XVIII- The Moon- Illusions, mystery and soap operas!

Owl Tarot

And welcome folks, welcome- to The Moon, Atu XVIII! I am Owl Tarot, and as those few who read my threads already know I decided to start weekly threads about some of the thoughts and interpretations, as they come to me, of the Trump I am currently studying. It is the third time I undergo this process because in the previous two I gained further insight about the cards so I decided to follow this process yet again, but with a slightly different tone! So, anyone willing and available to provide some thoughts and opinions for me to work and contemplate about would be appreciated! I also hope my thoughts as of today are helpful for you! Here we arrive at a card of a highly illusive nature- Wait, don't blame me! We are at yet another manifestation of The Moon, but of a far, far different nature to the Planetary Trump of Moon, The Priestess, which comes with far different assosiations then it's higher nature as depicted in Atu II.

XVIIII- The Moon

Zodiacal Trump of Pisces

29th Path, connecting Netzach to Malkuth. Hebrew letter: Qoph (back of the head)

Book of Thoth said:
Pisces is the last of the Signs; it represents the last stage of winter. It might be called the Gateway of Resurrection (the letter Qoph means the back of the head, and is connected with the potencies of the cerebellum). In the system of the old Aeon, the resurrection of the Sun was not only from winter, but from night; and this card represents midnight.

So, here we have Pisces. Pisces is a really interesting sign, my best friend -like a brother to me- is a Pisces and Pisces is a feminine sign of mutable water quality. Pisces are generally speaking to be highly artistic people with a naturally developed intuition, artistic nature, emotional and imaginative people with a good ability to adjust into different situations (mutable sign). They are generally speaking Spiritually inclined and mysterious people. Pisces is also the sign assosiated with the subconsious and Mysticism.

Pisces is ruled by Jupiter when one works with the 7 Planets of the Ancients and by Neptune when seen from the perspective of modern planet. Both planets work well with Pisces, nevertheless, but in the depiction of The Moon the symbol of Neptune may be seen both below The Moon and being held by the right hand side Anubis, incorporated into the symbolism of the Ankh. Neptune is the planet assosiated with deception, illusion and mystery. It's realm is the subconsious, and it's qualities include imaginative abilities, spirituality, creativity etc. Some of it's vices and dangers were previously mentioned and are here in this Trump.

Book of Thoth said:
“There is a budding morrow in midnight”, wrote Keats. For this reason there appears at the bottom of the card, underneath the water which is tinged with graphs of abomination, the sacred Beetle, the Egyptian Khephra, bearing in his mandibles the Solar Disk. It is this Beetle that bears the Sun in his Silence through the darkness of Night and the bitterness of Winter.
Above the surface of the water is a sinister and forbidding landscape. We see a path or stream, serum tinged with blood, which flows from a gap between two barren mountains; nine drops of impure blood, drop-shaped like Yods, fall upon it from the Moon.

Crowley describes most pictures in an easy to understand manner. The unconsious, as seen by the "graphs of abomination" and understood by Psychology, is the house of fears, neuroses, unresolved dilemmas, painful and forgotten memories etc. The Moon's influence can be seen on the tides of blue and red lines caused, which stir it.
Who can save the day from those inner demons, our own inner "hell", if you may? Here comes Khephra, the God who carries the Sun through the night, who in some Egyptian myths is considered to be a manifestation of Ra. This Solar Deity is the light of the Sun, which will guide one to properly walk inside his personal hell. Under the light of the Sun the unconsious may be visited and utilized by the initiate.

Book of Thoth said:
This path is guarded by Tabu. She is uncleanliness and sorcery. Upon the hills are the black towers of nameless mystery, of horror and of fear. All prejudice, all superstition, dead tradition - and ancestral loathing, all combine to darken her face before the eyes of men. It needs unconquerable courage to begin to tread this path. Here is a weird, deceptive life. The fiery sense is baulked. The moon has no air. The knight upon this quest has to rely on the three lower senses: touch, taste and smell. [See the Book of Lies Cap.pß, Bortsch.] Such light as there may be is deadlier than darkness, and the silence is wounded by the howling of wild beasts.

To what god shall we appeal for aid? It is Anubis,the watcher in the twilight, the god that stands upon the threshold, the jackal god of Khem, who stands in double form between the Ways. At his feet, on watch, wait the jackals themselves, to devour the carcasses of those who have not seen Him, or who have not known His Name.

For me, those Towers represent the fear our everyday mundane self in Malkuth has for threading in the dangerous path of working with his unconsious. They are the Towers of the boundaries set by tabu, superstition, all the toxins that society may inforce on the individual in Malkuth, thus preventing him from trying to chase his desires and what he finds beautiful, his personal Aphrodite (Netzach).

However, Anubis is there to aid us in threading this dangerous and generally condemned path. Anubis is a psychopomp Deity who is responsible for embalming the dead to allow the preservation of life and the Deity usually responsible to carry the souls of the dead from the world of the living to the underworld. He is also sometimes depicted as the Guardian of the Scales of Maat, with which he measured the worthiness of the soul to enter the realm of the dead (you could see that as the unconsious).

