Lunar
History
Moon
Mythology
TimeLine
TimeLine
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Moon Mythology
"This is the light of the mind, cold
and planetary."
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-Sylvia Plath
The Moon and the Yew Tree |
The urge to explain and understand the world of natural phenomena cannot
properly be seen as particularly scientific, but must be seen, rather,
as generally human. It is well known that long before Copernicus described
his radical and revolutionary picture of a helio-centric universe that
human beings, from around the world, were giving form to the origins,
motions and motives of the vastly complex and depthless sky above them.
Through mythic narratives of super-human heroes and anthropomorphic goddesses
and gods, pre-scientific societies placed order among the cosmos.
The Moon has always held a place of particular fascination in our earthbound
lives, provoking the imagination to escape its limits and, as we look
outwards, moving us towards an understanding of our inner selves, in all
our human complexity. Monuments and shrines have been built to her; calendars
follow her motion; ancient Gods and Goddesses mimic the Moon's gentle
and unending pull on the forces of life. Myths, as Carl Jung has described,
bring us back in touch with ourselves and, to that effect, can never be
replaced by science. In this sense, it would be detrimental to completely
dissolve these mythic narratives into an archaic and unsophisticated past.
Is it not possible, on one hand, to deny the factual accuracy of these
stories while, on the other, appreciating their import in our socio-political
world, to see them as "facts of the mind," which, when projected, take
on a worthwhile reality unto themselves; to understand them, not as the
antitheses of science but, instead, its antecedents; to understand, not
only their dangers, but also their power to free the human imagination,
enabling us to envision new worlds, overcome old boundaries, and eventually
move us all forward to a better understanding of ourselves and the universe
around us.
Stories and Myths
Scandinavia
"The Wolves of Ironwood"
Native American
Pawnee
"Wolf Spirit"
Inuits
"An Arctic Sea Demon"
"A Lesson of Darkness"
Blackfeet
"The Adulterous Moon"
Navajo
"Changing Woman"
Ancient Greece
"Monsters of the Sicilian Sea"
"The Barely Mother"
Ancient Rome
"Fana, the Chaste Maid"
"Diana’s Moon Children"
Chukchi (Siberia)
"The Reindeer Maid"
Pacific Islands
"The seeds of the Aoa"
China
"Chinese Seed-Birds"
"Moon Toads"
India
"A Hare in the Moon"
"The Blood of Creation"
"The Lake of the Moon"
Hottentot (South Africa)
"The origin of the Harelip"
Lithuania
"The Parting of the Sun and Moon"
Germany
"The Tale of Hyuki and Bil (Jack and Jill)"
"The Champion Drinker"
"Mistletoe, the Fruit of the Oak"
"A Man in the Moon"
Algeria
"The First Tears"
Columbia
"Moon Waters"
Wales
"Talesin, Birth of a Poet"
"St. Dwnywen’s Ice"
"Sitting on the Moon"
Denmark
"The Snow Queen"
Great Britain
"Tales of the Oak Spirit"
Nigeria
"A Nigerian Moon Tale"
Burma
"The Magic Pestle"
Calendars
Astronomical calendars are based on the rotation Earth (the day), the revolution
of the Earth around the Sun (the year), and the revolution of the Moon around the
Earth (the month). Things would be much easier if all these cycles were commensurable.
Unfortunately they do not quite jive. Three distinct calendars have arisen out of
this problem: a solar calendar, such as the West's Gregorian calendar, based on the
tropical year. Every four years (leap year) an extra day is added to keep things
on track; a lunar calendar which follows the phases of the moon irrespective of the
tropical year; and a lunar-solar which follows the lunar cycle but has an entire
month added every few years in order to keep in sync with the tropical year.
The Islamic calendar, for example, follows a purely lunar cycle. Over
a period of about thirty-three years, the months slowly regress through
the seasons. Each month begins with the first sliver of the waxing Moon,
although for civil puposes a tabulated calendar is used that approximates
the lunar cycle. The mean length of the month on the civil calendar
is only 2.9 seconds less the than synodic cycle.
To find out more about calendars, check out theses links (please note: these pages
are off-site. NASA is not responsible for their content):
The Celtic Year
The Goddess
Lunar Calendar
Celestial Calendars
Gods & Goddesses
Thoth, Ancient Egypt
Bridgit the Enchantress, Celtic Ireland
Diana, Ancient Rome
Artemis the Divine Archer, Ancient Greece
Shing-Moo, Ancient China
Cybele, the Lioness, Ancient Phrygia
Sinn, Ancient Babylonia
Hecate, the Dark One, Ancient Greece
Lilith, Ancient Sumeria
Khons the forgotten Egyptian, Ancient Egypt
Caridwen, Queen of the Cauldron
Danu, the Good Mother, Ireland
Isis, Mistress of Magic, Ancient Egypt.
Scapegoat of our Darker Nature
Do you think the full moon has some unexplainable effect on our behavior? Early
psychologists had no doubt about the moon's effect on our mental states. The "lunatic,"
(derived from the Latin "luna" or moon) was separated from the chronically insane,
and extra staff was called into the asylums on the full moon. Special allowances
were often made before the full moon. The English laborer Charles Hyde was acquitted
on murder charges on the grounds that he was under the spell of the full moon. The
American Institute for Climatology concluded, "crimes with a strong psychotic motivation,
such as arson, kleptomania, destructive driving, and homicidal alcoholism, all showed
peaks when the Moon was full and that cloudy nights offered no protection against
this trend."
Lycanthropic Metamorphosis
Lycanthropy officailly derives its name from the Greek king Lycaon who was transformed
into a wolf for playing an ill concieved trick on Zeus. Stories of Werewolves bring
out the more sinister aspects of moon-lore. They can be found in cultures from around
the world, but no matter where the stories originate, the full moon has always been
seen as the cause. An Eighteenth Century psychologist describes its effects: "The
desire to run comes upon them. They leave their beds, jump out of a window, and plunge
into a fountain, after the bath, they come out covered with dense fur, walking on
all fours, and commence a raid over fields and meadows, through woods and villages,
biting all beasts and human beings that come their way. At the approach of dawn,
they return to the spring, plunge into it, lose their furry skins, and again regain
their deserted beds."
If you want to find out more about werewolves check out these links (please note:
these pages are off-site. NASA is not responsible for their content):
Temple of Luna
The Werewolf Page
Werewolf Legends of Germany
The Eternal Sanctuary
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