CHAPTER 1
The ReawakenedMoonGoddess
For thousands of years, the Moon has attracted the fascinated gaze of humanityand evoked many myths, legends, and dreams. It was appropriate that the ruptureof spatial planetary barriers should be achieved by the physical landing on theMoon. The solar impulse for outward expansion and exploration had resulted inthe technological progress necessary to enter space, and on 9:18 BST, July 20,1969, the Eagle lunar module from the aptly named Apollo 11 mission safelydescended onto an area named the Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong reputedlyspoke those famous words during the first Moon walk: "That's one small step forman, one giant leap for mankind." Within an hour of the landing of the Eaglemodule, a Russian spacecraft, Luna 15, crash-landed into the Sea of Crises.Those two areas of Tranquility and Crises symbolize the ambivalence of humanresponse to the influence of the Moon and the mutability of emotional balance.
While the planetary Moon appeared impervious to the intrusion, the correspondinginner Moon within the depths of consciousness proved more responsive to a humanpresence in outer space. A membrane, or veil, had been penetrated; humankind hadbroken free of planetary restrictions. By leaving Earth and looking back ontheir home world slowly revolving in space, the astronauts provided a moreinclusive vision of the universe. The Moon mission produced a powerfulphotographic image of Earth as one planet spinning in space. This visual symbolof our planetary reality reminds us of the One World and One Human Family,potentially dissolving limiting concepts of national barriers and racialantagonisms. This photograph of Gaia's beauty symbolizes an important humanturning point.
Lifting the spatial veil simultaneously opened an inner channel within thecollective psyche, which has grown ever wider since 1969. This involves arebirth of the inner Moon influence, so that balance can be restored betweenpositive and affirming lunar qualities and those now-imbalanced solar attitudesand tendencies which threaten planetary health.
As ancient matriarchal cultures faded and were replaced by patriarchalhierarchies, the lunar principle retreated further into the collectiveunconscious mind, away from the more dominating and aggressive solar masculineattitudes and values. Over the centuries, the Great Mother has become secondaryto the cultural power of the Father God, resulting in a devaluing and denial ofthe virtues of the feminine principle. Male fears of a resurgence of femininepower have often resulted in purges of those holding pagan beliefs, andChristianity has often sought to repress heretical matriarchal attitudes byabusing social power and using physical violence. The infamous witch trials andinquisitions provide evidence of great intolerance and are an ineradicable stainon the Church's expression of Christ's teachings.
Through the domination of masculine assertive and exploitative attitudes, theintellectual mind has reconditioned cultural worldviews so that rationality hasgained ascendancy over instinct, intuition, and feelings. Inner connections topersonal depths and to the vitality of natural life have withered away duringcenturies of patriarchal power. While this has helped to bring about certainmajor advances, such as the expansion of scientific knowledge and technology, weare now arriving at the point where a new way needs to be discovered before whatwas once beneficial to human progress becomes increasingly destructive to humanand planetary life.
Since the 1960s, the influence of the reawakened Goddess, symbolized by theastrological Moon, has been gathering strength once more. We live in a time whenthe value of instincts, emotions, feelings, irrationality, connectedness, andnurturing needs to be rediscovered and expressed within the collective mind. Weneed the vitalizing energy of the Moon Goddess to renew human spiritual needs,so that heart values may exert a more powerful role again, and so the importanceof unfolding individual potential may be acknowledged as necessary to the well-beingof society.
Signs of this intensifying shift in collective inner needs have been apparent inthe growth of the New Age, Alternative Culture, and Self-Help movements, whichattempt to introduce new attitudes and visions within all spheres of life in aneffort to revitalize and transform unfulfilling lifestyles. Since the inner MoonGoddess was reawakened, there has been a rapid growth in demands for personaland planetary nurturing. The emphasis has changed toward satisfying inner needsby creating a better quality of life, often through pursuing the various pathsof greater self-understanding.
For many women responding to the call of the Goddess, this shift has been feltthrough the growing influence of the Women's Movement, which allows for a fullerexpression of the feminist spirit. The social assertion of feminine power bydeveloping political awareness and within women's solidarity and consciousness-raisinggroups has been vitally important in starting a movement toward greatersocial integration and balance.
In Western societies, the role of women has grown again in importance, andlunar-influenced life-styles are becoming socially acceptable. We see this inemerging preferences for health foods, vegetarianism, complementary and holistichealth approaches, natural living, more awareness in child raising, naturalchildbirth, and an increasing female role in politics, work, business, andartistic creativity. One major movement now focuses attention on planetarynurturing, the need for careful ecological policies that avoid disrupting theEarth's delicate ecosystem. Ecological concerns are now internationallyrecognized; we are finally awakening to the responsibility and challenge of ourpotential to either destroy or heal the only home we have.
