Moon

The moon comes and goes, dies and is resurrected – unlike the sun, it is changeable and undergoes phases. It is seen as passive (it reflects the sun's light rather than spreading its own) and moist; it gives rise to dew, promotes vegetation, and is associated with "wet" creatures such as the frog and the self-renewing serpent. The moon has fascinated humans throughout history, and as an archetypal image, it is complex.

Reflection  

While the sun's light is direct and can be intrusive, the moon's light is, in both senses, reflective. It prompts contemplation, it makes one see things in a new kind of light, it bestows knowledge, understanding, and truth. In many contexts, the moon represents mind and spirit.  

Feminine Fertility Symbol  

The moon gives rise to the moisture that vegetation requires, it watches over the cultivated, etc. – it is the source of life. The moon is generally regarded as feminine, in many traditions it is the sun's partner or even vessel, and it is linked to marriage – "nature's womb and uterus."  

She rules over growth, vegetation, fertilization. It is at night that creation and flourishing occur – in darkness, in secrecy, in moisture, in silence (in contrast to the day's sun, noise, and dryness).  

Change and Rhythm  

Unlike the sun, the moon is constantly undergoing changes, and everything on earth that changes is associated with her. Grains and plants that come and go, ebb and flow, life and death. In these contexts, the moon is seen as feminine, and a connection is made between the moon's "periods" and a woman's, as well as between the moon's waxing and waning and a woman's pregnancy – it comes and goes, grows and shrinks.  

Time

This regular cycle – that it comes, grows, shrinks, disappears, only to return again, grow, and so on – is likely humanity's first "clock" and "calendar." The moon, in other words, is associated with time.

Duality  

Unlike the sun, the moon has a light side and a dark side, which can sometimes be interpreted as a good and an evil, or at least demonic; she is a "duality," changeable "like Mercurius," and like him, a mediator. (Hermes is also associated with the moon.) While the sun represents the conscious, the moon represents the unconscious, "that is, anima" (in man). (Mysterium Coniunctionis, par. 20 [footnote]).

Emptying  

When the moon darkens, it "empties" itself as it approaches the sun, to fulfill the world (or surrender it to the sun). This image is linked to Christ, who, according to kenosis theology, "emptied" himself of his equality with God in order to enter into and fulfill the world. (See Philippians 2:6, "he emptied himself… when he came in the form of a man.") Similar "kenotic thoughts" are found in, for example, Buddhism and Judaism.  

Humans also "empty" themselves. They are born "in the Self," but in order to enter the world and shape a life as a human, they empty themselves of the Self while forming the ego.

New Moon

The black new moon can be an expression of the moon's dangerous aspect. The moon is, on one hand, white like a pearl, but on the other hand, black; as such, it can even darken the sun.

The new moon, like the full moon, is contradictory in terms of traditions. In ancient times, it was seen as beneficial to marry during the new moon, which is still the belief in some places. The moon is the sun's vessel. The beautiful new moon was devotedly spoken of by church fathers and poets. But at the same time, the new moon is considered dangerous in the context of death, childbirth, and even weddings, in other contexts. Like the full moon, the new moon has a spooky aspect; the darkness expresses nigredo – "the black sun."

Negative Qualities

Especially during the medieval period, the moon was attributed certain negative qualities, but there are archetypal traces that recur everywhere. While the sun is predictable, the moon is seen as more unpredictable – it comes and goes; sometimes white, sometimes black. This has led to associations with, for example, falsehood and misfortune. We know that the sun always rises and moves across the sky – but we cannot count on the moon doing the same.  

Changeability is a negative quality because it is associated with death; before the fall, there was a paradisiacal eternity, and this unchanging time, when no one would die, is supposed to return. The moon's recurring light and darkness remind humanity of the misfortune of the world, the passage of earthly time.  

That the moon (again, unlike the sun) can become black makes it unreliable, as it is by definition corrupted. The new moon, the black moon, could therefore be dangerous and evil.  

The moon is associated with several goddesses, especially Hecate, but also with love, love magic, and magic in general. "The moon's ominous side plays a significant role in classical tradition," comments Jung (Mysterium Coniunctionis, par. 24).

Reflection

While the light of the sun is direct and can be intrusive, the light of the moon is reflective in a double sense. It calls for contemplation, it makes one perhaps passively observe things in a new kind of light – the world looks different in its glow – the reflection grants knowledge, understanding, and truth.

