Why the Full Moon?

There is a common misconception that Wiccans worship the full moon.  Simply put, that’s pony poop.  We worship at the time of the full moon and we use the moon and its phases as a religious symbol, a spiritual metaphor.  Let me explain:

For Wiccans, there are two sort of ‘generic’ deities, the god and the goddess.  Another way of stating it is that there are projective (sometimes called ‘positive’) and receptive (sometimes called ‘negative’) forces from which the universe is derived.  The god (projective, positive, etc.) is said to be the one that produces the energy, while the goddess (receptive, negative, etc.) takes it and shapes it into everything we call the universe.  Since this follows the roles that males and females use for production of new life, it is easy to remember and a natural metaphor for our cosmology.  This is an oversimplification for these are complex spiritual concepts, but for our purposes let’s keep it uncomplicated.

This model of energy exchange is reproduced in the sun (projective) and the moon (receptive).  These two celestial bodies serve many other purposes within our general spiritual framework, most notably they are our calendar and timepieces.  Our relationship to the sun goes through four distinct phases which we call the seasons and the moon also goes through four easily distinguished stages.  The cycle of the solar seasons is seen reproduced in the new, first quarter, full, and last quarter moon phases.  Our mythology of the birth, growth, adult, and waning years of life being played out in the seasons is compressed into each lunar month thirteen times a year.  This celestial reminder of some of our most important spiritual concepts is an extremely valuable metaphor.  Like all metaphors, it can produce many corollaries that expand our understanding of the underlying meaning of the concepts involved.

By ascribing a male (or masculine/projective, etc.) identity to the sun and a female (feminine/receptive, etc.) one to the moon, we include these objects in our cosmic model in a wonderfully instructive and (if you’ll pardon the obvious pun) illuminating way.  Since it is simplicity itself to look into the sky and figure out what part of this spiritual model can be most comfortably focused on, it’s easy to see why we use these two bodies in our worship.  We don’t actually worship the sun or the moon; we worship what they represent in our cosmology.  They are symbolic of our spiritual perspective.

The fact that the lunar cycle (28¼ days) is also the usual human female’s estrus cycle, the connection to the feminine or goddess image is perfect for our purposes.  There is, by the way, some scientific speculation about how moonlight seems to have an effect on women’s fertility cycle.  It may also be connected to the tidal effects of the moon… that is, something to do with gravity.  Whatever the connection, it is serendipitous, fits in nicely with our spiritual model, and adds to the power of the symbol for us.

As logical as this connection may seem to us, it isn’t universal.  In some religions, for example, the moon is designated as male.  The reasoning behind our use of the moon in our spiritual practices is arbitrary and should not be considered as ‘proof’ of anything.  However, incorporating it into our cosmology opens up many correlations.

Take, for example, the current relationship between the earth, moon, and sun.  Probably the most obvious is the one mentioned before: the light of the sun is reflected from the surface of the moon.  The standard symbolic meaning is that the energy of the male is given to the female and is shaped into what we see manifested in the night sky.  Certainly it is the most visible object in the heavens at night and we even can use it as a crude clock.  But when you throw in some knowledge of how light is reflected, you come up with an even more wonderful analogy.  Without going too deep into the properties of light, let’s just think of light as a particle… the photon.  When a photon (say, one from the sun) hits the surface of the moon, it doesn’t ‘bounce’ off the moon’s surface material.  It gets absorbed.  How does that happen? you might ask.  Well, remember that we’re talking about something on the sub-atomic level here.  The Newtonian rules of gross matter don’t apply here in the same way they do in the world of our senses.  Anyway, the ‘particle’ of the photon speeds through space and ‘hits’ an atom on the moon’s surface.  This excites the atom (they’re easily excited, sort of like giving sugar to a two year old).  And for an instant, the structure of the atom is slightly changed.  Then, because the atom can’t hold the extra energy, it kicks out a photon of its own.  That’s right; the original photon isn’t the one that is reflected from the atom on the moon’s surface.  It’s a new photon, one with the signature of the atom that kicked it out.  That’s why the moon doesn’t look like a giant mirror of the sun.  What we see as lighter and darker shades and colors of the moon is all because of the fact that the photons that come to our eyes from the moon’s surface are unique to the atoms on the moon.

