XVIII - The Moon

Titles: The Ruler of the Flux and Reflux, The Child of the Sons of the Mighty
Hebrew letter: ק (Qoph = back of the head = 100) [Single Letter = Zodiacal Trump]
Element: Water
Astrology: Pisces ♓ - Mutable Water - The fishes (ruler: Jupiter/Neptune, exaltation: Venus; detriment: Mercury, fall: Mercury)
Time: 19 February - 19 March
Path on the Tree of Life: 29th Path (Netzach ↔ Malkuth; 7 ↔ 10)

Symbols/Colours:

"There is a budding morrow in midnight", wrote Keats; for this reason there appears at the bottom of the card, underneath the water which is tinged with graphs of abomination, the sacred Beetle, the Egyptian Khephra, bearing in his mandibles the Solar Disk; it is this Beetle that bears the Sun in his Silence through the darkness of Night and the bitterness of Winter;
above the surface of the water is a sinister and forbidding landscape; we see a path or stream, serum tinged with blood, which flows from a gap between two barren mountains; nine [9 = Yesod = Moon] drops of impure blood, drop-shaped like Yods, fall upon it from the Moon;
this is the waning moon, the moon of witchcraft and abominable deeds; she is the poisoned darkness which is the condition of the rebirth of light;
this path is guarded by Tabu; she is uncleanliness and sorcery; upon the hills are the black towers of nameless mystery, of horror and of fear;
it is Anubis, the watcher in the twilight, the god that stands upon the threshold, the jackal god of Khem, who stands in double form between the Ways; at his feet, on watch, wait the jackals themselves, to devour the carcasses of those who have not seen Him, or who have not known His Name.