Honor the Moon, Artemis, Isis, Hecate
On the 3rd Day of Yule we honor the Moon. We honor and acknowledge the phases and cycles that it represents in our lives. Through our human history we have represented the moon in many ways. Some goddesses that once represented the moon are Hecate, Artemis, Isis.
The Greek goddess Hecate is often depicted as a triple-formed deity symbolizing the Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
The Maiden: The waxing moon, representing positive energy and future aspirations
The Mother: The full moon, representing wisdom and balance
The Crone: The waning moon, representing acceptance of life’s facets, inner calm, and understanding emotions
Yule is noted as a time of the Crone. The Crone Moon is a time when cycles end and of new beginnings. Letting go of what no longer is needed and embracing the new phase. It is a time of going deep and resting.
In Ancient Greek mythology, Artemis symbolizes independence, truth and intelligence while embodying nature, fertility, and the moon.
Isis is a goddess in Egyptian mythology. She was known as the goddess of the moon. As the goddess of life and magic, Isis protected women and children.
The Moon also represents the phantasms, the imagination, the infatuations, and the whispering of things left unsaid. It is the image of the sub-conscious, where all the instinctual inner wounds and fears are stored. The dark side of the moon represents our darkness that we must enter.
In our story, we are on a path of conquest of the phantoms of the “man-made” personality which are our creations. Therefore, we must face the emotional phantoms hidden in the dark recesses of their own instinctual mind, as well as those of the entire human race. Here, one learns to “own” the survival mind of the animal, rather than be owned by it.
When we are strong enough to tread this Path and slay the monsters “within” our sleep-consciousness and we can grasp the understanding of our mental mechanisms, then we can gain the capacity to manipulate those qualities within. Those goddesses in our stories were also warriors and fought & hunted at night. They represented this part of our journey.
The Moon symbolizes the anterior to the bright intellect of the Sun. The Moon only reflects the light of the Sun. Thus, the Path goes from the dark side of the Moon, towards the light side that reflects the Sunlight.
The Moon symbolizes the rebirth of light out of darkness; bright intellect overcoming the dark inhabitants of our sub-conscious, i.e. the illusions of emotional fears. As on Mother’s Night we bring our light into the darkness.
We are polluted with the dark subconscious fears of mortality, that self-conscious survival thinking of the physical manifestation. This way of thinking has been needed for human’s survival through the past generations, but now we can evolve and begin to see our shadows as gifts, and not fear the darkness.
When we realize we are the creators of the dream, we become lucid in the dream and can change it or even destroy it. This is the Survival Mind, where the “survival of the fittest, killed or be killed law” resides in the dark pools of violence and conquest. This can be a very cruel path to endure. We must own the survival mind with discerning thought, rather than be owned by it.
As the Moon cycles through its phases, so does our Psyche, as during the cyclic phase of conscious withdrawal from the physical (Sleep) where many of us still act upon the fantasies and information closely related to the body’s survival-based experiences. Where fear of everything and everybody kept us alive as a species. Our dreaming is filled with phantoms produced by our bodies fear of pain and/or death which once consciously transcended, is the successful completion of the Path of the Moon.
The Psyche, or Soul, is not afraid of Life, for it is Life, and the body, is a simulation of Life. In the realms of Life, where we are all one, organic material must eat itself to stay alive and for those who witness death/eating, it can instill a great fear of being a victim to someone’s hunger.
In the physical world, Time is still the greatest predator of all, so even time is feared. Here, the Soul, our Sun, must step in to remind our body, it must recycle because measurement (time, restrictions) must be transformed if it is to evolve, and to elevate the self-conscious and/or Personality, to levels of equal communication with the Soul and body. Remembering who we are and realizing we are spirit.
Hence, we are to be a personality of Mercury/Hermes, the “messenger of the Gods” who can “fly” from body to soul and soul to Spirit and back to body. The winged shoes of Mercury just imply freedom from earthly concerns, one who is not chained to earth by fear. A big recycling machine. As with the phases of the moon, we cycle through the sensory experience over and over.
All of us must confront time and the fear of it. For those who fear time, never have enough time, and suffer from stress of serving time, as they are always trying to gain more time. However, if one declares themselves as Time, such as, I AM Time; they have “domesticated” the beast by owning it, and time serves them.
The Moon symbolizes the process that consciousness goes through, when energy proceeds from order to disorder (second law of Thermodynamics), from organized flesh assembly to the disassemble of death and back again. Things must be destroyed or put into disorder so new order can be established. Life, which is energy, uses death to evolve, and/or transform. Energy, seeing itself as “other”, a reflection, is One Who Loves Itself. Hence, we are an illusion, as well as a transmission of “Life Loving Itself”. Therefore, we are both the Transmitter and the Transmitted of Life energy, and it is time the Soul runs the body, via a personality who is a messenger of the Soul, who is the animal mind, completely indoctrinated by media and rulers, and who is trying to flee the god of time.
Create; don’t react. It takes great courage to dive deep into our own darkness and come out on the side of light. To live and speak our truth as we have discovered. A great courage to embrace your ideas and dreams through the eyes of freedom. To discover unconditional love inside us from underneath the shadows we dismissed. To now have the space to truly love people and nature. One of the symbols of that courage and love is Mistletoe. It was cut at night in the moonlight after a nightly hunt. Going into the darkness to bring out your inner love.
We celebrate the day of appreciating the moon and universal love by hanging Mistletoe all over our home. For the love of nature, we look to every animal, plant or part of nature to teach and reflect to us the ways of above. We take care of the land, animals and plants as a way to acknowledge our connection.
We celebrate the Path to the Moon by going through the moon phases and we talk about how much darkness and light is shown. We talk about how deep we are driven into our darkness and back to the light. There are many moon phase crafts and art that can go with this. You can also create a moon journal to write down your story of the next Path to the Moon you take.
The menu for this day is a nice pork loin with rosemary, honeyed carrots, and roasted potatoes. With a garnish of seeds. Joined by red wine/juice. All prepared while listening to songs sung to the moon. The gifts for the third day of Yule are decorations made during the moon phase activity. Other neat gifts would be moon jewelry, moon journals, telescopes, etc.
Blessed Be
“Agape Covens has created a guide to help you plan your 12 days of Yule. If you want to go through the season with great intention and love, it can help you get it organized and focused. It is chuck full of suggestions and planner pages to help you keep it simple and special. Included in our 12 Days of Yule planner is two covers to choose from, wall art, stickers, 12 Days of Christmas Poster, 10 page book about Yule Through the Ages, themes for each day with spiritual meanings and suggestions for meals, activities, & gifts, printable cards and letterheads to send personalized messages to loved ones, a feast planner, a decoration planner, shopping lists, a media planner, gift lists, an altar planner & suggestions, journal pages for every day, project planner, and a special invitation to our very own Facebook Group called Planning For Sabbats. Come join us for this epic seasonal event. If you would like to take a look it is located at AgapeCovens.Etsy.com. Many blessings this Yule from Agape Covens.”
