The Moon tarot card can be read in a multitude of ways, like the various phases of the Moon orbiting the Earth. It can be positive or negative depending on context, but also on tradition (the Moon is quite neutral in the Ride-Waite-Smith tarot but clearly has a more negative meaning in the Marseille deck, for example.
Keywords associated with the Moon Tarot Card
Upright keywords: Imagination, dreams, positive emotions, and soul purpose Reversed keywords: Delusion, nightmares, negative emotions, and depression
Astrologically, the Moon card is associated with the Moon and the sign of Cancer, but also the planet Neptune and the sign of Pisces.
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Upright Moon Meaning
There are a lot of hidden messages to be found in the Moon card meaning. And appropriately enough, the first and most important one lifts a mirror to the face of the card, as the Moon major arcana can be a sign of hidden messages that need to be deciphered.
On a positive aspect, this can be an introspective message, a way to find meaning in your life through the symbols and images you encounter, understanding how they come together to provide you with priceless insight in your everyday life. On a negative aspect, it might represent a web of deceit and illusions, and bad decisions made from false information when things are not exactly as they seem.
This is also a card that references your dreams and imagination, anything related to the unconscious mind, and the way it uses symbolism to share important messages with you.
In a Question about Love and Relationship
The Moon card is profound for relationship energy. It encourages you to connect with your deepest feelings and needs tied to romance. The Moon represents emotional energy, not rational or logical energy. What do you need from your partner to feel emotionally safe? What truly turns you on?
If you are single, this card encourages you to reflect on your irrational feelings about love and romance. Trust your intuition and gut when it comes to dating. On your next date, tune out the conversation for a moment and focus on how you feel about the person. Do you feel safe, excited, and positive? Or do you feel insecure, uncomfortable, and negative? Based on your feelings alone, what do you learn?
If you are in a relationship, this card encourages you to evaluate your current feelings. How do you feel about the relationship now? If you’ve been together long enough to discover important things about each other, ask yourself: if you met for the first time today, would you still start dating? What emotional lessons have you learned from your partner? What do you still want and need to learn, and can this person take you on that emotional journey?
Career includes school and education if that is your current stage, necessary work that is not a career path, and your actual career path. Regardless of your current stage, the Moon card asks a fundamental question: “How do you feel about what you are doing with your life?”
If you are a student, how do you feel about your education? Do you feel it is leading you to a satisfying and successful career? Will it help you become self-sufficient? Or are you “not feeling it”? You may realize your current education path is wrong when you feel no energy to do the work or pursue the studies.
Assessing Your Work and Career Satisfaction
If you are working but not in a career, how do you feel about your work situation? While the narrative often emphasizes “having a career,” simply enjoying your work and being self-sufficient can be great. The Moon asks, persistently and intensely, how you feel about your work. If it is satisfying and meets your needs, keep going. However, if you feel dissatisfied, the Moon will push you to be honest about those feelings and motivate you to make a change.
If you are in a career path, once again, how do you feel about your path? Is it still satisfying? Do you feel good getting up and engaging in your work, whether in an office or from home? If so, enjoy and celebrate those feelings when this card appears. But if you realize, under the scrutiny of this card, that you are unhappy with your career path, what needs to change? Maybe it is time to find a new career, take time off and reassess, or shift to plain old work while you explore your options.
Reversed Moon Meaning
When the Moon card is reversed, most of the positive aspects of this complex major arcana disappear, leaving nothing but the various artifices used to obfuscate truth and meaning. Lies and betrayals can be found in this tarot card meaning if you let your guard down, as well as empty promises that might leave a bitter aftertaste in your mouth.
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In a Question about Love and Relationship
Reversed, this card suggests your emotions regarding your partner are confused. There may be resentment you need to understand and address. It is possible you may have to recognize that your feelings have changed, and not for the better. Betrayal may be occurring.
In a Question about Career and Work
When this card appears reversed in a question about work or career, then “your heart is no longer in it”. Your work or career does not stir up the same positive emotions. It may not be as bad as new negative emotions, just simply no strong feeling in favor of what you do. If so, it is time to look for new work that grabs your heart and ignites your passion.
The Fool’s Journey
Like the various faces of its counterpart in the real world, the Moon tarot card has many interpretations and aspects. The Fool must learn how to make sense of it all. Drunk of the blissful feelings experienced in the Star, it would be easy to fall for one of the various traps and illusions that come under the gaze of night. Happiness and bliss should not be an excuse to be naïve and offer blind faith into anything.
If the Fool can remember all the lessons they have learned so far, then what seemed like illusions and dangerous traps at first can end up offering hidden knowledge and wisdom to anyone bold and competent enough to lift the veil of deceit meant to keep unworthy at bay. When you don’t lose sight of reality, it is easier to make your dreams come true and boost your own creativity and imagination.
The actual Moon in the sky is ever-changing, and in a similar vein the Moon card has many different interpretations. The only common point between all these interpretations is that they are all layered, not easily accessible, and usually require a close connection with your unconscious mind to be fully understood. Instinct and intuition are the mysterious keys that can unlock the wisdom hidden away by the Moon. Like the secrets in an initiatory tradition, they require a thorough knowledge of symbolism to be fully understood.
The Moon and modern feminism
The Moon card, like the High Priestess, holds another layer of meaning. Traditionally, for centuries, people have associated the Moon with female energy and empowerment. In this context, the Moon card can represent a strong feminist impulse when drawn in a reading related to a woman or girl. The positive aspects of the Moon reading are further enhanced in this context and should be analyzed accordingly.
The Mythic Tarot (1986)
The Haindl Tarot (1990)
Osho Zen Tarot (1995)
Law of Attraction Tarot (2011)
Spellcaster Tarot (2016)
Ostara Tarot (2017)
Meditating with the Moon
Whenever you seek to determine a hidden message or need to separate truths from falsehoods, the Moon tarot card is ideally suited to the task. When you meditate using the Moon tarot card, you are channeling your own intuition and subconscious and bringing them closer to the surface.
As a result, your intuition gets honed and you will more readily understand the arcane meanings hidden between many layers of lies and half-truths.
