Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

Weather By The Moon
the Virgin Mary and the Moon were based on the Moon’s
physical perfection. Finding, by means of telescopes, that
there were craters, mountains and other irregularities implied
an unacceptable insult to the Mother of the Church.
Fertility and growth had always been a mystery to
early thinkers and writers, hence the Moon, also mysterious,
was always thought to be the king of mystery and magic.
The catalogue of its lunar powers developed by the Egyptians,
had been spread by the Greeks, and then by the Romans
throughout the Western world through their military
expansionism. When the Roman Empire declined, the ancient
writings had been saved by the Arabs, who then in
turn provided the principle sources of magic for the European
Renaiisance and hence for modern witchcraft.
By now, the believed ability of witches to control the
fate of other individuals was feared by ordinary people. They
and their Moon-based knowledge were rooted out in vicious
inquisitions and the proponents rounded up and tortured
or drowned. Moon worship went underground, as did
much old wisdom as regards the powers of human thought
and emotion, climate predicting, and planting knowledge.
Much remains still suppressed today. Yet two traditions
centred around fertility persist. One is about childhood.
A child born upon a Full Moon, it is said, will be
strong, and long life will come to those born when the Moon
is one day old. However, the dark of the Moon is the most
unlucky time for birth. The other tradition is success in
harvesting.
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