This is a card of…

The Unconscious

Illusion

Dreams

Imagination

Creativity

“It was not, she knew, that night had come, but something as dark as night had come. No, worse than that. It had not come, but it had sent that shiver through the sea to say that it was coming. What was it?”

-J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Key 18 takes the name of the Moon, which is a much smaller body than our Earth. Yet, even from over 200,000 miles away, it changes the shape of the oceans twice a day. At low tide water recedes exposing some of the ocean’s inhabitants. At high tide the water rises again, but often living creatures are called to crawl out of the water. The Moon exerts a pull.

This card is about the inner pull of the dark waters inside us. Just as the tides wait on no one, there are times when our inner life demands attention. The Moon need not be a full-on confrontation with the unconscious, but it is a reminder that if our unconscious wants to tell us something it will find a way. We can go to meet the message or avoid it and learn it the hard way. This is a time to pay attention to our dreams, to strange coincidences, to a nagging voice deep inside.

Traditional depictions show both a dog and a wolf howling at the full moon. The French expression “entre chien et loup” describes the time of day when night is about to fall and the boundaries of objects blur. It becomes difficult to tell a dog (a faithful companion) from a wolf (a wild dangerous predator.) As this animal approaches our senses are electrically alert, our adrenal response gives us heightened awareness– but we still cannot tell which animal is coming. There is fear of course that it could be a wolf, but also a thrill at the thought of close contact with something so wild.

This uneasy, uncertain moment when we might recklessly seek the wild or be overcome with terror is where the Moon wants to bring us. The time between the dog and the wolf- details are hard to make out, boundaries are softening, it will get even darker soon- what’s out there? And why do we feel so drawn to explore it? Parts of ourselves are emerging, drawn from the dark pool of our unconscious. That dark pool is where our creative imagination draws power, it is where myths and fairy tales speak to us, and it is also home to some strange monsters. The Moon wants you to delve down and explore it all.

We are close to end of the journey of the Second Line, but we can go no further until we pass through this time. It may be tempting to feign an examination of our unconscious, to let the ego decide what it thinks dwells in the dark without really looking.

Or we might decide what we want to be down there, whether ethereal or scary, and allow ourselves to see only that. For this reason the Moon is associated with keywords such as illusion, insecurity, fear as well as imagination, dreams, the Unconscious.

Above in the First Line is Justice, the card of the practical outer world and its logical cause-and-effect. But the inner world is not so easy to analyze or predict. It takes bravery to look into the dark water, to not run from the strange creatures that crawl out in the moonlight. If we can summon that bravery, we have a chance for the sort of self-discovery that liberates and energizes- sending us into the next card ready to shine.

Advice:

Keep a dream journal.

Get curious about what frightens you.

Read some myths and fairy tales.

Do a body scan meditation.

Warning:

Your imagination can play tricks on you.

Denying an inner desire can lead to depression.