Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 16:41:15 -0500 From: BARBARA HARRIS Subject: TECH: EXER: Symbols-15A: MOON -- [ From: Barbara Harris * EMC.Ver #2.5.3 ] -- Expanded recipient data: cc: Linda Mansfield \ PRODIGY: (WQVL02A) Hi Y'All, (NOTE: there is so much material on this one, that I'm doing it in two parts... watch for part B in a few days! It will include Tarot's Moon card for those of you who are following the Tarot symbolism .) Today's tech post is on the Moon, an oft romanticized l'il ol' satellite which seems to have been popping it's shiny face into a lot of List work lately. I have a friend who loves to wax poetic about the waning of the moon, and sneers when I (teasingly!) point out that it's *really* just a lifeless chunk of rock without ven any light of it's own . And stuck in a repetitive rut to boot! So... what has the moon symbolized through the ages? What does it mean to *you?* And what can you write about it? Get those fingers typing! And if one of you sci-fi types needs inspiration, I've always wondered what would earth be like if there were NO MOON? Seriously. A question for those scientifically in the know. Would the planet cease to wobble it's way around the sun and instead have a steady path? Would the seasons disappear? Would the tides cease to exist? I've never been very good at science, but this question has puzzled me for some time. I'd love to see someone's depiction of such a possible world. So again, WRITE!!! From: _An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols_ by J.C. Cooper: MOON is usually represented as the feminine power, the Mother Goddess, Queen of Heaven, with the sun as the masculine; exceptions to this are some African and North America Indian tribes, Teutonic, Oceanic, Maori and Japanese symbolism where the moon is the male fertilizing principle. Whether male or female the moon is universally symbolic of the rhythm of cyclic time; universal becoming. The birth, death and resurrection phases of the moon symbolize immortality and eternity, perpetual renewal ; enlightenment. The moon also represents the dark side of Nature, her unseen aspect; the spiritual aspect of light in darkness; inner knowledge; the irrational, intuitional and subjective; human reason as reflected light from the divine sun. It is the eye of the night as the sun is the eye of the day. As periodic re-creation it is Time and measurement, time being first measured by lunar phases, and, as such, the bringer of change, suffering and decay, man's condition on earth; as variable in its phases it symbolizes the realm of becoming. It controls tides, rains, waters, floods and the seasons, hence the span of life. All moon goddesses are controllers of destiny and weavers of fate, and are sometimes depicted as the spider in the centre of its web; the spindle and distaff are also their attributes. The sun and moon depicted together represent the *hieros gamos*, the sacred marriage of heaven and earth, king and queen, gold and silver, etc. The three days of the dark of the moon are the period of descent of the dying god into the underworld, from which, like the moon, he rises again. The full moon signifies wholeness, completion, strength and spiritual power. The half moon is funereal; the waning moon the sinister, demonic aspect, the crescent and waxing moon is light, growth, regeneration. The moon is symbolized pre-eminently by the crescent horns of the cow; it is also the "ship of light on the sea of night." All nocturnal animals, such as the cat and the fox, are lunar, as are animals which appear and disappear, for example, the bear which hibernates and reappears in the spring with a newborn cub; the snail, hare and rabbit, amphibians and everything associated with the waters, swamps and floods. The frog and toad live in the moon, as do, almost universally, the hare and rabbit. Often the toad, or hare, is three-legged, portraying the three lunar phases and past, present, and future. There is also a man in the moon who carries a load of logs as a punishment; Christianity equates him with Cain or Judas Iscariot. A decrepit old man can symbolize the waning moon. Lunar deities are frequently triune, especially as Fates. Trees and various plants are connected with the moon, such as the Hindu soma, the American maize and the South American pachimba palm. Semitic moon gods are associated with trees and bushes. African: Ashang: Time and death; some African tribes associate the moon with a tree; in some tribes the moon is the masculine deity. Alchemic: Luna, silver, is the affections purified; sol and luna are soul and body, gold and silver, king and queen. Amerindian: "The old woman who never dies"; also the "water maiden" with a pitcher of water. Associated with the palm and maize in South America and with a tree in the North. The full moon resembles the light of the Great Spirit, but in some tribes the moon is an evil and malevolent power. Astrology: The animal soul; the seat of sensation; sexual life and impulse. With the sun as the heart and its desires and the element of character, the