Tuesday, July 24, 2012

How the Moon Nurtures Us



How the Moon Nurtures Us

            The power of the Moon is implied by the many words connected with its linguistic roots.  These words take their meaning of the ancient understanding of the Moon's attributes.  Some of the words are: MENSIS, month; MENSES, blood flow; MENOS, spirit, heart, soul, courage, ardency; MENOINAN, to consider, meditate, wish; MEMONA, to have in mind, to intend; MANIA, madness, possession; MANTEIA, prophecy; MENUO, to reveal; MANTHANO, to learn; MEMINI, to remember; METIS, wisdom; MATRA-M, measure; METIESTHAI, to dream.  All these words stem from the one original Sanskrit root HATI-H, which means thought, intention, measure and knowing.7 
            The Moon, and the consciousness and knowing its light bestows, is therefore necessary for measuring, considering, revealing, learning, remembering and dreaming.  It is the bringer of wisdom, as well as of madness and lunacy; it gives the ability to walk in the spirit world, or to be possessed by it or the contents of the collective unconscious.  It also gives courage, heart and soul to the undertaking of becoming human.  The light of the Moon is the consciousness by which we incarnate, the light that brings change and growth to life.  At a time when our educational system is breaking down, when our children are having trouble learning because of their time in front of the television and the computer, we need to reclaim the powers of lunar consciousness so we can teach our young people to consider, to learn, to think, to have intention, to remember and to dream.  We are slowly beginning to bring programs into our schools which teach our children about emotional intelligence.  It is already changing the way they learn and behave.
            By the light of the Moon, and through a consciousness of images and of imagination that it symbolizes, we can step over the boundaries of our everyday world into other worlds, just as we can see the stars beyond the Moon in the night sky.  The Moon stands on the border of our known universe - men have literally stood there, gazing out at the universe, looking back at the Earth.  They shared this experience with us: we have seen Earthrise from the Moon, and it has sparked our imaginations, prompting us to explore who we are through feminine, lunar consciousness.  Since that time, women have worked to rediscover our true natures through journaling, sharing personal stories, and looking back to feminine goddesses and mysteries. We've come a long way!
            If the Earth Mother symbolizes the vessel in which our soul is transformed and brought to birth, the feminine principles of the Moon symbolize the process of that transformation.  For we are constantly changing and becoming; sometimes in the fullness of life, sometimes in the darkness of depression and death.  The Moon's changing appearance is a sign of that state of ebb and flow in all of life's energies.  I find it a more comforting light than the Sun's, because it does not demand a constant high level of performance and a splitting of the light from the darkness.  It helps me to accept my comings and goings, my being accessible and being remote, for it allows that life is also like the 'inconstant Moon'.  Yet we fear this inconsistency, and try to push away painful emotions like men do.  Of course, repressing our emotions causes depression, and then we drug ourselves to avoid going down into the unconscious to discover the reason for the depression.  We don't realize it is a call to rediscover the ancient mysteries of feminine consciousness.

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