The Moon
Major Arcana · number 18 · La Luna
Upright
The Moon lights little and distorts much: this is the card of night fears, of deceptions, of talk behind your back, of roads that look like one thing and are another. Waite speaks of hidden enemies and occult forces: not everything that holds you back has a face, and that is exactly why it frightens more. If these days you feel confused, with the sense that someone is not telling you the truth, in love or at work, it is no accident. It is not a sentence: it is an invitation not to trust appearances until daybreak. Be careful about signing, promising or accusing in the dark. The practical advice: postpone important decisions, sleep well, and ask for written confirmation from anyone making you promises.
Source: Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) · read the original passage
Reversed
Reversed, the Moon wanes and the shadows shorten: the deceptions are smaller, the errors less serious, but a climate of instability and silence remains. Perhaps someone changes their mind every day, perhaps you are the one who cannot decide, and meanwhile nobody says what they really think. If these days you feel on a knife edge in a relationship or a project, it is no accident. Beware of small white lies, your own and other people’s. The practical advice: break the silence with one direct question, just one, and accept the answer that comes.