1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. The Moon

Major Arcana · XVIII

The Moon

• imagination
• error

Upright meaning

Imagination and uncertainty. Waite calls it the life of the imagination, lit only by reflected light: a time when things are not yet clear, and first impressions may mislead.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, Waite reads instability and inconstancy, with lesser degrees of error. A prompt to wait for clearer light before deciding.

• instability
• inconstancy
• silence

Symbolism

A moon above a path that runs between two towers; a dog and a wolf below, and a creature rising from a pool.

Group

Major Arcana

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part II §2 (symbolism); Part III §3 (divinatory meanings). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.