Goddess of the Week

This week's pick is Selene, the Moon Goddess of the Greeks. She came up once before, the first week of February last. She is a Titaness, meaning one of the older race of Gods; Her name just means "Moon" in Greek. She is the daughter of clear-sighted Theia and Hyperion, the God of light.

One of Selene's alternate names is Mene, which means both 'Moon' and 'Month.' The calendar in ancient Greece was a lunar one, in which each month corresponded to one lunation; the first of the month was the day of the first lunar crescent (the new moon, or, more properly, the first day or so after the new moon), and the fifteenth was the full moon. These days were called noumenia and dikhomenia, respectively, and were both held sacred to Selene, though noumenia was the more celebrated of the two.

She was also given the epithets of Pasiphaë, 'All-Shining,' the name usually given to the mother of Ariadne (Herself a Moon-Goddess) and Eileithyia, the name of the very ancient Goddess of Childbirth--as pregnancy is counted in months, a Goddess of the month would logically be linked with pregnancy and childbirth. Also, perhaps, it may have something to do with light Goddesses (such as the Roman Lucina) being associated with childbirth, as when a baby is born it comes out into the light for the first time.

I am taking Her presence this week to indicate that it will be especially important to pay attention to the next two weeks of the waxing Moon, these two weeks that lead up to and include Samhain, that great (Celtic) holiday celebrating the dark and the night. Something is growing, or coming into being; something, perhaps, coming up from the unconscious into the light, such as a new way of looking at an old problem, or putting some old pieces into place regarding a past situation. Something will be brought out where it is visible, finally. Though it is not the sun's light illuminating it, remember--whatever it is it will be something of a more ephemeral nature, something of the moonlight and the night.

I suppose that's not really any different than what goes on anyway if one is in tune with the Moon's cycle in a witchy kind of way; just that Selene coming up this week means it will be especially significant, and especially worth paying attention to.

Let's see what She says:

See what you can see. Look, now. Look, under this different light. Look with these different eyes. The dark and the light, see into the shadows. Now. Now. Now you can see with different eyes. This time is different. Right now. The veil is thin, they say. Do you not see me with a veil, always, billowing behind me and soaked with light?

See what you can see by this light, now. It is a very good time for seeing.

I take that to mean divination, scrying and the like will be especially fruitful now. What do you see?


Main reference: Theoi's Selene page. Just in case there are readers out there who have not found their way to that superb site on Greek mythology, good God, get over there now.