Author: Mystic Grove

Coyolxauhqui, the Mexica moon goddess of the golden bells: her story at Coatepec, the great stone found in Mexico City, and a gentle waning moon practice

Coyolxauhqui is the moon goddess of the golden bells, the sister who fell from the Hill of Serpents and, in the best known telling, rose again as the moon. Here is who Coyolxauhqui is, where her story really comes from, what her famous stone shows, and a quiet way to honour the waning moon in her week. She is part of our moon goddesses series, from the Hunter’s Moon to Samhain.

Who Is Coyolxauhqui?

Coyolxauhqui is a goddess of the Mexica, the people who built the great city of Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco, where Mexico City stands today. You will often see her called the Aztec moon goddess. The Mexica did not call themselves Aztecs; that name became popular with European writers in the nineteenth century, and many museums in Mexico now prefer Mexica.

She is known first by her face. On her cheeks she wears small round bells, and her name is usually read as painted with bells. In her hair sit soft balls of white down feathers. Bells of copper and gold were cast across ancient Mexico and worn on the body, so she is a goddess you might hear as well as see.

In her story she is a warrior, the proud eldest sister of four hundred brothers. Today many people see in her the moon, loss and the work of putting yourself back together.

She is the moon that breaks into pieces every month and still comes back whole.

The Story of Coyolxauhqui at Coatepec

What follows is myth, told as story. It comes mainly from one account, set down in the sixteenth century, and there are other versions.

A ball of feathers

On Coatepec, the Hill of Serpents near Tula, the goddess Coatlicue kept a shrine, and every day she swept it as an act of devotion. One day, as she swept, a ball of fine feathers drifted down from the sky. She picked it up and tucked it into the cloth over her breast. When her sweeping was done she looked for the feathers and they were gone. From that moment she was carrying a child.

The sister who led the four hundred

Coatlicue already had a daughter, Coyolxauhqui, and four hundred sons, the Centzon Huitznahua, whose name means the four hundred southerners. When they saw their mother was with child, they were ashamed and angry. Coyolxauhqui urged her brothers on, and together they decided their mother must die. They dressed for war and set off up the hill, with Coyolxauhqui at their head.

The fall from the hill

The child in Coatlicue’s womb was Huitzilopochtli, who would become the great god of the sun and of war for the Mexica. One of the brothers secretly warned him as the army climbed. As they reached the top, Huitzilopochtli was born, fully grown and armed with a weapon called the fire serpent. He struck down his sister, and Coyolxauhqui fell from the summit, broken apart as she tumbled to the foot of the hill. Then he chased the four hundred brothers around the mountain and scattered them.

In a later and much loved telling, her head was cast up into the sky and became the moon, so that her mother could see her shining every night, while her brothers became the stars of the southern sky. It is a beautiful ending, but it is hard to trace in the earliest sources, so hold it as a later layer.

What the Coyolxauhqui Story Means

Many scholars read the Coatepec story as a picture of the sky. The sun rises each morning and the moon and stars fade before it. Seen that way, Huitzilopochtli is the sun, his sister the moon, and the four hundred brothers the stars, scattered by every dawn.

It was also about their city. The Templo Mayor at the heart of Tenochtitlan was built as Coatepec, with the shrine of Huitzilopochtli at the top and the figure of his fallen sister at the foot of its stairs, exactly where the story says she came to rest.

The Coyolxauhqui Stone

On 21st February 1978, workers from the Mexico City electricity company were digging beneath a street corner in the historic centre when they struck a great carved stone. It turned out to be a round disc of volcanic andesite about three and a quarter metres across and roughly eight tonnes in weight, showing Coyolxauhqui after her fall.

The find proved that the Templo Mayor lay under the colonial streets, and the archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma went on to lead years of excavation there. The stone itself is displayed in the Museo del Templo Mayor, with a replica at the spot where it was found.

The carving shows her fallen and broken apart, her arms and legs separated from her body, which is exactly how the story describes her at the foot of Coatepec. She still wears a bell on her cheek, bells and balls of down in her hair, a feathered headdress and a serpent belt. Traces of paint show it was once bright with yellow, red and blue.

A second famous portrait is a large greenstone head with bells on her cheeks and a calm, heavy lidded face, now in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It is the serene face many people picture when they think of her.

The Honest History of Coyolxauhqui

What the old sources say

The full story of Coatepec comes from the Florentine Codex, the great encyclopedia of Nahua life made by the friar Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua scholars and artists, and completed in 1577. It is written in Nahuatl and Spanish side by side, and you can explore it in the Digital Florentine Codex from the Getty Research Institute. The tale of her fall is in Book Three, on the origin of the gods. A shorter version of the same episode appears in an account of the Mexica migration by the chronicler Alvarado Tezozómoc.

The stone and the greenstone head are older, carved in the fifteenth century, which shows the story of the fallen sister mattered long before the Spanish arrived in 1519.

Was she really a moon goddess?

