Borrowed Light: The Moon Card in the Tarot

(Based on the representations found on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.)

For those having read these meditations from the beginning, you may recall what inspired me to write these in the first place. I had launched (potentially unfair) criticism at A.E. Waite for his significations of The Moon card, vehemently disagreeing with its more pernicious associations. Having devoted many hours of astrological study to the lunation cycle, I had never associated its qualities as negative — merely transient, changeable, interior and emotionally oriented. While I may still degree with the significations of The Moon that Waite proposed, I may understand them better after a moment of great appreciation for the astrological technique known as “sect.”

Hellenistic astrologers are intimately familiar with sect as one of the first “conditions” to look for in the natal chart. Whether the chart is diurnal or nocturnal offers insight into the conditions of the luminaries, the benefics and malefics. The organization of the seven traditional planets into diurnal and nocturnal groupings allows astrologers to make determinations around how the planets function and express themselves: a diurnal benefic will be more advantageous in the native’s life if they were born during the day, while a diurnal malefic will behave more constructively in the same chart. While the theory and application of sect is outside the scope of this post, it is nevertheless the frame through which I have grown to understand The Moon’s significations in the Tarot.