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The Great Heavens mirror Humanity, and the moon, with its various phases and cycles, mirror the mystery Dark Moon Goddess within. It is this illuminating orb in the sky that brightens the path at night and beckons us forward to find our way in the dark.
Simultaneously, she creates the ebbs and tides of the great waters. As a mythical and mystical archetype, she pulls at our life in deep places, calling up the emotions and feelings that are hidden in the dark corners of our life.
It is especially important to locate the moon in one's birthchart, and to understand the significance of the Moon card when it appears in a Tarot consultation. At the exact time of birth, a mandala, or circle of stars and planets is frozen in time, becoming a blue print for the soul to dance through. This "circle of life" does not undermine free will or conscious action, it simply offers a unique script through which we may extract truth.
In synchronized fashion, the Tarot is similar, for we are once again looking at a mandala, or an image that holds prophetic vision and clarity. It is a process of "mirroring" the inner state of an individual and illuminating that which is held within the unconscious core. Receiving the Moon Card signals a time to experience the greater mysteries. Of all the planetary and mythical symbols, the moon strengthens the process of ushering in wise women teachings, and helps us to identify memory; core beliefs and feelings that come out of ones ancestral patterns. These experiences are channeled through emotion and intuition, opening us to the interior language of the body, or, Body Intelligence.
The moon acts as a vessel or chalice, pouring forth the issues of women's health, mothering, childhood, childbirth, security, and family karma. The mystics say that the Great Goddess of darkness, Mother Night, first brought forth the World Egg which was identified as the moon. The Egyptian sign for the World Egg was the same for an embryo in a woman's womb.
When we honor the moon cycles within our bodies and take care of the sensitive nature that is so natural to us, we become reunited with our passion and instinctual knowledge. Our internal darkness is illuminated by the inner light of the Moon, where the archetype Artemis lives. She encourages women to be fruitful and to multiply through her creative actions. These laboring forces within women add strength and courage to her creative stamina, for it is from this well of power and focus that she is able to envision and actualize her dreams.
The Tarot image, The Moon, is ruled by the zodiacal sign Pisces. Pisces completes the wheel of celestial signs, and thus holds profound wisdom and compassion within its watery essence. The moon rules all fluids, including the water of the body and the brain, so she has a very powerful influence over women. She pulls us to our depths, and if we go in fear, we are likely to struggle and tragically miss the heralding call to liberation that awaits us at the other side of our efforts. We must give ourselves to the darkness in order that we fully emerge into the light of the next major arcana image, The Sun, the Tarot image that most represents ecstatic union with Self.
In our culture today, women can untangle themselves from destructive and abusive beliefs that manifested within our culture and cellular memory long before we could say "no" to such tragic manifestation. Our bodies, our aging, our independence, and our self love are transforming through new visions of truth and freedom shown to us by a "greater mirror of unconscious awakening" that comes out of the "all embracing mother and protectress" who so lovingly invites us to live in the cauldron of her nurturance. It is from that beautiful place, the watery depth of being women, that we reenter the garden of our fertile dominion.
In the Inner Child Cards, The Moon card is depicted by the fairy tale Cinderella. In the original version of this tale, Cinderella plants a hazelnut branch on the grave of her lost mother. As she weeps, her tears transform the plant into a sturdy tree, (Tree of Life), which holds all the birds of the world. The birds become her helpers, symbolizing the spirit of her mothers love embracing her with eternal support and guidance.
In The Mythic Tarot, The Moon card symbolizes the three faces of Hecate. Like the three faces of Moire, they reflect the changing faces of life. In myth Hecate was sometimes interchangeable with Artemis the moon goddess, although a much older deity, and was powerful both in the sky and beneath the earth.
Goddess of the Dark Moon as portrayed in the Mysteries of The Dark Moon by Demetra George.
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