The Moon, as found in: Rider Waite, Fairytale Tarot, Emily Lubanko, Terra Volatile Tarot
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Tarot Deep Dive: The Meaning Behind The Moon with Total Apex Media

ByKaylee Drew

Ever feel like you’re walking through a fog — like something’s off, but you can’t name it yet? You’re not totally lost, but you’re not grounded either. It’s dreamlike. Slippery. Familiar and unnerving at the same time. That’s The Moon. Card XVIII in the Major Arcana is easily one of the most emotionally charged, misunderstood cards in the deck.

The Moon doesn’t show up to explain things. It shows up to stir them. To ask: What’s real? What’s projection? What’s fear dressed up as intuition?

This card invites you into the unknown — not with answers, but with questions that hit deeper than logic ever could. It’s not trying to scare you. It’s just telling the truth in a language only your subconscious understands.

Symbolism and Meaning of The Moon

This card doesn’t pretend to be clear. Everything in the image is loaded — and kind of strange. That’s the point. The Moon doesn’t deal with daylight logic. It deals with dreams, distortions, and instinct.

Here’s what you’ll usually see:

  • A full moon above — Unfiltered intuition. But also illusion. In tarot, the moon doesn’t light the way — it casts shadows. It reveals some things… and hides others.

  • A dog and a wolf — Tamed instinct vs. wild instinct. Parts of you that want to play it safe and parts that want to run. They’re both howling at the same mystery.

  • A long road — It stretches through the card and disappears into the mountains. You don’t get to see the destination. You just walk it, one step at a time.

  • A crayfish crawling from the water — Yeah, it’s weird. But it matters. This is your subconscious rising to the surface — awkward, ancient, and completely uninterested in pretending.

  • The towers — Bookends on either side of the path. Boundaries between where you’ve been and where you’re going. The moment before things shift.

Upright, The Moon is about uncertainty, intuition, dreams, and emotional depth. It’s what you feel in your gut but can’t put into words. It’s also about projection — seeing what you want or fear instead of what’s really there.

Reversed? You might be drowning in confusion. You’re not just unsure — you’re overwhelmed. This could also mean illusions are clearing. The fog is lifting. But the only way out is still through.

The Moon in Readings

The Moon, in a reading, says: things aren’t what they seem. And honestly? That’s not always bad — it just means you need to move differently. Slower. Softer. With less certainty and more trust.

This card shows up when:

  • Your intuition is speaking louder than logic, and you’re finally listening

  • Old fears are rising — not to control you, but to be felt and moved through

  • Something beneath the surface is shifting, and you don’t know what it means yet

Don’t rush for clarity. It’s not ready. The Moon says: sit with the shadows. Feel your way through the dark.

Love and Relationships

In love, The Moon brings up feelings — big, messy, unspoken ones. It doesn’t mean things are doomed. But it does mean something needs attention.

If you’re in a relationship: This card can mean unspoken fears, miscommunications, or emotional ghosts are in the mix. It’s not necessarily lies — more like avoidance, or the stories we tell ourselves to feel safe. Pay attention to your body, your gut, your dreams. They’re trying to show you something.

If you’re single: The Moon asks you to look at your patterns. Who are you drawn to — and why? Are you seeing people clearly, or through the lens of old wounds? This card invites reflection before action. You don’t need to “figure it out.” You just need to feel what’s real.

Reversed, The Moon can point to emotional overwhelm, projection, or codependency. It might also mean you’re finally ready to stop chasing clarity and start trusting your own rhythms again.

Career and Money

In work and money readings, The Moon is a big “pause and reassess” card. It’s not a hard no — but it is a red flag for foggy thinking, unclear motives, or missing information.

Here’s what it might be asking:

  • Are you trusting your gut about this job, contract, or offer? Or are you overriding something important just to stay “secure”?

  • Is this really your dream… or someone else’s you inherited and never questioned?

  • Are you avoiding something because you sense it’s about to shift — but you’re scared to look too close?

Reversed, The Moon could be signaling deception in your environment — or your own self-doubt getting in the way. Either way, it says: tread softly. Don’t rush. And stop ignoring the part of you that already knows.

Personal or Spiritual Growth

Spiritually, The Moon is deep water. It’s about shadowwork, dreamwork, inner child stuff, ancestral patterns — all the layers that exist under the mask.

When this card lands here, it’s time to:

  • Let emotions rise without needing to name them

  • Explore your unconscious mind through dreams, tarot, journaling, or meditation

  • Question what “truth” really means when your inner compass feels off

The Moon isn’t about finding light immediately. It’s about learning how to see in the dark. And that skill? It’s priceless.

Reversed, you might be avoiding the mirror. Trying to “stay positive” instead of being honest. But there’s power in the murk. And if you stay with it, something real will emerge.

Mythology, History, and Cultural References

The Moon has always been tied to mystery, magic, and madness — and not by accident. In older tarot decks like the Marseille, the card was just as surreal as it is now. But over time, the interpretation shifted from “lunacy” to intuition — from fear of the unknown to a relationship with it.

Mythologically, moon goddesses often embody both light and shadow:

  • Selene, the Greek moon goddess, drives her chariot across the night sky — deeply tied to cycles, dreams, and the tension between movement and stillness. She doesn’t stop the night — she rides it.

  • Coyolxauhqui, the Aztec moon goddess — dismembered in myth, but her scattered body became the stars. Even in chaos, there’s a pattern.

  • Rhiannon, in Welsh myth — is falsely accused and publicly shamed, yet never loses her dignity. Moon energy is patient. It doesn’t rush justice — it trusts the long arc.

And in pop culture? The Moon’s energy isn’t about clarity. It’s about complexity:

  • Sally (The Nightmare Before Christmas) — soft, intuitive, misunderstood. Quietly watching, sensing, and moving through her world with deep emotional intelligence that no one else seems to notice.

  • Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle — is cursed into an old woman, walking into mystery, finding strength not through clarity but surrender.

  • Laura Palmer (Twin Peaks) — a mystery even to herself, full of light and shadow, secrets and symbols. Her story is literally built around the moon’s strange pull.

  • Coraline — lost in a mirror version of her world, only to realize that comfort without truth is a trap. That’s the Moon’s whole deal.

The Moon doesn’t hand you answers. It hands you the key — and waits to see if you’ll use it.

Final Thoughts on The Moon

The Moon is uncomfortable. And honest. And beautiful in a way that doesn’t always show up in the daylight.

When this card lands, it’s not asking you to fix anything. It’s asking you to feel — even the stuff that doesn’t make sense yet. Especially that.

You don’t have to make the fog go away. You just have to keep walking.

You’re not lost. You’re just in the part of the path where vision turns inward.

So trust the pull. Let things rise. Follow your instincts, even if they don’t speak in full sentences yet.

The Moon says: the answers will come. But first, you have to be brave enough to listen in the dark.

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