Magic of the Nocturnal Goddess

The moon, the great God Luna (or should that be goddess?) is perhaps the greatest deity after the sun in the rites and ceremonies of Magic and Witchcraft. The worship of the moon in ancient Gaul was high, it was here that the moon had an oracle on the island of Sein, five miles off the coast of Brittany. The moon has been called the eye of the night, and the queen of silence. It is the Isis of the Egyptians, the nocturnal goddess Mylitta of the Persians, the mother goddess Alilat of the Arabs, Selene of the Greeks, Diana of the Witches, and the Goddess Juno of the Romans.

The magicians of ancient Thessaly boasted of having a great deal with the moon, and of being able, by their enchantments, to deliver it from the dragon who wanted to devour it (when it was eclipsed), or to do it at will on the earth.

And the idea that the moon could be inhabited gave rise to ingenious works of fiction: such as the voyages of Lucien, of Cyrano de Bergerac, and the fable of Ariosto, who places in the moon a vast storehouse filled with labelled vials, where the common sense of each individual is enclosed.