The Tarot of Eli, LLC-Major Arcana: Thoth Tarot-ATU 18-The Moon & Tarot of The Spirit-Key 18-The Moon

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ATU 18- The Moon-of the Thoth Tarot & Tarot of the Spirit-Key 18-The Moon:

The Tarot Moon card, is called the Path of Qoph--meaning, back of head or ear.

Connecting the 7th- Sephiroth, Netzach (Victory) with the 10th-Sephiroth, Malkuth (Kingdom), the Path of Qoph is described as the "Victory of the Material World" and/or the "deceptive effect of the apparent power of the Material World". This path, is also known as the "Threshold to life", a spiritual birth that may be considered on two levels.

1. On one level, it is the course of incarnation where the soul organizes the physical body of which it will inhabit  by proxy as a personality. It is a kind of sleep (physical consciousness not yet formed), a kind of pre-consciousness, that differentiates into mater from the collective unconscious of Netzach.
2. On another level, where the student is advancing spiritual awareness up the Tree of Life, it is a path of conquest of the phantoms of their "man-made" personality which are creations of the created. Therefore, the path of Qoph, is a probationary path, where the student must face the emotional phantoms hid in the dark recesses of their own mind, as well as those of the race. Here, one learns to "own" the survival mind of the animal, rather than be owned by it.

This probationary path of emotional phantoms, can be disturbing to those of weak moral fiber who lack discernment and can pose real dangers to such a one's emotional stability. On the other hand, those of discerning minds who understand that we aren't "realistic" but rather "Will-istic", are strong enough to tread this Path and slay the monsters "within" our sleep-consciousness. By understand their mental mechanisms, one gains the capacity to manipulate those qualities in themselves and those of others. Hence, one becomes the master of phantoms rather than mastered by them.

Mastery of Illusion is a product of this path.

As stated: The meaning of the Hebrew word-Qoph, is the back of the head, behind the head itself, is the Sun- or Resh in Hebrew. The Moon symbolizes the anterior to the bright intellect of the Sun. The Moon, the Path of Qoph, only reflects the light of the Sun. Thus the central path of the Thoth Moon card goes from the dark side of the Moon, towards the light side that reflects direct Sunlight.

This rising act of direct Sunlight is show as the Egyptian Scarab symbol of the God Kephera (kheprera), pushing the Sun towards the Moon. Basically, the Moon -Key-18, symbolizes the rebirth of light out of hideous darkness; bright intellect overcoming the dark denizens of our subconscious, i.e. the illusions of emotional-survival fears.

In Thoth Tarot of the Western Hermetic Qabalah, THE PRIESTESS, is a source of pure, crystal clear waters (consciousness) emerging from the Godhead (Kether)-The Father, to God the Son/Sun (Tiphareth) down through Yesod/Moon. The Same waters of consciousness are seen here on The Moon card, but they are polluted with the dark subconscious fears of mortality, that self-conscious survival thinking of the physical manifestation bestows on consciousness. However, as I have stated before, the traveling up the Path of Qoph, towards the "Son/Sun Consciousness" of Tiphareth, notably changes the body physiology, as the Bright Beautiful Light Intellect of the Sun/Son (Tiphareth) descends into it. When traveling up the Path of Qoph, the Personality becomes increasingly aware of the Higher Self/Soul and less controlled by the dark survival fears of the body. Here, one knows that we "will" our reality, for the outer world is a simulation of our inner world. We are never being "Real", we are always being "Will" as we began as "I Will Be", the idea of Self formed as "Will to Force" and became in-form-action as "Will to Form". For if one intertwines thought, with emotion, one has willed /emoted it into life. It is the magic of weaving, the light of I AM to the thoughts I create from the "Will to Force" and the "Will to Form". Will to form, is information, which in this universe becomes in-form-action.

