oon (kao i njegov prikaz na crtežu Galileja) omogućuje ljudima da razumiju i prate prolazak vremena. Priča djevojčice i Mjeseca prikazuje kako su ljudi kroz generacije svoje živote povezivali s promjenama na Mjesecu. Mjesec je postao simbol ritma i ciklusa vremena, kao i njegove povezanosti s prirodom i životnom stvarnošću. is woven into the story of transformation, the story of time.
The waxing and waning of the Moon was seen in ancient times as the growth and death of a celestial being, which would then be resurrected. It was attributed with powers over birth, fertility, growth, destiny, death, and rebirth. As a giver of life, the Moon was a protector of humans, animals, and plants. Its central significance in religious life is also reflected in numerous megalithic observatories of the Bronze Age. With the advent of agriculture, patriarchal cultures began to dominate in the west, and the powers and stories associated with the Moon were allocated to the Sun or forgotten. Let us acquaint ourselves with the constant drama of the phases of the Moon.
Phases of the Moon
The cycle of the changing appearance of the Moon lasts 30, or more precisely, 29.53 days. During this period, the Moon spends three days completely invisible, as if it has disappeared. In conjunction with the Sun, it is illuminated on the side that we never see from Earth. Only a small illuminated portion of our side of the Moon bezvodno.južno.zadovoljiti.dojučerašnjeg.dana.tamnog i izgubljenog u sjaju Sunčevom. Taj razdoblje poznato je kao tamni Mjesec. Jedini trenutak kada je moguće vidjeti tamni Mjesec je tijekom pomrčine Sunca.
Na kraju trećeg dana, nisko nad zapadnim horizontom, odmah nakon zalaska Sunca u blizini mjesta gdje je zašlo, pojavljuje se tanak srp mladog Mjeseca. U obliku je obrnutog slova C, s trbuščićem koji pokazuje gdje se nalazi Sunce. Tek ponovno se vrativši na nebo, mlađak brzo zalazi, prateći Sunce. Slijedeće večeri u isto vrijeme, Mjesečev srp je malo deblji i pojavljuje se nešto više nad zapadnim horizontom. Iz večeri u večer Mjesečev trbuh postaje puniji, kutna udaljenost od Sunca sve je veća, a Mjesec sve kasnije zalazi.
Tako dolazimo do večeri u kojoj je cijela lijeva polovica Mjeseca osvijetljena, u tzv. fazi prvog kvadranta, a u sumrak Mjesec više nije vidljiv na zapadnoj strani, već na južnoj strani, te ostaje gospodar prvom polovicom noći. Od mlađaka do prvog kvadranta, Mjesec prolazi istim putem kojim će Sunce proći prema gegu. The next three months pass, as if foreshadowing the upcoming season.
In the following week, the Moon continues to wax. Each evening it becomes visible further to the east, with more than half of its face illuminated and it remains present in the night sky. The angle between the Sun and the Moon is now larger than the right angle, increasing by approximately 12˚ or 24 degrees of the Moon’s apparent width each evening. The full Moon is reached when the Moon is in opposition with the Sun. After sunset in the west, it begins to rise above the eastern horizon, remaining illuminated throughout the night and only setting at dawn.
The full Moon is, of course, in that part of the zodiac where the Sun will reside in six months. For example, since the winter Sun travels low, along the southernmost paths, it means that the full Moon in summer will also travel low, along southern paths, staying shorter above the horizon. Conversely, the full Moon around the winter solstice travels along the northernmost paths – just like the Sun during the summer solstice – in the darkest part of the night. uring certain parts of the year, the Moon stays above the horizon for a longer period of time, resembling summer. In spring and autumn, the Moon follows a path near the Sun.
After the full Moon, the illuminated part of the Moon’s face starts to decrease. After sunset, there is no Moon for a while, but when it starts to rise again, its upper or right side becomes darker night after night. A week after following the path, the Moon rises around midnight with its left half illuminated, known as the third quarter, and in the dawn, we can find it in the south.
