The Sun & Moon
Now, the moon dies into the sun once a month, to be born from it again,
just as the body of the first sacrifice died into the earth, to be born again as
food. In this early,
goddess-centred
mythology, therefore, the sun, like the Earth, is female. Or,
according to another image, the male moon begets itself in the sun: the creative
fire of the sun and creative fire of the womb and of menstrual blood being then
the same. Equivalent, as well, is the fire of a sacrificial
alter. G
xviii
Let
me say a word here about the female sun and the male moon.
Later on we will be coming to the male-oriented mythologies in which the sun is
masculine and the moon feminine, but this earlier Neolithic and high Bronze Age
system shows the female sun and the male moon. In German, one
says der Mond, (“moon” – masculine), and die Sonne, (“sun” –
feminine). In France, one says la lune (“moon” –
feminine), and le soleil (“sun” – masculine). If you
know and appreciate with equal pleasure the two systems, you will recognize the
source of this deep, dark quality in the German sense of the tragic.
It is a mystical culture with a mystical language, whereas French is
characterized by la clarite du francais, the light and the shine of
Gallic reason. G44