The Moon
The moon in fact, fancy and fiction is so embedded in culture, myth, ancient
religions and astronomy that it is difficult to separate ancient science from
superstition. Clearly in the past, the moon played a predominant role in
society. We should establish a few facts about the moon however, which makes
many of the ancient beliefs more understandable. First off, the lunar cycle is
18.61 years, often rounded to the mystical number 19 so often found in ancient
lore. It takes 3 such cycles for the moon to return to the same starting point,
a period of approximately 56 years. The lunar cycle is also 354 days long,
which falls 11 days short of a solar year, and it's 355th day starts on the
13th month. This is significant, as the majority of ancient cultures once had
lunar calendars, and in the switch to a 12 month solar calendar the additional
"13th" came to be considered taboo.
That the moon was once used to calculate the calendar is fairly obvious,
in that the word "month" literally comes from the old Germanic
"moonth", meaning a moon period. The word moon is also of Germanic
origin, where it was (and still is) Der Mond, referring to a "male"
moon. Infact, in all Indo-European cultures the sun was originally a goddess
and the moon a male god, something that was reversed with the advent of the
patriarchy.
In folklore, we often find "names" associated to the full moon
each month. These are not based on mere fancy, but often refer to a specific
thing, for example in September we find the "Harvest Moon", and due
to a natural fluke in the position of moon and earth, there really is more
moonlight in September then any other month, allowing field workers to work
into the night to bring in the harvest.
Sumer and Babylon
Some of the oldest references to the moon come from ancient Sumer. Here,
the moon god Nanna or Nammar ruled as the supreme deity of measurement and
calendar calculations. The artificial mountain known as the ziggurat was the
"House of Nammar", or the "House of Heaven". Nanna was
often depicted as a white bull who flew through the heavens, an ancient idea
which may have been the origin of the European fairy tale of the "cow who
jumped over the moon". Along with Uru-anna, or Utu the sun god, Nanna was
thought to be ever watchful of human behavior, and would appear at the judgment
of the dead to offer testimony on their behavior. The Babylonian culture that
followed retained many aspects of Sumerian belief. Here Sin was the moon god,
and Shamash the sun. They were said to have been divine twins born from the
great mother serpent, represented in the heavens by the constellation Draco the
dragon whom they called Tiamat and which once contained the pole star many
thousands of years ago. The Babylonians also associated a sacred mountain with
the moon god, and Mt. Sinai was named after him as it served as his sacred
center. The full moon fest, celebrated at Sinai was the Sappatu, which gave
rise to the original Hebrew Sabbath, and which is also the reason why the
Hebrews hold Sinai to be sacred. This should not be a surprise, as the
Babylonians were the ancestors of the Semitic peoples. It is from the
Babylonians that we also have a modern day astronomy term, the Saros. The Saros
is a period of 233 lunations, which equals 6585 and 1.3 days, bringing us to
the calculation of the lunar cycle commonly "rounded off" to 19.
Both the Moslems and Hebrews are descendents of the Babylonians, so it
comes as no surprise that even to this day, both religions still feature a
lunar calendar and count "new days" and holidays as beginning at
nightfall. Like Nanna, in the Old Testament the Hebrew god is often described
as a bull, and the Islamic holy month the Ramadan had it's origin in an ancient
lunar holiday.
"Wake
up, you sleepers! Rouse up, you watchers!
Wake up Horus! May you be manifest at the New Moon,
May the 3 day festival be celebrated for you.
The Great Mooring Post calls to you as Him who stands up and cannot tire
A boon which Anubis grants: The imz-tree shall serve you,
the zizyphus-tree shall bow it's head to you,
you shall circumbulate the sky..."
-Egyptian text
Egypt
In ancient Egypt, there are many references to the moon as being the god
Thoth, the educator, mathematician and inventor of writing. It is believed by scholars
that writing may have been invented by tracking the moon and recording it's
stages. It wasn't until thousands of years later under the prominence of
astrology in the European renaissance, that he came to be associated with
Mercury or Hermes. Sometimes the god of rebirth, the green faced Osiris was
also represented as the moon, and played a role not unlike that of Sumer, whose
moon god Nanna was also depicted as ruling over vegetation.