Dr.Paul Foster Case called The Tarot Moon, the "Corporeal Intelligence" which means the "body consciousness". Also in Hebrew the word "corporeal" means "to rain upon", which is why we see the symbols of Yods raining down from the central orb of the card (Down from Tiphareth-The Sun). Since this is a Watery Card, some of a more poetic bent, say that these Yod symbols are "tears of the Moon-Goddess" raining down and filling the Nile. However, what most Qabalistic Scholars agree on is that some type of frequency descends from the Moon to the Earth on the Path of Qoph, which is represented as raining Yods.

To reiterate: The Qabalistic Thoth, ATU/Key 18, The Moon Tarot Card, is the Qabalistic Path of Qoph that is between the 7th Sephiroth-Netzach (victory) and- the 10th Sephiroth- Malkuth (Kingdom) on the Qabalistic Tree of Life and is known as the Path of Transition where the Soul begins the process of incorporating the body into its Trinity of Self which is Spirit-Mind-Body. Its astrological constellation is Pisces -mutable water, making this card the Moon in Pisces.

The path of Qoph is that of primitive instincts, of nature red in "both tooth and claw" which emerges uncontrolled by moral or ethical reasoning. The traveler of this Path will face aspects of themselves that our culture forces them to repress but are indeed integral and undeniable parts of our predatory human form. This is the Survival Mind (subconscious), where the "law of the jungle" resides in the dark pools of fearful violence and conquest. This can be a very cruel path to endure, until the student is able to fear not these internal demons which then removes the veils of darkness, allowing in the Bright Intellect of the Son/Sun who applies beautiful reason to our consciousness. As psyche's we must own the survival mind with discerning thought, rather than be owned by it.

The simple Hebrew letter of Qoph, also translates into the English word, sleep. Therefore, we have a conscious relationship with the Moon, the bright Sun reflecting side, our waking consciousness and the dark sunless side of the "sleeping" subconsciousness. As the Moon has cycles, so does our Psyche, as during the cyclic phase of conscious withdrawal from the physical (Sleep) many of us still act upon the fantasies and information closely related to the bodies survival based experiences. Their dreaming is filled with phantoms produced by the bodies fear of pain, rejection and/or death which once consciously transcended, is the successful completion of the Path of the Moon. Therefore, this is often a card of impure horror and hidden darkness that our self-conscious must pass through before our conscious-light can be reborn. As immortal Soul's we have nothing to fear, and much to do.

The Psyche, or Soul, is not afraid of Life, for it is Life, and the body, is a simulation of Life, called: The Alive. In the realms of the Alive, organic material must eat itself to stay alive and pure . It can be a shock for those who witness death/eating, it can instill a great fear of being a victim to someone’s hunger and also in an organic world, time is still the greatest predator of all, so even time is feared. Here, the Soul, our Sun of the Divine Creative, must step in to remind the body, it must recycle because transformation is evolution, and all measured things must have a beginning and end so transformation is to elevate the self-conscious and/or Personality/Artificial Soul, to levels of equal communication with the True Psyche/ Soul and body. Hence, we are to be a personality of Mercury, the "messenger of the Gods" who is able to "fly" from body to soul and soul to Spirit and back to body The winged shoes of Mercury, just imply freedom from earthly concerns, one who is not chained to earth by fear.

Hence, the initiate, finds that birth, death, and resurrection are pivotal concepts on the Path of the Moon. These biological processes occur in the light and dark of our sensual perceptions. Sometimes, we are totally consciously unaware of our fear of being eaten/death, as it resides in our subconscious, which is our body's mind, rather than our Soul's person and/or conscious. Hence we use only the self-consciousness of our body as our "observation" of daily life, thereby ignoring the intuition of the Psyche.

On the Thoth Tarot, the two figures of Anubis, the jackal-headed gatekeepers, symbolize this cyclic process of Life/Death (Spiral energy) as the god Anubis was the Egyptian god of light and darkness, death and resurrection. Anubis therefore, represents the Roman god Saturn or Cronus, who rules time. All of us must confront time and the fear of it. For those who fear time, never have enough time, and suffer from stress of serving time, as they are always trying to gain more time. However, if one declares themselves as Time, such as, I AM Time; they have "domesticated" the beasts fears, and time serves them. For each of us invents our own timeline. The "As above, so below" is shown as a pattern on this card also reinforces this meaning.

