Two Moons, One Journey: Illuminating the Depths with Lieselle’s Eternal Tarot and Rider-Waite
Oct 07, 2025
The Moon card has always held a kind of hypnotic power. It’s the card of dreams, illusions, and the soft shimmer of intuition that guides us when logic fails. In every tarot deck, The Moon beckons us down a path less travelled, through the shifting landscapes of the subconscious, where fears, instincts, and buried truths coexist.
While its core message remains universal, each artist reinterprets its mystery through a unique lens. Today, we’re gazing at two very different Moons: the iconic Rider-Waite-Smith and the evocative Lieselle’s Eternal Tarot. Both illuminate the unseen, but in strikingly different ways.
The Rider-Waite-Smith Moon: A Path Through Illusion
Pamela Colman Smith’s Moon is unforgettable as it is eerie, beautiful, and deeply psychological. Under a mournful, watchful moon, a crayfish crawls from a pool, a dog and a wolf howl, and a narrow path winds between two towers toward distant mountains. Everything feels slightly off, as though we’ve stepped into a dream where logic dissolves and instinct rules.
Here, the Moon is a mirror for our inner unease.
Anxiety and Fear: The wolf and the dog represent our dual nature, wild and domesticated, instinctive and controlled, both stirred by what lies beyond comprehension. The crayfish, emerging from the dark water, hints at the primal fears rising from the subconscious.
Illusion and Deception: The moon’s light doesn’t reveal; it distorts. Those glittering dewdrops are illusions falling from the sky, reminding us that not everything we see is true.
The Necessary Path: And yet, a path remains. The journey through uncertainty is not optional; it’s the only way to reach the clarity symbolized by the mountains ahead. The Moon invites us to trust intuition even when reason falters.
This is the lunar landscape of the Rider-Waite-Smith, a mysterious night where every step forward is an act of faith.
Lieselle’s Eternal Moon: The Dive Into Depth
In Lieselle’s Eternal Tarot, The Moon doesn’t ask us to walk a shadowed path. It asks us to dive.
The imagery here pulls us inward rather than onward. The card is fluid, immersive, and emotional...a full-body plunge into the vast ocean of the subconscious.
The Moon: Still the guiding light, but in this version, it’s not ominous. Its glow doesn’t breed fear; it invites exploration. This is illumination, not distortion.
The Water: The scene is not bordered by land but enveloped by the element of emotion. The water is everything, a reminder that the subconscious isn’t a threat to avoid, but a sea to swim through.
The Whale: In place of the tiny, creeping crayfish is a whale, a magnificent, intelligent creature of depth. It symbolises wisdom that lives far below the surface: vast memories, truths, and emotional intelligence waiting to be understood.
Where the Rider-Waite Moon challenges us to keep walking through illusion, Lieselle’s Eternal Moon invites us to surrender, float, and trust that we can breathe underwater. It’s not a test of endurance but an act of communion, a merging with our emotional truth rather than a battle against it.
When The Moon Appears:
Whether you pull The Moon from the Rider-Waite or Lieselle’s Eternal Tarot, it always asks the same thing: trust your intuition, even when the light is dim.
If you’re resonating with the Rider-Waite energy, you might be walking through confusion or facing unseen truths. The question becomes: What small, primal fear is surfacing right now? How can you keep walking through uncertainty instead of turning back?
If you’re drawn to the Eternal Tarot version, the message is gentler but just as deep: it’s time to dive inward. What vast truth is moving beneath your emotions? What wisdom swims below the surface of your awareness, waiting for acknowledgement? This Moon isn’t a warning...it’s an initiation into emotional mastery.
Embracing the Lunar Light
Both versions of The Moon remind us that the greatest truths don’t arrive in daylight clarity. They shimmer, half-seen, reflected in the still water of intuition.
The Rider-Waite Moon gives us the map, a winding path through fear and illusion. Lieselle’s Eternal Moon offers the vessel ...a safe way to dive deep and meet what lives in the dark. Together, they complete the picture: the courage to walk through mystery, and the trust to explore its depths.
So when The Moon rises in your next reading, ask yourself:
Am I being called to walk a careful path through uncertainty, or to plunge into my own depths and explore what lives there?
Either way, know this: the lunar light, whether shining on your path or glimmering through deep water, will always guide you home to your own inner truth.
Follow the Light of Your Own Moon
In Lieselle’s Eternal Tarot, The Moon transforms uncertainty into understanding. Each hand-illustrated card reflects the same intuitive depth; guiding you to trust what lies beneath the surface, honour your emotions, and find clarity through your own inner light.
