NEW MOON AND THE MOTHER ARCHETYPE
A New Moon can be associated with birth and nurturance. It is a symbol of conception, of containment, of holding, of waiting, of gestation, of bringing forth, and of release. As the moon orbits between earth and sun, it becomes completely encircled by the sun’s aura, embraced in the sun’s light. This, it can be a symbol of how life begins with the merging of sperm and egg; of how the embryo is embraced, contained in the mother’s womb; of how a seed is held, nourished in the soil of earth; of how a new idea is conceived and gestates in our mind.

The Greatest Mystery

At the New Moon, for three and a half days each month, the night sky is dark. No moon is to be seen, only stars flicker in the deep black heavens. Ancient peoples revered the mystery of these nights of darkness. The disappearance of the moon heralds notions of something happening out of sight, something hiding in the dark, something waiting to come out. Fearing unseen dangers, they maintained watch and lit fires to frighten predatory animals and keep the night spirits at bay.

But goddess-worshipping women understood the dark New Moon to symbolize a greater mystery: that of conception, gestation, and birth. It was a time for prophecy, a time of new beginnings. A new energy is being born. Because a woman’s menstrual period mimics the 28-day lunar cycle, it has been called her “moon-time” and when a woman’s moon-blood disappears for a time, like a New Moon gone into seclusion, she knows she is incubating new life. Traditionally, the New Moon is a time of fertility rites; a time for the sowing of seed; and a time for starting new projects.

When the moon is in its New phase, it is positioned between the earth and the sun so that it becomes invisible to earth. Occasionally, however, a thin slice of moon may be glimpsed in the western sky just after sunset, or in the east just before sunrise. This sliver of moon signals the emergence of a new arrival. Metaphorically, it recalls the first green shoot sprouting, or the first cry of the newborn infant as it is released from its womb containment. The Mother archetype begins the cycle of our creative spiritual evolution because she ushers in our newborn self and personifies the life-giving potential of our maturity.

CRESCENT MOON- PHASE AND THE MAIDEN ARCHETYPE
Following the dark nights of New Moon, a sparkling Crescent appears near the western horizon, briefly, after sunset. Its fleeting appearance suggests something of a transitory nature-- it peeks into the world and quickly draws back into hiding. In this way, the Crescent moon mirrors a shy girl’s smile; it reflects an ingénue flirting with grown-up possibilities.

At times, in the darkening dusk sky, an ephemeral waxing Crescent moon dances with a single diamond-bright star-- the planet Venus, also known as the evening Wishing Star. This is a spectacle breathtaking in its purity, simplicity, and delicacy. It symbolizes the Maiden archetype in her most enchanting guise.

The Debut of Maidenhood

Hidden within the earth’s shadow, the Crescent moon presents a tantalizing vision. In this instant, something awakens, winking and sparkling with pristine energy. A secret is being revealed. A teasing finger beckons us to follow into adventures of the imagination. A lantern, lit by the Psyche in our soul, reveals unblemished beauty and promises of happily ever after. Just so, the Maiden goddess teases, beckons, and promises to bring pure magic into our lives.

Like a little girl, peeking shyly around her mother’s skirts, the Crescent moon clings close to the horizon. Like the prepubescent girl, impishly playing at hide and seek, the moon mischievously winks at earth, then disappears. Like the adolescent girl, audaciously pretending to be the woman she has not yet become, the Crescent is but a partial reflection of its evolving full-lighted moon-self.

Coming out of hiding each month, the Crescent moon mirrors a Maiden’s first tentative excursions into public on her own initiative. Demure, yet bold, a maiden will make her debut unrestrained by considerations of propriety, and unaware of her effect on those who observe her. Just so, in the ancient moon-lore of astrological and esoteric mysteries, the waxing Crescent phase represents a time of instinctive, youthful, unconscious, and irrepressible activity.

At this stage of a cycle, we tend not to distinguish accurately between our wishes, dreams, or desires and the realities of the external world. It is a phase of self-determined realities, untouched by worldly limits, uncorrupted by conventional judgments. It marks an early stage of consciousness, when the spirit is not yet free, but is unencumbered; when personal values and desires take precedence.

