Other Gods And Goddesses – Deities Of The Moon

Because the deities come from so many cultures and times,it is important to invoke only the positive qualities you need and to rememberthat some did reflect dark as well as benign aspects of divinity. For example,Diana, the goddess of the Moon and the hunt, is thought by most to be asympathetic soul; but you might be surprised to learn that she would, accordingto myth, have her rejected lovers torn apart by her hounds. So, when setting upyour icons, read about them first, and decide which are the attributes thatwill assist your magical workings. Some deities fit into more than onecategory, so I have listed them under their most significant one.

DeitiesOf The Moon

Invoke these for gentle increase, power and banishingenergies, fertility, intuition, magick and dreams.

Arianrhod

Arianrhod is a Welsh goddess of the full moon and also oftime, karma and destiny. She ruled over the realm of the Celtic Otherworld,called Caer Feddwidd, the Fort of Carousa. Here a mystical fountain of wineoffered eternal health and youth for those who chose to spend their immortalityin the Otherworld. She brings inspiration, renewal, health and rejuvenation,and is a focus for all magick, as she is a witch goddess.

Diana

Diana is the Roman counterpart of Artemis, and because ofher strong association with the Moon in all its phases, is a goddess offertility as well as love. Like Artemis, she is goddess of the hunt and avirgin goddess, but can be invoked in her role as an Earth goddess and asprotector of women in childbirth. Her beauty and hunting skills make her aperfect focus for the pursuit of love, especially from afar.

Myesyats

Like the lunar goddesses, Myesyats, the Slavic Moon God,represented the three stages of the life cycle. He was first worshipped as ayoung man until he reached maturity at the full moon. With the waning phase,Myesyats passed through old age and died with the old moon, being reborn threedays later. As he was the restorer of life and health, parents would pray tohim to take away their children’s illnesses and family sorrows. Other sourceshave a female version, Myesytsa, a lovely Moon maiden who was the consort ofDazhbog the Sun God, and became mother of the stars.

Myesyats brings healing and family harmony.

Selene

Selene is the Greek goddess specially associated with thefull moon, sometimes forming a triplicity with Diana and Hecate, the twinsister of Helios the Sun God. Selene rises from the sea in her chariot drawn bywhite horses at night and rides high in the sky in her full moon.

At the time of the full moon, she is invoked by women forfertility and by all who seek the power of intuition and inspiration.

MotherGoddesses

Mother Goddesses are for fertility, abundance of allkinds, female power and all rituals for women.

Astarte

Astarte is the supreme female divinity of thePhoenicians, goddess of love and fertility, associated with the Moon and allnature.

Invoke her for power and wisdom, seduction and passion aswell as fertility.

Cerridwen

Cerridwen is the Welsh Mother Goddess, the keeper of thecauldron and goddess of inspiration, knowledge and wisdom. She is a naturalfocus for rituals involving all creative ventures and for increased spiritualand psychic awareness. Invoke her for divination and especially scrying and forall rituals of increase.

Ceres

Ceres is the Roman goddess of the grain and all foodplants. Her daughter Proserpina was taken into the Underworld for three monthsof the year by Pluto, causing Ceres to mourn and the crops to die. This was theorigin of winter.

Through this, she is seen as goddess of fertility andabundance, as well as a deity of the natural cycles of the year. She representsloss and is a focus for rites concerning grief and mourning, with the hope ofnew joy ahead for women and especially for mothers. Her Greek counterpart isDemeter.

Demeter

Demeter, the Greek Corn Goddess or Barley Mother, was thearchetypal symbol of the fertility of the land. Demeter is often pictured asrosy-cheeked, carrying a hoe or sickle and surrounded by baskets of apples,sheaves of corn, garlands of flowers and grapes. Like Ceres, she mourns for herlost daughter Persephone for three months of the year and so is another iconfor those who are feeling sorrow or loss and for maternal sacrifice. But shecan be invoked for all matters of abundance, for reaping the benefits ofearlier work or effort, for all mothering rituals and as a protectress ofanimals.

Innana

Innana was a Sumerian goddess, known as the Queen ofHeaven, who evolved into the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. Innana was goddess ofbeauty, abundance, fertility and passion, famed for her loveliness and herlapis lazuli necklaces. She was the first goddess of the morning and eveningstars, a legacy that has passed to Aphrodite and Venus.

Like many of the Mother Goddess icons, she descended intothe Underworld annually to face and overcome many trials, to bring back to lifeher shepherd god consort Dumuzi.

Ishtar

Ishtar, the Babylonian version of Innana, also descendedinto the Underworld each year to restore her consort Tammuz to life. She was afierce goddess of weapons and war. In Ancient Babylon, a sacred marriage took place eachyear between Tammuz and Ishtar. This was celebrated at the festival of Akitu,or Zag-Mug, which marked the rising of the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates and the coming of the spring rains, to bringfertility, at the spring equinox.

Like Innana, she is a goddess of fertility, restoration,renewal, birth and the life cycles; she also represents power withresponsibility and necessary sacrifice for future gain, but above all

Isis

The Egyptian goddess Isis is the most powerful andfrequently invoked goddess in formal magick. She is mother, healer and thefaithful wife who annually restored her consort Osiris to life, thus magically causingthe Nile to flood and fertility to return tothe land. She is the patroness of magick and spell-casting, having tricked Rathe Sun God into giving her his secrets. Some accounts say she was taught byThoth, god of wisdom and learning.

Her cult spread throughout the Roman Empire and she remained in Mediterranean lands in her guise as theBlack Madonna, holding her infant son Horus, until the Middle Ages. She issometimes represented as a vulture, in which form she appears on amulets(protective charms) with an ankh, the symbol for life, engraved on each talon. Isis demonstrated the power of maternal protection whenshe hid Horus in the marshes from his evil uncle who would have destroyed him.