Dimensions
200 x 255 x 30mm
Tales and legends of the Moon are as old as human consciousness. In this captivating book, Jules Cashford explores the myths and images inspired by the Moon, from the earliest Palaeolithic markings on horn and bone to the crafted poems of the present.
Stories from around the world suggest that the Moon carried the image of eternity for early people, as well as the image of time.They saw in the waxing and waning of the Moon the growing and dying of a celestial being, whose death was followed by its own resurrection as the New Moon. The instinctive identification of the people with their Moon meant that they interpreted the Moon’s rebirth as offering a similar promise for human beings in their own waning and death. The Moon then became a visible symbol of hope, the light that shone in the darkness of the human psyche.
Each phase of the Moon reflected a specific stage in the cyclical life of humans, animals and plants: from the ebb and flow tides, the fertility of women, the rains and dews, and the sap of plants, to the destiny of life on Earth and beyond. Because of this ancient web of associations, the symbolism of the Moon offers a fascinating insight into the symbolic mind. Even when the focus of belief changed, these ideas never entirely died out, and elements of them still persist unrecognised in many fields of thought - in religious symbolism, fairy tale and folklore, as well as the roots of language and what might now be called superstition.
This book suggests that if we can trace an idea back to its lunar source - which would be tracing a now secular event
back to its sacred original - we might gain a perspective on how we have come to think in some of the ways we do.
