Our world is governed by an unfathomably intricate, interlocking web of made-up rules. Things you're "supposed" to do. Things you're not "supposed" to do. Conventions, traditions, patterns, schedules, routines, social contracts, laws... Seems like every facet of our lives, from the way we spend our time to the way we speak with each other, is micro-managed by an overwhelming and elaborate set of expectations, whether spoken or unspoken.
Most people follow The Rules faithfully, because any deviation from this Control System, no matter how trite, is met with punishing overreactions. For example, people can hardly handle hearing that you don't have a television. Because watching the news is A Rule. You have to know 'what's going on the world,' and you have to perform feeling-bad whenever someone on the TV dies, whether their death personally affects you or not. Why? Because!
That's it. Just "because." There's never a reason given why you "have to." You just have to.
One of The Rules, apparently, is that you're supposed to accept that the Moon is a natural part of our celestial system.
Most people have never questioned the nature or function of the Moon. Some have accepted what NASA told them about it (random space rock that collided with Earth, blah blah), while some have taken its presence for granted (because what's the point of questioning the Moon? Why would it even matter?), and others have spiritual biases that make them view the Moon in a neutral or positive way (see: lunar cults).
Given the above factors, the Moon is one of those things people are adamantly protective of, which I find weird. Like the examples of Imaginary Rules given above, breaking the "don't question the Moon" rule is met with instant dismissal, anger, mockery, and other conversation-ending reactions.
And hey, listen. I don't know what the Moon is. But frankly? Neither do you.
Have you been to the Moon? Have you examined it up-close? Have you seen its dark side? Can you personally confirm the legitimacy of NASA's photos? No??? Okay then. So you and I are both starting from a baseline of I have no way to verify what this thing is.
All of that said, we can begin our examination of the Moon as if we've never seen it or heard anything about it before. Ready to break The Rules with me? Yeah? Great. Here we go:
A PERFECT CIRCLE?
First, let's just look at it. This thing is perfectly circular.
Left: a photograph of the full Moon taken by Edward Liu. Right: the same image, overlaid with a circle to show how perfectly spherical the Moon is.
If you were walking along in nature and stumbled upon a perfectly circular rock, you'd probably assume the rock was deliberately carved to be that way. After all, perfect circles are not known to exist in nature. So the Moon's shape is one hell of an anomaly.
A few other things worth noting about the Moon:
The Moon is observably transparent.
We only ever see one side of it from Earth. The likelihood of this orbital dynamic occurring by chance is practically zero.
It happens to block out the Sun perfectly during eclipses.
From these hints it seems at least possible, if not likely, that we've been taught falsehoods about the Moon from Day 1. (If you're wondering "WHY WOULD NASA LIE TO US?!" hang tight — I'll be writing about that in the future.) The more I study and contemplate the Moon, the more it seems to have been deliberately placed in our celestial system, at a very specific distance, and at a very specific angle, to have a very specific effect on Earth's lifeforms.
What effect? Let's take a look...
MIND CONTROL?
When I first began studying Vedic astrology, I decided the best way to learn the 27 nakshatras (lunar mansions) would be to keep a diary. So I set up this experiment: Every day for 3 months, I wrote down my thoughts as candidly as possible, holding back no details. I also recorded the time of day that I wrote each entry. At the end of the 3 months, I went back and added in the nakshatra the Moon was in during the writing of each entry. Lo and behold: My thoughts always reflected the theme of the nakshatra the Moon was in that day, even though I didn't know where the Moon was when I was writing. For example: I found myself thinking heavily about real estate and homemaking under Punarvasu Moons, and about soulmates and romance under PurvaShadha Moons.
Similarly, many lucid dreamers have noticed that their dreams often feature themes associated with the current Moon sign. For example, one might find themselves dreaming of snakes under an Ashlesha Moon (the symbol of Ashlesha nakshatra is the coiled serpent).
