Image of the Queen of the Night

The most famous goddesses associated with the Moon are Selene, Artemis, Cybele and Isis. Like other, more ancient goddesses, the Greek Artemis was considered a virgin, which meant only her freedom, not shackled by marriage, and this is only one of the many aspects of her independence. By renouncing family ties, she chose freedom.

As a mother, the moon goddess is usually associated with fertility and life-giving abilities in general. Isis is often depicted as such a mother goddess, holding the young son of Horus on her lap. This image is almost identical to the artistic images of the Virgin Mary with her son Jesus.

Reflecting on the fact that in art, lunar archetypes tend to be embodied in the image of mother and child, it should be noted that in astrology the Moon is almost always associated with the mother – and if not with someone’s specific mother, then with biological heredity, especially maternal line. In the natal horoscope, the Moon indicates how the child feels connected with his mother, how the first time he settles in the family, how the emotions of infancy and childhood are imprinted in him. All this ultimately speaks of the ability of the person himself to conceive and give birth. When the lunar aspects with other planets are soft, harmonious, then the life experience of both the mother and the child is embodied harmoniously, in the best possible way. If some planets “press” on the Moon, then a person may experience difficulties with personal relationships. The moon displays the degree of sensitivity of a person, whether he is able to show it or not.

The dark side of the moon, the waning crescent, is associated with Hekate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft. However, even the dark sides of our personality can serve as a means of positive transformation, or at least “windows” into the deep, hidden corners of the soul.

Like Hermes or Mercury, Hekate is associated with crossroads – places where several roads converge; in a more general sense, these deities personify the so-called “intermediate spaces”, which in turn means the border areas between sleep and wakefulness, the aboveground and underworld, between consciousness and subconsciousness. And the “intermediate space” is always magical and charged with spiritual energy – it is not for nothing that shamans revere sunrise and sunset as the most magical periods of the day, because they represent the spaces between night and day. In this context, Hecate appears as a Wise old woman who has seen life and understands the deep, hidden meaning of events – even if this meaning is not very pleasant to realize.

So, now we know that the Moon symbolizes the three stages of a woman’s life, and in fact, sometimes the queen of the night was worshiped as a three-faced goddess, combining the hypostases of a girl, mother and old woman. In women’s life, three periods are also distinguished: premenstrual (girl), menstrual (mother) and menopausal (old age).