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

Given Fulgour's wonderful reflections in a new thread just opened a few hours ago - Marseille Moon ~ Phoenix Rising! - I thought it would augur well to next reflect on the meanings of this card.

All too often it has perilous significance attached.

Yet, as the Moon itself reflects the begign rays of the Sun, so does our thinking reflect thoughts that enter therein.

It may certainly influence the tides - one part of the day heaving this way, another part that way. Likewise our own diurnal and lunar (month) rhythm ebbs and flows.

Not only are the sublunar realms implied as our own dwelling place, but also that we share it with not only other human beings unseen (though their towers indicates that they are perhaps asleep), but also with creatures both warm and cold-blooded, both from land and from water.

In a reading, it may point that deep reflection is called for, and a state of understanding of the whole situation - not so much with the clarity of day, but perhaps with the sense that night brings, a sense for an overall merging, with intelligence and with understanding, of that upon which reflection is called for.

I attach a Marseille variant - a Bolognese.

Thank you for Fulguor's link, jmd!

It helps me to think of Star, Moon, Sun as a mini-sequence within the Trumps....with the Star having to do with beginnings/birth, Moon with a mini-death or dark night of the soul and the Sun as a re-birth/resurrection or return to innocence.

La Lune, feminine, passive, reflective, emotional, bi-polar?

Why so much water in this card? Water for emotions?

Images of La Lune were created before we traveled to the Moon. Did our ancestors believe that there was abundant water there?

8+1 = 9...L'Hermite...silence, introspection, patience...

or 18 + 10 + 8....realization/change (10) after a transformation (8)?

Does the moon remind us of Death, or of the mini-deaths we experience before the true death of our physical body?

Is all the water as well as the presence of the shelled creature a reminder of the parts within us that are primitive or transitory....the parts that will pass eventually before we emerge into the light of Le Soleil?

Looking at the two towers....do they offer us something real and tangible upon which we can fix our sights?
One appears to be more open and accessible, the other more closed an inaccessible...spiritual vs. material? goals mirrored also in the two dog-like animals. Must we achieve some understanding or control over our "animal" nature in order to attain the spiritual and perhaps find our soul.

Seductive, yet not a place we can stay too long lest we become confused, uncertain, fearful.

terri

In some decks the creature crawling out of the water is the same colour as the water and I often see this as something camouflaged or hidden well, even unknown influences.

'Influences' is such a good word isn't it? It works well for this card. Meaning - A power which can affect a course of events. This power can be effortless, unseen. I wonder if thats what the yods are symbolising? Its beyond our control, a determining factor which is unknown to us?

I like the way the Moon appears somewhat as an illusion, within the Sun itself. The Moon would not be seen by the human eye without the Sun's rays. In some ways the Moon could be moving in front of the Sun to create an eclipse - momentary darkness. When this happens, it throws a silence over the world which is eerie and we draw on our most primitive instincts to drag ourself back to the real world, our conscious world. So many thoughts come to me when I see this card.

I agree with terri as well. Those fluctuating tides can give a sense of confusion!

~

Sorry to bring things back to basics, but to me XVIII-La Lune often means the menstrual cycle (a woman's tide) and more specifically, the moment of the periods. It's a time when a lot of women, on top of feeling bloated and not quite their normal sunny selves, and quite possibly emotional (I know I do), also have deeper, more refined intuition, a closer relation to the "rythmic beat" of the earth and life, and are able to "see" things differently.

I'm not sure how to put this in words, because quite often it is a wordless experience. Music would be be better, but I can't attach that

I know there is no moon in the TdM card of the Papesse, but I think of her in relation to La Lune, because of her deep, sometimes wordless knowledge, and her calm passive stance, that seems to hide all sorts of inner lives (a phoenix rising, two dogs howling). The two towers remind me of the columns on her chair back (or is it a veil between her and the world?). Indeed, the strange light the moon casts on the world is very like a veil. I see La Lune as one of the realms where II- La Papesse is most at home.

But XVIII-La Lune is also related to VIII, La Justice: and I wondered for a while about that. But then I thought of all that water in La Lune. Water, like Justice, is slow but powerful, unrelenting and (we've seen in Asia, dramatically) occasionally destructive and heartless. 8 is the number of cosmic balance: when the moon reflects the sun, when all creatures can emerge, when we see, without quite putting into words what we see, is that not a form of cosmic balance? One that brings us higher than Justice, into the Divine realms of understanding? And I think too of Fulgour's reminder of Tzey! from Tzade, the Hebrew letter for the Moon. Tzey - Go Forth! - from which we get Tzavah - a command, which brings us to Tzadik - Justice. For God's Justice started with a command - "obey these laws and have them applied, and I shall be just with you".

I started with gross matter, and ended with spirit and God's command - such is the way of the Tarot

When the Moon casts it's light, it's not a 'true' light, it doesn't show us everything, things can still hide within it. It gives us the ability to see, but not clearly... or rather to see 'things in a different light'. I always marvel at how it looks like a candle in the sky..... see? I'm dreaming, that's what the Moon does too.

In a reading it's necessary to consider what may be hidden from us or what we do not see clearly, or fully understand. I adore the Moon because it lights up darkness and it just so beautiful.... so I don't usually see this card as depicting any sort of danger, to me, it's expressing the need to learn more and understand what is not easily apparent. It has the ability to change things, make them look different to how they really are, it softens the edges.

Feelings and emotions come to the surface around the time of a full moon, notice how the dogs are agitated by it, the Crayfish comes towards the surface of the water.... it has an attraction... a pull.

Helvetica said:

Sorry to bring things back to basics, but to me XVIII-La Lune often means the menstrual cycle (a woman's tide) and more specifically, the moment of the periods.

Click to expand...

The shape of the lobster -or in some cases crab- is also very reminiscent of the uterus with fallopian tubes. The relationship of the moon, the tides, and the female cycles seem clearly related here. Even though this relationship of women to the moon is fairly universal, still the face in the moon is usually a man's. How annoying.

Dark Inquistor...

What you have said reminds me of the Moon card in the Navigators Tarot of the Mystic Sea, I had never really thought about the shape of the Crab, Lobster, Crayfish (and which is it?)

Man in the Moon eh? How cheesy!

Crayfish ~ you can tell by the claws being the same size,
and it's important ~ the crayfish is a freshwater creature.
Rivers are freshwater bodies, here maybe like The Nile...

But if it's a river , then there won't be any tides for the moon to influence . ???

Here a tide, there a tide, everywhere a tide~~~~~~
speaking of which, did you know "Lune" also means leash?
And those dogs are....