The Moon Tarot card, symbolizes the process that consciousness goes through, when energy proceeds from order to disorder (2nd law of Thermodynamics), from organized flesh assembly to the disassembly of death and back again. Life, which is energy, uses death to evolve, and/or transform. Energy, seeing itself as "other", a reflection in itself, is One Who Loves Itself. Hence, we are an illusion, as well as a transmission of "Life Loving Itself". Therefore, we are both the Transmitter and the Transmitted of Life energy, and it is time the Soul runs the body, via a personality who is a messenger of the Soul, rather than an animal mind trying to flee the god of time, who eats its own children.

To understand the Qabalistic Path of Qoph-The Moon, is to understand the partnership of our personality consciousness with the physical vehicle, which the Soul, a Yod- Personality (Solar Personality) builds for each manifestation by fragmenting past built personalities and combining the fragmented data into a new personality-data composites and/or fractals of self-awareness that become in-form-action. Since most people perceive themselves as having existence only through their present bodies, there is also this "illusion" of past lives; ghosts of feelings that have naught to do with this life and show up in dreams. Often these come to the surface of the Dark Oceanic Subconscious emerging into the light of consciousness as broken pictures, not quite complete, but complete enough to create a fearful misunderstanding. Understanding that you have at least Two Personalities; the Soul which is the Real Personal expression of the Solar Logos/Sun, and the artificial intelligence/personality/Moon developed by interaction/reflecting upon past experience, environment and indoctrination. Reconciling the two, is often a most difficult undertaking...but not impossible with a personality of Mercury, i.e., a Magus, gathering information from the Sephirothic Beings of the One Mind.

The Moon was often seen as a Goddess of Life (White Goddess of Light) and a Goddess of Death (Dark Goddess) at once praised and then feared. It is the physical vehicle’s fear of dying that hounds our consciousness in many subtle ways, producing phantoms who manifest as phobias, obsessions, and mental-emotional disorders. Our consciousness comes from the immortal Soul-Psyche, and is unused to such thoughts of fear filled ending. However, the physical experience, is reactive, which is what it is designed to be as it gets its information from the physical world through sensors/sense and this information is often interpreted as "pleasure or Pain". The Soul is Creator, and therefore, active and the only way to get translations of realities, is through a personality who can be comfortable in both worlds, of Action and Reaction; of conscious and unconscious. That is the purpose of a "self-consciousness", for it is to be a "free thinker" who can realize both the Active Psyche and the reactive subconscious of the body, as information centers rather than limits of self-awareness called self-identity and/or self-measurement. What we forget, is that the infinite has no measurement, and therefore, cannot see nor discern itself. Measurement is required to " to experience self", so the I AM, which is existence without measurement, must build a self-measurement and/or a Me. Therefore, illusions, avatars, phantoms, a lover and/or the "other". All of which, create diversity, so that one can expand and liberate itself from immeasurable existence, to measurable existence, that can be assimilated as "Self-Knowledge" and/or intimacy. Hence, the Qabalistic Axiom, "Above all things, Know thyself".

Bodies/Brains forget they are also recycled; that they are a recycled part of the Whole Organic Organism, that we know as "Organic matter". Like I have often said to my own brain," You came from cranberries and to cranberries you shall return..." which is a slightly dark humor, that I use to give the brain pause from its attempts at survival thinking rather than listening to the "Inner Psyche" that I AM. In this realm of triangles and/or trinities, I AM is incomplete without a Me... the first two letters of Mercury.

The Qabalist learns quickly that We are not a physical brain nor its produce. Our first identity is  Spirit, and its Sun/Son, the Soul, who is supposed to program the brain with its own self-identity software, for the purpose of experiencing the discernment of being a "living thing", a close and intimate observer who works for a "Far seeing Psyche". With mortality, thoughts can no longer be indiscriminate mental ramblings of an imagination dreaming it is without limits. Our thoughts now must support/become life, and expand and liberate the Self-Creation from self-imposed limits, i.e. fear of death-based thoughts. What many people cannot see, is that the Living Body of the Psyche, is there purpose for being established on Malkuth/Earth. The Me is the purpose of I AM.