The enigmatic Crescent moon represents opening, budding, promised individual beauty, which is not yet fully formed. Likewise, the Maiden archetype constellates a girl’s new-found delight in her physical and emotional sensitivities, which are yet to be formed and integrated with her conscious identity. Instinctive, subjective, self-centered impulses guide her actions. Constellating themes of innocence, vulnerability, playfulness, and curiosity in a girl’s developing sexual identity, the Maiden teaches lessons about emergence, nascent experimentation, initiation into the mysteries of puberty and adolescence.

FIRST HALF-MOON AND THE WILDWOMAN ARCHETYPE
Metaphysically speaking, the First Quarter moon represents a “crisis in action.” This is a time for breaking free of past restrictions; a time when dissatisfaction with what has been prompts dynamic action toward some form of radical change. One week after New Moon, the moon, at its First Quarter phase, has moved “ahead of the sun (in astrological terms) by about ninety degrees, so that it rises around noon when the sun is at its zenith. It can be seen hovering, translucent, in a clear daylight sky through the afternoon, and marks the early night sky with its half-circle of light.

Releasing the Energy of Life

Looking something like half of a cracked eggshell, or an opened cocoon, the First Quarter moon represents the organic, primeval Wildwoman in our lives. Something is broken open, released from captivity. There is evidence of an instinctive movement outward toward freedom. It speaks of radical action that is visceral, coming from the gut. It harbors dynamic energy directed, without premeditative purpose, for the sake of transformation, survival, evolution.

Such images testify vehemently for our inner Wild Self, the part of us that clamors to be unshackled. It is a fierce energy of bloody, pulsing, throbbing moodiness. It is a cry to be seen, heard, counted, and reckoned worthy by means of the spirits innate vigor. The Wildwoman awakens the primal voice in us, the voice of basic instinct-- the cry of life itself.

Although such energy isn’t limited to one lunar phase, we can observe a rising of impatience, and increase in tempo, a kind of urgency to “do something crazy” when the waxing moon is at half-light. The symbolic form of a half-moon suggests something of hunger and a desire for completion. This, too, is in the mode of the Wildwoman within, who is ever seeking, watching, waiting for something un-named, but vital, something crucial for her survival. She’s on the prowl, on edge, alert, animated, easily aroused, readily turned-on. She is a disruptive force in our lives that prompts us to take chances, to upset the status quo, to make something happen.

The First Quarter moon has been likened to the phase of women’s menstrual cycle when the level of estrogen hormone peaks. The hormone, estrogen, arouses emotional sensitivity and heightens responsively to sensory impressions from the environment. It prepares a woman for receptivity, but doesn’t yet trigger the urge to unite. In a woman’s sexual cycle, this presages fertility, and is a time when she is preparing to attract a mate, but is still self-focused, still self-contained, cautious. Archetypically, the Wildwoman is about self-expression, rather than about relationship with others, even though her actions frequently incite other’s reactions.

An Animal Alertness

At the First Quarter phase of a cycle, the possibility of becoming entrapped by our past, of being held back by old commitments or old ways of thinking, can spark an alarm in us that arouses energy for taking flight-- for breaking free. The Wildwoman generally takes flight for her survival, rather than standing to fight. (Fighting is the mode of her opposite sister on the wheel, Last Quarter moon, Warrior.)

Although the Wild Woman is capable of violent fury, able to viciously attack if cornered, she prefers more subtle means of self-defense. Rarely meek or passive, she is akin to the animals of the wilds, who prefer to be about their living without much ado, to be uninterrupted in their sensual pursuits of eating, mating, playing, resting. When menaced by predators or perilous events, most wild animals simply withdraw to hide until the danger has passed, or when attacked directly, they flee. Our inner Wildwoman does likewise.

GIBBOUS MOON AND THE MUSE ARCHETYPE
The Gibbous phase, just prior to Full Moon,-- the “brimming cup” phase-- represents the archetype, Muse, because at this stage the moon is fulfilling her promise, gradually achieving her full radiance. Hope rises, enthusiasm bubbles forth, excitement gathers as energy builds toward a peak experience. Nearing a culmination, this phase of a cycle propels us forward toward our goals; the sense of growth instills confidence, the anticipation of reward rouses determination to succeed.