In the more spiritual realms, old, fading traditions are being reborn. Themysteries of Albion and the Celtic peoples are experiencing a popularresurgence, as many realize that a more pagan worldview matches their preferredperception of life. Wicca, or modern witchcraft, is similarly reinvigorated asthe Goddess calls her own back to serve her, and older shamanic traditions, withtheir emphasis on the attunement of nature and mediation between levels ofreality are now fashionable and appeal to many. Certain aspects of thesecontemporary needs are looked at in chapters 9 and 10, especially the potentialintegration of masculine and feminine principles.
Many people now feel the need for inner inquiry, and spiritual searches andoccult investigations are pursued internationally. The doors to the inner questhave been opened, and meditation paths (especially those of the Westerntraditions) are leading toward the depths of our inner natures and the realms ofthe Goddess, where we can reintegrate our repressed feminine principle and beginto embrace a latent wholeness. Modern psychology, and particularly the Jungianapproach, teaches us to acknowledge all levels of our being, to honor ourfeelings and instincts, and to release emotional pressures and tensions whichdamage and limit our potential and well-being.
This book gives an astrological perspective on certain aspects of thisreawakened Moon Goddess. Through a greater understanding of personal connectionsto our inner Moon, we can discover ways in which we can better integrate thefeminine principle. This aids our self-development, but also has a beneficialcollective influence, helping to heal unnecessary social divisions within thecollective psyche.
If we choose to consciously explore and examine ourselves through theperspective of a Moon-focused astrological interpretation, we may discover somesurprising and valuable insights into our unique personal mystery. Moon messagescan be transmitted through astrology in a way which can be quite direct. It ishoped that every reader will discover much of real value through reading thisbook, within its comprehensive astrological approach to the powerful Moonpresence active within each psyche.
We have a responsibility to invoke the inner Goddess and to allow herfertilizing power to transform us and our world. Through this invocation, we canestablish communicative channels between our conscious and unconscious minds.Reawakened, the moonlight shines within the darkness of the unconscious andillumines the paths of the Underworld. Following this way leads to a greathealing. Through walking it for ourselves, we share in the task of worldhealing.
CHAPTER 2
Invocation-DeaLuna, Deus Lunus,The Mythic Moon
Day after day, the ancients looked to the heavens above, watching the movementof the great orb of light as it rose at dawn and fell again at twilight. Nightafter night, they watched as another light cast illumination into thesurrounding darkness, as mysterious shadows evoked fears of attack and animalnoises eerily echoed in the distance.
Soon they realized that, while one light in the sky was constant, blazing downand giving light to the day, the orb of night passed through mysterious andmagical changes, apparently appearing and disappearing in a cyclic pattern. Theyobserved these changes and, as time passed, watched the varying positions in thesky from which the lights would appear. They felt subtle changes occurringwithin their bodies, emotions, and minds and intuited that the heavenly lightsand stars were influencing them. Slowly, an early formulation of the laterHermetic axiom, "As above, so below," was conceived and the ancient wisdom ofstarlore emerged into human consciousness.
In the mysterious and dangerous world that they inhabited, our ancestors feltthat the lights in the sky were like eyes watching their every move. They wereawed by this presence and reverential feelings arose. They knew that, in someway, their lives depended on the rising of the Sun each day and the coming ofthe moonlight at night. The lights became sacred objects and worship, ritual,and propitiatory sacrifices were developed as means of ensuring heavenlygoodwill. The Sun became identified as the King of Day, the God of Light; theMoon became known as the Queen of Night, the Goddess of Darkness.
The sources of astrology lie shrouded in the mists of antiquity, but, eventoday, we still look up at the same Sun, Moon, and stars, and will do so untilall human life passes away on Earth. These are constants in human experienceacross time and generations, transcending cultures and national barriers.
The ancients studied the heavens, often measuring the linear progression ofcyclic time by the transiting movements of Sun and Moon, sometimes using stonespositioned to indicate times of the year when seeds for crops could besuccessfully planted, or times when important religious rituals should beperformed. The soli-lunar cycles became calendars and systems to organize timewithin cultures.
The rhythmic Moon pattern was especially useful as a model, defining the seven-dayweek and the twenty-eight-day lunar month. The average duration of humanpregnancy, from conception to birth, is equivalent to ten lunar months (fortyweeks). The twenty-eight-day Moon cycle is related to the female menstrualcycle. Modern research has shown that the female monthly period is more likelyto occur at either the New Moon or the Full Moon than at other times. It islikely that, in the past, women were probably more synchronized to the Moon'slunation cycle than they are in today's era of chemical contraception andinterference with instinctive physiological patterns.