As we the Immortals of Tiphareth, are here to redesign the "survival mind" of the animal body for the purpose of evolving planetary minds. We are the Suns of Living Creative Conscious Energy, emanated from the Galactic Core of the Divine Creative. Hence, a Macrocosmic Psyche, who must reflect upon a world of Matter, and/or our own self-realizations on a microcosmic scale. This reflection of solar thoughts has been for generations, symbolized by the Moon image. For as we all know, this is the realm of "Reflected light" which is less than one percent of the total electromagnetic spectrum that is the medium of our " personality-consciousness". Here, we understand that the One Mind is not of light, but the quantum "spooky universe" that invented light as the "first measurement of Self".

The One Mind, is No-Thing, and/or Dark energy transforming a trinity of limitlessness into "Self-Awareness", as Visible Light, the measurement and/or "some-thing". As inheritors of this Solar Psyche, we bend, twist, spiral, microwaves of light by a psycho-dynamic process of I AM ME and or "willed identity". In other words, the perspectives/beliefs of a declaration. I AM... can be anything! Therefore, the Moon reminds us that what we call real, is merely a reflection of our Solar Psyche and/or Will! You may say, " I don't want to feel depressed", but the truth is, if you as a personal representative of the Soul, put emotion (energy-in-motion) to a thought, thought being the "first material" of creation, and emotion being energy in motion, your Psyche believes this is exactly what you want and fulfills that request. For a Divine Creative doesn't make what it doesn't want and you have the "god-mind" of that Creative and call it Imagination, and/or intuition, of which the Moon is also a symbol for. Since you have imagined and emoted it so, then so it must be for you!

One could say, that on the Path of the Moon, the Souls learns to run the physical vehicle by expanding the brain's perspectives beyond that of fear of both life and death, into the knowledge of personality-resurrection from separate "artificial self" to collective Self. For a Mercury personality, does not experience death, it just travels from body to body, fully aware and functional. The Universal Collective Unconscious is the Divine Creative.

At first, the Path of Qoph is a process of the Soul's organization of the physical body it will "inhabit" (it actually circumvents the body in 7 Energy Bodies of the Aura and flows in through the Chakras). For myself. I remember designing the body and if the chromosomes didn't link up the way I wanted.... I just ejected them, which my dear Mother witness as miscarriages; three of them, until I got the body pattern I wanted. Now I know this sounds extraordinary, but a Soul who doesn't suffer the "sleep" of Death, has full cognitive abilities even when the body it has operated dies and the new design is yet to function.

Remember, that by our observation we change the observed phenomena, this phenomenon is called in Quantum Physics, the Simulation Hypothesis. Since we can simulate "Self" as "ourselves", this allows the Soul to choose the parents, choose the body's DNA structure, and even the name of the body; processes that I translated to my physical Mother in dreams. Dreams are another attribute of the Moon. Remember, the Moon represents the Path of Qoph which is a Hebrew letter that means; Back of head, Ear.

This Psychic Path proceeds from the Unconscious of Netzach to a kind of pre-conscious flow, a kind of "Sleep", into a conscious material state. We should remember here, that we are not bodies, nor are we from the evolutionary consciousness of Earth---we are actually invaders from another time-space, Daemons (Greek word for God-man) who are the Children of the "Angels who have fallen to Earth",i.e. via Alien astronauts and or Galactic evolutions of Psyche. The Milky Way is a "goddess", a mother whose self-reflections/ information, becomes form. We are all photonic children/children of the Sun, the Greater Sun which is at the core of this galaxy. Hence, we are a collective of Self information that has begun with the Milky Way as a collective of intelligence.

