Erasing Memory under the Moon by Seraphim
Earth, and thus our lives upon it, wouldn’t be so magical if it wasn’t for the ‘Moon’. It is the second brightest ‘celestial orb’ that can be viewed from our vantage point here on Earth (the first being the light of the ‘Sun’) and therefore, since ancient times, it has had a great and often profound influence upon human culture, our language, our calendars, much of our mythology, and mysticism, and indeed ‘magic’. It is the Moon’s influence that produces the movement of the ocean tides (as well as the emotional tides that occur within all living entities here on Earth); and ‘She’ has been known by many names. The root of the word ‘Moon’ can be traced back to the Sanskrit word ‘Mon’, which means ‘One who Pleases the Mind’. Just as the ‘Sun’ is considered to represent the human ‘Soul’ (our ‘individuality’), and ‘Earth’ our ‘Body’, it is the ‘Moon’ that is our ‘Mind’ (and memory). The Moon (which is also known by the name ‘Luna’, from the original Latin, a word that will become an important distinction as we tell today’s tale), is the ‘mind in principle’, whilst the satellite we observe orbiting Earth, that we call the Moon, is but the ‘vehicle for the mind principle’, as it works for ‘us’ within this solar system.
Roman beliefs often intrinsically related to the Moon (in fact entire cults, often transposed from ancient Greek practices, were dedicated to the Moon, cults such as that of ‘Dionysus’ (or ‘Bacchus’ to the Roman’s) still exist to this day), and the Roman’s personified the Moon and its ‘energies’ within the Roman goddesses ‘Diana’ and ‘Luna’. To the ancient Greeks, the Moon was both ‘Selene’ (which was also utilised in their Astrology; the name given to the branch of Astrology that deals with charting the Moon’s surface was, and still is, called ‘selenography’), and ‘Artemis’ (the twin sister of ‘Apollo’). To the Norse this Luna energy was ‘Mani’, in ancient Egypt its was ‘Khonsu’, to the Mayan it was both ‘Awilix’ (the Goddess) and ‘Xbalanque’ (a mortal male incarnation), and Indians have many names for the Moon (108 to be precise), but the chief of these was ‘Chandra’ (also known as ‘Soma’), which literally means ‘the shining one’. Much like our previous tale about the Sun, in order to understand what follows, it is essential for the reader to distinguish between the ‘satellite moon’ that orbits Earth, and the ‘Moon’ (which will be referred to as Luna where appropriate, from this point forward), which is chiefly a ‘principle of reflection’. As with all things Astrological, the planetary ‘bodies’ must be distinguished from their defining ‘principle’; the human ‘soul’ functioning through the human ‘body’ is different from the human body itself (and the same is true when we discuss any of the ‘planets’ within Astrology). The story below tells a tale of the ‘significance of the Moon’ – of Luna, and in the main, it really has very little to do with the orb of waxing and waning ‘light’ which orbits around our Earth.
Astrology (and Alchemy) considers the ‘Sun’ to be masculine, the ‘Self’, whilst Luna is the feminine counterpart, ‘the mind of the self’; she is the reflected ‘light’ of the Sun. The Sun supports Luna, and the Moon in turn, supports the Earth. Put another way, the human ‘Mind’ draws support from the ‘Self’, and thus nourishes the ‘Body’ by providing a home for the ‘Self’. These are the three essential ‘centres’ of all esoteric belief, the understanding of which is of great importance. Our human mind receives our ‘thoughts’ from the ‘soul’ and then it reflects them upon this world of ‘matter’, thus we are able to reflect the ‘higher’ onto the ‘lower’, and also have the ability to ‘transform’ the lower into the higher through our minds. When our mind is turned inwards (towards the subconscious), then the ‘objective’ world ceases to exist; instead we open the ‘subjective’ world to our senses. But, when our mind is turned outwards (towards consciousness), it makes the entire objective world ‘visible’. Esoteric thought often describes this through Luna; it is said by many sages (particularly in the East) that when the mind is fully objective then it is in a state called ‘Full Moon’, when it is totally subjective, it is in the ‘New Moon’ state. Western occultism also utilises such an understanding, by working to develop these two states of mind concurrently, such that Luna stands as a gateway between the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ (hu)man. This can be clearly observed within the symbolism of the masonic implement, the ‘compass’. The left leg of a compass represents ‘objectivity’, the right ‘subjectivity’, whilst the head of the compass represents the source of the two, that is, the ’soul’.
So, when we talk about the ‘Moon’, what exactly do we mean? The core ‘meaning’ of the moon is often hard to grasp, and is also rarely fully defined (particularly in the parlance of modern Astrology), such that the ‘idea’ of the Moon remains rather elusive. As we can see from the ancient ‘Gods’ associated with the Moon, there were often ‘two’ of them, and this is because the Moon represents two separate archetypes. The first of these is that of a sort of ‘medium’ (a container if you will), in which ‘energy’ may become ‘manifest’. The second, is that of a ‘matrix’, a source, or origin of all things. The common symbol of the Moon is the crescent shape (facing either left or right), which is much like the edge of a bowl, suggesting the form of a container, something that ‘gives form to’, limits, and thus helps to ‘define’ what is contained within it. This concept is essential to understanding the ‘Moon’, this idea of it providing a surrounding, a location, a place or environment, the very ‘principle’ of a set of circumstances in which ‘something’ may take place and be contained. The Moon is also the planetary archetype of ‘Yin’, and it is the equal of ‘Yang’ (which is the archetype of the Sun). This Yin principle defines the circumstances and conditions under which the Yang ‘energies’ can manifest (The Moon’s Yin ‘nature’ gives place and form to the action of the Sun’s Yang, it is the ‘foundation’ of that which can be experienced as ‘existence’, even though it does not in itself signify ‘action’, like the Sun does, or even ‘experience’; but without it neither of these could exist).