I don’t know how many times I’ve pulled the Moon and had to somehow try to figure out how to explain the Lobster crawling out of the water. The moon, seemingly angry. The two towers. The wolf and the dog. What is going on here.
To understand this card, I think this article helps a lot. Jean Noblet Tarot de Marseille – Moon Card by Stav Appel.
What we learn from this article is that The Jean Noblet Tarot de Marseille was created circa 1650 France, during a 250 year long exile of Jews from public life. King Charles had officially banished the French Jews, which meant that the Jews needed a way to keep their traditions and teachings alive in secret. looking at the Jean Noblet Tarot from this perspective, one can see that it is the way that these traditions and teachings were safeguarded. Noblet’s Moon card in Appel’s interpretation is a secret depiction of the Passover story. And through this interpretation, FINALLY this card makes sense.
For example, this verse:
(12) Then יהוה said to Moses, “Hold out your arm over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt and eat up all the grasses in the land, whatever the hail has left.”
You see, the lobster crawling out of the water is a pun. In Old French and Spanish the word “Langosta” means both Lobster and Locust. So our friend the Lobster doesn’t really represent the watery underworld of the soul, or whatever it is we Tarot readers put into it- though I suppose it can. That Lobster, my friend, represents the locusts rained down upon the unbelievers. 🙂 I have to go cook some dinner, but here’s a picture of the Noblet Moon card.
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