In this phase, traditional metaphysical concepts teach that focus turns to the process of personal growth, to finding meaning and purpose in life, to contributing in a creative way to society, to seeking constructive answers to problems, and to throwing light on questions we pose about ourselves and our world.# The Muse facilitates all such processes in our lives, as she guides us into the realms of soulful imagination and creative intellect.

A Cornucopia of Inspiration

By observing the repeated shape-changing of the moon through its monthly cycles, our ancient ancestors gave birth to imagination. The moon’s rhythmic phases of light and dark, growth and decline, increase and decrease, seemed to reflect patterns the people observed enacted in their own lives. In making these connections, people gained the power to perceive life imaginally-- not simply living in the present and recalling the past, but anticipating and predicting future developments as well. Through such repetitious observation, grew a trust in the continuity of life. And, from that, arose the ability to plan ahead-- to imagine.

Thus, the moon, in her circling refrain, has a central role in the evolution of human creativity. Likewise, from women’s holy cycles pour forth an endless stream of innovative, imaginative, inspired soul-creations. Archeological discoveries, some from as early as 40,000 BC, attest that the great Art of Numbers (mathematics, calendars, calculators, computers) derived from women counting the daily progress of the moon through the heavens, correlating this with their own monthly cycles, and with the growth cycles of crops, the fertility cycles of animals.# Women’s inventions grew from daily necessity-- from observing the cycles of the seasons and from knowledge of the lunar cycle as it corresponded with their own menstrual cycle.

Counting days, marking the phases of the moon, planting seeds and harvesting grains, making fire to cook and to keep warm or to provide protection from wild animals-- Stone Age Woman learned to tap the inspiration of the Muse goddess-- to call upon her own creative imagination for the sustainment of life. In so doing, she learned about the joys of accomplishment, the ecstasy of concentrated thinking that evokes a greater understanding of life and brings forth new worlds. She learned also to share the fruits of her efforts with others, and together, she and her sisters, daughters, sons and lovers created a peaceful civilization that endured, with little evidence of corruption, for nearly twenty-thousand years.

The Holy Lunar Chalice

In a sense, Muse energy infuses every lunar phase, since the entire cycle describes ever-evolving creative energy. The moon stands for the eternal sacred vessel of feminine mystery-power, forever filling and emptying-- the Womb of Woman-- which is the first and essential, chalice, crucible, or Holy Grail.

Each lunar phase holds out an image of the holy cup of feminine sexuality, in both its light and dark aspects. The legendary Quest, Grail, Sword, and Crown are ancient symbols for the lunar cycle of increase, fulfillment, decline, and regeneration. Sex is the beginning and end of all vital processes-- it imbues every act of creation, pervades every deed of destruction, instills every measure of relationship. And, at the heart of all sexual meanings lie the feminine moon-blood mysteries, for the womb is the container of all human hopes and dreams, it holds the secrets of all past and future life, it is the object of our never-ending quest for happiness. Thus, the Muse in Woman is ever the source of inspiration for mankind’s creativity, and from the crucible of Woman’s sexual essence, Man draws the energy for Life.

FULL MOON AND THE LOVER ARCHETYPE
At Full Moon, the eyes of heaven-- the sun and moon-- hover directly across from each other, balanced on opposite sides of the earth. As Earth floats between them, bathed in their magnetic radiance, she responds with all her senses. Her waters rise and her mountains tremble, stretching to touch the opposing powers of day and night. The moon’s full globe mirrors the light of the sun, filling the night with an inscrutable mystique, and all on Earth are seduced.

In the Full Moon’s ethereal gleam, all creatures become charmed or alarmed. Around Earth’s globe, creatures become magnetized by their aroused passions. Anger flares. Fights break out. Lust overflows. Lovers make out. Mountain goats rut. Wolves howl. Wildcats prowl. And, our pet doggies and kitties frustrated growl at the moon. Everyone is somehow turned-on, tuned-in, beamed-up, or carried away with heightened, hyped, hypnotic energy.