Hence, no matter how benign or malevolent we are, we still have to inherit the "Alien Psyche" by advancing our thought from self-absorbed to the Divine Impersonal. Therefore, we have to overcome the survival will of the animal mind that is part of the earth collective intelligence and fear based, with the greater Will of Spirit that is a collective based on Self-Love/Wholeness rather than separation. The fact that you as a "consciousness" can elevate your own identity by declarations of I AM, helps to prove, that you are not of the body, but that it is a GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) of your Archetypal-Self design! You want it, or you wouldn't be here as information of self.

For the one who wishes to reclaim their Universal Inheritance, the journey of awakening from the "Sleep" of incorporation is begun by traveling "upward" along the inner Path of Qoph, into the Dark recesses of the Unconscious, and its illusions of fear and destruction brought on by the survival mind's fear of Death. In other words, we must slay the demons of our own animal death/fear of pain-illusions, that began as our bodies were ejected from the warm wet amphibian world of "Mother, to the nasty cold world of earth and rejection. This change from comfort to ejection becomes fear of rejection. Therefore, babies form their fist emotional identity using the foundation made from the fear of rejection.

Qabalah, and tarot, help us remember the multidimensional *Hu Man consciousness that we are. This awakening process is a conquest of phantoms reflected from the material world, i.e. "Creations of the Created" and so it is a Path out of darkness into the reflected light of the Sun. The Moon is representative of such a journey, as it has both a dark side and reflected side.

* Hu is from the Mandarin word for god. Man, comes from the Hindu root word of Manas, meaning mind. Hence you are a Hu Man who has adopted the homo sapiens sapiens as your avatar in the realm of matter. This god-mind is what is known as the Soul.

When facing the darkest fears of one's own mind, and of the race, one undergoes some frightening and devastating emotional and mental trials that involve real dangers to the physical and mental health of the individual whose sense of self is not based on a strong foundation of self-love-Above all things, know thyself! Therefore, the Gnostic and Qabalistic studies begin by building a strong recognition of Self and your ability as an infinite Self-Spirit to face the illusions of terror that belong only to the body's survival mind and have no power over you when you are awake as a complete union of Spirit- Mind - Body. Thereby, producing an awareness of Self as a cohabiting Soul and/or collective of intimate experience. Again meditation on this card is recommended.

So let's review:

The Rebirth of light out of the hideous and abominable darkness of a Dark immeasurable Energy universe, is the primary representation of this card, and is symbolized by the Scarab Beetle (a reference to Kephera, the Egyptian Father of the Gods) rolling the Sun upward into a rising position. This also represents the highest creative force (sun) beginning its material self-expression as the lowest organic form. This is easily understood if you remember that we are Solar Beings/Light evolutionary Self (...Know ye not that we are stars!) (Spirits) who came to seek self-expression and sensual intimacy with life/self, through organic human forms.

The Moon card also shows Anubis in both forms, of the Dark nether realms of Death and the light realms of Life-Resurrection and is a very complex deity of lunar opposites. However, one way or the other, birth, death and resurrection are pivotal concepts on the Path of the Moon. These are biological processes and they occur in the dark and light of our sensual perceptions.

The energy process is shown on the Thoth Moon Card as cyclic wave motion, as a pattern of both above and below, linked by the Will of the Sun. In the simplest of terms, this is a Path of natural energy from which our bodies develop in the Womb and is continual process throughout our lives as cells live, die and resurrect-replace in daily life. The work of the Path of Qoph ends with the dissolution of energy back to its source, which is through Netzach (victory) the instinctual consciousness, into Tiphareth.

Successful understanding of this path, is to understand the relationship of our personality-consciousness to the Soul, and the physical power-tool/body built for each incarnation. An active personality who walks in the light rather than a "null personality" who sleeps in the dark and/or fears the dark. We become "lost souls" when we don't lovingly operate the Power-Tool we were given, because we serve fear of pain or death and thereby, succumb to the survival mind's cooperation with the faux authority of cultural dogma which is based on "fear of rejection".