Astrologers and witches have long known that the Moon profoundly affects the mind. In fact, we have a word specifically for this phenomenon. The word "lunacy" (note the root word: Luna) literally means moon-sickness.
And it turns out that violent crime rates seem to correlate with the Moon's phases:
The incidence of crimes reported to three police stations in different towns (one rural, one urban, one industrial) was studied to see if it varied with the day of the lunar cycle. The period of the study covered 1978-82. The incidence of crimes committed on full moon days was much higher than on all other days, new moon days, and seventh days after the full moon and new moon. A small peak in the incidence of crimes was observed on new moon days, but this was not significant when compared with crimes committed on other days. The incidence of crimes on equinox and solstice days did not differ significantly from those on other days, suggesting that the sun probably does not influence the incidence of crime. The increased incidence of crimes on full moon days may be due to "human tidal waves" caused by the gravitational pull of the moon.
C P Thakur and D Sharma. "Full moon and crime." Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1984 Dec 22; 289(6460): 1789–1791. doi: 10.1136/bmj.289.6460.1789
VAMPIRISM?
You probably already know that there is a strong magickal correlation between women's menstrual cycles and the moon's phases. Just as the Moon is said to pull the tides, it appears to tug on all bodily fluids, including mucous and blood. Many witches incorporate the Moon into their practice for this reason, performing rituals to "work with" the Moon's energies, and identifying strongly with the Moon as a symbol of feminine power due to its parallel with menstruation.
However, some esoteric journalists have called foul on this connection, pointing out that the Moon metaphysically distorts and inverts feminine energy, causing us to believe femininity is intrinsically cold, dark, volatile and dependent upon the Sun (masculine energy). Were the Moon to be removed from our celestial system, we may perceive femaleness as its archetypal ideal: life-giving, light-oriented and self-sustaining.
If this sounds off-the-wall, all one needs to do is look at the effect this Moon-menstruation parallel has on women. Menstrual periods are sometimes referred to as "the curse," and accurately so. Periods are often painful enough to make women miss school or work. If the Moon has anything to do with causing or influencing menstruation, and it's usually painful, is the Moon really something women should be embracing positively? Seems more like the Moon is a vampire of women's lifeforce than some icon of female power.
Anecdotally, some women report that blood retention or re-consumption of lost blood during menstruation restores their energy. Furthermore, some women report that certain spiritual or dietary practices cause their period to lighten or altogether disappear, which (according to them) makes them feel more clear-headed and free. This, to me, suggests that this blood should not be shed in the first place.
Now, mind you: I am not advocating the removal of one's menstrual period, as this can easily slippery-slope into misogyny or ill health. I'm only saying that witches may be taking their perception of the Moon's "feminine" symbolism for granted, and may need to reassess that perception.
To further this point: Near Death Experience accounts highlight a sinister connection between Moon Goddesses and the role of the Moon in human incarnation:
SOUL HARVESTING?
Cashford devotes a whole section to THE MOON AS THE ABODE OF SOULS and yet another to THE MOON AS A STAGE IN THE JOURNEY TO THE SUN:
"Everyone who dies becomes an 'ancestor' to the living, and in the Kaushitaki Upanishad it is said: All who depart from this world (or this body) go to the moon. In the former, (the bright) half, the moon delights in their spirits [prana]; in the other, (the dark) half, the moon sends them on to be born again.
The idea of the Moon as the abode of souls is found among many people: Bushmen, Polynesians, Hindus, Japanese, Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Hittites, Anatolians, Manichaeans, Greeks (Orphics, Pythagoreans), Slavs, Gnostics, Romany gypsies, Romans and all over the Roman empire.
- Tricked By The Light
And that's not all. Wayne J Bush (the guy who runs the site TrickedByTheLight.com — which I quote here on Hologram Press VERY often!) managed to find MANY esoteric texts describing the Moon as a sort of soul-trafficking port that one is transferred to after death.
Go read the whole thing. Trust me, it's worth it.
SO WHO BUILT THE MOON?