The Full Moon is used to allegorize great concepts, such as Beauty, Magnetism, Magic, Wholeness, Centrality, Balance, Awakening, Opening, Madness, Intensity, and Love. Like moonbeams penetrating the dark of night, the lore of Full Moon covers a lot of ground. Its symbols mark both light and shadow. To the ancients, the Full Moon was a time of great magical power and good fortune.

To be “moon-touched” or “moon-struck” meant you were chosen by the Goddess for special favor. A woman was considered most fortunate if she wed, gave birth, or conceived under a full moon. When the old Moon Goddess religions were overtaken, their words were changed to denote craziness.

Originally “lunatics” were those blessed by the spirit of Luna, and “mania” referred to ecstatic revelations. Nowadays, the full moon is fabled to arouse madness (lunacy) in humans and animals alike. Lovers are said to “moon” over each other and fall “madly” in love under a full Moon. Vampires and werewolves reputedly stalk under cover of its shadows. When the moon is full, police precincts, mental institutions, department stores, hospitals, and schools report a rise in rates of crime or violent irrational activity. Indeed, erotic energy, creative imagination, mystical phenomena, and violence all seem to be stimulated by the rays of a Full Moon.

A High-Point of Balance, and A Mirror

Yet, above it all, the moon in its fullness has ever symbolized the Lover. In our circle of feminine archetypes, the Lover finds her place, naturally, at the apex of the cycle. We’ve traveled halfway around the wheel at this point. Thus far, we have focused on the inner experience of erotic creative spiritual growth. From here we look outward, to relationships with the world and other people. The Lover walks between self and other, bridging our innermost personal dreams and our intimate interpersonal connections.

According to ancient astrological wisdom, the Full Moon phase is a point of awakened consciousness.# Our eyes are opened and we see what stands before us. We relate to that which lies outside of us. We reach forth to connect, to touch, to embrace the Other. The task now is to create balance between personal fulfillment and the needs of relationship. During this phase of any cycle, we learn about ourselves through our interactions with others. We gaze into the mirror of relating, and see ourselves reflected in others’ faces and lives.

It is often a time when, in order to like our self better, we idealize or idolize another for qualities we don’t yet see in ourselves. The sun illuminates the moon’s opalescent pearl, while the sun’s own brilliance is veiled in Luna’s diaphanous mirror. In the same way, seeing beauty in our partner helps us perceive the beauty in ourselves. The Full Moon’s paradoxical messages is simply that, while we must look outside of ourselves to see it, all the beauty we seek exists in our own soul. Until we learn to embrace our own soul, we won’t find fulfillment in our relationship with others.

The Goddess of Love Holds the Full Moon in Her Arms

The Roman goddess of love, Venus, was known as Aphrodite in the Greek pantheon. But Aphrodite is much older and more complex than the Roman goddess. Aphrodite’s symbolism goes much deeper than simple romantic love and sexual pleasure. Although she can manifest in these matters, Aphrodite has more to do with a profound sensuality that connects us to the earth and with the wisdom of sacred sexuality. She can be a volcanic destructive force in our lives, when her energies are stifled or forced to express in un-natural ways. Ultimately, Venus-Aphrodite represents the larger body of sexual essence which under-girds everything we experience. She is the guardian of our physical senses-- enabling us to enjoy life by means of seeing, touching, smelling, hearing and tasting the world around us.

However she is named, the goddess of sexual desire, erotic love, and natural beauty is the central figure around which nearly all mythical themes develop. Thus, the Lover appropriately holds center stage in our pageant of female archetypes, for she embraces the crowning Full Moon phase of feminine power. The Lover goddess holds the Full Moon in her arms. She is not so much the source of our many-faceted experience of love, as she is the bearer of the lamp of desire that lights our libido.

DISSEMINATING MOON AND THE COMPANION ARCHETYPE
After the moon has reached fullness, it begins to wane in size, gradually shaving off slices of light from its flank, and appearing at a later hour in the heavens. The Disseminating moon rises shortly after the sun has gone down. She remains strong in light, large in form, but she’s slightly misshapen, a bit off-kilter, like a ball pressed on one side, a balloon losing air, a tire going flat-- like the fit forms of youthful beauty grown well-rounded, but less shapely, in matron hood.

