Crone Moon Tarot
Last Quarter Moon in Pisces
The Crone Moon
During the last quarter moon, let’s take a pause and reflect on what we can learn from it. I created the Crone Moon Tarot Spread to walk us through a reflection exercise, and every Crone Moon I will pull cards and we can think through what this cycle needs us to know.
Traditionally, the moon phases have been likened to the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. The waxing (growing) moon is the Maiden, the full moon is the Mother, and the waning moon (shrinking) is the Crone. The last quarter moon falls exactly halfway between the full moon and the new moon and it is half illuminated and half dark. This perfectly represents the liminal space that crones occupy. From this half-illuminated state, the light continues to retreat. The crone is not afraid of this darkness. It brings her peace as she knows this is where the real work happens.
The full explainer of moon science, phases, and symbolism and of the crone moon tarot spread will be my next post.
The Moon in Pisces
I’m super jazzed that our first Crone Moon together is in Pisces. The Crone Moon calls us to evaluate our current situation, release what no longer serves us, and realign with what does. Pair that with the Pisces dreamy, intuitive vibes, and we have the perfect setup to stop shoulding all over ourselves.
The Pisces Crone Moon is a great time for emotional release and realignment. It tells us that we don’t need to resolve things quickly, but they will resolve. Trust the process. Journal. Meditate. Recover. Take a pause before figuring out what comes next.
This is the perfect liminal Crone Moon.
What’s coming
New Moon in Gemini — June 14 Time for fresh ideas, communication, learning, and personal growth, offering a chance to set intentions and embrace curiosity.
Full Moon in Capricorn — June 29 Brings a grounded energy that encourages discipline, responsibility, and focus on long-term goals.
Next Crone Moon in Aries — July 7 Buckle up, Buttercup. The next Crone Moon brings a mix of bold action, emotional release, and structural change.
A Note on Tarot
Tarot is for entertainment and self-reflection. It does not predict the future or tell your fortune. I invite you to look at the pictures and symbols on the cards and exercise your brain to put them together in a way that is meaningful to you. Skeptics welcome.
The Deck
Today, I am using the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck. This particular deck is the very first one I ever owned. The box has long disintegrated and I hold the cards together with a rubber band. It is well loved. Something about it called to me and felt appropriate for our first reading together.
A Note on Pentacles:
Let me take a minor detour for those of you who don’t know tarot and get a little squeaked out by the “pentacle” imagery. It is not Satanic. The pentacle/pentagram was used pre-Christianity. The famed mathematician Pythagoras used it as a symbol of health, and some Christian knights even wore the symbol. To those who created the tarot, the 5 points of the star correspond to the elements Air, Earth, Fire, and Water with the top point representing Spirit. Just as Satanists turn the Cross upside down, their version of the pentacle is also upside down. Because of the confusion about the pentagram symbolism in modern society, many tarot decks now call the suit of pentacles the suit of coins or discs.
What to Celebrate: The Seven of Pentacles
This card is a reminder to celebrate the light of the last moon cycle. What did it bring that is worth honoring before we retreat further into the darkness of the crone moon?
The Seven of Pentacles depicts a man with a hoe staring at a vine that has seven pentacles springing from it like fruit. He appears contemplative—or is he just tired? I like to think it is both and he is taking a break to admire the fruits of his labor on the vine while reflecting on the work it has taken to get here. Perhaps he is even thinking about the few last things he needs to do before he can reap the abundance of the harvest.
Additional food for thought with this card, the suit of pentacles represents the Earth element and being grounded and rooted in the physical world. That can show up in themes of money, work, health, home, etc.
So, when we think about the Seven of Pentacles in light of what to celebrate at the Crone Moon, I see it as a literal invitation to look back on our hard work and efforts of the past cycle and celebrate them, especially the ones that have not yet fully come to fruition. For example, I’m taking a moment to celebrate everything it took to start and launch Crone Powers and be grateful for the version of me who put in the work to get this off the ground. For you, it could be starting a new exercise routine, making that doctor’s appointment you’ve been putting off, or starting a new summer routine with your family. Anything where you have laid the groundwork for success.
Can you already see how this may apply to you and something you may need to celebrate?
What to Examine: The Ace of Cups
Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun and invites us to celebrate our wins, it also reflects to us what we are holding onto and need to set down before we retreat further into the darkness.
The Ace of Cups depicts a hand appearing from the clouds presenting a large chalice. The chalice has five streams of water pouring out of it along with multiple drops and it is pooling into a body of water full of lotus blossoms. There is also a dove diving into the chalice with a wafer. Of note, those little drops of water are called yods (meaning hand), and here they are meant to symbolize emotional creation and inspiration.
This one is a little more abstract than the last card. What to make of a big sky-daddy hand with a crazy fountain cup that has a dove dive bombing it? It helps to know that in tarot, aces represent new beginnings. Cups represent the water element—the world of emotions, relationships, and creativity. And if we want to be literal about the water element—look at all those emotions spurting out of the cup and down into the big ‘ole pool of feelings. That dove on top is doing its best to keep all the new emotional energy balanced and peaceful.
