The Moon: Myth and Image

by Jules Cashford

With its subtle light illuminating the night sky, the Moon has always been an object of fascination, from its phoenixlike cycle of birth and death to its association with the female body and fertility. Jules Cashford explores the myths, symbols, and poetic images of the Moon throughout history, starting from early Paleolithic markings on horn and bone, up to present-day poetry. This captivating book traces our customs and secular events back to their sacred lunar source explaining how we have evolved to think in some of the ways that we do and why. Accompanied by 175 beautiful illustrations, The Moon investigates how the lunar image helped shape our mind, and more importantly, it examines what these myths and images tell us about our own consciousness. This is the most comprehensive and in-depth look at the moon and its vast influence on the structure and function of mythology, religion, and consciousness.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Nature, Paganism

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jules is a writer and lecturer on Mythology with a background in Philosophy and Literature. She was a Supervisor in Literature at Cambridge for some years, before training as a Jungian Analyst. Jules is the author of The Moon: Symbol of Transformation (2016), Gaia: Story of Origin to Universe Story (The Gaia Foundation, 2012), The Mysteries of Osiris (2010), co-author of The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image (Penguin, 1993), and translator of The Homeric Hymns (Penguin Classics , 2003). She has written a number of booklets on the Imagination, made two films on the Early Northern Renaissance Painter, Jan van Eyck with Kingfisher Art Productions, and also an App and CD for young children called Songs of the Animals. She is a member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and a Fellow of the Temenos Academy.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out just going to the index to look things up piecemeal and ended up getting caught at one point about 2/3rds of the way through and reading to the end. I then went back to read the first third. You do not want to ask me any moon questions right now. I would bore you to tears with my current knowledge.

[Maria Ripoll Cera · Rating 1 out of 5]

La idea es buen, un libro erudito, histórico de leyendas y tradiciones, muy bien editado.
Pero es soporífero. Demasiado técnico sin tener que serlo. Le ha hecho falta un narrador que diera vida a sus textos.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, although it took a long time to get through. It explores how human minds have captured the moon in myths, legends and history. I learnt a lot, but was blown away by one of the ideas in it - that man would never have developed mind as we have without watching the moon, first noticing the continuous cycle it goes through and then calculating forwards to what phase it will be in, when. Amazing. The pictures and photos throughout the book are brilliant and I really liked the fact that some of them were reproduced in colour in the centre of the book. Definately one I will return to in the future, so it is joining my permanent reference shelves.