The Moon has many strange and puzzling stories, but all of them are interesting and worth exploring. Sometimes the Moon doesn’t just light up the night or move the tides. Sometimes the Moon gives us some strange ideas too.

One strange thing about the Moon is that it never turns its other side towards Earth. All the time the Moon is shining (or reflecting the Sun’s light, if you like), we always see the pattern that looks like a rabbit. However many months or years go by, it stays the same. It’s as if it deliberately shows us only its front and tries to hide something behind it. Of course, plenty of people have imagined there’s a colony hidden on the back of the Moon.

But as time went on, people on Earth got the chance to explore this puzzling world more closely, and found out that there’s no colony and no mystery on the other side of the Moon, only empty ground with no pattern at all.

The far side of the Moon

The High Priestess is the same. The Golden Dawn linked the Moon with this card. If we look closely at the card, we can see how the Moon and the picture match: the woman on the card sits in front of a curtain that seems to be hiding something behind it. Like the Moon, she shows, or reveals, only what she wants us to see. There’s still a mystery hidden inside.

Who knows what’s hidden back there? Some people might think of a treasure, a body of knowledge, or maybe the keys that can answer all the questions in the universe.

But sometimes there may be nothing hidden there at all…

So when this card appears, it may mean mystery, a riddle, something unclear or uncertain. At work, everything may seem still, but it feels like something is hidden. In love, things may be unclear, so you quietly wonder whether something is going on. Wondering about these unclear things makes us feel emotionally sensitive and unsettled, just as the Moon keeps moving the water on Earth up and down.

So what we should do is not guess at, or hope for, what’s hidden behind those doubts. Instead, we should stay mindful, keep our emotions from being controlled by the uncertainty, and be ready to face the truth whenever it shows itself (whether or not it turns out the way we hoped).

In the end, there may be nothing hidden behind the curtain at all. The same goes for the bamboo grove.

Magicians always manage to surprise us. Sometimes they conjure things out of thin air, sometimes they make things disappear, as if they can control everything, from small objects to the thoughts and minds of the audience.

Being a magician so skilled that it looks like real magic isn’t easy. It isn’t only about techniques with objects. A magician also needs techniques for controlling people’s minds.

If we look at the card, we can see our Magician standing in front of a wand, a sword, a cup and a pentacle, which means control of the four elements. To put it more clearly, he can control spirit, thought, emotion and material things extremely well.

So there’s no denying that The Magician shows someone with knowledge and ability who likes to show it off for everyone to see. He’s the front-row type who dares to think and dares to show it, and he stands out while he’s at it.

But as we know, a magician doesn’t have magic. He shows us that he has it. That’s why The Magician sometimes gets a not-so-good meaning, and has a bit of a reputation as a con artist. That’s the meaning at its most negative extreme (if the Seven of Swords and The Devil are there too, that’s exactly it).

So when The Magician comes up to give you advice, I’d have to say: show other people how good you are (or, show other people so they believe how good you look).