The Moon has inspired mankind throughout the ages. Countless poems and songs - and romantic legends - have revolved around the Moon. Animals are inspired by the Moon, too. Why is this? Why, for instance, do coyotes and wolves and dogs howl at the full moon?
There is a close connection between the Moon Goddess and canines; in the way ancient times, before time was even counted as we count it today, canines were associated with death and the Passing Over of the dead to the Next World. Canines were carrion eaters, along with vultures and crows. The carrion eaters performed an important function - they picked the bones of the dead clean of putrefying flesh, thus rendering the bones fit for burial and memorial. This is the logical reason why canines, vultures and crows have, since the most ancient times, been associated with death and primeval goddesses of death, birth and resurrection.
As the Sun was associated with life, the Moon was associated with death and rebirth; but the Moon is also with life, since from the most ancient times onward it was associated with the rhythyms of menstruation, and menstruation, a uniquely feminine physiological event, was associated with the creation of Life. Blood was death, but it was also a symbol for life in menstruating women, the bearers of New Life. Thus, the dual notion of symbolism in blood - and the dual notion of symbolism in the Moon.
In most cultures, the Sun was considered masculine and the Moon was considered feminine, the Mate of the Sun. Actually, the Sun was the Mate of the Moon, for it was the Moon that controlled the tides and controlled the menstrual cycles of women in close societies. To this day, scientists continue to study why it is that women who work together in offices, for instance, seem to "shift" their menstrual cycles so that they all happen relatively close together. They think it might have something to do with phemerones - but who really knows for sure, heh?
Tonight, after a long hard day of whacking at weeds, cutting down unwanted seedling trees and pruning what seemed like endless branches from shrubs and trees, I'm pooped! And for some reason, I'm thinking about the Moon. There's no moon in the sky, leastwise, that I can see.
But I was thinking about this wonderful old song, "I'll Be Seeing You," and it's punchline lyrics about the Moon:
...I'll be seeing you
In every lovely, summer's day
And everything that's bright and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But Ill be seeing you.
So I see a connection between the Sun, a lovely summer's day and a warm, summer night with a full Moon shimmering in the sky after all...
A few interesting tidbits about the Moon Goddess:
From Barbara Walker's "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:"
Chaldean
"Moon worshippers," a common name for Mesopotamian astrologers who studied the movements of the moon in relation to the stars.(1) Because the magic powers of the Chaldeans commanded respect nearly everywhere in the ancient world, biblical writers made abraham a Chaldean (Genesis 121:28).. The same name wa still being applied to astrologers and wizards in the 15th century A.D. (2)
Notes:
(1) Briffault 2, 600.
(2) Lea unabridged, 772.
Ch'ang-O
(This is the Goddess that got me to thinking many Moons ago, har!, that chess had something to do with the Goddess...) Chinese Moon-goddess, sole keeper of the ambrosia of immortality (menstrual blood). Her husband, the Excellent Archer, became intensely jealous of her monopoly of life-magic and quarreled with her. So she left him, as Lilith left Adam, and went to live in the moon forever, dispensing her precious elixir to women only.(1)
Notes:
(1) Larousse, 383.
There is also a new article available online (by subscription only) at the American Journal of Achaeology:
Issue 112.3 (July, 2008)
Moon Over Pyrgi: Catha, an Etruscan Lunar Goddess?
Nancy T. de Grummond
(Image: American Journal of Archaeology: Terracotta head of a deity from Pyrgi (Leukothea? Catha?), fourth century B.C.E. Rome, Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia (courtesy Università di Roma La Sapienza, Pyrgi Excavations).
Terracotta head of a deity from Pyrgi Relatively little has been written about Etruscan deities of the moon. This article explores the imagery of Etruscan lunar divinities and argues for recognition of a moon goddess at Pyrgi named Catha. A group of antefixes long recognized as astral or cosmic, from the 20-celled building in the Etruscan sanctuary at Pyrgi, includes a female figure with two horses, proposed here as an image of Catha. The paper considers implications for the cult of Catha at Pyrgi as consort of the sun god Śuri and as a goddess of the sea and the moon, perhaps associated with childbirth.
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