These days an endless stream of images and messages reaches us, exalting the beauty, uniqueness and genius of a country known to all as “the country of saints, poets, artists and navigators…”. Among these treasures, the Arcana proudly hold their place of honour, as they represent a true Italian glory, containing symbolic figures drawn from a figurative repertoire that is part of the collective imagination, in which appear the symbols of the virtues, of the structure of the cosmos, of temporal and spiritual power, of destiny and of the human condition. They are true symbols that both conceal and reveal, depending on the depth of meditation of whoever contemplates them. “To divine is to imagine in the right way.” The secret of divination lies in educating the imagination, which must be disciplined so that it can be used rationally. In the interest of human growth, we must bring together imagination and reason, which must support one another in order to spread the great redeeming light across the world. Before the reign of logic, we underwent that of the imagination.
These days everything seems unclear to us, inexplicable; we feel threatened by a danger we cannot make out, and so Arcanum XVIII, the Moon, wants to help us understand this situation, telling us that, following reason, we must intelligently limit our field of action, but we must absolutely not narrow that of our spirit. We must face this treacherous element by learning to navigate, as we Italians know so well how to do, exploring the unknown as if on a great adventure.
The symbolism of this card tells us precisely that the Moon represents daily life with all its dangers, since it gives off a deceptive light — and how could it not be linked to the imagination, since even the imaginative visionary sees things in a false light. The Moon, among the most ancient symbols of humanity, is the cosmic mother; she is allegorical, less realistic — we might call her the darker part, since everything seems to unfold in a psychic, spiritual universe close to dream.
Human beings have always aspired to link heavenly things to earthly things through the contemplation of the moon, which spreads its pale glow, illuminating objects only partly and not allowing things to be clearly distinguished. We feel wrapped in a haze, but this situation will help us develop the vision transmitted to our eyes and our hearts, which will change according to the level of awareness we are maturing. The divine secret does not hide; it stands before us — whether or not we see it depends on the attention we pay to observing things and connecting them. The errors of the human spirit stem from the imagination, and since this feminine faculty awakens before masculine reason, we imagine first and only afterwards strive to reason, often with unsatisfying results.
So we must first conquer the full light by exploring the moon, which presents itself to us with a face exactly like the sun’s, but unlike the sun it does not look us in the eye — part of it remains invisible, as if to represent the mystery of the soul. Her face is steeped in an ancient wisdom that radiates through her rays. The moon is linked to biological rhythms, to water and to the tides. Beneath the celestial body are two howling dogs, in whom we can see a symbol of brotherhood, like two brothers claiming emotional, material and intellectual nourishment. I sense in this image, which I have just described, the state of mind of us Italians at this moment.
In the moonlight one can also make out an immense crayfish, emerging motionless from the water, devouring everything that is corrupt; it sees to the cleaning, and everything it absorbs forms a temporary shell, from which it will free itself once it becomes too heavy. In the same way, we too will be able to lighten ourselves and free ourselves of this weight, represented by this red-coloured crayfish, because of the inner fire that drives us to ceaseless activity in order to accomplish our health-giving mission.
Just as with moonlight, we cannot now understand or grasp the true essence of things, since we know that light and shadow can exist at the same time. As in life, there is no absolute explanation, only the most sublime one, and to reach it we must venture into our own subjectivity. The moon is far from words, from logic; it dwells in a secret, unspeakable state — it is the mystery where all deep knowledge begins.
My inspiration for the personal pairing I gave to card XVIII of the Arcana of Faul was the witches of Montecchio, who on nights of the full moon practised white magic in a sacred area at the top of the mountain. The crayfish, which also follows a seemingly backward path, being born in the west and dying in the east, also appears on the coat of arms of Cardinal de Gambara, to whom we owe the contribution towards the creation of Villa Lante in Bagnaia. Today I feel particularly bewitched by the moon and by my wonderful dog, who, though silently, converses with me just as only the Arcana know how to do.
