THE MOON

Have you ever been with your girlfriend, boyfriend, wife or husband, with a beautiful, harvest moon in view? If so, you may have had the opportunity to be romantic. You might have said, “I love you to the moon,” a poetic metaphor that represents love, mystery, and a connection to unseen things above. 

Myths about the moon often have forbidden lovers chasing each other across the moon-lit sky and the poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Robert Loouis Stevenson, and Percy Bysshe Shelly eulogize it in their writings. It is like a clock in a hall, a pale, lonely lady of the night, or anything else you may wish it to be. It is romantic, compelling and can perhaps even have “dark” meanings. 

America too has myths about the moon and moons: A pastor from Texas prophesied in 2014-2015 that four so-called “blood moons” signaled major end times for Israel. However, scientists have noted that such blood moons are natural eclipses. The Texas prophecy was based on Joel 2.31: “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will turn red as blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”

But can the moon cause someone to go mad—become a lunatic? This is just one of the many sayings that refer to the moon, and many cultures have legends about the moon.

There was once a man in the village where we lived in Papua New Guinea, who would sometimes go “mad,” especially during a full moon. He would sit at night beating the top of an old 5-gallon drum and stare wistfully at the moon. No one seemed to know or care what he said, but he was tolerated and, in some sense, feared.

The ancient Chinese saw the moon as a goddess who lived with a rabbit that pounded medicine; The Inca called it “Mother Moon,” who was responsible for marriage and reality; The Egyptians saw it as a male deity; The Inuit portrayed it as a god chasing his sister. 

We have our “man in the moon” (never a woman) and that the moon is made of “green cheese.” There are many myths and stories about the moon.

When America had the awesome experience of having men land on the moon, on July 20, 1969, it was the first-and last-time humans have done so. But some of my Kewa friends in Papua New Guinea were not surprised. “We often see airplanes flying up to the moon,” they said, unaware of the distance and resulting visual perception. But why, they wondered, did we want to go to the moo? What was there that we wanted?

It didn’t make sense for us to say that America wanted to beat the Soviet Union in a space race, so that we could show that democracy and capitalism were the best ways to live. We had questions about that ourselves!

Americans may see a “man in the moon” but as mentioned some cultures saw it as a rabbit on the moon. (Perhaps a squirrel or cockroach would be more appropriate.) The waxing and waning of the moon have been also interpreted as a symbol of death and life.

If we are extremely happy, we are “over the moon,” which may happen “once in a blue moon” (almost never), but we can still “shoot for the moon” and set our goals high. We can even “promise the moon,” knowing that we can’t deliver, or tell a person that we believe they “hung the moon” and are therefore perfect. In such a case, we may be “moonstruck” and a bit dazed by our own “moonshine.”

I love to see a “harvest moon,” which occurs closest to autumn. It is large, has an orangish glow and arises near sunset. An optical illusion makes it look big, compared to the trees and objects around us.

Some native American traditions saw the Harvest Moon as a time for celebration with harvest on hand and the summer coming to an end. And the brighter light did give farmers more time for harvesting their crops.

The moon goes through eight phases as it orbits the earth, and the complete cycle takes over 29 days. Its first appearance is the “waxing crescent,” a small sliver, then a quarter moon and more waxing until it is a “full moon.” It then begins to wane, and ends with a “waning crescent.” 

The words wax and wane can be used idiomatically: “Her interest in him tends to wax and wane each week.” Unfortunately, “waxing and waning” is also how interest in the church and missions often seems to “flow.”

But at a future time:

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.(Revelation 21.23)