Moon crescent under High Priestess foot, why?

Abrac

I believe one of the keys to why it's at her feet is in Waite's statement, "According to Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the Supernal Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath." It's at her feet because it reflects her essence [Understanding]—symbolized by water—to the sephiroth below. The Waite-Trinick Priestess shows this more clearly.
 

Abrac

I personally think Waite confuses the issue somewhat when he refers to her as Binah and the Supernal Mother. He says, "In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself—that is to say, she is the bright reflection." She's not literally the Supernal Mother herself in Binah, but an aspect of her. She represents the bright reflection on the middle path of Gimel. That why he qulaifies his statement with, "In a manner. . ."
 

Laurelle

In Crowley's case I think he was making the point that the Moon, as a universal archetype, partakes of both the "highest and the lowest." One read through the Book of Thoth Moon essay makes it abundantly clear that he saw the Moon more as Hecate than Diana.

That makes sense that it's a Thoth reference. I have the deck and have used it periodically. It's good for scrying with the minors (for me). But I've never gotten into Crowley. I guess I got scared in my teens when I heard that he was a powerful magician who did a powerful ritual spell that sucked his son into the netherworld. (Is this even true?!) My impressionable 18 year old mind never seemed to be able to let go of that reference and since then I've been hesitant to study or read Crowley. I should read the entire little book that came with the deck. Will check it out later today.
 

maya

Can't give as long an answer as I would like since I'm on my phone, but in a nutshell the Priestess embodies the higher qualities of the Moon such as intuition, spirituality, the archetypal feminine figure, etc. The Moon conveys the lower aspects of the symbol such as fear, sleep, paranoia and drug use.


Dear Zephyros,

The Moon card reveals the 18th mystery
The High Priestess reveals the 2nd mystery

How do universal mysteries deal with mundane fear, sleep, paranoia and drug use?
And, how does number 18 appear to be lower than 2?

And how can you explain mysteries of the universe in a nutshell?

I am surprised.

maya
 

Michellehihi

That makes sense that it's a Thoth reference. I have the deck and have used it periodically. It's good for scrying with the minors (for me). But I've never gotten into Crowley. I guess I got scared in my teens when I heard that he was a powerful magician who did a powerful ritual spell that sucked his son into the netherworld. (Is this even true?!) My impressionable 18 year old mind never seemed to be able to let go of that reference and since then I've been hesitant to study or read Crowley. I should read the entire little book that came with the deck. Will check it out later today.

I have just read your comment Laurelle and I feel sorry that you were scared of Mr. Crowley. Personnally when I started studying tarot, since people respect and fear him and find him genious I decided to read his book and my opinion is that he was intelligent, but he was a lost soul. I don't take him as a reference, ever. I even felt some homophobia sometimes in his writing, apart from the obvious mysoginism. And I can't get past the fact that as brilliant as he pretended to be, he was not able to draw himself his deck, he had to have someone draw for him! I don't get why we call him the creator. When an artist does a commissioned painting, it is still the painter's art, not the commissioner?
 

rwcarter

Moderator Note

Before we go down that road, please discuss Crowley and the Thoth over in the Thoth Tarot Forum.
 

Abrac

It occurred to me that the main thing Waite may have been trying to symbolize in this card is the idea of Shekinah. He mentions Shekinah and the fact that in the Zohar there are two Shekinahs, one above and one below. I think this may account for his apparent contradictions in his description (i.e. saying she's the moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal Mother but also saying she's the Supernal Mother herself); it would also help explain the meaning of that yellow crescent at her feet. He incorporated aspects of both Shekinahs into the image. Both are represented symbolically by the moon but each have different meanings.

The face in the bright yellow moon on the Moon card is Shekinah below. In the Pictorial Key Waite describes it as "the face of mind"; but in his description of the Great Symbol of the Moon (which incidentally is exactly like the RWS Moon in all its essential elements) for the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, he makes clear it's Shekinah:

"The Symbol of the 28th path represents Shekinah as the new Moon on the side of Mercy, looking towards the glorious Sun of Tiphereth and reflecting its sacred radiance. The animals below are the unregenerate instincts of the natural man in Malkuth, while the crayfish reaching up toward the land is the evil part of our nature. Shekinah is the soul-part shining in the region of material darkness, ignorance and savage fear. She reflects over the sad region of our suffering estate the Divine Light of the Self-Knowing Spirit."​
 

JoyousGirl

I think it has something to do with an unfertilised egg. This means something on 2 levels. This could be pure imagination or hard reality ;-)

Hopefully I've just provided a lead which leads somewhere for someone!