The Moon's rapid transits through the heavens and the fact that it is "shape-shifting,"even vanishing from physical sight during the "dark of the Moon," ledour ancestors to believe that certain actions, thoughts, and functions shouldnot be indulged in during certain phases, for fear of displeasing the Goddess.Certain phases were associated with the shedding of blood during a woman'smenstrual cycle and, through concepts of "uncleanliness," physical contact withwomen was often culturally prohibited. The shape-shifting qualities of womenduring pregnancy implied an affinity with the Moon and so, in most cultures, theMoon became identified with the Goddess and with feminine principles. Womenbecame priestesses of the Moon, which was perceived to be the source of life onEarth, a heavenly gateway similar to the physical gateway symbolized by thefemale sexual role.
To both ancient and modern people, looking into the sky from Earth gives theoptical illusion that the Sun and the Moon are of a comparable size. In fact, wenow know that this is just a visual impression created by the difference intheir respective distances from Earth. In reality, the vast difference in massof the Sun (four hundred times larger than the Moon) is optically nullified bythe Moon being four hundred times nearer to the Earth.
As befits a heavenly influence that is associated with fertility, the Moon hasgenerated a vast array of goddesses and gods which appear as powerfulmythological figures in many of the older religious traditions of bygonecultures. The image of the Magna Dea (the Great Mother) has cast her shadowacross the world, and it is only in relatively recent centuries that herinfluence has waned as the solar influence became more dominant in humanconsciousness. Yet it often goes unrecognized that the later solar religions,like Christianity and Islam, have deep roots in previous lunar religions andthat, in many cases, the solar traditions, myths, and legends are derived frommore ancient Moon myths, simply replacing the matriarchal Mother with apatriarchal and masculine Father-God image. It is significant, for instance,that a major symbol of Islam is the crescent Moon.
The Moon was adopted in ancient times as the heavenly symbol of the feminineprinciple in life. She was perceived as the Great Universal Mother, the femaleaspect of Deity. The Moon became the mythological source and progenitrix of allancient cults which were related to issues of growth and fertility. In thissense, she became Mother Nature and was appealed to through worship for theblessing of crops and to ensure abundant harvests, because failure of the foodsupply meant starvation and death.
The Goddess was the Divine Nurturer and Nourisher of life, the one who gave formto the seed of life which was implanted in the womb of nature and woman by theFather-God. She became the patroness of agriculture and childbirth, whosebeneficent presence and light was indispensible for growth to occur. As we know,the Moon influences plant growth, tides, and body fluids, and the sidereal lunarmonth corresponds with the female menstrual cycle. Observing these things, theancients began to perceive the Moon's cycle as reflecting natural phases offertility, birth, growth, and eventual decay and death. The Goddess began to berecognized as both a giver of life and a wielder of the destructive powers ofnature, embodying both light and dark faces within her divine countenance.
The crescent Moon symbolizes the waxing phase and is associated with the cycleof growth and fertility, because it is at this point the Moon has had the mosttime to grow. In ancient times, the waxing Moon was considered to be a heavenlyparallel to the swelling stomach of pregnant women. The New Moon (theconjunction of Sun and Moon) signals the best time to plant crops, and wasconsidered to be an apt time for male and female sexual intercourse. In manyolder languages, the words for Moon and menstruation are closely linked—mens(Latin) is also the root for "mind" and "mental": the mind shares the proclivityof the Moon for change.
Moon myths touch extremely archaic traditions and resonate deep psychic chords,embracing various evocative archetypal themes which penetrate the creationmysteries of ourselves and nature. All worship of the Goddess involves arelationship with less tangible, subtle powers. It concerns spiritual influencesor qualities, explorations of instinctive wisdom, and attempts to attain atonenesswith the greater Self. Awakening the inner Moon restores the power ofSophia, Queen of Heaven, and unlocks the wisdom inherent in the building blocksof life and encoded within our DNA.
Reflections of this inner oneness are noted within the concepts of sacred,virgin Moon Goddesses found in the origins of many religious faiths. The word"virgin" did not have the same connotations in ancient times as it has today; itdid not mean a person who had no experience of sexual intercourse, but rathersomeone autonomous, who submitted only to the real ruler of the inner nature bysurrendering to the hidden divinity. Effectively, a virgin was a person who hadbecome transformed by contacting the light of the God or Goddess, Deus Lunus,Dea Luna.
