Observations placeholder
Mircea Eliade - The Moon as Mother of the Waters
Identifier
010953
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Mircea Eliade – Patterns in Comparative religion
'The moon is in the waters' and 'rain comes from the moon'; those are two leitmotiven in Indian thought … Ardvisura Anahita, the Iranian goddess of water, was a lunar being; Sin, the Babylonian moon god, also governed the waters. One hymn brings out how fruitful his theophany is
When thou floatest like a boat on the waters..
the pure river Euphrates is filled with water to the full
One text of the 'Langdon Epic' speaks of the place whence the waters flow from their source, from the moon's reservoir.[Albright – Some Cruces of the Langdon Epic 1919]
All the moon divinities preserve more or less obvious water attributes or functions. To certain American Indian tribes, the moon, or the moon god, is at the same time the god of water. This is true in Mexico and among the Iriquois to name two instances. One tribe in Central Brazil call the moon god's daughter 'Mother of the Waters'. Hieronymo de Chaves said in 1576, speaking of ancient Mexican beliefs concerning the moon 'the moon makes all things grow and multiply'.