Gods and Myths
Every 29.5 days The Moon disappears, hidden by the Earth from the Sun. Slowly the Moon emerges from the Earth's shadow, grows into the magnificent orb that is a full Moon and then slowly disappears back into The Earth's shadow, it vanishes and the whole cycle to starts again. It is not surprising that our ancestors on this planet came to see this as the birth and death of the Moon.
The sight of the enormous silver orb in its monthly transit from light to darkness has inevitably given rise to stories of life and death, fertility creation and harvest, hope and despair.
Over the millennia the Moon has aquired many personalities and become the subject of countless myths as mankind has tried to puzzle out what it is and means. |
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| Coatlicue, the Aztec god who gave birth to the Moon and stars |
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The Book of the Moon lists the Moon's gods and goddesses, and describes who they were and how they fit into the local mythology. The chapter includes charts and short accounts of the many fascinating stories explaining the Moon's creation.
The chapter is an absorbing reference to the identity of the moon gods, where they come from and their stories. |
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Thoth entering souls into the list of the after life
Wall carving, Egypt, 2000 BC |
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| Thoth is the god of the Moon and wisdom. His images are to be found in sculpture, stone reliefs and wall paintings from 3000BC to the end of Egyptian history in 400 AD. Writing about him is to be found in pyramid texts and coffin texts. He was born from the head of the god Seth. He is depicted variously as part human part ibis, all ibis or as a seated baboon. He wears a crown of a crescent moon surmounted by a moon disc. Generally benign as the scribe of the gods he is responsible for entering the record of the souls who pass into the after-life. He is the inventor of arts and science and the master of magic. If angered he will decapitate the adversaries of truth and tear out their hearts. |
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