Lending Our Light To Others

I have selected the Disseminating Moon to represent the archetype of the Companion, because both appear to give up part of themselves to something else. More exactly, both Disseminating moon and Companion archetype remain whole, but lend a portion of their light, contribute part of their energy, to something outside of themselves. For the Companion, that something else involves commitment to a relationship, investment into a community, or dedication to a cause which is spiritually , philosophically, or politically inclusive of other people’s concerns. Personally, it requires willing involvement of our time and energy in the needs and interests of those outside our private world.

The moon always presents nearly the same side of itself to Earth, but, depending on the relative positions of the two bodies to the sun, the moon’s brilliance fluctuates. In the Disseminating phase, she covers her head in the shawl of Earth’s shadow, gradually veiling her face, like a modest matronly dame.

When we share our power, in the style of the Companion archetype, we contribute to external relationships by deflecting or deflating the importance of our own wishes. Yet, like the moon, which always keeps one side of itself out of Earth’s view, the Companion retains a private self-counsel that reinforces her strength, affirms her own values, and retains control of her choices. In the manner of the Disseminating moon, the Companion always remains autonomous-- whole-in-herself-- regardless how she appears to others.

The Season of Fruitfulness and Distribution

At this stage of the cycle, we are no longer content to satisfy only ourselves. We feel the need to share with others. Having tasted the feast of wholeness at the Full Moon, now we long to distribute the wealth of our experience among others. According to astrological lore, the Disseminating moon phase is a time for telling our story, sharing our experience, bringing our gifts out into the world in order to benefit others as well as ourselves. By joining, uniting, merging, and reflecting our knowledge and experience, we accept our share of the responsibility in other’s lives-- be they personal friends, family and acquaintances, or the world community at large.

In the vegetation cycle, the Disseminating phase marks the season of fruitfulness and fertility. This is the time when a plant produces its fruit, part of which is given away for other’s consumption, and part of which is kept to seed the next generation of its own kind. So also, in the Companion’s realm of our lives, we obey the command to “be fruitful and multiply.”

Here, we open ourselves, spill out the seeds of our experience to generate new growth in projects, plans, and people’s lives. This is not a giving up of self, not a sacrifice of personal power, but a joining of power with others for the greater enhancement of all. It involves letting go of some personal gratification, giving away or sharing with another, setting our own desires aside in order to allow another’s pleasure prominence. It requires a delicate balance between asking and offering, between taking and giving.

Possibly more than any other skill, successful Companionhood requires conversational ability-- not only to speak intelligently, but to listen well, to communicate clearly and effectively, while hearing others accurately. In order to do this, we must be able to set part of our ego aside and make room for differences to exist between us and others. We create space in our awareness for what others see, want, or need. We join our energy with that of others to fertilize and fructify, to bring things to life, to co-create a viable, sustainable, generative and productive civilization.

In Losing Face, Women May Still Gain Power

Paradoxically, as the moon begins to wane in the heavens, it gains symbolic power. Whereas the waxing moon rises faint in daytime, before sunset; at its waning, the moon rises after sunset in the night sky and holds command of the heavens. In the waning moon’s dewy cool dark, plants process solar energy collected during daylight and grow. When the sun has set, the waning moon rises to sustain and transmute the light. So also, the Companion, while standing out of the limelight in order to share responsibility with others, becomes strengthened by her ability to validate, uphold, reflect a shared glory.

In contemporary times, as lunar energy has been overwhelmed by solar interests, the image of woman as Companion has been overlain with the crust of social propriety, cloaked in the sham of male importance, masked by freakish illusions of security. For centuries, women have fought to regain an equal footing with men, and always, what advances were attained in one area, have been swiftly, stealthily removed in another. Women are forever being robbed of our rights, our voices, in the name of the male-god dogmatists-- some of whom are women themselves.