This is where honesty matters. Many writers, and Mexico’s own national institute of anthropology and history, describe her as a lunar goddess. But the old sources never quite say it. The idea that her head became the moon is hard to find in the sixteenth century texts, and some scholars link her instead with the Milky Way or with the stars. The World History Encyclopedia gives a clear summary of both views.

The Mexica had another moon figure too. In the story of the Fifth Sun, also in the Florentine Codex, the proud god Tecciztecatl becomes the moon, and the gods throw a rabbit at his face to dim his light, which is why people in Mexico see a rabbit in the moon. If you read our post on Chang’e, you will know the moon has a rabbit in China too.

What is modern

From the 1970s, Chicana writers and artists in the United States took up Coyolxauhqui as a symbol of women and of healing. The writer Gloria Anzaldúa spoke of the Coyolxauhqui imperative, the deep urge to gather up the scattered pieces of yourself and become whole again, in her book Light in the Dark. That reading is new, and it is genuinely meaningful to a great many people.

Coyolxauhqui belongs to the living heritage of Mexico and of Mexican and Indigenous communities today. Mystic Grove does not offer any Mexica ritual. The practice below is our own simple moon practice, inspired by what her story has come to mean, not a copy of anything the Mexica did.

Coyolxauhqui in the Week of the Hunter’s Moon

The Hunter’s Moon is full at 4.12am GMT on Monday 26th October 2026, in Taurus, with the Sun in Scorpio. UK clocks go back to GMT at 2am on Sunday 25th October, so the evenings draw in an hour earlier and the moon has a long dark sky to cross. By Friday 30th, Coyolxauhqui’s day, the moon is waning gibbous, about three quarters lit, rising in the mid evening and riding high in the small hours. By Friday evening it has moved into Cancer, the sign traditionally ruled by the moon, a gentle sign for home, family and feeling.

Her day sits just right. The moon is losing its light a little each night, as she broke apart on the hill, and it reaches last quarter on Sunday 1st November. The waning moon is the traditional time for letting go and taking stock, and the next night is Samhain, when Hecate closes our week at the crossroads.

Our guide to the Hunter’s Moon 2026 has the full timings, and lunar shadow work and the dark moon follows the cycle on into the darkest nights.

Crystals for Coyolxauhqui

No Mexica source links Coyolxauhqui with any crystal. The stones below are modern correspondences, chosen for her story and her symbols: the golden bells, the white down, the greenstone head, the volcanic stone of her valley and the waning moon. Each is one we stock.

Pyrite, for the golden bells

Pyrite shines like polished metal and catches the light the way her bells would have done. It is a stone of confidence, which suits a sister who led four hundred brothers up a mountain. Our pyrite heart on a stand sits beautifully on a moon altar.

Black obsidian, for the volcanic valley

Obsidian is natural volcanic glass, and the Valley of Mexico is ringed with volcanoes. The Mexica worked it into blades and mirrors, and it is a traditional stone for the waning moon and Samhain. Try a black obsidian tower.

Green moonstone, for the greenstone head

Greenstone was precious to the Mexica, worth more than gold, and her serene head was carved from it. A green moonstone palm stone brings together that green and the soft sheen of the moon, and it fits comfortably in the hand.

Howlite, for the white down

Soft white down crowns her hair, on the great stone and in the paintings of her. Calm, chalky white howlite echoes it, and many people keep it by the bed for quieter sleep. Our howlite tower suits a bedside or a windowsill under the moon.

Smoky quartz, for the waning moon

Smoky quartz is clear quartz darkened slowly in the earth. It is the classic grounding stone for the waning moon, for setting something down and letting it rest. A smoky quartz tower is a good companion for this week.

Carnelian, for the painted stone

Her great stone was once painted in warm red and yellow. Carnelian carries those colours and is linked with energy and a brave heart. A carnelian wand works well held in the hand while you speak your words aloud.

A Gentle Waning Moon Practice for Coyolxauhqui

This is our own simple practice for the evening of Friday 30th October, or any waning moon night. It borrows nothing from Mexica ritual. Its theme is the one many people find in her story: gathering yourself back together. You need a white chime candle, a pen and paper, a small dish and one of the stones above.

• Set your space. Place the candle in its holder with the dish beside it and your stone in your hand. Face the moon if you can.
• Light the candle. Say aloud: Coyolxauhqui, lady of the golden bells, I honour you on this waning moon.
• Write the scattered pieces. On the paper, write the parts of your life that feel pulled in different directions this autumn. Keep it private.
• Gather them in. Fold the paper towards you, once for each piece, and place it in the dish with the stone on top.
• Sit a while. Watch the flame, or simply breathe slowly. If you have a small bell, you might ring it once and listen to the sound fade, like the moon losing its light. Silence is just as good.
• Close. Thank her, put out the candle, and leave the dish where it is until the new moon, then recycle or bury the paper.

The Seven Moon Goddesses Film

Coyolxauhqui is the sixth of our seven moon goddesses. Watch all seven together in our short film.

Questions People Ask About Coyolxauhqui

What is Coyolxauhqui the goddess of?

