Tarot Card Comparisons: The Thoth Tarot-Key 18 : THE MOON & The Barbara Walker Tarot-Key 18 : THE MOON/LA LUNA

The Thoth Tarot-Key 18-The Moon: The Path of Qoph.

Qabalistic Esoteric title: The Ruler of Flux and Re-flux. The Child of the Sons of the Mighty.

From the Thirty Two Paths of Wisdom (Dr.Paul Foster Case):

The Path of Qoph connects Victory (Netzach) with The Kingdom (Malkuth) and is described as the "Victory of the Material World" but also as the"deceptive effect of the apparent power of Material Forces". Therefore the Moon Tarot Card represents a spiritual rebirth and/or resurrection. As we incarnate, it is the Gateway to the Material world and the first stage of the Soul's organization of the physical body that it will inhabit (often done in the womb). It is a form of "sleep", a pre-consciousness (that precedes the waking consciousness) differentiating into physical matter from the collective unconscious realm of Netzach.

Also,in terms of the spiritually developing individual, The Moon represents the conquest of the phantoms reflected from the material world (Astral fantasies). The Qabalistic lodge of the Golden Dawn, described these phantoms as, "The Child of the Sons of the Mighty" which simply means the"creations of the Created", as our souls are Sons of the Mighty ( The Latin word -Animus means Soul). This is a watery (Unconscious) path of probation, where the student must face and conquer the phantoms of their own deep unconscious as well as those of the race in which they are is born. It can be a terrible and frightening Path, not only of stunning illusions but of real dangers to the emotional stability of those who have not built up enough inner strength (inner virtue--often called "Character") to handle this experience. However, when we slay the "monsters within", the deep recesses of our sleep-consciousness (sub-conscious), and understand their mechanisms, we gain the capacity to manipulate those qualities in ourselves as well as in others.

The Path of Qoph, represents a primitive path of raw animal nature; of instincts (survival mind), uncontrolled passions, and emotions which are not subject to intellectual, moral or ethical considerations. This Path shows us aspects of ourselves which society forces us to repress but which are an integral and undeniable part of our human being. To be whole, we must approach this Path with our Whole Being, applying reason to that which we encounter, as we apply feeling to that which is encountered on the Path of Judgment.

In the Thoth Tarot, Key 18-THE MOON, there are two images of The Guardians of the Gate who are the Ra kings of ancient Egypt. These are the Sun gods who protect our life force and energy as we change and reclaim our authentic selves.The gate guardians that were traditionally shown as two dogs, as does the Barbara Walker card.

The Jackals represent the Egyptian deity Anubis. The two figures of Anubis, the jackal-headed gate keepers, symbolize this cyclic process (Spiral energy) as the god Anubis was the Egyptian god of  light and darkness, death and resurrection. The "As above, so below" is shown as a pattern on this card also reinforces this meaning.  Hence, the god of death that ushered the souls of the dead into the underworld presents a mythology of  that which remind us to let go of the "old" in order to go through the gates into new experiences.

The Egyptian scarab, On the Thoth card, represents Khepri, the Egyptian God of Transformation, i.e. "He who becomes". This dung beetle and/or scarab, rolls the ball of the sun, pushing it into the Other World in the evening and over the horizon into the morning.  For the ancient Egyptian, the scarab-beetle-god represented the rising sun and symbolized the renewal of life and the idea of eternal existence. Not unlike our own knowledge of eternal existence in the first law of thermodynamics ( There is only one energy that can't be created nor destroyed; only transformed).

The Moon is not only the astrological representative of the water-signs, such as Pisces and Cancer, but is also the universal feminine principle of magnetism. The magnetic influence of flux and re-flux help us to see the inherent power of our receptive nature; to open, expand, yield, and totally express our full power and nature, like the Moon. The Moon reflects back to us the mystery of who we are and of our changing phases. The Reclamation of our Authentic Self, requires that we open, receive and go-inward. Moon like, it is essential to reveal ourselves without holding back or censoring ourselves in anyway ( Of this I am profoundly accused of!). To me as a practicing Magus, this is the gateway to the "other side of the Mirror".....The non- sun-reflected-subjective side.

The simple Hebrew letter of Qoph, roughly translates into the English word, sleep.Thus 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 and/or death which once consciously transcended, is the successful completion of the Path of The Moon.

The initiate, finds that birth, death, and resurrection are pivotal concepts on the Path of the Moon/Qoph. These biological processes occur in the light and dark of our sensual perceptions. The Moon, key 18, also symbolizes the process that consciousness goes through, when energy proceeds from order to disorder (2nd law of Thermodynamics), from organized flesh assembly to the disassembling putrefaction of death.