Yet, I am not here to add another voice bemoaning woman’s sad secondary lot in life. I want to cast upon woman, as Companion, a fresh light that shows her power, like the waning moon’s, to be a shining truth beneath the veiled lies of patriarchy. We re-view history as HER-story, to reconstruct the image of Woman and show her authentic place of strength and leadership as equal Companion to Man.

LAST QUARTER MOON AND THE WARRIOR ARCHETYPE
The moon, at its Last Quarter phase, can be said to resemble the blade of a battle ax, or the hoof- print of a warrior’s steed. Sharply hewn down the middle, with its straight-edge cutting toward the right, the Last Quarter moon rises in the depth of night, several hours after sunset. In the early light of dawn, it floats high above, serving a ghostly reminder that while we slept, warriors have continued to wage our battles.

Every night and day, heroines quest to learn the truth, hunters prowl to capture safer sanctuary, rebels revolt to reclaim their stolen lives. The world seems forever on the brink of calamity, and the Warrior’s moon symbol stands guard, reminding us to prepare ourselves for our own daily skirmishes with life.

The Warrior’s Last Quarter moon both contrasts and harmonizes with the passionate fire of her opposite sister, First Quarter Wildwoman moon. While the energy of the waxing quarter-phase promotes and encourages chaos in ecstatic, undirected passion-- the energy of the waning quarter-phase meets chaos and tames it. The Wildwoman’s energy stirs the thrill of struggle in us, raises our hopes for freedom, but it is the Warrior’s energy that confronts the opposition, engages the conflict and wins our liberty.

The Moment of Truth

In the Last Quarter phase, the mission must be completed. This is a phase of rebellion against any remaining vestiges of outworn or useless thought-forms. It is a time of “crisis in consciousness” and a point of revolt against the restraints of old ideas, habits of disbelief, and debilitating doubts. Dark powers are rising to break through and wash away all obstacles to the new vision that has been created for the future.

This, the next-to-last moon period before the beginning of a new cycle, is the time for making our mark. It represents the point, in any creative cycle, when the work comes to culmination. What doesn’t get completed now, won‘t get done in this cycle. Now’s the time for declaring our purpose and taking charge to make things happen.

Whereas, the wisdom of previous lunar phases told us to think before we act, now the Warrior calls us to stop thinking and take action. She commands us to do what we must, and do it now. This is a high-tension, soul-searing, cliff-hanging moment. The pressure is on us to complete what we have started, bring about whatever we have been working toward, find what we have been searching for, or defeat what we have been fighting against. Ultimately, this is the point in any cycle where we either attain our goal or abandon hope.

As when an army commander lines up her troops for battle, we know this is the moment of truth. It is now or never. No more drawing plans, no more reviewing options, no more negotiating. The choices have been made, the direction has been set, there is no turning back. Do or die. What has been debated, deliberated, planned and decided, now faces its final test. Fate has the reigns, the chariot is rolling forward, all we can do is ride and hold on and remember to keep our goal in sight. Pluck and determination will win the day.

BALSAMIC MOON AND THE WISE WOMAN ARCHETYPE
In the wee hours of morning, the darkest hours before dawn, several nights each month a boat-shaped crescent moon floats on the horizon, arriving to carry us to a land of wonder. This is the coolest time of the day, the hours of greatest silence, when we sleep most soundly and dream our deepest dreams.

The Balsamic moon, thus rising shortly before dawn, leads the sun through the day’s transit across the heavens, like the mystical Wise Women of enchanted lands lead men to their destiny across the deep waters of time. The final moon-phase, before returning to New, heralds the long, dark nights of mystery, miracle, and oracle.

Time In-Between Worlds: A Time of Healing

The Balsamic moon-phase, named for a plant known for its soothing balm, is the time of binding our wounds and healing. The Wise Woman is our Healer. Her lessons assure us of life’s return and increase, following its temporary closure and sleep. Death is the special realm of the Wise Woman. The association of Balsamic phase with death causes superstitious souls to fear its dimming light. But, the Wise Woman knows that death is not as dangerous as life. She helps us rejoice in the prospect of a reprieve from earthly struggles; a respite to regenerate our spirits for more life to come.

