Let’s take our monthly pause to reflect on where we are in our crone journey with a Crone Moon Tarot pull.
Why the Crone Moon? Well, the Crone Moon, aka last quarter moon, falls exactly halfway between the full moon and the new moon. It is half illuminated and half dark. From this liminal space, the light continues its retreat. The crone embraces this time of growing darkness. She knows this is where the real work happens.
New here? The full explainer of moon science, phases, and symbolism and of the crone moon tarot spread lives here.
The Moon in Cancer
The moon rules Cancer. The technical astrological phrasing is that it is “in domicile” in Cancer. Cancer is like home-base for the moon. It is where the moon can let it all out and be itself. Both the moon and Cancer deal with emotion, and so when the moon is in Cancer its qualities are even more exaggerated. While the moon is in Cancer it triggers empathy, sensitivity, nurturing, emotional recall, and intuition. During this time, you may find yourself not just feeling deeper, but sensing deeper, and acting on these feelings.
What’s coming
New Moon in Libra—October 10, 2026 Libra is all about balance and this one is focused on balanced relationships. It will be impacted by Venus going retrograde in Scorpio, meaning it will be time for some introspection and honesty in the realm of love and intimacy.
Full Moon in Taurus—October 26, 2026 This Hunter’s Moon is giving major seasonal harvest energy. Time for grounding and letting go of everything that is keeping you from getting comfy-cozy and ready for a relaxing fall.
Next Crone Moon in Leo—November 1, 2026 Dia de los Muertos! What a day to review our old selves and let go of all the outdated personas we have worn like the day before’s Halloween costume. It is a time for self-review, and it asks us to align what we make visible to the world with our true self.
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 my Beetlejuice Tarot Deck by Abigail Larson and Casey Gilly.
It is October, y’all, and Spooky Season has officially begun. Beetlejuice is one of my favorite movies from childhood. Tim Burton is just my speed for horror. Creepy, absurd, smart, humorous—but no gratuitous violence. The visuals of this movie as well as the soundtrack always send me to my happy place. I love that there is a deck that captures the scenes, themes, and feelings of the original movie.
It’s Showtime!
Now on to Our Reading
What to Celebrate: King of Pentacles Reversed
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?
Nope. This card isn’t Michael Jackson’s creepy smiling face at the end of Thriller.
It’s Maxie Dean. Charles Deetz’s business idol. He is the ultimate symbol of aggressive capitalism and hollow commercialism. After moving away from New York to escape the rat race and relax in the country, Charles still can’t leave it all behind. Delia pleads for people to come visit them, and eventually Maxie Dean relents. When he shows up for dinner, the group starts making plans to exploit the ghosts of the Maitlands for profit. Things go sideways, and Beetlejuice steps in with his iconic antics.
The King of Pentacles is the archetype of grounded material success and leadership. It is the pinnacle of material accomplishment which makes it well matched to Maxie Dean’s wealthy 1980s business mogul energy.
Here, we see the card reversed. Typically a reversed King of Pentacles is about loss of success. However, with Maxie Dean’s face on it? I think it is telling us to celebrate where we have rejected the Maxie Dean lifestyle and version of success.
This is particularly poignant to reflect upon during the Cancer Crone Moon. Let’s think about where we have actively chosen to focus on emotions, family, or another nurturing activity rather than the bottom line. This Crone Moon we are asked to celebrate the times we have chosen people over profit.
What to Examine: Ten of Wands
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.
Here is a depiction of the scene when we first meet Otho, Delia Deetz’s decorator, sycophant, and medium. As the Deetzes move into the Maitlands’ home, Otho climbs through the front window instead of using the front door. You’ve heard of getting your foot in the door for a new opportunity—Otho takes it to the extreme and puts his bright red loafer through the window instead. He struggles, needs help, and pulls down the curtains as he slowly gets upright. Apparently using the front door was bad luck, or really, it was just too mundane for someone as fabulous as Otho.
