My Moon
The cat and the moon
The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet.
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.
WB Yeats
Yeats captures the magic of the Moon so powerfully. In considering this image, we need to think about how Moon has been perceived by man throughout the ages. It is such a powerful symbol. Unfortunately, my Fournier Marseilles card illustrates Moon at her darkest. I think the artist must have been a male. A female artist (if there were such people in those days) might have drawn something much lighter. Moon seems always to have had an association with the feminine. Some project that in dark forms whilst others see it as much more gentle and mysterious. The Moon can be as much a symbol or romance and love as she can of the darker attributes of femininity
The Fournier Moon is darker than other Marseille Moons. The water is a royal blue and the night sky and the face of the Moon are just a shade lighter. A sparse and haggard landscape greets our enquiring eyes. The crawfish represents the most primaeval of creatures. Baying dogs are often symbols of guardians of the underworld. The Moon herself has been endowed with a face whose severity could be male or female. The ground around the pool of water is like a desert with minimal plant life. In this version of the Moon card, it is almost impossible to discern the path which leads to the
Sun . The Moon is often seen to contain material belonging to the unconscious, the instinctive, and the primaeval. This image in the Tarot represents that. It is saying essentially that this part of our humanity is intrinsic to identity and the soul must traverse the unwelcome ground of the unconscious on its journey. We can all identify with this. The saving grace of this image is the rays of light sparking from the Moon. They seem to promise more than just reflection of the light of the Sun. They hint at a unique energy belonging to Moon herself.
If you understand the Moon in mythology, you do not feel afraid of this image. As the Moon reflects the light of the Sun, her changing face reflects Man’s projections, positive or fearful. This is fascinating in itself. Moon’s silver radiance shows things we just don’t see in the bright light of day. If we are comfortable with the darkness, our faith, our selves we need have no fear. So this image invites us to know ourselves. It invites us into the mysteries of our own darkness. If we know ourselves and are comfortable with our shadows. If we have faith we have nothing to fear. We know that evil and the unknown can strike just as much in the light of day as at night, and more frequently do. What we have to fear is fear itself and the symbolic fear of darkness, deep in the human psyche.
This image invites to confront our fears. I could spend hours describing how Moon has been chosen by Man to signify much which he does not understand. If we forget all mythology and simply follow the Moon through her monthly cycle one can easily see how the projections developed. Changing shape, light, the influence on water. Here is a photograph of a Pisces Moon I took with my tiny Canon A80 in August this year.You and see how from just this image how Moon is sometimes seen to be magical and
strange:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/Firepeace/IMG_0869.jpg
In its symbolism, the Marseille does not so directly connect the Moon with II La Papesse as do the later Tarot decks. In my Marseilles La Papesse is simply a woman. There is no Moon in her image, unless one counts the jewels on her headdress. I wonder in fact, if the designers of the first Marseille ever made the connection in the way that we do now. In one way this is interesting because it invites all of us, male and female, to confront the stereotypes, the ancient constructions in a slightly different way.