Tarot — XVIII The Moon

The Moon is arcanum XVIII of the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot, published in London by William Rider & Son in December 1909 and drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. The card on this poster is not redrawn: it is a scan of a real card held at Yale's Beinecke Library, with its aged card stock and rounded corners. That particular deck was printed around 1937.

On the card, a moon with a face in profile, ringed with yellow rays, lets fall drops of gold. Below are two grey towers, two beasts howling at the sky and a crayfish climbing out of the water where a path begins. Behind the card stand a gold arch and a burst of 16 long and 16 short rays, a nod to Waite's own line about the card: “It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays.” At the top, seven moon phases; at the bottom, "La Lune", "Arcane majeur · XVIII" and Waite again: “The path between the towers is the issue into the unknown.”

Navy and gold

Night-blue ground, fine stars, warm gold: this is the celestial side of the tarot, softer than Death. It suits a bedroom, above a bed or a dressing table, or next to a shelf of candles. The 4K print keeps the gold crisp and readable.

Scan from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (Cary Collection of Playing Cards), on Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

The other cards are on the Tarot & Occult page, with the whole Gothic world next door.

Printed in Tunisia, paid on delivery.