Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, hey, curious ones, Welcome back to another episode of
Little Word Podcasts, where we dive into mysteries, marvels, and
the kinds of stories that make you go wait what.
I'm your host, Jane, and today I invite you to
look up, No really, just tilt your head and look
up at the night sky the night. We're chasing a
(00:22):
mystery that's been watching over us since forever. Yep, we're
talking about the moon. But not just the moon as
a big glowing rock in the sky. We're talking about
the Moon as a timekeeper, amuse, a goddess aby is
slayer and decided witness to Earth's wildest years. So grab
(00:45):
your favorite or maybe light a candle, because this episode
is going to be a journey between scientific wonders and
ancient tales within creators and creatures within the noon and
then quite loon. Let's start with what we know, or
(01:05):
at least what we think we know. The Moon is
Earth's only natural satellite, about three hundred eighty four thousand
kilometers away, close enough that we can see it with
our naked eye, far enough that only twenty four humans
have ever gone there. And yet, for something so visible,
the moon holds so many mysteries, and one of the
(01:28):
biggest how it came to be. Scientists not believe that
the Moon was born from chaos, the result of a
massive collision between BB Earth and the marcized object named THEA.
The crash flung debris into orbit, and that debris somehow
became her the Moon. So right from the beginning, her
(01:48):
story starts with violence, laws, and rebirth. A cosmic phoenix
made of modern rock. Betty, she still rambles, Yes, even now.
The moonquakes, soismometers left by Apollo astronauts pickup on quaks,
some so strong they shake your kitchen shelves. Scientists believe
(02:11):
the Moon is slowly shrinking, and as it does, it's
grass cracks like a raisin drying in space. Then there
are the lunar swirls. Goes these swirling patterns on the surface.
They look like someone painted cream into coffee, and they
don't match the terrain. They're just there, bright and bizarre.
(02:35):
And what's the leading theory of this That the Moon
might have many magnetic shields that protect parts of its
surface from solerin living parts whiter than the others, kind
of like cosmic sunscreen. And then there's something called transient
lunar phenomena or TLPs. Random hashes of light, clothes or
(02:57):
haze is patted on the moon. Their gaspers something with
their impacts. Others say it's just the moon being weird,
and I respect that. But here's something I find utterly beautiful.
Because the moon doesn't have wind or the foot prints
left by the Apollo astronauts are still there, still there,
(03:19):
like fossils in dus, waiting for someone else to come back. Now,
let's pull back from the telescopes and step into meat.
Across culture, someone has always been more than Iraq. She
is often she a goddess, mother, a mystery an ancient
Greece to Manusulin, riding her silver chariot across the sky.
(03:41):
In Rome, she became Luna. In China, she's China, a
drunk and elixir of mortality, and floated to the moon,
where she lives with the jade rabbit bounding herbs. The
Inga had Mamma Kilia, goddess of marriage and calendar. In
Japan and Korea, people also see a rabbit in the moon,
not a man, and in Western cultures they see the
(04:01):
man in the moon, probably because of the shadows cast
by the ancient lava planes on the surface. But it's
not just about gods and shapes. The moon cycles boxing waning,
full moon, You are the cycles of women, of crops,
of tides. She was a guide dobed planting or ning
for fishermen, and a companion to night travelers. And then
(04:23):
there were the eclipses. Imagine being an ancient villager seeing
the moon during blood red and not knowing why. Many
cultures imagine creatures following the moon, which brings us home.
In the Philippines, we have one of the holiest eclipse
stories ever, a legend of Bagonawa, the serpent like creature
(04:43):
believed to devour the moon. I actually read a full
episode about this. It's in episode sixteen, The Cosmic Tale
of the Moon Eater Banaa and other Sun and moon
eating creatures. If you haven't heard of it yet, I'll
link it in the show notes. But Barghanawa isn't the
only lunar tale we have. Our skies also carry the
story of Bulan, also known as lie Bulan, a mundyti
(05:06):
from Visayan mythology. Many people to the know Bulan through
a widely circulated version of the tale that frames it
as a celestial love story between two male GUIDs. It's
a beautiful interpretation that capture the imagination of many, But
the real story behind Bulan is more layered and not
quite what most think it is. Well, return to that
(05:29):
Monday mystery soon, but for now, let's just say not
all that shines in folklore is what it first appears
to be. Now here's something quietly fascinating. Even in this
high speed digital age, so many cultures across the orials
still align their most sacred beliefs and traditions not with
the sun, but with the moon. Think about that for
(05:50):
a second. From Asia to Middle East to ancient communties
in Europe and Africa, the moon remains a timekeeper for
the soul. And it's not just poet It's built into calendars, rituals,
and the rhythms of entire civilizations. Let's break it out.
The Islamic calendar, for example, is fully lunar. It follows
(06:12):
the moon alone, no adjustments for seasons or solar patterns.
That means that months like Ramadan are i moved through
the calendar, shifting each year by about ten or eleven days.
Sometimes Ramadan happens during long summer days other times in
Chili winter, and that's part of the spiritual practice. It
(06:34):
keeps you grounded in the cycle of the moon at
the rigidity of man made time. Then there's the Chinese calendar,
which is what we call a Luni solar calendar. Once
follow the moon, each one begins with the new moon,
but the years are just solutely months to stay in
sync with the sun and the seasons. That's why Chinese
year shifts around Lah and Mary to mid February. It's
(06:57):
a cosmic balance, a dance between dinner intuition and solar structure.