To understand the Qabalistic Path of Qoph-The Moon, is to understand the partnership of our  personality self-consciousness with the physical vehicle, which the Soul, a Yod- Personality (Solar Personality) builds for each manifestation by fragmenting past built personalities/experiences (fractals of the Collective Self) and combining the fragmented data into a new fractal personality producing AI. Since most people perceive themselves as  having existence only through their present bodies, The Real Person/Soul every once in awhile lets loose a shadow of the past, which  is an "illusion" of past lives; ghosts of feelings that have naught to do with this life but are similar past experience. Understanding that you have at least Two Personalities; the Soul which is the Real Personal expression of the Solar Logos (Christ or Buddha Self), and the artificial intelligence/personality developed by interaction with environment and indoctrination. Reconciling the two, is is often a most difficult  undertaking. 

The Moon was often seen as a Goddess of Life (White Goddess of Light) Diana, and a Goddess of Death Hecate ( 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, for "ending" is a concept of time, not immortality. Being expressions of the Universal Divine Collective Unconscious, Souls recycle, the experiences of consciousness, which are a "reflection upon Self"; experiments in the Soul Conscious-Persona-self awareness preformed in/on matter for the purpose of psychosomatic discernment.

Bodies/Brains  forget that as organic material, they are also recycled; that they are a recycled part of the Whole Collective 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.  We are Yodish Microwaves of creation (Yod=Hand).  Hence, as"hands of god", we are in charge of our own Self Creation!

The Qabalist learns quickly that We are not a physical brain nor its product. We are Souls/Psyche, who are supposed to program the brain, which is "wet ware" with its own self-identity soft-ware, for the purpose of Life (Spirit) experiencing the discernment of being a "living thing" operated by "fecund and fertile" thought. With mortality, thoughts can no longer be indiscriminate mental ramblings of an eternal Divine Creator dreaming of Itself. They now must support Life,( Anima-Latin for Spirit) and expand and liberate the "living" from self imposed limits, i.e. fear of death-based thoughts and/or survival thinking.

As the Immortal "hands of creation", we are here to redesign the "survival mind", A. I.  of the animal-planetary-body. We are the Sun's/Son's of Life Creative Conscious Energy, who must reflect upon a world of Matter, our own self-realizations, therefore creating the "color of Life", i.e., The Alive. 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", representing the Womb of Visible light; Visible light, which is less than one percent of the total electromagnetic spectrum that is the medium of our "dark-unconsciousness". As Moon/Solar Psyche, we bend, twist, spiral, visible light by a psychosomatic process of I AM ME. In other words, the perspectives/beliefs of an declaration. I AM... can be anything!

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  life and death, into the knowledge of personality-resurrection. For the Soul is the Will of Life and the Will of Death, and both must be a function of willful discernment, if creation is to last!

To reiterate: The Moon Tarot Card, represents the Qabalistic Path of Qoph that is between Netzach (victory) with Malkuth (Kingdom) and is the Path of Transition where the Soul begins the process of incorporating the body. It's planetary sign is Pisces [mutable water].

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, The Real Person, 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.

Remember, that by our observation we change the observed phenomena; this phenomena 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. It is 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. Alien astronauts.

 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, the  "Alien-Psyche"  has to overcome the survival will of the fear based animal mind that is part of the human body, with the greater Will of Spiritual I AM. This fact alone, helps to prove, that you are not of the body, but that it is a GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) of your Archetypal- Self (Real Person) design! 

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 Path of Qoph, into the Dark recesses of the Unconscious, and its illusions of fear and phantoms of 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 to remember the multidimensional Daemon 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.

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 strong. Remember we are the Divine Psyche of the Soma.  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 and aware as a cohabiting Soul. Again meditation on this card is recommended.

The Rebirth of light out of the hideous and abominable darkness 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. On the Barbara Walker Tarot, key 18- The Moon, the rebirth of light out of the hideous darkness, is shown as a blazing sun, surrounded by the "blood of the goddess" and or blood of Goddess menses, that purifies and resurrects the alive. 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 (...Know ye not that we are stars!) (Spirits) who came to seek self-expression through organic human forms. Forms are the property of the Divine Feminine Magnetic, aspect of the One Energy.