India
In India, Chandra was the moon god, who was often shown carrying a bow (crescent
moon) and accompanied by a dog. Chandra is also closely connected to the nectar
of immortality, an idea which appears in all Indo-European cultures. Here, the
brew is called Soma, and is a fermented drink made from the white, milky juice
of a plant that grows only on his sacred mountains. Shiva, the god of the
underworld was also associated with the moon, and wore a type of silver horned
ornament on his head which was calling being "moon-crested".
"..one rice ball was thrown by each warrior
into the fire; one for his soul to eat when he was dead; one into the river, to
please the moon who gives to the dead their heavenly bodies; and the third they
gave to their wives, that their families might not die away on Earth." -
Hindu warrior spell
The Hindu's also believed that it was possible for both sun and moon
beams to become solidified, and could be used in elixirs and as amulets. The
idea remains with us today, in sunstones, and the more familiar moonstones.
Greece and Rome
It is from the Greeks that we retain the modern day association of the
moon with a goddess. In a more distant past it is believed, the Greek Apollo
ruled the moon, yet after the rise of patriarchy and role reversal it was said
to be Selene. A goddess driving a chariot of white horses or appearing as a
flying white ewe, she was wooed by both Zeus and Pan, yet she herself loved an
earthly mortal named Endymion. Reminiscent of earlier cultures, Selene placed a
sleeping spell on the human and set him on her sacred mountain, Mt. Latmus
where she could descend each night to kiss him. In a similar tale, a moon
goddess named Cynthia was said to have been born on the sacred mountain Mt.
Cynthius in Delos, which is also later absorbed by the Apollo cult. Like the
Indian Chandra, Cynthia was said to have a sacred cup which contained a magical
brew which could cause the unwary to transform into animals. The ill effects of
the moon, believed until modern times, that could lead to lunatics and
werewolves could well stem from such a belief, as an ancient record from one
exasperated Petronius also links the moon and wolf transformations. He claims
to have witnessed a soldier who "began to converse with the stars in the
moonlight, removed his clothes and turned into a wolf."
The very name of our moon,
Luna, comes from the Roman word lucna, "to shine with light". Like
other cultures, the Romans originally had a lunar calendar, which also featured
monthly periods (Calends/Nones/Ides) which at one time were in sync with the
phases of the moon. Although the Romans typically absorbed deities from many
lands, in Rome itself Diana the goddess of the moon was held in high esteem.
Like the Hindu's, we again see the lunar deity both carry a bow and be
accompanied by canine companions. Diana was considered especially magic, as the
sun god was confined merely to the day, but Diana as the moon could travel by
night or day. Because the cult of Diana was extremely strong in many areas of
Rome, when the Catholic Church performed mass conversions they often assumed
the pagan temples and renamed the existing statues. It is for this reason alone
that the modern Mary can sometimes still be seen depicted as standing on a crescent
moon, the symbol of Diana.
"Jack
and Jill went up the Hill, to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after."
Norse
To the Norse, the sun and moon were the divine twins Sol and Mani, which
remain with us today in our modern words Sun and Moon. Mani, a male moon god,
watched over two small children named Hiuki and Bil, who he rescued from earth.
There they had spent every day laboriously carrying water. Taking them into the
sky, those on earth can still see them every month appearing as the waning and
waxing moon phases, where they continue to exhibit their mysterious control
over earth's water- namely the rise and fall of the tides. Sound familiar? This
tale should, as Hiuki and Bil are the origin of the Germanic folk tale of Jack
and Jill, forever trudging up the same lunar hill.
Ireland/Scotland
In Ireland, the moon played a strong role in myth and religion. The famed
Isle of Mona, last stronghold of the Druids after the Roman invasion was named
after the moon, and shrines at Ulster were called Emain Macha, "land of
the moon". Some folk tales speak of a magical white cow said to appear
sometimes on Beltaine, clearly representing the occurrence of a full moon on
the holiday, which brought good luck to the local herds.
"There is a cow on the mountain, A fair
white cow, She goes east and she goes west,
And my senses have gone for love of her; She goes with the sun and he forgets
to burn,
And the moon turns her face with love to her, My fair white cow of the
mountain." -Old Irish folk song
In Scotland and Ireland, as well as other areas of Europe, archaeologists
have long noted standing stone circles or recumbent stones which were aligned
so that an optical illusion occurred. At many such sites, it could be seen that
at the time of the moon's most northern or southern declination in the sky, the
moon would appear to set into the middle of the circle. This may be the true
meaning of the Wiccan phrase "to draw down the moon".
