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Moon mythology has existed for thousands of years in cultures around the world, imagining the lunar body as a god or divine presence. The moon’s cycles have been linked to human fascination, deities, and monthly cycles. Lunar mythology persists in modern times through folklore, urban legends, and astrology.
Moon mythology refers to the legends, folklore, and spiritual beliefs surrounding Earth’s natural satellite. This mythology has existed for thousands of years in cultures around the world. Black moon mythology often imagined the lunar body as a god or divine presence of some sort. In later times, myths about the moon concerned its appearance or influence on earthly events. These myths persist into modern times in the form of folklore and urban legend.
The moon is easily observed with the naked eye as it regularly orbits the Earth in lighted patterns, or phases, that occur with cyclical regularity. For this reason, it has been a subject of human fascination since long before the advent of recorded history. Many cultures, both primitive and advanced, viewed the moon and sun alike as deities to be worshipped. Others have linked the cycles of the moon with similar monthly cycles, such as women’s menses. The full moon, in particular, has been linked to everything from werewolves to increasing human fertility.
Many ancient cultures viewed the moon as a divine presence, a common form of lunar mythology. These cultures also sometimes worshiped the sun and often represented one of these astronomical bodies as male and the other as female. Two of the best known lunar deities are the goddesses Artemis and Diana, from Greek and Roman mythology respectively. In other cultures, the moon was a male god, like Tsukuyomi, of the Japanese Shinto faith. In modern times, many neo-pagans revere the moon as a symbol of their mother goddess.
Popular folklore is another type of lunar mythology, sometimes derived from outlandish tales rather than actual belief systems. Many cultures, for example, have had a variation on the saying that the moon is made of green cheese. Another common folktale involves the man on the moon or other figures which can be imagined by examining the visible craters of the full moon. Some cultures believed it was best to plant crops or start a new business during a full moon. Astrology is the popular belief that the moon and other celestial bodies predict or dictate human behavior.
Lunar mythology continues to exist in the form of urban legends of the moon. The persistent and erroneous belief that the full moon causes high levels of human violence and insanity inspired the words “crazy” and “crazy.” There are many theories of the full moon’s influence on Earth’s activity, some carried over from ancient folklore. Other widely held but false beliefs suggest that the moon can influence earthquakes, menstruation, and even stock market trends. A popular urban legend claims that the NASA moon landings were faked by the US government, which certainly qualifies as a modern form of lunar mythology.
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