Anubis of the East and Anubis of the West are the Guardians of the Neophyte hall in the Golden Dawn tradition. They decide who is worthy of passing the threshold between the consious and unconsious mind. The two jackals may very well represent Nephesh, the animal soul which resides in the Sephira Yesod. The bloody Yods can also be seen under this prism, since they are 9 in total. One who enters without being judged worthy by Anubis risks being devoured by illusion, his animal soul itself.

Book of Thoth said:
This is the threshold of life; this is the threshold of death. All is doubtful, all is mysterious, all is intoxicating. Not the benign, solar intoxication of Dionysus, but the dreadful madness of pernicious drugs; this is a drunkenness of sense, after the mind has been abolished by the venom of this Moon. This is that which is written of Abraham in the Book of the Beginning: “An horror of great darkness came upon him.” One is reminded of the mental echo of subconscious realization, of that supreme iniquity which mystics have constantly celebrated in their accounts of the Dark Night of the Soul. But the best men, the true men, do not consider the matter in such terms at all. Whatever horrors may afflict the soul, whatever abominations may excite the loathing of the heart, whatever terrors may assail the mind, the answer is the same at every stage: “How splendid is the Adventure!”

The way I see it, the darkness caused by the effect of this Moon can be abolished through courage and strength, and those horrors can be subdued under the light of the Sun which is hidden within and carried by Khephra, the Solar Deity hidden deep within, which is ready to throw it's light and destroy the illusions of the unconsious, and to bring it's power to the seeker who enters.

Okay, Kabbalistically speaking, we have already touched on the Sephira involved here. Malkuth is the Earthly Kindom and Netzach is the Sphere of the life force organizing itself in Armies, in natural forces. The symbols of those forces remain deep within the unconsious, and the symbols on this plane of work are the keys to unlock their potential. But this process, when seen and approached from the mundane life perspective of Malkuth, is a dangerous prossess in which one may lose himself in illusion. Under the light of the Sun though, those illusions perish and what is left are the true companions lying in the unconsious mind. I find the Astral Light and it's qualities to be really relevant here.

It was long for yet another time, I know, but it was a good exercise in itself for me, and I hope that it both helps you and motivates you to give me some food for thought! As with the rest of them, I have much more I can say about this card as I view it today, of course, but I think I it is long enough already. I hope you liked it, that it may aid your understanding of this Trump and I would like to hear some of your own stuff about the card!
 

smw

it is not the most pleasant experience finding out about your own unconscious anxieties especially when they pop up when least expected. I wonder though how discriminating you can be though with any 'illusions', as to not step in to them gives no experience of them. I would think they are telling you about something and avoidance may just put the whole thing off for another time... However, It does seem like a moony, hazardous twilight path where fears can overwhelm and take on attributes if you are not careful and stay there too long!

I read a description of the watery reflective nature of this path being related to the magic mirror idea, reflecting back yourself and this seems apt with the nature of the tarot too. Maybe even to posting on forums, being able to see what you have said, what you might reveal (inadvertently) fears of what other's think, or is that how you yourself might really think..etc magic mirrory again.
 

Owl Tarot

it is not the most pleasant experience finding out about your own unconscious anxieties especially when they pop up when least expected. I wonder though how discriminating you can be though with any 'illusions', as to not step in to them gives no experience of them. I would think they are telling you about something and avoidance may just put the whole thing off for another time... However, It does seem like a moony, hazardous twilight path where fears can overwhelm and take on attributes if you are not careful and stay there too long!

I read a description of the watery reflective nature of this path being related to the magic mirror idea, reflecting back yourself and this seems apt with the nature of the tarot too. Maybe even to posting on forums, being able to see what you have said, what you might reveal (inadvertently) fears of what other's think, or is that how you yourself might really think..etc magic mirrory again.

To distinguish them into categories requires facing them. On the topic I presented above, The Moon as the Hall of the Neophyte in G.D. with Anubis as the tester of the individual might give you a clue. If you don't heed his warning and go unready, you might lose a big gamble-yourself! This is what I have concluded considering Crowley's opinions in BOT. You are about to face what Jung might have called the "Shadows" of oneself. This is both necessary for the initiate and dangerous, so the wise will take heed of the words Anubis offers him/her.

Book of Thoth said:
The moon has no air. The knight upon this quest has to rely on the three lower senses: touch, taste and smell. [See the Book of Lies Cap.pß, Bortsch.] Such light as there may be is deadlier than darkness, and the silence is wounded by the howling of wild beasts.

A subject in Magick I find really relevant is the Astral Light which has a "gross" and a "finer" nature, the former of which can be seen in Khephra and the "gross" by the "lowest" form of the Moon.

Really interesting what you said about the "Magic Mirror", it suits pretty well the general mood of the card I think.
 