The Moon Card is also a reminder that most people/souls, during the cyclic phase of withdrawal of consciousness from the physical Power-Tool, continue to act on information and phantasmagorical fantasies related to survival subconscious, or "cultural group Soul" of body existence. If not released, the sleeping soul-consciousness becomes a phantom of its own fantasies that are so close to the fabric of material manifestation that they are often seen as phantasms or as ghosts. The illusion is that if one fears death, then they fear life, and devalue the body, by valuing other things more. Thus binding themselves to those things, producing an earth bound identity that haunts the things that it values more than itself. Such value systems are unable to perform impeccably as a personality and are "forgotten" by the Soul who seeks "self-awareness" through personal experience.

The Tarot of The Spirit-Key 18- The Moon, displays its own artistic version of the Rider-Waite-Smith and Thoth Key 18 tarot card. Here 2 distinct spheres are displayed, one on the upper right and 1 on the lower left. The upper represents the 7th Sephiroth Netzach, the sphere of instinct, feelings, and personality. Rainbow light flows from this upper sphere to the lower sphere of Malkuth, the sephiroth of physical manifestation and the 4 elements of fire, water, air and earth. There is a landscape shown in this lower sphere, with a rising body of light on the horizon. A crayfish/crustacean crawls out of the landscape, indicating new life, (they shed their outer body to grow larger) and taking the place of the scarab on the Thoth card.

The 2 wolves, one dark and one light, represent the Self, who is both "shadow" and "light/spirit". The sphere of Malkuth, is balanced between. The face is the Great Mother of Qabalah, Binah, the Creatrix and/or Generatrix. She represents the radiant darkness behind the light and/or the Ain Soph Aur within whom the first movement-Kether was formed and/or the Eheieh, meaning I Will Be.

According to the author, on the back of Binah's head, (the moon path of Qoph-means "back of head") is the chignon of intricate knowledge: the Knowledge of all that is, ever has been, and ever shall be. Her knowledge is, no pain involved in receiving it, for it is Intuition when we receive it, it merely exists as the Universal Collective Unconscious and therefore, requires no trials or tribulations to receive it. In matter of fact, the word Qabalah, means receiving and/or to receive.  

As on the Rider-Waite-Smith and Thoth card, fifteen red yods (hebrew letter) fall in the midst of this Moon card and represent the hand of the hermit as the "hand of god" and/or the ability to manifest. Hence, this is the hand of the homo sapiens sapiens as well as, the hand of The Divine Creative. Red Yods represent the blood and/or physical manifestation.

All the aforementioned meanings of the Thoth Moon card apply to this card so divinatory descriptions also apply.

When the Moon card is thrown during a reading, it often implies:

• Heralds a time of initiation, inner transformation, or awareness.
• Error, falsity, lying, deception or Dissatisfaction and voluntary change, again depending on the cards surrounding it. 

• However, let's not forget that the Visible part of the Moon (bathed in Sunlight) is called Isis who is the Mirror, the Moon Goddess, who intercedes between the visible/manifested and invisible/unmanifested worlds (that the ancient Egyptians called Nephthys) and she has the power to cast away phantoms and illusions that are a bewitching dazzle to us.
• The Greeks called this the Path of Childbirth that is presided over by the goddess Artemis.
• Devotion to intuitive knowledge. 
• Journey or descent into the underworld of the subconscious.
• The goal to enter into the erie depths of the immortal soul.
• Encounter with fears.
• Dissatisfaction with present identity and voluntary change is on the horizon.

• The querent is experiencing choice and authenticity over old illusions and delusions.
•  A call to enter into the darkness of the unconscious and to come to grips with one's fantasy made inner demons.
• Within 18 weeks or 18 months the querent must take control of the survival mind and expand it beyond its fear based perspectives.
•  They must remember, that they are a Spirit who owns a body, not a body who owns a spirit; an Immortal Conscious that owns a mortal consciousness.

The Moon is about the Illusion of "life and death" so if ill defined by surrounding cards,:

• There will be moments of lying, falsity, deception.
• Illusion.
• Hysteria.
• Persecution complex.
• Hallucinations (lunatic).
• Fear.
• Drug abuse.
• Flight from reality.

Thank you for your interest, comments and supportive donations. May you live long and prosper!