Illusion
Today’s Full Moon lunar eclipse first hides and then exposes the deepest, darkest regions of the unconscious via the shadow of the Sun crossing over the Moon.
The Moon card speaks of the need to get in touch with our emotions. it refers to mystery and the unknown, all that is hidden and that lies beneath the surface. This is the realm of the unconscious: that which is churning beneath your awareness and which often translates externally as anxieties, insecurities and fears.
It can manifest as confusion, uncertainty or paranoia — especially when we try to analyze it logically, which is foreign to the realm of the Moon. Just as we can’t fully appreciate the beauty of the Moon in the light of day (consciousness), we struggle to grasp its archetypal meaning through the lens of logic or reason.
In this version of the card — called “Illusion” in the Tarot of the Old Path deck — we see the pale figures of a man and a woman knee-deep in a pool of turbulent waters. The Egyptian-Sky Goddess Nuit stares out blankly at them from a distant horizon, a blanket of stars draped across her kneeling form. The Goddess isn’t happy, you can see a single tear sliding from her eye in the reflection of the pool.
The figures in the card appear to be experiencing a completely different set of emotional reactions under the influence of the darkening Moon. The man buries his face in his hands while the woman raises her arms up in celebration — or is she pleading to the Goddess?
The Moon card can refer to anxiety and confusion, based on an instinct that you can’t make rational sense of. You feel that something is “off” but can’t articulate your reasons because it’s not based on evidence, only intuition. It refers to mysteries and perplexities that are hard to unravel. You may working with insufficient information or you may be making assumptions based on feelings rather than facts. Either way you could run into opposition from others who challenge you to justify your instincts.
You can quiet your fears by reminding yourself that the future has not yet been written and that there’s still time to achieve the outcome you desire. You can work on curtailing some of the Moon’s more harrowing elements (doubt, fear, suspicion and paranoia) and tap into its more uplifting aspects (intuition, perception, sensitivity and discernment) instead.