moon represents the general style of behaviour. Buddhist: Peace, serenity; beauty. The full and new moons are times of strength of spiritual power. The crescent moon is an emblem of Avalokitesvara, Kwan-yin and Kwannon. Also a symbol of unity, the Self. "One moon appears reflected in all waters/Wherein all moons from the One Moon derive." (Yang Chia's "Song of Enlightenment.") The moon and water together represent the unobstructive nature fo the Dharma. Chinese: The essence of the yin, feminine, principle in nature; the passive and transient, but also immortality. The hare in the moon, with pestle and mortar, mixes the elixir of immortality. Christian: The moon with the sun depicted in crucifixion scenes represents the dual nature of Christ. The moon is the abode of the Archangel Gabriel, with Michael in the sun. Egyptian: "The maker of eternity and the creator of everlastingness." The crescent moos is preeminently an attribute of Isis as Queen of Heaven. Thoth is a lunar deity. Eskimo: "The sender of snow." Greek: Assosciated wit the tree. Moira, the moon goddess, was above the gods, and the Moirai, the three Fates, are the power of destiny of the moon. In Orphic symbolism the moon represented the liver, with the heart as the sun of the universe. Hindu: The crescent moon is the newborn babe, quick and eager in growth . It is also the cup of the elixer of immortality and is associated with the plant soma, which yields the sacred draught. Iranian: Venerated as Mah, with Hvare-Khshaeta as the sun. The moon is masculine in both Zend and Pahlevi. Islamic: "The number of years and the measure of time". (Qoran). The Islamic year is lunar. The cloven moon depicts duality in manifestation ultimately returning to unity. The crescent moon, divinity and sovereignty, is a symbol of Islam. The Tree of Life, sometimes represented on Moslem tombs, is usually surmounted by a crescent or full moon. Japanese: The moon is masculine, the god Tsukiyomi, born of the right eye of Izanagi. The hare with the pestle and mortar lives in the moon. Manichean: The moon is Jesus the Splendour, with the sun as Mithra. Maori: "The husband of all women": the Father of god. Mithraic: Luna, in a one-horse chariot, with the Cautopates, is usually depicted on the left in iconography, with Sol, his quadriga and Cautes on the right. Oceanic: The moon is masculine and also symbolizes eternal youth. Scandinavian: Freyja's lunar chariot is drawn by lunar cats. Sumero-Semitic: Sin, the moon deity, is the masculine god of wisdom and the measurer of time. The night of the full moon was a time of prayer, rejoicing and sacrifice. His moon can be portrayed as lying on its back .. Shamanistic: Magic power. Taoist: Truth, "the eye that shines in darkness." The moon is yin, but the sun and moon together are all radiance; supernatural being. Teutonic: The moon is the masculine divine power. ____________________________________________________________ From: _The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets_ by Barbara G. Walker: MOON: "Egyptian priests style the moon the Mother of the Universe," Plutarch said, because the moon, "having the light which makes moist and pregnant, is promotive of the generation of living beings and the fructification of plants." Upper Egypt used to be called Khemennu, "Land of the Moon." In worship of the heavenly bodies, primacy was always assigned to the moon. Babylonians gave the moon precedence over the sun. Oriental nations in general worshipped the moon before the sun . Moses Maimonides said moon worship was the religion of Adam. The Gnostic sect of Naassians believed in a primordial being known as "the heavenly horn of the moon." The moon was the eternal Great Mother. In central Asia it was said the moon is the Goddess's mirror reflecting everything in the world, like the mirror of Maya. Many savages revere the moon more than the sun, reasoning that the Moon -mother gives her light at night, when it is needed, whereas the sun shines only by day. This belief presupposes that sunlight and daylight are not the same, a common ideas among primitives. Writers of the Bible made this same mistake. They said God created "light" (daylight) before the sun and the moon. (Genesis 1:5, 16) Ashanti people had a generic term for all deities, Boshun, "Moon". In the Basque language, the words for "deity" and "moon" were the same. Sioux Indians called the moon "The Old Woman Who Never Dies." Iroquois called her "The Eternal One." Rulers in the Eritrean zone of South Africa bore the Goddess's name, "Moon." Ancient rulers of the Tutsi tribe were named Mwezi, "Moon." The Gaelic name of the moon, gealach, came from Gala or Galata, original Moon-mother of Gaelic and Gaulish tribes. Britain used to be called Albion, the Milk-white Moon-goddess. Persians called the moon Metra (Matra, mother), "whose love penetrated everywhere." The root word for both "moon" and "mind" was the Indo-European manas, mana, or men, representing the Great Mother's "wise blood" in women, governed by the moon. Its derivative mania was used to mean ecstatic