So, when thinking about the Ace of Cups in relation to what we should examine as we go into the Crone Moon, let’s turn our attention to our emotions. How have we been feeling? If you are like me, this is a very scary question. The only time I notice my feelings are when the big sky-daddy cup has geysers shooting out of it instead of those cute 5 little trickles in the card. Let’s take some time to really sit with our emotional world, our relationships, and our creative endeavors. Is your cup overflowing like a tidal wave or like a peaceful fountain in a Zen garden? If it is the former, the crone moon asks you to dig deeper and ask why.
What to Release: The Moon
Well Damn. What a mic-drop moment. We hear you, Crone Moon.
As the reflected light of the sun recedes it becomes more difficult to see, and we need to rely more on our own intuition and guiding light than on what we see around us. The release of the Crone asks us what we need to quietly set down before going further on our crone journey.
The moon card is all about symbolism and illusion—so there is a lot more going on here than I can write in a paragraph. When looking at the moon card the first thing I see is—a sun? Ok, not really. It is the moon with the face of a waxing crescent on it. The rays on the outside remind us that the light of the moon is actually all a reflection. The moon illuminates nothing directly, so nothing in the moonlight is as it seems. Then there are the many golden leaves? fireballs? thingys? dropping from the sky underneath it (Yods, they are called yods). There is a brown dog and a yellow wolf howling at the moon and a crustacean crawling out of the water up a path leading between animals. Don’t forget those two prison-looking towers on the sides. It all kind of reminds me of a fever dream. Well, that is on purpose. The Moon card symbolizes dreams, illusions, the subconscious and hidden self as well as intuition. It encourages us to release anxiety and fear and to trust our intuition over what we think we see.
What is this saying about what we should surrender before going further in the crone moon cycle? Right now, I’m struck by all the fever-dream type imagery being surrounded by the prison-looking towers. Are we locking down our dreams because they seem like too much? Are we locking away things that we just can’t explain to anyone else so we don’t even try to explain it to ourselves?The Crone Moon is smacking us on the hand and saying ‘stop it,’ especially if we are being driven out of anxiety and fear. Bring the crazy dreams with you even if you can’t explain them yet, and leave the anxiety and fear that made you feel like you have to keep your dreams under wraps. You don’t need to pursue the dreams yet—just stop hiding from them. This is the ultimate stop shoulding on yourself card and I can’t be happier that it came up in this position on our very first crone moon spread.
The Threshold: The Star Reversed
The half illumination and half dark of the Crone Moon is a liminal threshold moment. Everything in the cycle has led us here, and now it is our time to decide on how we will proceed.
When you look at The Star card the first thing you probably notice is that it is upside down. This is not an editing mistake. I pulled The Star card reversed, meaning it popped out of the deck upside down. A reversal gives the card a similar but slightly different meaning.
What do you see when you look at the star card? I see a big yellow star and get the impression of other large white stars before my eye is drawn to the naked lady in the center. She has one foot in the water and one on land and is pouring water both into the water and onto the land. The water on the land is forming rivulets, and there is a strange little bird on a tree behind her. This card echoes an earlier card in the deck, Temperance, which is known for one foot on land and one foot on water. The Star also comes immediately after The Tower—which is the ‘your whole world just shattered’ card. The Star is the first light you see after the destruction. It offers hope, renewal, and a reminder to trust in the process.
So what does this mean when we think thresholds and crone moon readings, especially when The Star is reversed? Most people think of reversed cards as negative, and at first when I saw The Star reversed here I cringed. Who wants to put a damper on hope? BUT in the threshold position, The Star reversed is kind of amazing. As we stand at the threshold of who we were and who we are becoming as a crone, The Star reversed doesn’t want us to just hang our hats on hope and renewal. She knows we’ve been there, done that, and bought the tshirt. She wants to remind us that that cynical attitude of ‘bought the tshirt’ has been hard won. Because we have weathered so many ‘tower moments’ our inner guidance is on point. We need to take steps to reconnect with it. While we stand at the threshold of the crone moon and of our crone’s journey, The Star reversed will help us illuminate which thresholds are worth crossing.
Intention: King of Swords Reversed
In the darkness of the Crone’s Moon, the distraction of the light melts away. It is time to rest, reflect, and recover. Our inner crone whispers to us about our intentions for when the light returns.
The King of Swords is not my favorite card—so I was glad this one came out reversed. I associate it with overly severe father figures and serial mansplainers. On the card we see a king in a flowing blue robe and purple cape sitting on a throne. He is holding a sword pointing up to the sky. There are clouds in the background and the throne has images of butterflies that look like they are made out of clouds.
