Truly Edgeless
Navigating the ambiguity of The Moon.
“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”
— Mark Twain
Most people wouldn’t return to a restaurant that served poor-quality food or provided horrible service. Similarly, one wouldn’t go back to a therapist who didn’t offer the necessary guidance or help in overcoming anxieties or other personal issues. We all have our preferences; the same goes for selecting a Tarot reader. Some prefer an intuitive psychic who can make predictions about the future, while others might choose a gifted storyteller adept at reading archetypes and relating them to their lives. Simply put, there are as many ways to read the cards as there are people who pick them up and use them.
A few months ago, I had a conversation with a close friend who is a professional therapist. We discussed the overlaps between Tarot and psychotherapy, finding it interesting how, despite their perceived differences, both practices share significant similarities. The most striking commonality (and one I didn’t quite realize) is how each individual arrives at their respective engagements. Just as a patient or querent brings their baggage to a therapy session or a reading, so does their therapist or reader. As much as we like to believe we can show up to either of these with a complete tabula rasa, the truth and beauty of our lived experiences come to the table with us, making us more human and, in turn, enriching the journey of self-discovery.
XVIII. The Moon. Clockwise from top left: Pagan Otherworlds, Smith-Waite Centennial, Fyodor Pavlov Tarot, Carnival at the End of the World, Habetrot Traum.
In a similar fashion, The Moon card will show up in a reading with its own baggage as well, challenging us to question its appearance. Is it highlighting deception in our lives, picking up on nefarious energies within ourselves or those around us? Is it encouraging us to tap into our intuition, guiding us as we dive into the depths of our shadow selves? Or is it mirroring a fear or anxiety back to us, forcing us to confront an issue that we’ve been keeping a secret or ignoring altogether?
While context is always essential within a reading, The Moon card relies more heavily on it due to the inherent ambiguity it brings. It’s a layered card with so much baked within it that using other cards around it can help uncover its intention. To be perfectly honest, it’s a difficult card for me to read even after 23 years, especially when conducting single card pulls. Without context, The Moon can offer broad, confusing swathes of direction that can bungle or muddle a message.
The Moon created with the help of artificial intelligence.
However, within the confines of the deeply human emotion of confusion lies some truth in The Moon. Many folks come to the Tarot seeking answers rather than guidance, direction rather than contemplation, or structure rather than fluidity. The Moon is an oracle of sorts, speaking in what we can sometimes only comprehend as riddles and misunderstand to hear the true message. In essence, The Moon could be a stand-in for Tarot’s most powerful attribute: to let us reflect in its deep pool of knowledge, where thought, intuition, and the watery edges of life come into focus, but only if we let it wash over us.
Take a spin through a mini-playlist inspired by The Moon—tunes for tackling the tides of ambiguity and challenging our reality.
Listen HERE