I find this an interesting choice for the Ten of Wands picture as Tens generally represent completion, and this is the very first glimpse we get of this character. I’d have probably made it an Ace of Wands image myself. Why? Wands are fiery action energy. And Otho is the spark that sets chaos in motion in the house, in the family, and in the seance that nearly re-kills the Maitlands and brings Beetlejuice out to play.
The Ten of Wands is traditionally depicted as a man with ten heavy sticks that he is carrying and about to set down. It is burden, extra responsibility, and completion of hard work. Otho does not know the meaning of any of these things. Rather than over-work, he is the embodiment of over-reach. He takes up too much space, meddles in things he doesn’t understand, and carries an overinflated sense of expertise.
So how does this relate to what we should examine? Maybe it points to the times that we have overcomplicated things or stuck our nose (or body) into places we don’t belong.
In light of the Crone Moon in Cancer, I find it interesting that Otho is forcing himself into a house, the place that symbolizes nurturing and emotional stability. Are we working too hard to find our way to our emotional home? Are we looking for peace in a place where we are not meant to be? Maybe the next time we feel the need to shove our bright red loafer in the door to keep it open, or even worse through the window to be “original,” we should pause and make sure it is where we will find true belonging.
What to Release: Ten of Swords Reversed
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.
Here we see Lydia Deetz in a large black hat and mourning veil. Talk about it being difficult to see in the darkness! Lydia is such a cute little goth girly. With classic lines like “I myself am strange and unusual,” “My whole life is a darkroom. One big, dark room,” and “I am utterly alone.” She is full of teenage angst, and Tim Burton takes it to an absurdly macabre extreme.
Again, we have a ten for this card, signifying completion. Swords represent the mind, and the Ten of Swords traditionally is a picture of someone lying dead on the ground with ten swords in their back. Betrayal, victimization, abject failure. Lydia blames no one for her feelings, but otherwise this image of someone lying dead full of swords does capture the emotional feel of her words and aesthetic.
But! This card is reversed. So, we can imagine the swords sliding out of the back or in Lydia’s case the veil that had clouded her vision lifting. Maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem.
Also, the energy of the moon in Cancer is deeply nostalgic. Are we nostalgic for the pain we once went through? Are we stuck in the “dark room” or too focused on being “utterly alone”? The reversal of this card in the release position shows us that the pain is over. It is time to take off our mourning clothes and heal.
The Threshold: The World 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.
Here we see the long hallway in the bureaucratic building Tim Burton imagines as the afterlife. The floors are black and white checked and uneven, the doors contain infinite possibilities, and you get a very liminal feeling just looking at it. The threshold card is literally a picture of a threshold between life and death (the hallway) that is full of thresholds (the doors) to other potential worlds and realities. Pretty cool.
The sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, opens up in this hallway. It has definite significance for the director and as the backbone of the entire world that is built in the movies. I love that it showed up for our threshold card.
The World card typically signifies completion of a large life cycle, achievement, or wholeness. But here, it is reversed. It gives a sense of getting stuck in outdated patterns. A sense of trying to move on but being “close but not quite.”
The Crone Moon in Cancer fell on the same day that Venus went retrograde in Scorpio. So not only are we thinking about emotional thresholds, but also we are reviewing deep hidden feelings. No wonder we are being asked to walk this threshold full of thresholds just a little bit longer.
The Maitlands and countless other ghosts only go to these hallways when they are trying to handle their unfinished business. Where is your unfinished business? We can’t move forward with new intentions until we wrap up our old ones.
Intention: Page of Cups 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.
When the Maitlands are with their caseworker, Juno, a team of young football players appears in her office. They are confused and think that she is their coach. It is clear to everyone except the football players that they died in a bus crash and that their coach lived. As dark as that sounds, it is a very comedic scene. The players are goofy and completely oblivious to their situation. So oblivious that one even asks about curfew.
The Page of Cups is traditionally portrayed as a young child holding a cup with fish. It is innocence and pure emotion. I typically think of it as representing a young boy—so a whole football team of young boys is just extra. And since it is reversed, we see that it could be escapism, ignoring intuition, or emotional immaturity.
