#moon-lore

Commission I got of Emma at MCM last weekend, by @moon-lore

Hello everyone! It’s @moon-lore here to bring you a collage of the best panels of @usurpedcomic ! 

Hey kiddos!! I’ll be at Majikkon the day after tomorrow, and I’ll be selling all of my usual stock, as well as some wonderful new things!!

Hello yes it is I your local neighbourhood Estonian Comic Artist, Moonlore !. I never got tagged to do this but I wanted to so here we go!

commission for @moon-lore of their ocs, lana and freya, from their webcomic It’s an Odd Kind of Fairytale! give it a look!!

Tonight, in Iowa, we will witness a "Blood Moon" this morning at 2:46 AM if you can stay awake until then, which is the first of 4 eclipses over the next 24 months.  However, my Best Friend from college asked me what I knew of--if anything--about the folk-lore surrounding the Lunar Eclipse.  First of all, the term "Blood Moon" is merely a Saxon folk-name for the October Full Moon (the Native Americans often referred to the October Full Moon as the "Hunting Moon", while the April Full Moon was known by them as the "Grass Moon" [Ridsill, pp. 3-4]).

The darkness brought on by the eclipse of the Full Moon was considered a violation of the orderly "law" of the New Moon prior to the appearance of the Waxing Crescent.  As a result, most societies and cultures viewed this abrupt alteration of natural "law" with a sense of foreboding (much like the appearance of a comet), perhaps even for the forthcoming month since the Full Moon announced the end of each 28 day month to cultures that recognized a lunar rather than a solar calendar system.  "Eclipse" is derived from the Greek term ekleipsis, which means "abandonment", which is suggestive of natural bond between this celestial body and humanity had been severed. 

Folk-rituals across our precious planet attest to the horrors that various cultures endured when the Moon was eclipsed by the Earth's shadow.  The Maasai people inhabiting Kenya and northern Tanzania threw sand into the air during an eclipse, while various North American nations would traditionally bang or rattle pots and pans, and others would light fires or shoot flaming arrows towards the Moon in a warding gesture to slay the predator who devoured the Moon's light.  The native Kamchatcans (far eastern Russian peninsula) brought a token flame from their sacred domestic hearth-fire as a prayer during a lunar eclipse, while the Orinicans of Venezuela protectively buried their precious fire underground so that it would not go out should the Moon's own fire be extinguished.  The ancient Romans would throw firebrands into the air and march in procession with torches at this time, and the Hindus would, like the Native Americans, beat pots and pans with spoons.  The Chinese would similarly bang on mirrors in order to frighten off the dragon whom they believed was devouring the light of the Full Moon.  Shih, the Chinese term for "eclipse", means "to eat".

Even when an eclipse was predicted it was still considered a portend of dread.   The Celtic tribes inhabiting the British Isles may have thought this blood red Moon may have been an ominous portend since they were renowned for building piers of sacred wood over bogs in anticipation of the lunar eclipse perhaps for a dreadful sacrifice, such as of the Chieftain himself as a violation of Natural Law.  In Babylon, the priests of Urk would erect altars and beseech the Moon-deity to spare their city from calamity.  Copper drums, harps, and trumpets were also paraded throughout the city at this time.

Some cultures--as do the Chinese--believe that the Moon was being eaten at this time, which is why it turns red, to signify that the Moon was bleeding.  Depending upon the culture, the creatures who were believed to eat the Moon are: jaguars, lions, rattlesnakes, wolves, large dogs, huge fish, fire-dogs, giant birds, snakes, giant bats, ants, the spirits of the dead, dragons, vampires (the revenant), werewolves, witches, and man-eating creatures.  According to the Elder Edda, the Scandinavians told of a wolf named Hati ("Hatred") who perpetually chased the Moon-deity, Mani.  The eclipse seems to portend the fateful demise of the Earth and the gods in Norse mythology known as Ragnerok, which is said to herald the moment when Hati is believed to devour the Moon.  Perhaps describing a lunar eclipse, Snorri Sturluson, author of the Prose Edda, describes Mani's own dog--who may be an identity of Hati--as gorging on the flesh of corpses and swallowing the Moon, after which the sky and air will be stained with red blood.  In Rumanian folk-lore, the eclipse is occurs because the Moon is devoured by dog-like creatures called varcolaci.  If women should spin thread at night without the aid of a candle the varcolaci use the thread to climb up to the Moon and bite her.  The Altaic Tartars of Eastern European believe that an eclipsed was caused by a vampire that lived on a star.

Hindu mythology recounts the tale in which Soma, the Moon-God, first appeared, when his elixir (divine semen) was tasted not by Indra or by Shiva, but by a monster called Rahu.  When Rahu swallowed Soma's "elixir" his head became immortal, but his body decayed and fell to Earth.  Forever hungry, Rahu now chases Soma for another taste of his divine-elixir. Rahu has been, since, referred to as the "Eclipse Demon".

Far more rarely is the belief that an eclipse heralds the moment when the Sun and the Moon can, at last, enjoy a brief tryst in peace.  The Bangala of Africa, for instance, believe that the Sun and Moon are lovers and, during an eclipse, the Sun is finally able to catch up to the Moon and express his love for her concealed by the veil of the night.  This belief was generally shared by the Alaskan Tlingit Indians, the Eskimos, and the Australian aborigines.  The Arawks of Guine (South America), however, believe that an eclipse is the result of a hand-to-hand combat between the Sun and the Moon, or else that the Moon had instead fallen asleep and was unable to move out of the path of the Sun.  As a consequence, the banging noises they made were not intended to frighten away any creatures, but to awaken the Moon from its slumber (Cashford, pp. 324-327).

As a consequence of this tradition of general foreboding, I would not recommend those that work Magick to engage in the normal variety of spell work unless it is intended to cause one confusion of even peril at this most ominous of times.

Resources:

Cashford, Jules.  The Moon: Myth & Image.  London: Cassell Illustrated, 2003.