Magi's Homeland: The Moon

The first characteristic that early humankind observed about the moon was its changing shape. The sun appears the same every day and never fails to rise; the moon, on the other hand, grows larger then smaller and for three nights in every cycle vanishes completely. The apparent death of the moon is not permanent however, for the moon always resurrects herself.

Early humankind understood that the sun gives life; without it things perish. But the moon, they believed, regulates life. Its cycle as a rhythm that seems to establish and govern the rhythms of all life cycles: the tides, the rain, fertility, women's menstrual cycles, plant life. It represented 'becoming' and 'being'. The moon established a unifying pattern for all living things, living and breathing in harmony, existing in an intricate and ineffable web.

The moon's magickal power to regulate life was perceived as early as the Ice Age, long before the discovery of agriculture. The moon as considered an impersonal force or power until 2600 BCE, when it became personified as the 'man in the moon', who, in some beliefs, could incarnate as a king. The man in the moon gave way to gods and goddesses.

Early peoples believed that the moon made all things grow and governed all life-giving moisture. Its changing phases were associated with the coming of rain, as well as the torrents that produced floods. The moon's fertilising power governed not only plants and animals, but human beings as well. It was believed that women who slept beneath the rays of the moon would become impregnated by them. Thus, as early humankind developed cosmogonies and mythologies, the deities associated with water, fertility and fecundity were also associated with the moon.

The earliest symbols of the moon were the spiral, the lightning bolt and the serpent, all of which are associated with change, regeneration and fertility. The spiral relates to the phases of the moon and to the shell, which is a symbol both of water and of the vulva. By way of association, the pearl became one of the earliest amulets used by women to connect to the moon's powers of fertility. Lightning heralds life-giving rain, which is ruled by the moon. The serpent universally represents regeneration and is the giver of all fertility, to man and women.

Other early symbols were animals who seem to personify the moon because they possess lunar characteristics; the snail, which periodically withdraws into its shell; the frog, a widespread fertility and rain symbol, seen by many peoples as living in the moon; the bear, which disappears and reappears on a seasonal basis; and the bull, a fertility symbol whose horns represent the crescent moon.

With the discovery of agriculture and animal husbandry, the lunar cycle became a guide for planting and harvesting crops and the slaughtering of animals. The deities overseeing these activities invariably had lunar associations. Deities ascribed healing functions were also associated with the moon, for the moon was perceived to govern all moisture within the body as well as in the external world. Rites to influence all these aspects were addressed to the moon, and to the moon's representatives in the forms of gods and goddess.

because of the moon's apparent rebirth in the sky every month, the moon became, in many cosmologies, the repository of souls after death. Plutarch, the first-century Greek essayist and biographer, conceived of a lunar waystation for the going and coming of souls. Human beings had two deaths, he said. One occurred on earth, the domain of Demeter, when the body was severed from the mind and soul and returned to dust. The soul and psyche then went to the moon, the domain of Persephone, the queen of the underworld, where a second death took place with the separation of the two. The soul returned to the substance of the moon, where it was able to retain the dreams and memories of the lives that had been lived. The mind meanwhile, went to the sun, where it was absorbed and then gave birth to a new soul. In rebirth, the process was reversed: the sun sent mind to the moon, where it was joined with soul, then travelled to earth to join body and be born anew.

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