by Darmon Richter

Created on: May 12, 2009

The full moon has long been associated with magic, as well as with states of madness and insomnia. We've all heard the old warning, if you stare too long at the moon you will go mad. The link runs so deep in our culture, that we even see it in our language; the words 'lunacy' and 'lunatic' both derive their meanings from associations with Luna, the Roman moon goddess. Stories of lycanthropes, or werewolves, also feed heavily on this link between changing human states and the appearance of a full moon.

The same correspondences can be seen in cultures all around the world; traditional Chinese religions revere the full and new moon as sacred occasions, when they make offerings to their gods. In Slavic mythology, the mischievous god Jarilo was linked with the moon, as his tricks and deceptions drew a parallel with its changing phases. The pagan festival of Esbat is yet another ritual that commemorates the appearance of a full moon.

So, where has this link come from? To understand how the full moon has earned such interpretations, we might first consider how it would have appeared to primitive civilisations.

The moon is the opposite of the sun. While the sun brings light to things, allows vision, and warms us, the moon shines with a light it doesn't share. The moon is by nature dark, and it is the alignment of the dark side of the moon in relation to us that gives the illusion of phases. This darkness might suggest secrecy, and deception, which gives rise to a lot of the associations mentioned above.

It was also noted in many early cultures, though rarely stated explicitly, that the twenty-eight day cycle of the moon's phases bears a similarity to women's menstrual cycles. More often than not, deities ascribed to the moon have been female, usually balanced by a male sun god. Some examples of this are the Thracian goddess Bendis, or Selene and Phoebe in the Greek pantheon. In many of these cultures women were revered as a source of wisdom, and considered more 'in tune' with the spiritual world.

This link between the full moon and the spiritual impulses of humans pervades the Western school of astrology, in which the full moon is generally considered the gateway to the dream world, and linked strongly with the subconscious. Perhaps it was the moon's appearance at night time that formed this association with dreams, or even its gravitational power over water - water traditionally being considered as the element linked with the soul, and hidden aspects of the Self.

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