On Monday morning, 8 September, just before dawn, I quietly sneaked out of my house. I briskly walked out into the street where I met with a mysterious prophet. She waited for me in the shadows on this misty Spring morning. My head torch illuminated her brown features and we whispered a quiet hello to each other.
I make this sound very mysterious, but actually, this happens each weekday, and said prophet is also my domestic helper. We walk just before dawn five days a week and pick up some other early-exercisers on the way. On this particular day, Sakhile went full-on-sangoma-vibes with me. You might recall that there was a blood moon on the night of the 7th of September, and as Sakhile and I looked at the dripping red moon, she made some predictions. With the authority of a tent-revival evangelist she assured our group of walkers that within the next seven days someone would die. It was quite a broad statement, and given my line of work, I knew there would almost certainly be a death, perhaps even in the very place our walk began.
She however expanded her prophecy and told us in her best oracle voice that it won’t just be any death. It would be someone important. Her words were: “I’m not saying it will be Donald Trump, but it could be. Or maybe someone like him.”
Low and behold, true to her word, two days later Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Sakhile was delighted (not about the death, but the accuracy of her prediction), so much so, that if she were not with me, I would have thought she pulled the trigger herself. Her lunar eclipse prophecy came to fruition and her faith in the ancestors was restored. Whether Charlie Kirk was important or not, he was definitely famous. He had the same incredible quality as Marmite: people either loved him or hated him, but indifferent we are not. We all have quite an opinion about the man (and his blonde beauty-pageant wife).
Sakhile’s predictions made me think about the moon and how it still influences our lives now in the 21st century. There are many myths around this celestial object orbiting our planet and it seems us humans think it does much more than light up our evening skies, have eclipses and control the oceans’s tides. I dug a bit deeper and found that Sakhile is not the only one who places so much value in the moon and what it’s up to.
The Incas believed that a jaguar attacked the moon during an eclipse and they would bang on drums to scare it away. In Hindu mythology, it was believed the moon was also swallowed, but instead of a jaguar, they believed it was a demon. Another explanation was that a dragon swallowed the moon in China and they, like the Incas thought noises would scare the dragon away. Instead of drums they used fireworks. Here on our continent, the Masai believed that an evil spirit called Sumba swallowed the moon and loudly banging on drums would scare him away. Is it not interesting how people from all the corners of the world came up with very similar theories with the details changing according to their beliefs and customs? Some Christians believe that in Acts 2:20 the predication of the return of Christ will be after a blood moon. The Aztecs believed a baby will have a cleft palate if the mom saw an eclipse during her pregnancy. People in Togo would go about making peace and forgiving one another because they thought the sun and moon would stop fighting one another if they could see people doing the same.
The Islamic cultures use the moon to determine the beginning of months, such as Ramadan. Hindus, the Chinese, Buddhist, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Tibetan and Jews also stick to the moon’s phases when it comes to keeping track of months, and although Christians (read the West) mainly follow a solar calendar, they still determine the date of Easter according to the moon.
In Astrology, the moon’s position during the time of your birth determines your personality, emotional needs and how you need to connect. Many healers use the position of the moon when they plan rituals, make medicines, perform energy work, or guide you, believing that lunar phases influence physical health outcomes and emotional states. Despite no scientific evidence, many health care professionals believe there is an increase in psychotic breakdowns, suicides and mental health crises (new word for nervous breakdown) when the moon is in certain phases. In fact, the word lunatic is directly from “lunar”, meaning moon.
The moon also had a big effect on our language. We regularly say things like, “over the moon”, “once in a blue moon”, “ask for the moon”, “shoot for the moon”, “many moons ago”, “man in the moon”, “bark at the moon”, “to the moon and back” and “somebody hung the moon”. There are also words like moonlighting, honeymoon, Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, moonshine, moonstruck and moonfaced.
The poor moon was also blamed for men going bald in South America. Women’s menstrual cycles and ability to reproduce in general were pinned on the moons waxing and waning in many cultures. In India, pointing at the moon would result in ear pain. In Indonesia, fishermen believed the moon’s brightness would cause the fish to hide. In Victorian England, pale people were believed to have slept in moonlight (which I suppose is most British people) and in Africa, the moon was apparently responsible for stealing laundry during the night (not sure what it did with the socks and shirts).
It feels like the moon has always played a role in our lives. Our belief, fears and hopes are existential, making the moon a perfect mirror, so that if we convince ourselves the moon is to thank or to blame, maybe our own lives will make more sense or feel less fragile? From new age prophets, to ancient stargazers, people have always wanted to look up for answers. Here at the Lodges we see it differently. The moon reminds us that healing and life also has tides: times of ebb and renewal, shadow and light, wholeness and absence. We get to walk along the different phases with our patients, learning to accept the changes in our bodies and our lives, just as the earth accept the changes in the moon. The moon reminds me that even in our modern, well-lit world, there’s still a space for mystery, wonder and a desire, like those who went before us, to keep looking up.