As Cancer rules emotions and intuition, it is worth checking in with ourselves about where we have been emotionally oblivious before trying to set intentions for our next steps. Are we worried about curfew and the big game when we should really be worried about the bus that just blindsided us?
Let’s make sure we aren’t trying to get “coach” to put us “in the game” that we aren’t meant to be playing.
The Crone Speaks: Ten of Pentacles Reversed
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 don’t know why I didn’t realize it until I was an adult, but Maitland Hardware, the store that Adam and Barbara Maitland were driving home from when they died—was their store! They died on staycation. They brought their work on vacation with them (home renovations), they couldn’t stay away from the office, and they died. What Ten of Pentacles reversed energy, huh?
Ten of Pentacles is about legacy, wealth, and material stability. Pentacles are also about health. When it is reversed that long-term stability and abundance becomes shaky. The entire plot of the movie gives big Ten of Pentacles energy. The Maitlands built up abundance through hard work, they lost their health and their home abruptly, and they fought to maintain their legacy, property, and ultimately their home.
This hits home (pun very much intended) during a Cancer Crone Moon. Cancer is that feeling of home, belonging, and emotional stability. The Maitlands spend the whole movie trying to keep their home in the material sense. They want the Deetzes out and for the house to remain the same. But it can’t, and it won’t. Eventually, they learn this lesson. They redefine legacy and family. Their legacy is no longer the structure and contents of the house or their relationship with each other. It is who is in the house as the Deetzes, especially Lydia, become their chosen family.
The Crone is telling us we’ve worked hard, we are nearing the end of a chapter, but we can’t quite close it because we are viewing it upside down and backwards. To close it, let’s shift from what we did to who we did it for and why.
Putting It All Together
Several things jumped out at me about this month’s reading. Five of the six cards are about completing cycles—1 King, 3 tens, and The World. Five of the cards are reversed. The only one that wasn’t asked us to examine where we were carrying too much. The only non-completion card is the Page of Cups, which is about new emotional beginnings. BUT it is in the intention position AND it is reversed—warning us to not set any intentions until we figure out what game we are really supposed to be playing.
This spread is screaming at me that we have endings that we have not yet accepted and that we cannot move forward until we do the work to accept them.
Even the deck itself seems to be giving this energy. It is based on a movie full of ghosts who don’t know (or won’t accept) that their story has ended. The Maitlands want to keep on “living” in their house as it was. The football team doesn’t realize it is dead. And we never even spoke of the star of the show, Beetlejuice. He is a “bio-exorcist.” His whole deal in the afterlife is taking advantage of these ghosts with unfinished business to try and wreak havoc among those whose stories are not yet over (the living).
The spread is pretty even between the suits, but it starts and ends with pentacles, both of them completion cards. We start out celebrating that we have chosen people over profit and we end reflecting on the people and why we did whatever we just completed.
All of this makes sense in light of the Cancer Crone Moon. We’ve been putting the concrete results and actions first, and we can’t figure out why nothing feels quite right. We can only move forward once we recenter ourselves on our why and on the people who matter the most to us. Otherwise, we will keep turning ourselves upside down and backwards and continuing to haunt chapters of our lives that are already over.
Speaking of haunting, our next Crone Moon is on Dia de los Muertos, November 1st, and it is in Leo. We will touch base again then to celebrate all you accomplish this month and to use Leo’s energy for a more in-depth analysis of our crone journey.
Journal Prompts
The crone does not assign homework. But if you want to go deeper, here are some questions worth sitting with.
What chapter of your life is already over that you’re still haunting?
What would your life look like if you redefined success the way the Maitlands redefined home?
Think about something you worked hard on this year. Who were you really doing it for, and do they know?
Are there any cards that spoke to you? Tell me in the comments.
The content on Crone Powers is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice. I am a doctor, but I AM NOT YOUR DOCTOR. Always consult your medical and mental health professionals before ADDING—NEVER SUBSTITUTING—spiritual modalities to your care. Remember, woo only works when you do the work.
The views and opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent those of my employer or any institution with which I am affiliated.