The goddess

The goddess of the moon was tall and willowy, with skin like the pale blue of twilight that shimmered with each movement. Her hair was black as coal and filled with all the stars of the sky. Her face was etched with high cheekbones and a long straight nose. Her eyelashes were black as the night and lay thick upon her cheeks. Her beauty was cold and whispered through the night.

She was loved sorely by the sun god, whose skin shone bronze and bright. His hair was red like fire and his eyes green emeralds. His eyebrows were strong and swept like an eagle’s wings across his angular face. His lips were full and luscious and from them came a voice so strong and pure it seemed to vibrate through your bones.

But it was not to be, for they were not a match, but opposites, doomed to chase each other through the skies for all eternity. For each could not survive the other.  She doused his flame with her icy stillness and the brilliance of his light eclipsed her subtle shimmer.

But so great was his longing for her, that he scoured the world for another to take his place. Thousands of years wore on, and in his despair the sun turned to less worthy candidates. He looked for a man so hungry for power that he would look to assume to role of the sun for his glory. And so the tragedy came to pass, that he was found. The sun offered the most beautiful and powerful of men the chance to assume his role in the skies, and without hesitation he took it and crowed his glory to the world.

The former sun raced through the skies, his light ever dimming, to finally be close to she who held his heart. When she saw him, she wept for joy. She never believed that this day would ever come and had resigned herself to her despair. As their lips met for the first time, he was subsumed into her very soul, binding them for all eternity. Theirs was a perfect match of yin and yang, and they lived in harmony as one being – and he is often referred to as the man ‘in’ the moon, for that is what he became: a man who lived in his lover’s heart, who cherished her so deeply that he would choose never to be parted from her. Each month we see them dancing back and forth, waxing and waning in the sky, with her hair blanketing the sky as it streams out behind her as she spins in delighted circles.

The price of this love, dear one, for there is always a price, is that we now have a sun that is trying to draw ever nearer to earth. He wants to consume the world with his power, to show his might and glory for the world to see. He is beginning to feel how lonely power is. It sets you apart from other people, and places a weight on your shoulders that you cannot see and cannot tell. It is never something to be taken lightly, as he did. And it is not something to be sought. That is why he seeks more power, for he does not understand that only when a man is happy with what he has can he ever be at peace. Power, wealth, position and all the strength in the world will not grant him what he seeks. He needs the moon; a moon of his own. For it is only when he finds his balance that he will be content, and until that day, he will torment this land with drought and fire and tides so high they sweep all away in their path. What we need, my boy, is to find what it is this sun seeks.

(c) RG