I am in search of a name to associate with the goddess. There are so many to choose from and all for such different reasons. I want something that is kid friendly and easily explained to children without an overtly negative connotation.
I have been researching because my oldest son has been asking questions about God. He feels a tie to "God" because of things children say at school. He hasn't so much been questioning now that I think of it. He has been more making statements that he feels are fact.
When I question him and try to get out his personal thoughts and feelings, it is amazing how much he really believes similar to myself without much guidance from me in spirituality at all.
Well, here are some facts I found about the moon and earth during my research as well as a link to the source. The actual page has a pretty straightforward description of Diana/Luna/Artemis.
Scientific Facts about the Moon and the Earth...
Moon and Earth, tied together by gravitational attraction, revolve as a double planet.
Total eclipses occur when the Moon and Earth line up perfectly with the Sun.
During a solar eclipse, the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, hiding the Sun on a small area of Earth.
During a lunar eclipse, the full Moon moves into Earth’s shadow and is blacked out.
Because Earth spins faster than the Moon revolves, the Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night.
During the new phase, Moon and Sun rise and set at the same time; but, from then on, the Moon appears in different parts of the sky: in the west as it waxes larger towards gibbous, in the east as it wanes smaller.
The gravitational force of the Moon, and to a lesser extent the Sun, raises the ocean tides on Earth.
A great bulge of water is pulled up on the side of the Earth facing the Moon and held there as Earth rotates beneath the bulge, high tides occur and then because of Earth’s rotation, the tide seems to move from east to west.
None of the other planets has a moon like the Earth. Mercury and Venus have no moons at all, and Mars is orbited only by two tiny chunks of rock, each just one ten-millionth the size of Earth’s moon.
Because the Moon rotates on its axis in exactly the time it takes to orbit the Earth, it always presents the same side to us.
The Moon does not emit light. What we see is sunlight reflected from the Moon’s surface as the Moon goes through its familiar phases.
Description of Luna
I think the reason this goddess appeals to me is not the description of her, but honestly her name and association with the moon and healing. Since the boys were young we have always referred to the moon as Luna and talked about the beautiful face we see gazing down upon us. This dates back to my years as a Catholic and not just recent years.
I also value the ties the moon has to the seasons and almost all aspects of earthly happenings. It is not a myth when people say children go "crazy" around the full moon. I have seen it happen too many times to not believe it has some sort of scientific basis. lol
Anyways, what do you call your goddess? How do you think of her? How would you describe her to a child?
Describing the godess to a child... I might have to think about that for a while... (until our children are born, I assume *g*).
ReplyDeleteI used to call my Godess "Mistress", until Diana came and claimed me. We have been through some serious squabbling over the years, and I think of her as if she was some kind of older sister, I guess... I do not always love her, but we honor and respect (and trust) each other. Kind of. Sounds strange.
We just call her 'Goddess' and that sorta gets the point across.
ReplyDeleteOur little one understands the idea of 'god' so saying 'goddess' she imagines a feminine type of 'god'.
You could use the Wheel of the Year to explain the Goddess- different times of the year are different aspects of her.