poem
# The Symbolism of the Moon
1 min read
For thousands of years, human beings have attached spiritual meaning to the cycles of the Moon. — Different traditions interpret those cycles differently, but…
For thousands of years, human beings have attached spiritual meaning to the cycles of the Moon.
Different traditions interpret those cycles differently, but themes of **change, death and rebirth, intuition, reflection, hidden knowledge, illumination and renewal** appear throughout spiritual and esoteric thought.
The symbolism became especially meaningful to me when I looked at what was physically happening during these eclipses.
The Moon doesn't generate the visible light we see shining from it.
**It reflects the light of the Sun.**
Think about that image.
On the day I was born, the Moon moved across the source of that light.
A shadow appeared.
But around that shadow remained a ring of fire.
Forty-four calendar years later, another ring of fire appeared.
Then, on the night of my awakening, the relationship changed.
This time, **Earth's own shadow fell across the Moon**.
The object associated for thousands of years with cycles, reflection and the hidden self literally entered Earth's shadow.
And then it came back into the light.
Astronomy can explain exactly why that happened.
Spirituality asks a different question:
**What does that image mean to the person experiencing it?**
For me, it became a symbol of my own journey.