The nineteenth Trump card of the Tarot is XVIII The Moon. The image on this Atu shows the crescent moon hanging in the night sky between two pillars. Beneath it a river snakes its way through a barren landscape and, ending in a trickle, it seeps into the sea where a lobster is crawling onto the shore. Two dogs, one brown and one yellow for the dawn and the dusk, are seen to howl at the moon as fifteen flaming letter Yods descend from the crescent to indicate that the motive force of the action of the card is derived from the action of the male, solar force.
The Moon corresponds to the Hebrew letter Qooph, the back of the head, and so it occupies the path that joins Netzach, the emotions, with Malkuth, the earth, indicating that it is a portal into the darkness of the subconscious mind. Attributed to the sign of Pisces, the action of The Moon is entirely watery and passive so it indicates being given over to a passage through the darkness into the light of a new dawn.
The Moon generally indicates a situation on the verge of an important change, often the darkest or most difficult point before a renaissance or rebirth. Poorly dignified it can imply a descent into illusion, deception, madness or even death.
