The Moon and Goddess Mythology by Angie Skelhorn

All Gods are one God, and all Goddesses are one Goddess, and the names one uses are a matter of choice. Knowledge of Gods and Goddesses helps one choose the energy most appropriate for purpose. In our remote past by calling on the masculine Sun, the feminine Moon and Spirit of Earth, Air, Fire and Water to appeal to that power and that power alone to assist in rituals, one is accessing an energy available.

Friedrich Max Muller, a German born philologist (one versed in the scientific study of our origins) of the nineteenth century, held that early human- beings have experienced an awe of such natural phenomena as fire, wind, sun and moon personified them and began to worship them. The early Greek and Celtic legends provide examples of Muller's theory.

The Greek Goddess Artemis was recognized as the goddess of moon and night. She gradually acquired more and more human attributes, but still retained her original character of representing natural phenomena. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and complementary as the twin sister to Apollo, the God of Sun and day. Artemis was born first and without pain immediately helped her mother with the delivery of her twin brother. Thus, she is known as a goddess of childbirth. She was known to bathe in pools with her nymphs and became the goddess of water and tides and is protectress of fishermen, guardian of harbors. Artemis was thought to exercise a powerful influence over the physical life of women, the lunar cycle of 29 days corresponding to a women's menstrual cycle.

In her youth, wearing a short tonic suitable for running and a silver bow and a quiver of arrows (her silver bow stood for the New Moon, the arrows for the shafts of moonlight) she ran through the wilderness. She loved the chase, especially that of stags. She became to be the goddess of the hunt and protectress of herds from beasts of prey. She is also the goddess of wildlife and the young of all living things. She was quick to take satisfaction for an injury done to her and her maidens and animals. She sent plagues and death among men and animals. The legendary Caledonian hunt, Artemis sent a wild boar to ravage the ancient city S of Aetolia, Greece, as a punishment for not including her in the sacrifice of the first fruits harvest.

Diana, in Roman legend, is the goddess of the moon, of forest, of animals, of women and childbirth. With the slow Christianization of Europe, Diana became identified with, and replaced by, the devil and everything evil. The legend of the Wild Hunt states the Goddess, transformed to the guardian of sorcery flew through the air bathed in enchantment of the Full Moon light on Samhain, All Hallow's eve, leading a nocturnal spree of ghost who destroyed the countryside. Her night train of restless dead riding phantom black horses and dogs, broomsticks, shovels and pitchforks and punishing the lazy and wicked. She rewarded those who left food for them by replenishing what they ate before they left. The Church associated the Goddess deities with evil. Their propaganda sought to destroy the Moon's Divine Force over women. The lunar goddess Artemis (Diana) is closely associated with Selene and Hecate. These are three personalities of one archetype. The Triple Goddess is a virgin-mother-crone goddess.

Selena was a winged, silvery woman who presides over the night skies, flying along in her chariot pulled by shining, winged, white horses, bulls, or cows. She influenced the fertility of all life forms on earth. She rules over New and waxing Moon, a two week period related to new beginnings.

Artemis armed with a silver bow and a quiver of arrows roamed the mountains with thirteen hunting dogs. She serves as the patron goddess of women and witches. She presides over the Full Moon, a seven day period that last from three days before fullness to three days after.

Hecate roamed the earth at night with a pack of hounds and dead souls. She is a destroyer of life. She is the underworld goddess, of fertility and plenty; the queen of the night; ghosts, spirits and other dark and hidden things, the ruler of magic and deep wisdom. Hecate is associated with the dark side of the moon.

In Irish tradition the Triple Goddess is associated with the phases of the moon – waxing, full, waning and the relationship with nature. It is the eternal cycle of becoming and ceasing and becoming again. The fundamental aspect is three goddesses in one. The threefold Goddess consists of: Maid, spring, inspiration, enchantment; Mother, summer, fall, maturity, ripeness; and Crone, winter, wisdom, destiny.

The Goddess Brigit, the maid wears a radiant crown of candles and braided white flowers in her hair. She dressed in a long white robe that flows to the awakening earth. She represents the waxing moon which symbolized by awakening seeds around or just after new moon.

Dana, the Great Mother, wears a crown made of Spring tree twigs as she carries a bouquet of blooming flowers and three leaf grass. She symbolizes the Full Moon as the time for sudden change, opportunities or breakthrough.

The Goddess Morrigan, with wisdom of Death, and Re-birth dressed in the traditional black robe represents the waning and Dark Moon.  This phase is mainly the clearing out. There is a sense of completion and a period of limbo before the new cycle begins.

The Goddess has acquired a thousand faces and a thousand names. The Moon - waxing, full, waning; the Queen of the Heaven is the Goddess - the maid - mother - crone.

Sources:

The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Dictionary of Witchcraft - David Pickering Cassell

Cosmic Connections - Editors at Time life, Time Life Books

Astrology from A to Z - Eleanor Bach, M. Evans & Company, Inc., NY

Author Bio- Angie Skelhorn web site http://witchskel.weebly.com. Her first novel "On The Edge," a must read for all age groups will be released by http://clublighthousepublishing.com in August 2010.