In the following days, the Moon becomes thinner in a crescent shape resembling the letter C. It rises closer and closer to dawn, progressing through the zodiac sign that the Sun has passed through in the previous three months, serving as a reminder of the time that has passed. Accompanying the morning planets, the thin crescent of the Moon eventually gets lost in the light of dawn, marking the beginning of the dark Moon phase.
The map of the Moon’s surface by Johannes Hevelius from 1647.
Time of the Soul
The ancient Greeks believed that the Moon influenced the human psyche and that its different phases corresponded to various emotional states. The time of the full Moon was considered to be the most powerful and intense, while the disappearance of the Moon during the dark phase was seen as a period of rest and reflection for the soul.
There were two words for life: zoe – infinite, generic, uncharacterized life, and bios – individual, individual, finite life. Zoe was eternal existence that does not die, and bios was the visible realization, manifestation of that eternal life, which lives and dies. Zoe contains bios as the whole contains a part. The philosopher Plotinus called zoe the time of the soul. Zoe is symbolized by a spiral, which allows the renewal of everything, indestructibility in the destructible. In ceremonial wine drinking for Dionysian celebrations, celebrants believed they were participating in the zoe of a god.
The lunar cycle is itself invisible, but it contains all the visible changes – as if the visible emerges and returns to the invisible. Dionysus was originally the god of the Moon, so it is through the vocabulary of Dionysian mysteries that we learn about the dual role of the Moon. The visible lunar changes were thus bios that are born from zoe, the invisible cycle, dies back into zoe and is born again in zoe. The eternal Moon enters time and at the same time surpasses it, and t Oh, it’s actually a transformation of time. Myths about the Moon are mostly based on the difference between these two views of the Moon.
Death and Resurrection of Osiris
The waxing and waning of the Moon in ancient Egypt became part of the myth of the god Osiris, the Lord of the Moon, who was also the Nile, the Moon’s water on Earth. The life, death, and resurrection of Osiris followed the pattern of the Moon’s phases. Osiris married his sister Isis and became the first ruler of Egypt. If he traveled to distant lands to teach tribes, Isis would peacefully rule in his place.
In Sanskrit, “day by day” is said as “night by night,” nicanicam. The Saxon word den (day) originated from “Moon-day.” In the Persian Avesta, days are also counted by nights, and for example, in Polynesia, this is still practiced today. Native Americans, as well as many African and Asian tribes, measured time by nights. Caesar noted that the Celts also spoke about time in terms of nights. The English expression “fortnight” comes from 14 nights. In ancient France, the celebration of the summer
When Osiris was 28 years old, which is the “moon” of life, or the time of entering the darkness of one’s own existence, his brother Seth, wanting to seize the throne, deceitfully imprisoned him in a sarcophagus and threw him into the Nile. The inconsolable Isis tirelessly searched for Osiris until she finally found him dead, like the dark Moon. She revived him with her wings of life, conceived their son Horus, and continued to hide him in the sarcophagus.
Seth went hunting for the full Moon and noticed the living Osiris. This time he killed him by tearing his body into 14 parts, representing the number of nights of the waning Moon. Osiris’ body parts were buried at different ends of Egypt, and thus Egypt became the land of the Moon. Isis searched for her husband again. She would find the remains of his body and reconstruct them. The only part that could not be found was his genitals, so Isis created a substitute and magically brought Osiris back to life. She could not find it, it was a phallus that a fish had swallowed – and so Osiris’ fertility remained hidden in the Nile.
Pliny the Elder (1st century) described the Moon as a “star of breath” that is especially felt by bloodless creatures; thus the Moon increases shells with its waxing, and decreases them with its waning. Plutarch (1st/2nd century) calls the Moon the “planet of water” and says that some bodies expand with the Moon’s waxing and contract with its waning. Scottish Highlanders in the 18th century also spoke of some bodies expanding and others contracting with the phases of the Moon. In the tradition of the Malay Peninsula, it is said that in the beginning, people did not die, but grew thinner with the waning Moon and expanded when the Moon waxed.