Think about it for a minute:  The light from the moon isn’t the same light that came to it from the sun.  The light we see is because of the light from the sun but not the same light.  Like the way females take the life seed from the male and use it to energize their own eggs (and produce new life), the moon takes the energy from the sun and produces new light for us to see.  This tidbit of knowledge is more than symbolic; it is a lesson in how the universe works… which makes it all the more useful as a model for us.  Such things can be used to support our cosmological view and reasons for using the moon as a focus point for our worship.  They do not in any way ‘prove’ our model as ‘right’ or even better than other spiritual practices, only as something that is splendidly useful for us.

Also consider how the moon almost exactly cuts out the light of the sun during an eclipse.  Wow, what a coincidence, eh?  Well, not precisely.  We now know that the moon is slowly moving away from us at the rate of a few inches per decade.  That means that at some point in the future the moon will be too ‘small’ to blot out all of the sun during eclipses.  And, at some point in the past, the moon was ‘too big’ to make that perfect fit we see during an eclipse.  But, as long as humans have been around to watch this phenomenal event, the moon has been pretty much the right size to our eyes to produce what undoubtedly was considered by primitive humans as a ‘sign’ of something pretty important.  Even to our more scientifically sophisticated ‘modern’ selves, the event elicits some powerful visceral reactions.

Actually, when you think about it, any moon can do that.  It just depends on how near or far away it is from the viewer.  The moon could be as small as an inch across and do that if it wasn’t much more than a few inches from our eyes (try it with a golf ball).  That our moon does it at this time in the history of hominids on this planet is probably just a coincidence.  But, if you’re like most people, you can’t quite shake the feeling that it is a grand example of the beauty and wonder of the universe and the moon’s place in our lives.  It’s very easy to think that it’s part of the ‘Big Plan’ of the gods to keep us interested and entertained.  And it does do that, right?

One last thing about the moon and our worship practices before this ends:  We’ve said that we use the moon (and don’t forget we use other things, too) as an object that is a handy metaphor in our worship.  But what does it mean to ‘worship’?

We worship what our hearts desire.

We don’t desire the moon.  It’s far too much acreage to maintain, the commute is way too far, and it’s definitely a ‘fixer-upper’.  But we do worship the things it symbolizes for us.  The fact that we wear jewelry that represents the moon is only our way of reminding us of the special place that symbol holds in our hearts; it is no more than that.  We hold religious services at the time of the full moon because of that.  It is also convenient to worship when the moon is full because we most often prefer to worship out of doors.  Since our practices have in the past (and, sadly, even now) been labeled as evil or sacrilegious (in the eyes of people who just have to have their religious ways), we often will conduct our rights in secluded places… away from their prying eyes… some place ‘wild and alone’ that may be difficult to get to in the dark.  The light of a full moon is well suited for us to find our way without lanterns or flashlights giving away our route or location.

Our ways are not difficult to understand.  What we do and how we choose to model our world around symbols and religious constructs that help us become better human beings may be different than other religions, but they are the same way those people operate within their own spirituality.  They use different symbols and models but they most often come to the same conclusions about what it all means.  When confronted by any who insist they have The Truth and use their beliefs to justify their meanness and cruelty, it is far too easy to react with our own bestial natures (everybody’s got them).  Of course we need to defend ourselves if necessary.  But if you can, try to remember that our ways may seem just as difficult to understand to them as theirs do to us.  We are better than the ferocious beast that lurks in each of us.  So are they.  If you really think it’ll do any good, you might try explaining your ways to them, but don’t think you will persuade them or ‘convert’ them.  Be satisfied that you have a spiritual model that works for you.  Worship the ideals and principles that your spirituality hold sacred… always.

And come the next full moon, say a little thank-you to the powers that be for such a marvelous symbol floating overhead.  Be glad for the reminder that all energies need to be transformed by love before they can be of the most use.  And if somebody says we worship the moon, you can always turn to them and say, “Pony poop.”