Thirteen
Is Pisces anywhere in that iconography?
That said, I could actually see how the crab/beetle connection would make sense for the Chariot, which is both sun/moon, land/sea, black/white. Uniting of opposites to travel speedily from one plane to the next.
But it doesn't make nearly so much sense if it goes to the Moon; I can't see any connection between beetle and fish, outside of the "baptism" element where the dung goes into the water to birth the beetles. If there is a strong connection between beetle/crab, however, a better one than beetle/fish, why put the beetle in the Moon card? And how about the twin Anubis in the Thoth deck's Moon? Don't those relate to Scorpio? What I'm saying is, having given the Moon card Pisces, for whatever reason, why litter it with Cancerian references and symbols (Waite's crayfish for example) and/or Scorpio-seeming symbols? Where are those fishes? And doesn't this just suggest that the card creators fell into the same trap as the beginners who sent me looking for answers?
The card isnt' *really* about the Moon; it's about nighttime. Yet references that relate the reader back to Cancer and it's ruling body, the moon, do make it about that celestial body. Also, in regards to those Anubises, death--which, again, totally goes with the "sleep" and night as a kind of death with ressurection in the morning. It works with the meaning of the card. But if the card is going to be defined and interpreted in terms of Pisces, shouldn't Pisces-centric imagery rule it?
Yes. Excellent point. I was wondering about that as well. The myth isn't about the moon, but about nighttime and where the sun goes during the night. So, yes, it works very well for the Moon car which is really the "Night" card. And, though I totally get the similarities of beetle to crab and skuttling across the sands, this does pair the moon-ruled (water/night) crab with the sun-ruled (land/daylight) beetle. So I could understand the argument that the scarab should not be viewed as the Egyptian Cancer.I think it has to do with the myth of the scarab as Khepri rolling the sun, pushing it into and through the underworld each night to be reborn each morning. More "dark night" symbolism. You can see the beetle holding the sun disk on the Thoth Moon card.
That said, I could actually see how the crab/beetle connection would make sense for the Chariot, which is both sun/moon, land/sea, black/white. Uniting of opposites to travel speedily from one plane to the next.
But it doesn't make nearly so much sense if it goes to the Moon; I can't see any connection between beetle and fish, outside of the "baptism" element where the dung goes into the water to birth the beetles. If there is a strong connection between beetle/crab, however, a better one than beetle/fish, why put the beetle in the Moon card? And how about the twin Anubis in the Thoth deck's Moon? Don't those relate to Scorpio? What I'm saying is, having given the Moon card Pisces, for whatever reason, why litter it with Cancerian references and symbols (Waite's crayfish for example) and/or Scorpio-seeming symbols? Where are those fishes? And doesn't this just suggest that the card creators fell into the same trap as the beginners who sent me looking for answers?
The card isnt' *really* about the Moon; it's about nighttime. Yet references that relate the reader back to Cancer and it's ruling body, the moon, do make it about that celestial body. Also, in regards to those Anubises, death--which, again, totally goes with the "sleep" and night as a kind of death with ressurection in the morning. It works with the meaning of the card. But if the card is going to be defined and interpreted in terms of Pisces, shouldn't Pisces-centric imagery rule it?