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 of individuality/microwaves of I AM, is shown on the Thoth Deck Moon Card as cyclic wave motion, as a pattern of both above and below, linked by the Beetle of the Sun. In the simplest of terms, this is a Magnetic 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 Netzach (victory).

Successful understanding of this  psychosomatic path, is to understand the relationship of our Real Person and the personality-consciousness and  the physical power-tool built for each incarnation and facilitates an awake Soul; who walks in the lightof Wisdom rather than a Soul who sleeps in the dark of shadows and doesn't operate the Power-Tool it was given by giving it's operation to the faux authority of cultural dogma.  The Moon Card is 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 "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 Moon card is veiled by illusion and those illusions must be understood in order for the Prodigal Soul/Son to claim its Rich Universal Inheritance.  

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.

This probationary path of emotional phantoms, can be disturbing to those of weak moral fiber who lack discernment and can pose real dangers to one's emotional stability.  On the other hand, those  of discerning minds are strong enough to tread this Path and slay the monsters "within" our sleep-consciousness and understand their mechanisms, therefore gaining the capacity to manipulate those qualities in ourselves and those of others. Mastery of Illusion is a product of this path.

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 Sun-light.

This rising act of direct Sun-light 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 sub-conscious, i.e. the illusions of emotional fears. These denizens of the dark are represented by the Crab emerging from dark waters on the Barbara Walker card.

In Thoth Deck Tarot of the Hermetic Qabalah, THE HIGH PRIESTESS, is a source of pure, crystal clear waters (consciousness) emerging from the God Head-The Father-Kether, to God the Son/Sun, the 6th Sephira-Beauty, on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. 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 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 (Tiphareth) descends into it. When traveling up the Path of Qoph, the Personality becomes increasing aware of the Higher Self and less controlled by the dark survival fears of the body.

Paul Foster Case called The 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 Thoth card (Down from Tiphareth) and from around the Sun of the Barbara Walker card. 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 something descends from the Moon to the Earth on the Path of Qoph, which is represented as raining Yods.

Again: 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, where the "law of the jungle" resides in the dark pools of violence and conquest. This can be a very cruel path to endure, until the student is able to fear not these internal demons which removes the veils of darkness, allowing in the Bright Intellect of the Son who applies beautiful reason to our consciousness.

This has been called the Karma Card ( work that needs to be done).

Ultimately, we have a daily choice between supporting our authentic self or our dutiful man-made self.  There is the Real which is the Soul Persona and then there is reality, the "self-reflection and/or indoctrinated identity that we call our ego or personality.

In this card we see the gates, on the Thoth Card, or the Twin Pillars that are shown on the Barbara Walker card, which are guarded by the Ra kings of Egyptian sun god myth, or the "Hounds of Hell" of the Crone Goddess myths,  who stabilize and protect our energy as we transform from reality selves to our memory of Real Self.

The Moon reminds us of the illusions of the survival mind. If you as an individual knows (not believes) that everyone you see is another way of being you; you are in the Real sight of divine self-awareness. If you see everyone as enemy or friend, you suffer from reality blindness brought on by the survival mind of the animal that you should own but now owns you because of your fears of rejection and/or sensuality: fear of pain, fear of discomfort, fear of vulnerability,... All of which come from the animal thought of "fear of being eaten", which is also called fear of death.

The Moon is a card representing illusion and reminds us that the illusion of the senses; yes illusion, as senses are all psychosomatic, meaning that not everyone has the same sensual experience from same environments; in other words they are not scientific proof. As a Soul (meaning Psyche), the body is only 1% of us, and its purpose is to define thought . In other words to aid our creative psyche in discernment.

 In the Qabalah, Reality is defined as trans-formative, the Real is the One who Transforms but is not the transformation itself. You may also see the Scarab beetle on the bottom of this card. This is the symbol of the Egyptian god Khepri, the god of transformations. Or the Crab symbol for the astrological sign Cancer and also announces  the last coming of the Crone, Kali Bhavani (Being) returning to her dark formless state as Kali-Uma (Non Being) which is symbolized as the primordial deep pool the crab is rising out of.

In the Thoth illustration, the Scarab is rolling the Sun across the horizon, into the other-world in the evening and this world at the dawn. This motion represents the renewal of life and the Real eternal existence which is invisible and thus called dark.

The Thoth Moon card also represents the water sign- Pisces. The traditional two fish of Pisces are symbolized here as the Anubi gate guardians, and represent the Picean commitment to evolutionary transformation.

The Moon is about the Illusion of life and death, so there will be moments of lying, falsity, deception, if the card is ill dignified. 

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