Moon Symbolism in Western Culture
The philosophies, symbols, and concepts associated with the Moon have been evolving since people have had the thought to look up at the night sky. While the moon has remained mostly unchanged, our relationship with her is ever in flux. Many symbolic associations with the moon have their origins with practices and beliefs which date back to the dawn of western civilization in Sumner.
The Moon as Timekeeper
The earliest lunar calendars date back to around 32,000 BCE. These calendars were made up of straight or crescent-shaped lines carved into animal bones. The sets of marks were often represented in a serpentine pattern, suggesting an association with snakes or rivers.
A lunar calendar is also depicted in the Lascaux caves in France. These caves are the location of some of the earliest cave paintings in existence, depicting over 600 images of animals and people and are estimated to be 15,000 years old.
Later developing civilizations, including the Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used lunar calendars. The Jewish and Muslim calendars are also lunar. These cultures not only used the moon to track the passage of time but to plan their religious and civil ceremonies and rituals.
The Moon as Female
Since much of western European culture evolved from Greco-Roman, most people today associate the moon with femininity and female lunar deities. However, in earlier cultures such as the Sumerian and the ancient Egyptian, lunar deities are almost exclusively male. It has been theorized that this association comes from ancient times when humans lived in societies based on hunting-gathering. For those societies, the moon played a vital role in survival. Hunter-gatherer societies traveled at night by the light of the moon and used it to help them track animal herds. They also used it to track time and predict tides. As such the moon was of primary importance. As society transitioned from hunting and gathering to become more agrarian, the sun began to play a more important role in survival. This was reflected in this spiritual worship, by prescribing the more prominent and important celestial body with what was considered the more desirable gender.
The change back to associating the moon with the female gender became prominent during Greco-Roman times. The Latin word for the moon was "men", a masculine conjugation of the root "me" meaning to measure. However, later in both Greek and Roman, the word for "moon" changed from "men" to "Selene" a Greek word with a female ending meaning blaze of flame, and "luna" a Latin word with a female ending meaning light. Homer even used "mene" the feminine version of "men" in his writing. As such, the gender of the moon changed not only on a cultural but also a linguistic level.
The association of the moon with female energy could have also arisen because the lunar cycle and a woman's menstrual cycle are roughly equal in length- 28 days. The terms "menstruation" and "menses" come from Latin and Greek words meaning month (mensis) and moon (mene). Because of the historic association of the moon with menstruation, it also holds a deep and ancient association with blood and blood magic.
(a lot more on this topic in a separate post)
The Moon as Hidden, Secret, and Intuitive Passive Power
The moon and the sun are often seen as a pair of opposites. The sun rules the day and is associated with direct action. The moon rules the night and is associated with stillness and passive power. This dichotomy is illustrated in the first and second major arcana tarot cards, The Magician and The High Priestess.
The Magician represents the sun. He has total control over his environment because he puts his knowledge into action. He balances the elements and uses all of his tools to remain in perfect alignment with the divine. He is depicted in the Raider Waite deck in a state of action, one hand pointed to the heavens and the other to the earth below "as above so below", before him are all of the tools of the magician at his disposal: the cup, the wand, the staff, and the pentacles. He is the master of his destiny.
The High Priestess has total control over her environment because she uses her knowledge in perfect stillness. Stillness does not mean to imply weakness or meekness. On the contrary, it exemplifies a great source of strength. She represents the stillness that is needed to attain enlightenment. A great deal has been written on the immense power of stillness. In Waite's deck, she is represented seated between two pillars, the book of knowledge laying open on her lap. She is the doorway to hidden things and secret knowledge, the voice of intuition. As Waite says, "when he [man] reads the Law she gives the Divine meaning".
The Moon and Silver
Because the light of the sun is bright, and the moon pale, the Ancient Egyptians associated the sun with gold and the moon with silver. The Ancient Egyptians also believed that their Gods were made from precious metals, their bones from silver, and their flesh from gold. Their hair was made from lapis lazuli. Ancient Egyptian texts give precise descriptions of different deities, although they can also change their appearance to suit their own will.
Other ancient cultures also associated gold with the sun and silver with the moon. For example, the Inca considered gold to be the sweat of the sun, and silver the tears of the moon.