The Balsamic phase is a period for looking inward, re-assessing, counting blessings and letting go of old grievances. It is a time when we are moved to take stock of our soul, listen to the still quiet voices of intuition, and ponder the riddles of life. This phase is a door “in-between-worlds” that alerts us to see what has been hidden, opens us to hear messages from other-worlds. It is a good time to contemplate our own relationship to the cosmos, connect with universal consciousness, listen to the music of the spheres.

The Arts of Divination and Oracle

Most oracular traditions-- such as astrology, tarot, runes, and scrying-- have their origins in the ageless realm of female psychism, mysticism, and shamanism. Although long degraded, by secular and materialistic interests, into mundane forecasting and fortune-telling, the oracular arts are based on fundamental spiritual wisdom. Their oldest meanings derive from correlating vegetation cycles, lunar phases, seasonal changes and women’s fertility cycles-- esoteric mysteries long associated with the universal rhythms of sex, birth, death, and regeneration.

Symbolism used in occult traditions can be traced to Stone Age cave art, possibly created by shaman-midwives of that era. Many oracular sigils and significations can be found in the oldest artifacts that seem to be “calendars” to track women’s menstrual cycles in synchrony with the moon’s monthly transit through the heavens.

Mystics and priestesses and shamans, in pre-historic ages, correlated their observations of repeated movements of the moon, stars, planets and sun through the sky, with the different phases of growth and decline they experienced in the world around them and in their own bodies. From these correlations grew predictions, and from the predictions, a language of symbolism to describe deeper ideas and feelings about life.

Some of these revelations came to be demonstrated by the manipulation of certain natural objects, like stones and sticks. Later, pictures-- in the form of hieroglyphs or runes-- were inscribed on the stones and sticks. Still later, the symbols appear in the designs of pottery and waving, in temple architecture, and as decoration on burial shrines.

The First Zodiacs, and “Wise-men” Who Were Women

Divination by studying and measuring the movement of moon, stars and planets, originated as an art of priestesses in agrarian lands, who had the job of determining proper times for planting and harvest, and organizing their related rites, ceremonies, and festivities. In Chaldea, where the study of astronomy and astrology became highly refined, astrologers were called “Mathematici,” meaning "learned mothers", which shows us that women had a principal role in the early study of cosmic cycles.

The “wise-men from the East,” said to visit the Christ-child's nativity, would have been just such stargazers from Persia and Chaldea-- and they very likely included women among their number --which would have been more than the three typically depicted in Christmas crèches!

In Western society, the earliest known zodiacs date to the third millennium BCE, in Egypt and the Middle East. They are connected to goddess worship and women’s sexual-spiritual-creative mysteries.

We can imagine that star constellations may have first been named for aspects of a moon-goddess, such as Anatolian Cybele. The symbols of her mythology-- lions, chariot, sheep, shepherd, virgin, vulture, serpent, dove, lily, bull, and tree-of-life-- were very possibly some early symbols used for signs of the zodiac. The name of the Babylonian goddess, Ishtar, means “star,” and the girdle of power she wore (coveted by other deities) was actually the Zodiac, or band of cycling constellations in the heavens. Significantly, in harmony with our wheel of eight phases/ faces of feminine archetypes, the goddess Ishtar’s primary symbol was the eight-pointed star.

Ending is Prelude to Beginning

All cosmic mysteries contain the teaching of cyclic return. Figures of an Egyptian Sky goddess, Nut, found painted inside sarcophagi, overarching an encased mummy, show her body formed of stars. The sun is depicted at her throat, and again at her genitals, to symbolize how the goddess eats the sun each evening and gives birth to it again each morning. Thus we are reminded that, from the earliest times, cosmological secrets were unveiled in Woman’s body and blood cycles.

Now, at the Wise-Woman’s Balsamic moon-phase, we haul in our catch, gather our winnings, cut our losses, tie up loose ends, and prepare for a new round. We go down into our personal underworld, to address our fears. We go inward, into our heart, to assess the condition of our soul. We climb out above ordinary consciousness to meet our higher spirit. And, we sit in our private sanctuary, in silent meditation, to know ourselves "again-- for the first time." We learn, once more, that the circle never closes, but ever opens anew.