The Jewish cancer does something similar. Festivals like Passover and
so Coot are time by the moon, but carefully corrected
so they still land in the right season. Even Holly
and the Wali in India and Vessa in Buddhism for
(07:18):
unfull arnuments chosen not by convenience but by the sky.
You know what gives me goods bumps? Sometimes? Of course,
it's the mud behind the moon. It's not just mysticism.
Its numbers, and who isn't scared of numbers? Right? It's proportions, ratios,
(07:39):
patterns that almost seem intentional, just like a cosmic wink.
Here's one of the most famous ones. The moon is
for a hundred times smaller than the time, but it's
also for a hundred times closer dort. So when you
look up during a total solar eclipse, the moon perfectly
covers the sense this not too big, not too small effect.
(08:00):
What are the ads of that? Right? No other moon
in our solar system does that. Movements are either too
tiny or too close. Earth's moon is uniquely placed to
give us that once in lifetime eclipse magic or daila
advanishes and you see the sun shale of lickering like
a crown on fire. It's so mathematically precise that some
ancient civilizations believe eclipses to a proof of divine geometry
(08:24):
of God's function in the sky. Now listen to this.
The diameter of the Moon is about three thousand, four
hundred and seventy four kilometers, roughly one for the size
of Earth. But the ratio of Earth to the Moon
is strangely similar to the ratio of the Moon to
the human body. Get this, The Moon is roughly one
(08:45):
hundred and eighth the distance from Earth as the status
and the sunse diameter is also about one hundred eight
times than that of Earth. The number one hundred and
eight pops up everywhere in Hinduism, in Buddhism and ancient astronomy,
even in the number of prayer beats on Amala. Coincidence maybe,
but it's poetic, man, isn't it? Now? Gettus? The moon
(09:08):
orbits every twenty seven point three days. Guess what else
averages about twenty seven point three days. Yes, the human
man's real cycle, which is why the moon has always
been symbolically tied to femininity, fertidity, and cycles of renewal.
It's as if our bodies were tuned to her edom
and just to bend their mind a little more, the
(09:31):
moon's rotation period, the time it takes to spin once
on its axis, is also twenty seven point three days.
That's why the same side of the moon always faces us.
The moon is in a way locked into a cosmic case,
spinning just fast enough to always show us her saying face,
(09:52):
never turning away. Another thing that always intrigued me, even
in pop culture, is the money is casts not as
a backdrop, but as a watcher. Have you seen the
movie The Truman Show. In that story, the moon isn't
just a light in the sky. It's a surveillance tool,
(10:12):
a hidden camera. The glowing orb above is quite literally
an eye quietly tracking Truman's every move. But that idea
didn't start in Hollywood. It echoes something much older. In
Ancient Meets, the moon was a silent witness, watching lovers,
part King's rise, secrets unfold in dreams, she reflects what
(10:36):
you won't say aloud, and in shadowy tails she becomes
something more unsettling, a symbol of selft, control of being
watched without knowing who's watching. Some even whispered there's someone
up there, a presence behind the light that divine, not monstrous,
(10:58):
just aware. And maybe that's why she still fascinates us,
Because the doesn't just orbit. She observes. Whether she's a
dragon spray, a cosmic clock, or a secret camera in
movie sky, the moon holds a mirror up to us.
(11:19):
She becomes what we need her to be, a guide,
a guardian, a glowing symbol of mystery. She's never loud,
never force full. She just rises, watches, waits, turning tides,
and tanging quietly at the threads of our imagination. She's
math and meathed in the same breath, spinning in such
(11:42):
a strange precision that she can eclipse the sun much
human cycles, and steer questions deeper than science and and
can answer. She marks our calendars, yes, but she also
marks our memories, those quiet mooned moss, the ones that
make us stop and look up, Those are hers, And
(12:06):
in those moments it feels like maybe we are not alone,
not just in the universe, but in the very act
of wondering. The moon is constant, but never the same.
She disappears, she returns. She is the edom, the witness,
the reflection, and perhaps that's the real magic, not that
(12:32):
we walk on her surface, but that after all these years,
she still walks through us. Thank you for staying with
me under the spell of Monlight Night. If we love
this episode and want to explore more of the stories, symbols,
and soft curiosities that live in the Little Word universe,
(12:55):
I have a couple of special things to share. First,
Leal World is now on sub stock and coffee. That
means you can now read waten versions of my deep dives,
get behind the scenes missings, and support this podcast in
a way that keeps it glowing. And speaking of glow,
I just release my first digital journal, the Moonnes Manifestation Journal.
(13:18):
It's soft and intentional, a space to track your thoughts, desires,
and dreams in reaedom with a lunar cycle inside to
find the Moonface worksheets, intention setting prompts, dream reflection pages
and cards to help you reconnect with your inner world,
all crafted to help you move gently and with clarity
(13:38):
through each moon phase. You can get the moon Notes
journal for eight dollars in the coffee shop. But if
you'd like to leave a little deep which I love
in the cult charms in the shop, or if you
become a monthly supporter, I'll give the journal to you
in exchange for whatever amount you share. Think of it
as a give passed from one cares So to another.
(14:00):
The links are in the show notes. If you have
staries to share suggestions, comments, or just want to say hi,
you can also get me on ig. Thank you again
for being here, for looking up, and for wondering. Until
next time, Stay Creus and stay Liner