Unconsciousness and Moonlight  

The sun is a classical symbol of consciousness, and the moon is its opposite, that is, unconsciousness. Night, darkness, passions, etc., are symbols of the unconscious. Moonlight attracts all sorts of superstitions; its glow leaves yet another darkness, an ambiguity that can give the association of being between worlds. "All cats are gray," it is impossible to distinguish; moonlight is a kind of light of the unconscious. At the same time, this lack of distinctions can have a maternal, smoothing quality, where things are not necessarily set against each other.

The Moon and the Sun  

Just as gold belongs to the SUN, silver belongs to the moon. The moon's metal, silver, can darken but is polished bright again. While the sun, according to many cultures, is fiery and wild, the moon is cool and gentle. In the alchemical tradition, the moon is the sun's sister, bride, mother, and spouse – but also shadow (in the Jungian sense); its moisture absorbs the sun's rays.  

"The moon, with its 'antithetical' nature, is in a way a prototype for individuation, the foretelling of the Self." (Mysterium Coniunctionis, par. 217.) It is the sun's mother and wife, pregnant with the sun's child, according to the alchemist Dorn. Jung comments: "This image corresponds to the archetypal theme of the pregnant anima, whose child is the Self, or who is marked with the hero's attributes." (Ibid.) The moon as the sun's mother is an image of the unconscious that gives birth to the conscious.

The Moon and Man

Man's "mind" is connected to the moon, not least the "animal" (passion, desire, anger). Madness is, as is well known, associated with this celestial body, as is illustrated by the legends of werewolves; the word "lunacy" comes from the moon's Latin name luna. (At the same time, the full moon, according to some beliefs, can drive away dangerous or mad creatures.)

In the process of the soul passing through the moon to the earth, man receives his mind, the exclusively human – see more below. The moon has an evident connection to the human psyche and body (such as mental stability and menstruation, to repeat two examples).  

The Moon and the Soul

According to European, more or less mystical, tradition, the human soul traveled through the seven spheres before coming to earth via the moon, the lowest sphere/celestial body. When a person died, the soul returned to heaven via the moon. The moon symbolizes the first and last stage of the soul's journey. It is the moon that embodies the human being and makes her bound by time.  

Edinger comments (The Eternal Drama, p. 140) on the ancient Greeks' vision of the moon as the "portal" between the eternal and the earthly:

"This is simply the ancient symbolic expression of what Jung formulated more precisely, at least concerning the human psyche, that anima is the gateway to the unconscious."

He clarifies that it is through "the feminine principle and embodiment" that "the moon" brings content to consciousness and draws content back from consciousness.

Coagulatio and Solutio

This incarnating, concretizing, and realizing is connected to the alchemists' coagulatio. At the same time, the moon provides solutio, due to its connection with water, the sea, tides, plant sap, and dew. The moon both concretizes and dissolves.

The Moon and the Earth

The moon's proximity to the earth makes it "contaminated" by the earthly; it has a less heavenly quality than the other six planets, according to tradition. In other words, this celestial body has a more material, bodily quality, and shares the earth's burdens; it also has a collective and unifying quality, characteristics that make the moon, in early Christian symbolism, likened to the church and the Virgin Mary.

Mediator Between Worlds

Just as the church is a mediator between the earthly and the heavenly, the moon is a mediator between worlds. A person cannot be exposed to the sun or God without burning, but instead turns to that which reflects the light – the moon or the church.  

This mediating role between worlds corresponds psychologically to the feminine standing between consciousness and the (collective) unconscious. At the same time, all congregations (but also institutions, ideologies, etc.) are "moon vessels," where all are the life-giving moon mother's children. The collective returns as an expression of this moon's dynamic.

Alchemy  

In alchemy, the moon is a personification of the feminine principle. From the moon comes "Mercurius' water" or aqua permanens, the secret tincture that can revive the dragon, etc.

The full moon is “the water of the wise,” completely round and the root of the “science,” according to an ancient alchemist. And according to this alchemical tradition, the moon is moist and cold, reminiscent of breath and thereby spirit and psyche. The sun, on the other hand, is dry and warm; they unite harmoniously as man and woman, the foremost image of coniunctio oppositorum.

However, this is not a given from the outset, as an initial union between the conscious and the unconscious (sun and luna) gives undesirable results, which are expressed as poisonous animals (snake, scorpion, toad). As time goes on, the union gives rise to animals such as lions, bears, wolves, and dogs, and ultimately the eagle and raven. These symbols with their partially negative qualities express the fact that both the conscious and the unconscious have dark streaks, which come to life in their offspring – sol niger and the black new moon.

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