Alright, so today I wanted to chat a bit about my journey with understanding “La Luna,” The Moon card in tarot. It’s one of those cards that, for me at least, took a while to really click beyond the surface-level stuff.
My First Encounters
I remember when I first started learning tarot, The Moon card always gave me a bit of a weird vibe. You look at it, right? In most decks, you’ve got the moon, often with a face, sometimes looking a bit distressed. Then there are the two towers, the two dogs or a dog and a wolf, and that crayfish crawling out of the water. My initial thought was always, “Okay, so… spooky night? Confusion? What’s with the lobster?” It felt a bit all over the place.
Digging In – The Initial Grind
So, I did what I usually do when a card stumps me. I pulled out my main deck – the one I’m most comfortable with – and just sat with it. I really looked at the imagery. I tried to feel what the artist was trying to convey. I spent a good chunk of time just staring at it, letting my mind wander. Then, I started going through my notes and some of my more trusted books. I’m not big on just grabbing interpretations willy-nilly; I like to see the common threads, the core ideas that keep popping up.
The words I kept seeing were things like:
- Illusion
- Fear
- Anxiety
- The subconscious
- Intuition
- Dreams
- The unknown
Okay, that’s a lot to unpack, I thought. How do all these things tie together? It felt a bit like a jumble sale of concepts at first. I’d do a reading, The Moon would pop up, and I’d be like, “Right, so… you’re either scared, or intuitive, or dreaming vividly, or maybe all three?” Not super helpful, was it?
The “Aha!” Moment (Sort Of)
My process then moved into trying to connect these keywords to the imagery more directly. The moon itself, right? It doesn’t have its own light. It reflects the sun. So, that immediately made me think of things not being what they seem, or seeing things indirectly. That linked up with “illusion.” The path between the two towers, often guarded by the canines, felt like a journey through the unknown, a path you walk by instinct or moonlight rather than clear daylight. This is where “fear” and “anxiety” started to make more sense – it’s scary walking in the dark!
The water, the crayfish… that, for me, became symbolic of the subconscious, the deep, primal stuff. The crayfish is like those primitive fears or instincts emerging. It’s not always pretty, the stuff that comes up from down there.
I started journaling about times I felt “in the dark” about a situation, or when my intuition was screaming at me but I couldn’t quite articulate why. I’d lay The Moon card out and just write. Slowly, it started to coalesce. It wasn’t just one thing; it was the atmosphere of uncertainty, where your intuition and your fears are both heightened because the usual logical signposts are missing.
How I See It Now in Practice
So, after all that wrestling, when La Luna shows up in a reading now, I don’t just jump to “oh no, fear!” My first step is to consider the surrounding cards, of course, but The Moon itself prompts me to ask questions like:
- What am I not seeing clearly here?
- Are my fears clouding my judgment, or is my intuition trying to warn me about something real but hidden?
- What’s going on in my subconscious? Are there underlying anxieties I need to address?
- Is this a time to trust my gut feelings, even if they don’t make logical sense right now?
- Am I dealing with illusions or deceptions, either from myself or others?
It’s become less of a “scary” card and more of an invitation to navigate by inner light, to pay attention to dreams, symbols, and those quiet nudges from within. It’s about acknowledging the shadows, both internal and external, and understanding that not everything can be seen or understood in the bright light of day. Sometimes, you just have to feel your way through.
It’s still a complex card, no doubt. I don’t think I’ve “mastered” it, if that’s even possible with tarot. But going through that process of sitting with it, breaking it down, and then rebuilding my understanding from my own experiences and reflections made a huge difference. It’s not just a list of keywords anymore; it’s a whole mood, a whole landscape I can step into and explore. And that, for me, is what makes working with these cards so rewarding.
