The meanings behind the cards used in a tarot reading are a mystery to most of us, so here is a short introduction to one of the cards in the Major Arcana: The Moon.
First, the card shows a full moon over a pool of lobsters or crayfish, but the water in the pool is so stagnant that nothing is apparently able to live in it.
The water represents stagnation, whether physical, spiritual or emotional, and the tarot reading seeker is depicted as the hard-shelled crustacean that is trapped within the waters.
The hard shells in particular are significant; they are what we need to get past to move onto the path which can be seen on the card, tapering away into the distant hills. The moon is there to reflect light onto the path that we are afraid of taking.
In short, the card shows that the seeker needs to make an important decision but is afraid to. The moon suggests that, if we can make it to the end of the path, we will actually reach the light of the sun; if we overcome the things holding us back we can reach better things.
Image Credit: Fuzzypeg (commons.wikimedia.org)