WIP: 18 – The Moon
The Moon is the card I was holding back on until I was ready to confront it. The moon is a sacred presence in my life—a guide in early morning solitude, a gravitational force that pulls me toward both dark and light with a tidal rhythm I cannot escape, nor would I wish to. I have always felt claimed by it, drawn to the margins where shadow and clarity meet. It is the mother of my soul—my shelter and my trial, my secret lover and my muse—the unobtainable in my life, a borrowed life-force, a quiet sustenance that both steadies and unsettles me. I understand why wild animals sing to it; their primal calls echo the untamed in me. When I feel most alone, it is the moon I turn to for comfort.
As a young woman I read The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell, and an image lodged itself in me, threading through my dreams and imagination—haunting and evocative:
“I have been looking through my papers tonight… After all, what is the good of a fine metaphor for Melissa when she lies buried deep as any mummy in the shallow tepid sand of the black estuary?”
The image of a body returned to the earth in the most primal way—beneath the silt of the Nile where it empties into the sea at Alexandria, a city steeped in antiquity—forever hidden from air and sun, but not from the moon. Moonlight resurrects. It creates an alternative universe in which desire reshapes reality. We hear its siren song and choose whether or not to follow.
The concept I set for this card was one of the most challenging I have undertaken. I wanted to move from sky to land to water—and beneath it. Water was essential, because the moon exerts its force most visibly on the tides, and quietly on every creature that rose from the sea to walk the land. Its gravity governs subtly yet inexorably.
Traditionally, this card shows both a wolf and a dog baying at the moon to contrast the savage with the tame. I reject that imagery. To me, there is no meaningful difference between them; the dog’s domestication is only a veneer over its wild heart. Both are captivated by the moon, passive under its primal influence. It is the cat that belongs to it. The cat is not in thrall to its luminance—it hunts within it. It prowls the threshold between light and shadow. Moonlight is its accomplice. The muse and model for this card was a Russian Blue named Luna.
I’m fortunate to have a blood moon eclipse coming up on the third of March. I am painting the moon for now, but I’m hoping to have the opportunity to use a photograph to provide accurate and inspired imagery for the full moon. My Melissa will float in the glow of this ominous moon, her dark hair entwined with the water weeds. I’ve chosen two photographs for the land and the water that I think will set the mood I want.
