attempted to navigate her waters rationally.

The Moon is romantically cloaked in precious mysteries from other times. Her brilliant pearl necklace beams the entire lunar cycle from new to crescent to full to gibbons back to new and over and over and around and around. She adores this cycle of romance and decay. Her dress is a ballroom fantasy designed to captivate the many lovetorn suitors who beg her for one more dance. She loves love and the faraway wispy poetry and music it inspires. Indeed the Moon is so alluring that many die in lunacy for having attempted to make her their own.

Divinatory Meaning

Should the Moon shine on your reading, don't be afraid to take her silvery arm and dance the cyclical waltz of the unconscious. What insecurities do you experience as she whirls you around? What fears gnaw on your bones as you sink into her waters? Let go into them and see that they are merely signposts on the way to self-knowledge. Can you distinguish the present from the past from the future? Are you still perhaps fighting illusions from past battles? Use daily rituals to help you focus clearly on here and now. What patterns are you perpetuating? Are they helpful or harmful? The Moon will dance you in circles. What begins in celebration of the night bride could become lunacy. She is an expert lover but jealous. Watch yourself as you dive into her depths. Hold onto a thread of reason that will help you back to the surface. Intuitions and fantasies are parts of the treasure she hides. Use them wisely to augment your daily reality, not replace it.