Moon Myths
When people lived with Nature, the changing seasons had a great impact on religious ceremonies.
The Moon was seen as a symbol of the Goddess. Because of this, the light of the Moon was
considered magical, and a source of energy. Wiccans often practice magic at a Full Moon to
tap into this energy thought to exist at this time.
Plutarch once said "Egyptian priests called the Moon the "Mother of the Universe," because
the moon, "having the light which makes moist and pregnant, is promotive of the generation
of living beings.." The Gnostic sect of Naassians believed in a primordial being known as
"the heavenly horn of the moon." The Moon was the Great Mother.
Menos meant "Moon" and "power" to the Greeks. To the Romans, the morality of the Moon
Goddess was above that of the Sun God.
In many cultures the Moon Goddess and the Creatress were the same. Polynesians called the
Creatress Hina, "Moon." She was the first woman, and every woman is a wahine, made in the
image of Hina. Scandinavians sometimes called the Creatress Mardoll, "Moon Shining Over the Sea."
Ashanti people had a generic term used for all their deities, Boshun, meaning Moon.
Sioux Native Americans call the moon The Old Woman Who Never Dies. Iroquois call her
"Eternal One." Rulers in the Eritrean zone of South Africa held the Goddesses name "Moon."
The Gaelic name of the Moon, gealach, came form Gala or Galata, the original Moon-Mother of
Gaelic and Gaulish tribes. Britain used to be called Albion, the milk-white Moon-Goddess. The
Moon was called Metra, which means Mother , "whose love penetrated everywhere."
In the Basque language, the words for deity and moon are the same.
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. The derivative
mania used to mean ecstatic revelation, like lunacy used to mean possession by spirit of Luna,
the Moon. To be Moon-Touched or Moon-Struck meant to be chosen by the Goddess.
When patriarchal thinkers belittled the Goddess, these words came to mean craziness.
Orphic and Pythagorean sect viewed the Moon as the home of the dead, a female gate known
as Yoni. Souls passed through on the way to the paradise fields of the stars. Greeks often located
the Elysian Fields, home of the blessed dead, in the moon. The shoes of Toman senators were
decorated with ivory 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
"visual worship" of the Goddess. That was why the prophet Isaiah denounced the women of
Zion for wearing lunar amulets.
Because the moon was the holder of souls between reincarnations, it sheltered both the dead
and unborn, who were one in the same. If a man dreams 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 have
a daughter.
The Moon Goddess created time, with all its cycles of creation, growth, decline, and destruction.
This 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 priestesses
were responsible for finding the right phase of the moon for every undertaking.
The Moon was to have been 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."
The Moon was supposed to rule life and death as well as the tides. People living on the shores
were convinced that a baby could only be born on an incoming tide and a person could not die
until the tide went out. It was often said birth at a full tide or a full moon means a lucky life.
Girls in Scotland refused to wed on anything but a Full Moon.
Witches invoked their Goddess by "drawing down the Moon." It is said to be a rite dating back
to moon worship in Thessaly, centuries before the Christian era.
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