Deity Work: Exploring the moon cycle as the divine feminine hero’s journey

Deepening my work with the Moon has been one of my favourite parts of this magical journey so far. I’ve spent hours and hours on studies, meditations, lectures, artwork and mythology relating to lunar phases and deities, and as it’s all come together, I’ve been so excited to share this philosophy.

So in this essay, I’m going to outline some basics of the mythology around the Mother Moon herself: Selene, and then dive into my developing philosophy on the moon cycle as the divine feminine hero’s journey, and how the chakras beautifully weave into it all.

Who is Selene? The Moon Personified, Mother Moon, Goddess of the Full Moon

As Selene is the overarching lunar deity in my practice, let’s first look at a few of her associations:

Family: Sister to Helios (Sun) and Eos (Dawn), Daughter of Thea & Hyperion.

Name: Derived from Greek Selas, meaning light/brightness.

Mythology: Hellenic pantheon of deities; said to be responsible for driving the moon across the sky at night, the moon incarnate, the moon personified, Goddess of the Full Moon.

Lover: Endymion, handsome shepherd or hunter. They met on her journey across the night sky and fell in love, so at the end of every night she would descend from the night sky to be with him. He was granted eternal life by Zeus after pleas from Selene, but also cursed with eternal sleep, so she could only look upon him.

Crystals: Selenite, Moonstone.

My philosophy on the Moon cycle as the divine feminine hero’s journey

Here’s a short summary of the philosophy behind my current moon deity practice, before we talk about each stage of the hero’s journey, associations, what that means for this weekends energies, and the research process behind my philosophy in a bit more detail:

Supported by the Artemis (Goddess of the Half-Moon) & Hecate (the Goddess of the Dark Moon) Selene leads us on a new hero’s journey every cycle.

The Maiden Moon (Waxing) and Crone Moon (Waning) are the journeys (or life phases) that take us to and from Selene—The Mother Moon. (Full Moon) We meet the Goddess Artemis twice along the way and eventually the Goddess Hecate at the end of our hero’s journey.

The steps of this hero’s journey look something like this:

1. The Maiden Moon is born, and must travel from birth (the New Moon/Root Chakra) through her first steps (Waxing Crescent/Sacral & Solar Plexus Chakra) beginning her sacred journey towards the heavens to meet Selene—the Full Moon.
2. She first meets Artemis, the Goddess of the Half Moon (the 1st Quarter Moon/Heart Chakra) where she discovers her connection to the Earth, learns the power of the hunt, wilderness and protection and how to use divine arrows to lovingly smite any obstacles blocking her journey to self-healing and growth. Here, she is energetic, eager to learn and is driven forward with a hopeful heart.
3. Then, she must move through the integration of the lessons from Artemis (Waxing Gibbous, Throat & Third Eye Chakra) before she is ready to meet Selene. Here, she learns how to tap into knowing she is a part of something bigger. She practices speaking from the heart, develops faith, and uses her words to forge and manifest the path forwards the heavens.
4. At the furthest point from home, she meets Selene (The Full Moon/Mother Moon/Crown Chakra) in the heavens and is forever changed. She celebrates the culmination of her successes, learns to take chances, has personal breakthroughs, learns the power of self-compassion, and her ultimate divine nature.
5. She continues her journey as the Crone Moon, but this time heading back towards home—at this stage, she must integrate the lessons Selene illuminated for her (Waning Gibbous/Third Eye & Throat Chakra). Here, she must hold on to the connection with her divine nature and sense of knowing from the lessons learnt with Selene, and use this to guide her words. She must anchor her self-compassion and banish any negative energies blocking her journey home, draining her, or otherwise holding her back. She builds trust in her self at this stage, bolstering her self-trust through integrity in her words.
6. After integrating Selene’s lessons, the Crone Moon once again meets Artemis, the Goddess of the Half Moon (3rd Quarter Moon/Heart Chakra) in Earth’s wilderness, this time with a different perspective. Here, she learns the true power to release, and how to complete any outstanding removals with divine arrows of detachment—but maintaining connection. She deepens her heart, closes up any pending issues, and prepares for renewal, rest and rebirth.
7. As she moves closer towards the end of her journey, the Crone Moon must integrate the final lessons Artemis (Waning Crescent/Solar Plexus & Sacral Chakra) had for her, and prepare to meet Hecate. She reminisces, finds closure, reflects on her successes, gives thanks for lessons learnt, practices radical acceptance by surrendering to what is and makes space for rest to begin.
8. In the last stage of this hero’s journey, the Crone Moon meets Hecate, the Goddess of the Dark Moon (Dark Moon/Root Chakra.) She sets new intentions, visits the underworld with Hecate to deepen her awareness of her shadows, but doesn’t stay. She hibernates, rests, and feels a sense of deep safety before she completes her cycle, ready to be born a maiden again in a new lifetime (new moon cycle & sign).

