La Lune (the Moon) - how may it be read?

Sophie

kwaw said:
I have kept crayfish in the past

Wow, Kwaw. What a thought-provoking post! I'll take this to bed with me.

Prudence, regeneration. As you imply, it fits well with the cycle of the moon. And the three days of the vulnerable "dark side".

What about the cannibalism? How might that translate into allegorical language?

Ah, I am loving this thread. I feel so expanded!
Sophie
 

kwaw

Helvetica said:
What about the cannibalism? How might that translate into allegorical language?

Sophie

The last supper? Bread/flesh, wine/blood.

Kwaw
 

kwaw

Pocono Platypus said:
What is the sound of the moon?

For me this card represent the eternal now, glimpsed between the end and the beginning of cyclical dynamics, in which the earth stands still and in which stillness silence reigns.

For me the image of Marseille La Luna, of all and any of the other images, is the most complete achievement of an exemplar model or universal archetype if you will in that it is the least limited or defined by the European culture and times in which it was created; and portrays a lunar paradigm that can be found reflected in myths, rituals and religions both ancient, modern and worldwide; from the aborigines of Australia to the native Indians of America; from the most ancient myths that survive to us from Egypt and the Mesopatanian basin to the rituals of modern religions.

Kwaw
 

kwaw

Moongold said:
Do you make any connections between La Papesse and La Luna? I don't see the Marseille doing this at all but I could be wrong. There is no symbolic recognition on either image but I wondered if there is some other connection.

Moongold

I don't see any connection other than through the association with whatever you may think the papesse may represent - mary, the shekinah, isis all have associations with the moon and if you relate the image to any of these then you have by association a link with the moon. But as you mention other cards in the deck have lunar associations, the magician figure is replicated in images of the children of the moon; il matto the lunatic by the long held association between lunacy and the moon, also dogs [or maybe hare] are also luna animals; the figure in the world resembles fortuna which was widely associated with the moon, it has also been described as anima mundi which again has references to the moon, etc.

Kwaw
 

Moongold

kwaw said:
For me the image of Marseille La Luna, of all and any of the other images, is the most complete achievement of an exemplar model or universal archetype if you will in that it is the least limited or defined by the European culture and times in which it was created; and portrays a lunar paradigm that can be found reflected in myths, rituals and religions both ancient, modern and worldwide; from the aborigines of Australia to the native Indians of America; from the most ancient myths that survive to us from Egypt and the Mesopatanian basin to the rituals of modern religions.

Kwaw,

La Lune is the image I struggle with the most in the Marseille and this has been a wonderful thread to help me reconsider some of the feelings I have about it. The Fournier La Lune is particularly dark but I still feel basically that the card is more negative than it need be. The face in the moon itself is grim and frowning. I'll go off and do some more reading about Moon in other cultures although I have generally felt the mythology in those cultures was more positive than ours. Perhaps I've been too much affected by Golden Dawn versions of the Moon?

Thanks. Once more a thought provoking post.
 

Moonbow

I have just been re-reading this thread and I somehow missed kwaw's post suggesting the depiction of an eclipse (post #95). Which is a wonderful reflection.

I can see that clearly in the card, and the scene is reminiscent of a programme I watched recently about the sun and moon alignment with Stonehenge (which by some is now thought to be an ancient observatory). Particularly with the two towers and the eclipse between them.
 

Pocono Platypus

under the moon

Last week I drove far out into the desert and slept out under the full moon for two nights. No tent. Just a sleeping bag on the ground. I have never seen the moon so bright. I couldn't really sleep, but it was very wonderful and magical.
 

kwaw

kwaw said:
There are several different images of the man in the moon, would you say this one recalls our favourite lunatic, ill matto?

http://www.inconstantmoon.com/map_near_mans.htm

Kwaw

"Mr. Hudson Taylor submitted to the Committee a drawing of an impression of a very remarkable personal seal, here represented of the full size. It is appended to a deed (preserved in the Public Record Office) dated in the ninth year of Edward the Third, whereby Walter de Grendene, clerk, sold to Margaret, his mother, one messuage, a barn and four acres of ground in the parish of Kingston-on-Thames. The device appears to be founded on the ancient popular legend that a husbandman who had stolen a bundle of thorns from a hedge was, in punishment of his theft, carried up to the moon. The legend reading Te Waltere docebo cur spinas phebo gero, 'I will teach you, Walter, why I carry thorns in the moon,' seems to be an enigmatical mode of expressing the maxim that honesty is the best policy."

As quoted in 'Moon Lore' 1885 BY THE REV. TIMOTHY HARLEY, F.R.A.S. - originally from 'The Archæological Journal' for March, 1848, pp. 66, 67. (public domain source)

"Moon Lore" is a collection of lunar folklore and includes several interesting illustrations, a few of which I have placed on line here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51129451@N00/

The complete text is available on-line from sacred texts here:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/astro/ml/index.htm

Kwaw
 

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eugim

La Lvne

Hello JMD.
You know I am far for easy jumps conclusions.Symbol topic is very delicate without an intense iconographic search background.That s why I tends to avoid meanings conclusions.
But I always been very fond with Vieville deck and after intense inner thoughts I "feel" that LA LVNE is a Solar Eclipse with all that these IMPLIES.

My respect.

Eugim