The Moon: Excitement of the Unconscious

The Moon is my favourite card in the Tarot deck. It represents everything I’m afraid of, and the charge of excitement that comes from going towards those fears instead of avoiding them. I’m not always brave enough to exist in the landscape of the Moon, and, often, I might take comfort in the Eight of Pentacles instead. These two cards are the ones I associate most strongly with writing: the daily process combined with the unconscious symbols that give the work its power.

Rachel Pollack writes that “in divinatory readings the moon indicates an excitement of the unconscious. We begin to experience strange emotions, dreams, fears, even hallucinations. We find ourselves more intuitive, more psychic.”

Some nights, I find myself asking for no more dreams, no more wanderings in the realm of the Moon, but if my prayer is answered, I feel empty and lifeless the next day, without that “excitement of the unconscious” that lets me know that I am more than my work, my tasks, my doing. Sometimes I need to know that I can be a stranger to myself to expand my capacity for imagination.  

The Moon card is composed of symbols related to the journey between the conscious and the unconscious: water, a gateway, a dog and wolf howling at the moon, a crayfish emerging on to land. It is the card of writers, artists, dreamers, and psychonauts.

Melissa Zupan writes that “crayfish are generally liminal creatures, since they can survive on both land (at least for a short amount of time) and in water. They’re also one of the few crustaceans that prefer freshwater to seawater, and they generally move backwards instead of forwards–especially when escaping a threat. Since they’re such odd little creatures, I think they represent imagination well, since our imaginations are the parts of our minds that function ‘irrationally’.”

Instead of pushing away this irrationality the Moon invites us to find pleasure in its cold light.

The Moon doesn’t have to be intimidating. The Little Red Tarot reminds us that The Moon is about “rituals and ceremonies, and also smaller acts of magical intent. It asks you to forget about what is rational, what you ‘know’, and to delves into life’s mysteries. This can be soulful, creative, and profound work, or it can be simple and experimental.”

If we allow ourselves to become lost in the lunar landscape, we will emerge with symbols that can transform our art and imagination. Fear can be transmuted into excitement, horror into beauty: that is the alchemy of dreaming and of writing.

The moon card sends us signals in the dark.

The pool is fathomless.

We can take it slowly.