When Isis revived Osiris, he remembered the 14 parts of his body, like the waxing Moon, and going to the underworld, like the waning Moon. Every month, Osiris is revived again through his son Horus as the young Moon, who, as the new Osiris, takes on the monthly battle. revolve around the themes of growth and decline, particularly in the context of Seth’s darkness.
Isis and Osiris, as the goddess and god of the Moon, embodied the natural cycles that constantly renew themselves in the alternating patterns of growth and decay. Osiris triumphed over death thanks to the love of Isis. It can be said that Isis represents the Moon in its cycle, the eternal life of Zoe, while Osiris represents the changing Moon, the bios, the form that lives and dies in time.
Time and eternity
The constant presence of the invisible cycle within visible changes evokes the idea of time as a moving image of eternity. For the mythical mind, the Moon, through its measurement, creates time. It is time itself and the source of time.
The regularity of the Moon’s phases, which are easily observable and long-lasting, allowed for the recording of longer periods of time. A month, corresponding to the lunar cycle, began with the New Moon, as is still the case in lunar calendars today. Almost all ancient civilizations counted nights as days. Traces of lunar timekeeping remain in the celebrations that nd begin celebrating in the evening.
The original purpose of calendars was not secular, but sacred. Calendars helped capture moments in which time seemed to become transparent to the source behind it, to eternity. They determined which days were suitable for celebrations and various activities.
Color woodblock print from the series One Hundred Faces of the Moon by Japanese master Yoshitoshi.
Traditions of bringing the dead Moon back to life are known worldwide. The Native American Iroquois, for example, would dance “r “The moon is our guide in many cultures. In ancient times, the moon was believed to have healing powers. The Malay Sakai tribe ceremonially helped the moon return to the sky so that everything could live. The appearance of the young moon marked the threshold between darkness and light. Its presence was filled with awe, and people would often leave their everyday tasks to start celebrations. The Namibian Bushmen would greet the moon by blowing into antelope horns and shouting, ‘Miracle! Let us rejoice! The moon has returned to us!’
In ancient Rome and Greece, heralds would wait for the appearance of the young moon to start the month. When the moon appeared, they would shout. The first day of the month was therefore called ‘kalendae,’ from the word ‘caleo,’ meaning to shout, and that is why we still call it a calendar today. Plato mentions an ancient custom in which mothers and nurses would teach children to bow to the young moon.
The new and full moon were times for marriages, lovers’ fantasies, the conception of children, and dedicating to the future. Plutarch reports how the Athenians would light special torches to welcome the full moon and pray for a prosperous month.” In their first outdoor wedding, they aligned the conjunction of the Moon with the Sun, so they would choose a day near the new moon for their weddings.
During the nights of the full Moon, many celebrations were held, it was a time of culmination and maturity. Kings and queens were crowned, and most African tribes would dance through the night.
In the Gaelic language, the word for good luck comes from the word for full Moon, rath. And large agricultural festivities were held for harvests. We can detect traces of direct connection between the Moon and the seasons and tasks in the names of the full Moon known from folklore. These names, in one variant, starting from the winter solstice, are as follows: old, hungry, crow, grassy, planting, rose, thunder, grainy, harvest, hunter’s, frozen, and long nights. If there happened to be 13 full Moons in a year, that additional full Moon is called a blue Moon.
In Greek mythology, the Muses come from the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, whose name translates to House of the mind or Moon. Poets and musicians used Students claimed that they only repeated what their muses had told them with their lovely mouths, thus listening to the voice of Mnemosyne herself. A similar kind of memory connected to the Moon is also mentioned in a Chinese legend in which Emperor Ming Huang asked a priest one night, while intoxicated, what the Moon was made of. The holy man built a bridge and took the ruler to the Moon. Upon his return, the emperor taught his people the songs and dances performed by the Moon fairies, thus creating theater.