Swords represent the element of air. They cover the realm of the mind, intellect, and communication. Cool. I’m a nerd. I should be totally down with that. Well…swords are double edged. They can tip towards all the good things intellect can bring or towards anxiety, manipulation, and abuse of power. This last part is why I don’t really like the King of Swords—to me, he represents the ultimate manipulator and power-hungry dude. Yeah, it isn’t a fair portrayal of the card because he also embodies mental clarity, intellect, fairness, logic, and reason. So, my read of the card is kind of reversed from the standard. I see the negatives on the upright King of Swords and therefore the positives are more associated with the reversal. Tarot is a language of symbols—figure out what the symbols mean to you!
What does the King of Swords Reversed mean to us while we are setting our intentions under the Crone Moon? The crone moon’s darkness invites us to stop shining a light on things. The King of Swords reversed puts an exclamation point on this. It reminds us that when we shine a light on intention setting and get so detailed that we need a magnifying glass to see it all—we only succeed in starting a fire and burning our intentions to the ground. Instead, give yourself space to be with your thoughts in the darkness. Think differently. Your normal mental processes aren’t going to work this time. Use your intuition. Your inner crone will whisper to you in the darkness. She won’t steer you wrong.
The Crone Speaks: Six of Swords
Your inner crone has seen all five Crone Moon cards, and she has something to say about it. Listen up. She doesn’t stutter.
I promise y’all I did not fake this card pull. The Six of Swords is MY card. It is my very favorite of the entire deck. It is a weird favorite, and I’ll explain why I love it in a sec. But for now, I’m wondering if this means your inner crone is telling you to listen to me? I know it means mine is screaming out for me to listen to myself.
The Six of Swords features a man poling a boat across a lake. The boat has a child and a figure in a cloak (I’m assuming the mother) in it. There are six swords standing upright in the boat hemming in the passengers but not causing the boat to leak. The water on the right side is choppy, but they are going away from it to the clear still water on the left.
Remember from above that swords are about the mind intellect and communication, and that they are double edged? Well, this card represents emerging safely from a very anxious and challenging period. When it shows up we should think about where in our lives we are going through transitions or in need of healing, release, and recovery.
The Six of Swords is the whole reason I got into tarot and the woo. I saw what turned out to be a ‘misread’ imaging report on my patient portal. It said the cancer I thought was in remission was metastatic to my lungs. It was a holiday weekend, and I couldn’t talk to my doctor. I was alone in a city away from friends and family. I was in a weird headspace. So I did what any person with a repressed crone screaming to get out would do in that situation. I dyed my hair purple. I’d always been curious about tarot and I figured if I was ever going to get a reading, now was the time. I never told the reader what was going on with my health. But when she flipped over the Six of Swords she said “You will have safe passage.” She said she was confused because the cards around it had to do with health issues. When I told her more, she was adamant that my cancer would not be terminal and kept saying “You will have safe passage.” I came back to her the next day, paid for a reading, but spent the time picking her brain to learn more. She gave me my first oracle deck and set me down this path that has given me spiritual and emotional “safe passage.” Later I found out she was right about my physical safe passage too. I don’t have metastatic cancer. The imaging report was a misread. I had safe passage. She didn’t predict the future. I obviously didn’t rely on the woo for my treatment—and nobody ever should. But she still gave me comfort in a time of crisis and led me to a whole new way of being in the world.
Enough about me. Where in your life do you need or are you having safe passage? Are you navigating choppy waters or emerging from them? Are you in transition now? The crone’s message for this cycle is to think about what it means to you to find safe passage. Find all the times that you came through safely. Do what you can to help others have safe passage as well.
Putting It All Together:
We just took a deep dive into each card, but the magic happens when we look at them in relation to each other, to the Pisces Crone Moon, and to our own crone journey.
No matter where we look, we are getting the same message.
It is a story about moving our focus inward. We are bad-ass crones who need to celebrate the amazing things we do. But after hi-fiving ourselves and before we dive back into the daily grind, let’s pause and examine our emotional cup. Has it dried up, is it peacefully flowing, or is it a tsunami in the making? I bet the answer has a lot to do with how much we’ve been shoulding ourselves. Have we bought into the shoulds so much that we now have no idea what we feel or think? Stop it. Release the fear and anxiety that keep you from admitting your dreams to yourself. As we reconnect with our inner crone, she will guide us to the dreams worth pursuing. In fact, the more we strive to pin down a dream or intention right now, the further away it will get. And Pisces, the dreamy, intuitive, emotional water sign, is the perfect guide for this leg of the journey. Pisces never forces. It dissolves and flows. Luckily, the inner crone has already sent you a boat and she will whisper to you on the ride.
Journal Prompts
The crone does not assign homework. But if you want to go deeper, here are some questions worth sitting with.
What dream have you been keeping locked in your own prison towers? What would it feel like to stop hiding from it? Not pursue it yet, just stop hiding from it.
What intention are you over-illuminating with a magnifying glass when you should just let it be a whisper?
Where in your life do you need safe passage right now, and what would it feel like to trust that it is coming?