When I was in high school, back when Internet "forum culture" was a thing, I spent a lot of time perusing Lucid Dreaming forums. On these forums, advanced lucid dreamers would coordinate group astral projections to specific locations overnight in the dream state, then come back to the forum to report their shared experience. I loved vicariously exploring the cosmos through them.
Unfortunately, I cannot remember the exact website where I saw this thread. But I vividly remember one "dream mission" where a group of lucid dreamers decided to go to the Moon that night. The next day, every single one of these highly experienced astral projectors reported not being able to land on the Moon. When they attempted to astral-project themselves onto the Moon, they would bump into an invisible barrier. It was as if someone had created a forcefield to prevent them from seeing the Moon up-close.
To this day, I have never heard of anyone successfully astral-projecting onto the Moon (correct me in the comments if I'm wrong!), but apparently remote viewers have successfully gotten past this barrier. Famed remote viewer Ingo Swan, using a scientific method of remote viewing, claims to have seen humanoid beings, obelisks and other structures on the Moon's surface:
So, "Who Built the Moon?"
Aliens, potentially.
Lisa Renee, who claims to receive direct transmissions from off-Earth allies of humanity, has the following to say about the Saturn-Moon Matrix designed by "Negative Aliens" -
The etheric cords, magnetic structures, imprints and mind control machinery from the lunar forces are[...] manipulating the lower chakras.
Many of these mind control structures on earth were held in place through magnetic imprints transmitted from the Moon, an artificial satellite. The Orion forces from Saturn have been using the moon as an outpost to transmit Lunar forces to earth. They have used the Moon chain lineages as workers for this purpose for many millennia. These Moon lineages have been inherently responsible for the mind control transmitted to the earth to create gender separation, sexual misery and misogyny.
- from "Transfiguration," 2015.
I know, I know. ~Everything comes back to aliens.~ It's something like a Grand Unifying Theory, and one I find myself adhering to more and more by the day.
But the danger of such theories is that they tend to become self-sealing ideologies. If "aliens did it!" explains everything, then it actually explains nothing.
So let's return instead to the idea outlined in the beginning of this essay.
The Control System
The concept of Earth being a Control System, or Matrix, is one I absolutely intend to elaborate on in future writing. (One essay at a time, my loves.)
If we're operating under the assumption that Earth is governed by many subtle energy-siphoning operations (whether man-made or not), the Moon being used as a Controller makes sense. Outside of this "Matrix" framework, the Moon looks innocent, or benign at worst. But certainly not sinister.
It's also possible that the Moon was created by God (the "lesser light to rule the night," as described in the Bible), and that would explain its many near-impossible astronomical anomalies.
Regardless of what the Moon is, where it came from, and what its intentions are (if the Moon can have intentions), my original point remains:
I don't have to like the Moon. I don't have to think it's sacred. I don't have to think it's organic and naturally-occurring. I don't have to think it's 238,855 miles away from Earth. I don't have to think it's opaque, or that it reflects the Sun's light, or that I need to align my magick with its mechanical "flow." I don't have to do any of these things, because The Rules are imaginary, and anyone who pretends to know for certain what the Moon is, is lying to everyone, including themselves.
Maybe that's just the rebellious chaos magician in me speaking.
Or maybe I'm onto something.
What say you?
P.S. As a closing note: When talking about something as fundamental as the Moon's relationship to the Earth and humankind, there is sooooo much more than I can single-handedly cover in one post.
So here's some further reading for your rabbit hole diving pleasure. Have fun!
Multiple Scientists Claim the Moon is a Hollow Construct. Sean Adl-Tabatabai. 2019.
Sun Moon Yin Yang. Eric Dubay. 2018.
The Hollow Moon Theory: Is the Moon an Artificial Satellite? Gaia. 2020.
Is the Moon the Creation of Intelligence? The Forbidden Knowledge. 1970.
I just want to mention that I discovered you through Yolande Norris-Clark's book, Portal :) She refers to this piece of writing in one of her chapters.