revelation, just as lunacy used to mean possession by the spirit of Luna , the moon. To be "moon-touched" or "moon-struck" meant to be chosen by the Goddess; a "moon-calf" was one carried away by love of her. When patriarchal thinkers belittled the Goddess, these words came to mean mere craziness. The moonstruck person was described as "silly", a word that formerly meant "blessed," possibly derived from Selene, the Moon. To the Greeks, menos meant both, "moon" and "power." To the Romans, the morality of the Moon-goddess was superior to that of the Sun-god. Plutarch said, "The effects of the moon are similar to the effects of reason and wisdom, wheras those of the sun appear to be brought about by physical force and violence." In many cultures, the Moon-goddess and the Creatress were one and the same. Polynesians called the Creatress Hina, "Moon." She ws the first woman, and every woman is a wahine, made in the image of Hina. To the Finns, the Creatress was Luonnotar (Luna, the Moon). She brooded over the sea until she brought forth the World Egg, heaven, and earth. Scandinavians sometimes called the Creatress Mardoll, "Moon Shining Over the Sea." The Moon-goddess created time, with all its cycles of creation, growth, decline, and destruction, which is why ancient calendars were based on phases of the moon and menstrual cycles. The moon still determines agricultural work in some parts of India. Indonesian moon preiestesses were responsible for finding the right phase of the moon for every undertaking. The Dayaks prayed to the moon for children, increase of cattle, and abundant crops; they said she was the cause and measurer of time. Greeks said the same of Demeter, whose priests were called Sons of the Moon. Peruvians called the moon either Mama Quilla or Mama Ogllo, sometimes identifying the two as mother and daughter, like Demeter and Kore. Mama Quilla married the sun and gave birth to Mama Ogllo, "Egg," the moon- maiden and her brother the sun-man. These two mated and founded the Inca royal line on the site of Cuzco, "the Navel," in Inca cosmology the center of the world. Because the Moon-goddess was threefold, the Destroyer as well as the Creator, she was the devourer of the dead as well as the giver of life. In Mexico her Destroyer aspect was Mictecaciuatl, who roamed the skies at night, seeking victims to devour. She was called Lady of the Place of the Dead, in appearance like Kali the Destroyer. She was not only the moon but also the All-mother from whose genital hole in the earth humanity crawled in the beginning, and to which humanity would return. The Vedas say all souls return to the moon after death, to be devoured by maternal spirits. Trobriand Islanders spoike of these spirits as "female sorcerers" associated with the moon, eaters of the dead. Maoris called the Moon Mother "man-eater." Tartars of central Asia worshipped the moon as Macha Alla, Queen of Life and Death, said to be an eater of men. Africans said the moon searched for men to devour. Orphic and Pythagorean sects viewed the moon as the home of the dead, a female Gate (yoni) through which souls passed on the way to the paradise -fields of the stars. Greeks often located the Elysian Fields, home of the blessed dead, in the moon. Kastor of Rhodes said the shoes of Roman senators were decorated with ivory lunules (crescents) to show that after death they would inhabit the moon. Roman religion taught that "the souls of the just are purified in the moon." Wearing the crescent was "visible worship" of the Goddess. That was why the prophet Isaiah denounced the women of Zion for wearing lunar amulets (Isaiah 3:18). "The crescent moon worn by Diana and used in the worship of other Goddessses is said to be the Ark or vessel of boat-like shape, symbol of fertility or the the Container of the Germ of all life." The same Ark carried gods, like Osiris, into death/ which may account for Jeremiah's hostility to the Ark's symbolism (Jeremiah 3:16). Semites feared the devouring Old Moon as Hindus feared the devouring of Kalika. Her dual nature may account for the correlation between Semitic ima, "mother," and e-mah, "terror". Superstitious Christians sometimes refused to sleep where moonlight might touch them. According to Roger Bacon, "Many have died from not protecting themselves from the rays of the moon." There was always an association with death: "The idea of the journey to the moon after death is one which has been preserved in the more advanced cultures... It is not difficult to find.. . themes of the moon as the Land of the Dead or the regenerating receptacle of the souls... This is one reason why the moon presides over the formations of organisms, and also over their decomposition." (Gettings) Because the moon was the receptacle of souls between reincarnations, it sheltered both the dead and the unborn, who were one and the same. Believers in prophetic dreams said if a man dreamed of his own image in the moon, he would become the father of a son. If a woman dreamed of her own image in the moon, she would give birth to a daughter. Most important for