moon

INTERPRETATION


Night, rest, intuition, emotion, depth


About the meaning: Similar to the Stars the commonly used meanings I found for the Moon were quite diverse. A few of them seemed random to me. Some, because I didn't get their connection with the Moon as a symbol, others, because they seemed much more directly related to other Lenormand cards. But there were several dimensions of meanings which made a lot of sense to me, too. My interpretation below focuses on them. The others, I mention briefly in the last paragraph.

Moon / night / sleep / rest: Very obviously, the Moon can represent the moon itself, evenings, nights, and even times of the year in which the nights are long and dark (autumn, winter). But obvious as they are, these meanings might not all that often apply to actual readings. Fortunately they are easy enough to expand. For aside from working night shifts, certain celebrations, or sexual activities, the evenings are usually the time of day when things start to slow down for us humans, and nights are when humans most usually sleep. Thus, I often interpret the Moon as quiet, rest (or respite), and sleep. Along this line, the card can for example simply state that we are tired, in need of rest. But it could also suggest that we need to have a look at our sleeping hygiene because low quality sleep is actually aggravating a problem we have.

Darkness / subconscious / intuition: Of course, the moon is often up in the sky during daytime, too. But because the day sky is so bright the Moon's gentle light doesn't stand out. Only at night, when the sky is black, only in contrast with the darkness around it, does the white moon become such a conspicuous feature. Then, its gentle shine becomes a pronounced source of light. Especially when the Moon is full its light is strong enough to make our surroundings half-visible. By the moon's light we can make a good guess at what is there. But the details remain obscure. All this is why I see the Moon as a representative not just for darkness - literally and figuratively speaking - but also for anything which we are not fully aware of (yet) but maybe have an inkling of, or forebodings. The Moon can represent anything which is (partly) obscure, especially our subconscious, unconscious processes, and our intuition.

Psyche / emotions / fears and needs: Continuing from the last paragraph, the Moon may also stand for anything which has to do with our psyche, with our emotional life in general. It represents all that which we we feel. But because of the aforementioned association of the Moon with night and darkness, the card will often represent emotions with a "dark" component - our fears, and needs, for example, or sadness, melancholy. It can suggest emotionality both in a neutral and in a destructive sense. Depending on the context and surrounding cards, the Moon sometimes suggests emotional upheavals, and, in a rare cases, even emotional trauma.

Depth / profoundness / significance: Because it is the darkness, the shadows, which give a painting, or an actual landscape or object - and arguable also our life and personality - depth, I often interpret the Moon as profoundness. Along that line the card can stand for anything which has depth, which is recondite, possibly enigmatic. The Moon can represent a person who is the proverbial still water running deep. And slightly different but very much related to profoundness is the issue of significance. Often, the Moon seems to suggest that a certain matter is very signficant. And sometimes it magnifies a neighbouring card's importance.

Other: As I mentioned in the introduction, this last paragraph lists several more meanings of the Moon which I have seen other people use but don't use myself. In brackets, I state the cards I personally allocate them to. Attention (in the sense of focus on something: Anchor; in the sense of attention paid to the querent: Garden or Bouquet), recognition and praise (Bouquet), popularity (Sun), fame (Sun, Garden), imagination (Stars), creativity and art (Sensual Lily, Bouquet), romance (Heart), attraction (Snake, Sensual Lily), attractiveness (Bouquet).

See also the annakblogs article >> So, is the Moon a negative or a positive card?


About the Image: My illustration of the Moon came about in a very trial-and-error kind of way. Fitting the card's meaning I wasn't trying for symbolism which the intellect can decipher. I was searching for an image which would eloquently impart a certain, complex mood. I wanted to convey very, very profound quiet, and deep peace, but infused with the tiniest hint of the possibility of something fearful or sad hidden in the depth. I wanted to convey a mood which speaks of rest and good sleep, but at the same time also of intense emotion. In order to find this mood I had to keep sketching and discarding, sketching again and discarding parts, keeping only small bits which I then rearranged and added to a knew concept - and so on. All the shreds I didn't use in the end could probably make up two whole other Moons. But the image which emerged in the end conveyed exactly the mood I had been looking for. Why, and how, I can't explain for the most part. I can only hope that it's palpable for you, too.
Two details I would like to single out, though. Firstly, there are the two stairs leading down from the houses into the water and the one leading up and onto the hill (top left corner of the card, in case you've missed it). I added them just for the fun of it originally but then discovered that they magnified the sense of verticality, spacial (and thus also figurative) depth. Also, they aptly visualised the "totally unconscious" (the stairs enter the dark water) and "half-conscious" (the stair climbs up to where the moon's light is brightest) aspect of the card's meaning.
And the second, even more impactful detail I added towards the end are the brightly lit windows of the houses. Originally I had painted the windows dark, unlit. But this made the illustration boring, the darkness bland. There was no living emotion in the image, because the houses didn't look as if everyone was sleeping, they looked as if they were uninhabited. So I added the lights in the windows, and their quivering mirror images, as an experiment. And immediately, those little isles of warmth and light gave the cool darkness of the rest of the illustration its profoundness. They spoke of living, breathing, feeling souls, who were peacefully resting or even sleeping - or trying to keep the darkness at bay.
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