Attune Magazine April 2013 1 | Page 36

Mirror in the Sky

There has always been a fascination with the Moon, our only natural satellite. Many theories have been entertained over the millennia, from the ridiculous to the sublime: the Moon is the Face of the Mother Goddess, who rules the tides and all things changeable; the Moon is consumed in stages, and reborn again at the end of her cycle; the Moon is the source of madness and delusion; the Moon is a part of the Earth, which was torn from her by a direct hit from a meteor; the Moon is a chunk of space-rock captured by our gravitational pull; the Moon is an artificial structure, placed there by aliens; the Moon is the maker of romance, and the ally of lovers; she is a blessing or she is a curse; she rules the tidal blood of women and the tidal waters of the sea...and on and on.

The Moon is an important card in the Tarot- one of the Major Arcana- and our view of this card has undergone some very radical changes with the passage of time, as we move away from the bias against feminine power, and learn to appreciate her subtle and elusive charms.

In the past, the Moon was considered a card of Danger and Deception, a warning that someone was working against you in a hidden and deceitful way. Old-school Tarotists will still warn you of hidden enemies, infidelities and hazardous paths, when the Moon shows up in a reading.

In more modern interpretations, the Moon card is considered an omen of ebb and flow, of intuition and unconscious knowledge, or revelations that are rising to the surface- or instinctive urges toward growth and self-realization. It may refer to something as simple as dreaming, or it may refer to the personal evolutionary process that each soul goes through as it travels the path between the feral and the cultivated self.