A Waxing Maiden Gibbous Spell

Here’s a spell I wrote and have been working with this week:

In rising maiden gibbous light,

I hold my vision and trust in divine time.

I trust the self, and world, as one, 

Prepared for sacred light on journeys to come. 

I’ve learnt and grown, watered possibilities,

The Goddess of the Hunt has guided me. 

Now with magick, I surrender,

And trust the Powers be—

Before Selene makes her grand entrance.

I will it so. So mote it be.

General notes on the moon cycle and the divine feminine

In my research, I’ve seen some interesting arguments around Artemis, Selene and Hecate as the Triple Goddess. And that’s where my philosophy started. It worked… until it didn’t.

If Selene was the Moon Personified, or also sometimes referred to as the Goddess of the Full Moon or Mother Moon, then how could Artemis (The Goddess of the Hunt/Wilderness, but also sometimes referred to as the Goddess of the Half-Moon) be the same as the maiden moon of the Triple Goddess—which is represented by a Waxing Crescent?

And the same with the Crone. If the Crone is represented by the Waning Crescent, then how could Hecate (Goddess of the Dark Moon) be the one in the same?

This structure also had my chakra associations all over the place.

So my diagrams expanded, and I started over with the lunar/deity/chakra associations.

• Selene = Moon personified, Full Moon.
• Full Moon = Mother Moon, Crown Chakra, Heavens.
• Artemis = Goddess of Half Moon (Not Maiden)
• Half Moon = Heart Chakra, Earth.
• Hecate = Goddess of Dark Moon (Not Crone)
• Dark Moon = Root Chakra, Underworld.
• Maiden = Waxing Moon Energy (Moving from Root Chakra>Crown Chakra)
• Crone = Waning Moon Energy (Moving from Crown Chakra>Root Chakra)

From here, I knew I had to map it as a story-line. It is quite literally a divine feminine journey. And the above hero’s journey timeline came into fruition.

I considered the idea of it being a heroine’s journey—which it still is—but I’m not a big fan of the general gist behind a standard ‘heroine’s journey’.

I recently heard a beautiful episode of The Intuitive Girls Guide podcast, which has some really interesting insights into the standard heroine’s journey and it’s differences from the standard hero’s journey.

I hope you’ve enjoyed a little bit of a deeper insight into some of my deity work. What do you think? Does this resonate for you?

Breaking down where we are in this month’s divine feminine journey (Nov 26/27th 2023)

As this weekend we will be moving through the waxing gibbous moon, preparing for the full moon on Monday, themes for exploration will be around using our throat and third eye chakra to integrate lessons we learnt at the first quarter moon: meaning we’re using the third eye and throat chakras to integrate our heart chakra here.

Whatever journey we started at the New Moon in Scorpio almost two weeks ago, we have planted the seeds, watered them, navigated any blockers along the way, and are now preparing to see the culmination and successes of our work so far this cycle.

We have to tap into that knowing that we are a part of something bigger, and have faith in the outcome of what we’ve started. We have to practice speaking from the heart and using our words (and boundaries) to maintain the path we’re on.

With a waxing gibbous moon in Taurus (so Saturday and Sunday 25th-26th November) we might need to lean more on those Earthly connection lessons from Artemis. We might be pulled to focus on remembering our sacred connection to the Earth, and it’s divine place between the underworld and the heavens.

This can help us avoid becoming held back by attachment to the material world or underworld, and open us up to the awakenings we can experience in the heavenly full moon on Monday.