its association with birth, the moon was supposed to be the receptacle of menstrual blood by which each mother formed the life of her child. This sacer, taboo moon-fluid, kept even the gods alive. The moon was "the cup of the fluid of life immortal, quickening the vegetable realm and whatsoever grows in the sub-lunar sphere, quickening also the immortals on high." Many myths of the moon-journey bore witness to the ancient belief in lunar heavens. Gypsies opposed the Christian savior with their own Romany savior who carried souls to the moon, like Hermes Psychopomp. Strangest of all myths of the moon-journey was one involving Jesus himself. The Digby mystery play of the 16th century quoted "Jesus's hymn to the Moon, his mother, the vessel... in whom he rested before he ascended to the Sun." Peasants in France and Portugal confused Jesus's mother with the Moon- goddess, whom they called "Our Lady" and "Mother of God." Scottish women curtsied to the moon when they saw her, saying, "It is a fine moon , God bless her." In the Loire district, children's rhymes spoke of Madame Moon, giver of babies. A medieval German sect of Cathari worshipped the moon as Heva (Eve), Mother of All Living, an older incarnation of the virgin Mary. Even the orthodox church held that, as Jesus was the second Adam, so Mary was the second Eve; and Mary was associated with both the moon and the sea. As the moon governs the sea's tides, so she was supposed to govern the tides of life and death. Shore dwellers had an ineradicable conviction that a baby can be born only on an incoming tide, and a dying person cannot expire until the tide goes out. As a corollary, it was often said birth at a full tide or a full moon betokens a luck life. The soul may ride the tide in lunar form, according to Caesarius of Heisterback: "The soul is a spiritual substance of spherical nature, like the globe of the moon." Scottish girls refused to schedule a wedding day for any time other than the full moon, the most fortunate time for women. Scandinavian women particularly prized amulets made of silver, the moon metal. The moon was the special deity of women even during the Renaisance, when it was said if a woman wanted anything she should not ask God but should pray instead to the moon. Witches invoked their Goddess by "drawing down the moon," a rite dating back to moon-worshipping Thessaly, centuries before the Christian era. Thessalian priestesses also prefigured "witchcraft" by laying curses with "moon-dew," said to be the first menstrual blood of girls gathered during a lunar eclipse. Medieval folk believe such a curse incurable. St. Augustine and other fathers of the church believed what Virgil said about moon-priestesses, that they could draw down the moon, stop rivers in their courses, turn back the wheel of the stars, or bring trees marching downhill. St. Augustine berated women for dancing "impudently and filthily all the day long upon the days of the new moon." Few religious symbols occurred in so many diverse contexts as symbols of the moon. In the runic menological calendar the moon-sickle stood for the festival of Harvest Home, which the Scots callled Kim -- from Koreion, moon-virgin Kore -- which Christians renamed the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy. In Gaul the crescent moon stood for the druidic Diana. Crescere meant "to grow," a form of Latin creare, to produce, to creat. Hence the crescent. Gauls made communion cakes in crescent shape. Modern France still makes them, and calls them *croissants,* "crescents" , colloquially know as "moon-teeth." The moon ruled the sexuality of women, and sometimes made them scornful of the male-dominated society's notions of hierarchy. An astrological book of 1688 warned: "The double conjunction of Venus and the Moon produces extreme lubricity, brings venereal disease, and causes women of quality to become enamored of menservants." Despite all the church's condemnations, rural folk continued to trust the Moon-mother in all their most important activities. A popular almanac said: "Kill fat swine for bacon about the full moon... Shear sheep at the moon's increase: fell hand timber from the full to the change... ; horses and mares must be put together in the increase of the moon, for foals got in the wane are not accounted strong... ; fruit should be gathered, and cattle gelded, in the wane of the moon." Most of all, the moon always governed magic. Melton said in 1620 that no sorcerer ever drew a circle of protection without observing the time of the moon. _____________________________________________________ Okay... typing hands are tired... and this is long enough for one reading... more on the moon in few days! Love & Light, Barbara -- @)--,--'-- @>-->-->-- @}~~~~~ @)--,--'-- @>-->-->-- @}~~~~~ @)--,--'-- "Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing -- turn out your toes as you walk -- and remember who you are!" Red Queen to Alice "Through the Looking Glass" - Lewis Carroll --'--,--(@ --<--<--<@ ~~~~~{@ --'--,--(@ --<--<--<@ ~~~~~{@ --'--,--(@ Barbara Harris ~ TCZJ32B@Prodigy.com