DESCRIPTION

Pamela Colman Smith’s illustration is a clear homage to the Marseille tradition, featuring a moon overlooking a dog, a wolf, and a crayfish in a pool. The full moon shines brightly, reflecting the light of the sun into the darkness of the night. The moon has a face, which is in profile, indicating that the Moon is a conscious being. Around the Moon, there are thirty-two rays that allude to the thirty-two paths of wisdom. The pool of water represents the great deep of the cosmic mind, from which all organic life comes forth. The path that is rising out of the edge of the pool is bordered with stones and plants. These are symbols of the mineral and vegetable kingdoms. As it progresses to where the dog and the wolf are, this represents the animal kingdom. The path continues between two watchtowers, which mark the boundaries between what is known and what is unknown, the unknown signifying the mountains beyond the watchtowers. Between the towers, there are flames of moonlight that also rain down on the Earth below. These fifteen yods hang in the air, signifying the fifteenth day of the twenty-eight-day lunar cycle that brings the light of the full moon. The Moon and the path that continues to the beyond, rising and falling through blue distances, represent the plains of consciousness that are open to us, especially during sleep or trance states.

The crayfish, which represents instinctive energy, emerges from the pool of water onto a dirt path. It is a symbol of the early stages of conscious unfoldment, and the dry land is symbolic of physical manifestation. The path rising and falling represents the principles of vibration and rhythm, which relate to the cycles of life energy as it manifests through the path of evolution. This path passes between two canine figures, the dog and the wolf, who howl at the moon. The Moon symbolizes the closeness of our conscious and unconscious minds and how they can be stirred by the imagination. The wolf is a symbol of nature, and it remains wild, while the dog is more domesticated as a result of human adaptation. This path passes between the extremes, it does not go too far on the side of ungoverned impulses nor does it call docility. Even though the path progresses in a wave-like motion, it’s continually ascending, raising the baseline just as evolution is continually improving upon and creating higher forms of life. It continues all the way up to the peak of the distant mountains. As we progress on this path, the time will come when even our lowest states will be higher than our old highs.

Under the watch of the Moon, the path takes us through an evolutionary process to the peak of understanding. The key lesson or concept of The Moon archetype is inner organization. This is the point in our journey where all that we’ve learned and gained in consciousness is now going to be integrated within the foundation of our subconscious mind. This causes a restructuring or a reorganizing of our bodies on an atomic and cellular level. The Moon archetype indicates that we are still not fully in the daylight and thus have some shadows within the subconscious that need to be brought to consciousness.