One of my earliest articles that was never on the blog, but published as an article on the O.divinorum site.

In rereading it, I do now think that receiving The Moon card is generally more negative than planets in Pisces in that it strikes me as less productive.

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Once, my mother, glassy-eyed, said to me, “if you are in your bed and hear the dogs howling in the fields, hide yourself under the covers and do not deride what it is they do: for they thirst insatiably for the infinite, like you and me, and the rest of us humans…” (Isadore Ducasse: Les Chants de Maldoror)

One thing that frequently riles students of tarot when they begin to look at astrological associations is the assignation of Pisces to the Moon. After all, if the astrological sun is associated with the tarot Sun, it only seems logical to assign the astrological moon to the tarot Moon. However, the astrological assignations of the Golden Dawn are not without logic, and as one delves deeper into the system of astrology, it becomes clearer why Pisces is a much more fitting symbol for the lunar realm of tarot than the moon.

Pisces, ruled by Jupiter/Neptune represents a loss of the ego and an absorption into the unconscious. As such, both Pisces and the Moon represents the complete absence of ego and instead, there is a cold, inhuman objectivity or indifference that can only be found with that which is infinite: dreams, gods, wilderness, the collective unconscious.

Pisces also illustrates the positive and negative aspects of the Moon card much more effectively than the astrological moon. Both sign and card may signify powerful instincts (as opposed to intuition, which would more easily be signified by the High Priestess) a dissipation of ego consciousness, or the dampening of the inhibitory and analytical functions of the newer, cerebral cortex to reveal the control of the lower “reptile (or fish?) brain”.

On one hand, this may manifest as a spiritual nature, the breaking point of an orgasm, the total consumption within art, or a universal love which holds back nothing, and asks for nothing in return. It represents the ecstasy in which one literally is in extasis, outside of oneself, completely fused with the flow of life.

The more dangerous side of this impersonal experience, or loss of personality is also contained in Pisces and the Moon card. Both signify madness, delusions and confusion. Mental illness as well as drug abuse are two examples of a prolonged Moon/Pisces experience in which the individual begins to loose all connection with the human perspective and feeling; they are driven by something beyond themselves.

The astrological moon does not contain the impersonal connotations of Pisces, and as such, it is more concerned with personal emotional habits and needs. It is a much more humanized symbol, and more suited to the card of the High Priestess.