Medieval alchemists worked with silver as one of their seven metals (gold, silver, mercury, copper, lead, iron & tin) and associated it with the moon.
The light of the moon has been described as silvery by many writers and poets, including in one of my favorite poems
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun."The Song of Wandering Aengus" by W. B. Yeats
Crystals and Precious Stones
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) was a German scholar and occultist. He wrote the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, which continue to be highly influential to practitioners of Ceremonial Magic and students of the occult to this day.
In his First Book on Occult Philosophy (CHAPTER XXIV. What things are Lunary or under the power of the Moon) Cornelius Agrippa wrote that the following are associated with or under the power of the Moon,
"Amongst Metals, Silver; amongst stones, Crystall, the Silver Marcasite, and all those stones that are White, and Green. Also the stone Selenites, Lunary, shining from a white body, with a yellow brightness, imitating the motion of the Moon, having in it the figure of the Moon which daily increaseth, or decreaseth as doth the Moon. Also Pearls, which are generated in shels of fishes from the droppings of Water, also the Berill."
Crystal likely refers to Crystal Quartz. Silver Marcasite is polished pyrite which is black and highly reflective. Selenite is a common type of gypsum that resembles silver moon rays. Berill may be Beryl varieties of which include emerald and aquamarine.
As Agrippa states, any crystals or gemstones which resemble the moon in their appearance are associated with lunar energy. This could be through their color by being white, yellow, or shiny like the moon, or stones in shades of blue and green like the ocean. The two stones that we have already discussed as being related to the moon through mythology are lapis lazuli, selenite, and moonstone, which all fit this description.
Since the moon was such an important symbol to our ancient ancestors, most ancient cultures associated stones or crystals with the moon. Their choice of stone or crystal was likely partly due to the appearance of the stone or crystal and was further limited by the type of resources that each culture had available in their geographic region.
For example, the Pomo Indian Tribe, which inhabited the Clear Lake area of Northern California associate "Moon Tears", now more commonly called Lake County Diamonds, with the moon. One legend states that these crystals were shed as tears by the Moon, crying over her forbidden love of a young chieftain. This stone is not a diamond, but a beautiful, clear, and hard piece of volcanic glass. Moon Tears were used in burial rituals by the Pomo Indians, placed on burial mounds to protect against dark spirits.
The Moon as Cycle, Change, Transformation, and Metamorphosis
The moon represents the sacred cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. It is the story of every hero who has entered the underworld and returned transformed.
This cycle is also a reference to the Hero's Journey. The Hero's Journey refers to stories or myths with a specific framework: a hero leaves his home and embarks on a journey, during which he overcomes obstacles and is transformed, and then returns home to share his newfound wisdom. This framework is also analogous to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
This framework can be found in stories all around the world, it's explored in detail in the famous Joseph Campbell book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
The cycles of the moon represent the stages of the hero's journey. Starting with the crescent moon representing the birth of the hero. As the moon grows in the sky, so does a young hero mature and grow. The full moon marking the beginning of the hero's journey. The Black Moon is the obstacle, the journey into the shadows, or the world of the dead. After which the hero emerges once more, reborn.
The Moon as source of Madness, Illusion, and Jealousy
Lunacy, an antiquated word for mental illness, comes from the Latin word "lunaticus" meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck". It originally referred to illness believed to have been caused by the moon, like madness, epilepsy, and fevers among others.
In Nonnus, Dionysiaca a 5th Century Greek epic, Dionysos was being chased out of Thebes by Pentheus, a mortal man. Dionysis calls out to Selene who replies and drives his enemies mad with hallucinations.
"Night-illuminating Dionysos, friend of plants, comrade of Mene (the Moon), look to your grapes; my concern is the mystic rites of Bakkhos (Bacchus), for the earth ripens the offspring of your plants when it receives the dewy sparkles of unresting Selene… With you I will attack your enemies. Equally with Bakkhos I rule distracted madness. I am the Bakkhic Mene, not alone because in heaven I turn the months, but because I command madness and excite lunacy. I will not leave unpunished earthly violence against you."
The Moon and Water
The moon has a very close association with water. Human beings have long observed that tides are the highest on the Full and New moon. In Greek mythology, Dew is one of the daughters of Selene and has a mystical power to nourish plants and animals.