Zephyros

One could also consider the sexual aspects of this card, under which the Moon becomes quite a bit better, despite its dubious reputation. From Malkuth, the Moon could be seen as a "shortcut" of sorts, to Netzach, sphere of animal passions. From there, the dissolution of Death occurs, after which one may rise to Tiphareth (although you can't stay there for long). Now, even you're not an Adept, the dissolution of orgasm (the "little death" of Death) is real, and so is the loss of the ego inherent in that split second. The danger here is that one's understanding of it is faulty, and that's where the Moon's illusory aspects come in. This process needn't, of course, be achieved solely through sex, just that we have that innate capacity. However, used correctly, the Moon and all it represents can be a powerful tool for achieving certain states, and in sex magick.
 

Aeon418

A quick quote from Uncle Al.
Aleister Crowley said:
Sex is, directly or indirectly, the most powerful weapon in the armoury of the Magician; and precisely because there is no moral guide, it is indescribably dangerous. I have given a great many hints, especially in Magick, and The Book of Thoth—some of the cards are almost blatantly revealing; so I have been rapped rather severely over the knuckles for giving children matches for playthings. My excuse has been that they have already got the matches, that my explanations have been directed to add conscious precautions to the existing automatic safeguards.
 

Zephyros

A quick quote from Uncle Al.

Great minds think alike. })

However that quote is also incredibly responsible. I'm surprised it isn't used more often when he is accused of sexual sedition and perversion.
 

Barleywine

Great minds think alike. })

However that quote is also incredibly responsible. I'm surprised it isn't used more often when he is accused of sexual sedition and perversion.

So many of his sensible pronouncements have been blantantly distorted by the demonizers. "Do what you damn well please." eh?
 

Aeon418

From Malkuth, the Moon could be seen as a "shortcut" of sorts, to Netzach, sphere of animal passions. From there, the dissolution of Death occurs, after which one may rise to Tiphareth (although you can't stay there for long).
A slight digression to reveal in interesting pattern involving XVIII The Moon.

Take the Tree of Tree of Life, but disregard the Middle Pillar for the moment. It's significance in the middle will become obvious.

On the left side of the Tree the paths Beth, Zain, Cheth, Lamed, Mem, Ayin, Resh, and Shin with the addition of the middle reciprocal path of Teth total 666.

On the other side of the Tree the paths Qoph, Nun, and Vau total 156, Babalon.

The remaining paths of Aleph, Daleth, Heh, Yod, Kaph, Peh, and Tzaddi total 210. NOX.
 

Aeon418

However that quote is also incredibly responsible. I'm surprised it isn't used more often when he is accused of sexual sedition and perversion.
I wish I had remembered it during a Tarot workshop when I suggested that the strange shapes below the crescent moon are actually the Hebrew letter Kaph spelt in full.

Kaph = KPh = 100 = Qoph. Keteis + Phallos = Atu XVIII The Moon.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a minute before someone said: "You see. I told you this Crowley deck was perverted." After that I decided not to mention the falling Yod's. :laugh:
 

Owl Tarot

One could also consider the sexual aspects of this card, under which the Moon becomes quite a bit better, despite its dubious reputation. From Malkuth, the Moon could be seen as a "shortcut" of sorts, to Netzach, sphere of animal passions.

While I do agree with the sexual attributions mentioned (I didn't enter too much there since there is a lot of ground to cover even without it) I don't personally think Netzach is necessarily about animal passions. For me, Yesod is more fit to consider as the Sephira of sexual drive, animalistic and as savage as it can be. Netzach is the Sephira I assosiate with polarity and love. Now, what's the difference? Dion Fortune presents an example I consider helpful

The Mystical Qabalah said:
It is important to note in this respect that Venus, or in her Greek form, Aphrodite, is not a fertility goddess at all, such as are Ceres and Persephone; she is the goddess of love.
Now in the Greek concept of life, Love embraced much more than the relationship
between the sexes, it included the comr'deship of fighting men and the relationship of
teacher and pupil.

For me, Netzach is more about romantic sex or love making if you may. What I mean is, the sex of Netzach is how you would make love with a being so beautiful in your eyes that you believe (not simply think) it might shatter if you are too forceful. This is more the idea of sex I relate to Netzach. The aspirational sex of the Sephira desires and emotions which is caused by the Principle of Polarity which becomes more and more apparent in Netzach.

The Mystical Qabalah said:
We saw in our study of Tiphareth how the Mediating
Intelligence, as the Sepher Yetzirah calls it, broke up the White Light of the One Life as
in a prism so that it becomes the Refulgent Splendour of many-rayed hues in Netzach.
Here we have not force, but forces; not life, but lives.

Aeon418 said:
I wish I had remembered it during a Tarot workshop when I suggested that the strange shapes below the crescent moon are actually the Hebrew letter Kaph spelt in full.

Kaph = KPh = 100 = Qoph. Keteis + Phallos = Atu XVIII The Moon.

Really interesting, this. It was one of those points I would like to adress more but didn't. The Greek words are "κτείς" και "φαλλός" and when taken together, they mean the fall of the phallus. I also think of those falling Yods as the blood of menstruation, potential left unfulfilled, one of the dangers one faces in this Path. The misused/not used potential.