Coyolxauhqui is the Mexica goddess usually described as the goddess of the moon. In her story she is a warrior who leads her brothers against their mother. Some scholars link her with the Milky Way or the stars rather than the moon.

How do you pronounce Coyolxauhqui?

Say koy ol SHAUW kee. In Nahuatl the x is pronounced like sh, and the stress usually falls on the third syllable.

What does the name Coyolxauhqui mean?

It is usually translated as painted with bells, from the Nahuatl word coyolli, a bell. That is why she is shown with bells on her cheeks and is often called the goddess of the golden bells.

What is the Coyolxauhqui Stone?

A round carved stone about three and a quarter metres across, showing the goddess after her fall. Electricity workers found it in Mexico City on 21st February 1978, and it is now in the Museo del Templo Mayor.

Who killed Coyolxauhqui?

In the story, her brother Huitzilopochtli, who was born fully armed on the hill of Coatepec just as she and the four hundred brothers arrived to attack their mother, Coatlicue.

Is Coyolxauhqui the Aztec moon goddess?

She is the best known. The Mexica also told of the moon god Tecciztecatl, and her own link with the moon is much loved but less certain in the oldest sources.

Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess: her story with the archer Hou Yi, the elixir of immortality, the Jade Rabbit and the palace on the moon

Chang’e is the moon goddess of Chinese legend, the woman who swallowed the elixir of immortality and floated up to live in a palace on the moon. Here is who Chang’e is, where her story really comes from, why a rabbit keeps her company, and the crystals and quiet practices people use to honour her today. She is the fifth of our Seven Moon Goddesses, one for each night from the Hunter’s Moon to Samhain.

Who Is Chang’e, the Chinese Moon Goddess?

Chang’e is the lady in the moon. In Chinese legend she was once a woman of the earth, married to Hou Yi, the greatest archer who ever lived. When she swallowed an elixir meant to make a person live forever, she became so light that she rose into the sky and settled on the moon, where she lives still in a cold and beautiful palace.

She is less a goddess with temples and priests, like the Greek or Roman gods, and more a beloved immortal from a story every child in China hears. Her tale is told every autumn at the Mid Autumn Festival, when families gather to look at the full moon together.

People come to the Chang’e moon goddess for grace and for comfort when they miss someone far away.

The Story of Chang’e and Hou Yi

What follows is the story as it is most often told today. It is myth, a story rather than a record of events, and it has changed a great deal over the centuries.

Ten suns in the sky

Long ago there were ten suns, children of the sky, who were meant to take turns crossing the heavens. One morning all ten rose together. The crops withered, the rivers dried, and people began to die of the heat. Hou Yi climbed a mountain, drew his great bow and shot down nine of the suns, leaving one so the world would still have light and warmth.

The elixir

As a reward, or in some tellings after a long journey to the Kunlun mountains, Hou Yi received the elixir of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West, Xiwangmu, the goddess who keeps the secret of eternal life. There was only enough to make one person immortal. Hou Yi did not want to leave his wife behind, so he gave the elixir to Chang’e to keep safe.

The flight to the moon

In the best loved modern version, one of Hou Yi’s students, a jealous man named Fengmeng, broke in while the archer was away and demanded the elixir. Rather than let him have it, Chang’e swallowed it herself. At once she grew weightless. She floated out of the window and up into the night, until she came to rest on the moon, the nearest place in the sky to the husband she had left behind.

When Hou Yi came home and found her gone, he looked up and saw a figure in the moon just like his wife. He set out her favourite fruit and cakes in the garden under the moonlight. That gesture, the story goes, is how families came to leave offerings to the moon at the Mid Autumn Festival.

She did not run to the moon to escape him. In the kindest telling, she chose the closest place in the sky to home.

Many endings

Older versions are much less gentle. In some, Chang’e takes the elixir for herself and flees, and is turned into a toad on the moon. In others she lives on alone, regretting her choice. The Tang poet Li Shangyin wrote that she must regret stealing the elixir, gazing over the blue sea and dark sky night after night. All of these versions are still told.

Who Lives in the Moon Palace?

The Jade Rabbit

The Jade Rabbit, Yutu, sits with a pestle and mortar, pounding the elixir of immortality. A hare in the moon is a very old idea in China, and early poems already describe it pounding herbs for the immortals. The oldest lunar animal in Chinese art is actually a toad, but over time the rabbit took its place.

Wu Gang and the osmanthus tree

A man named Wu Gang was sent to the moon as a punishment and told to cut down an enormous osmanthus tree. Every time his axe bites into the trunk, the cut heals over, so he must chop forever. Osmanthus, with its small golden flowers and apricot scent, blooms in autumn, and osmanthus wine and sweets are still enjoyed at the Mid Autumn Festival.

The Honest History of Chang’e

What the old sources say

The earliest mention comes from the Guicang, an ancient divination book from the Zhou era that survives only in scattered fragments. It already has her taking the elixir and going to the moon.

The best known early source is the Huainanzi, a great book of philosophy and lore put together at the court of Liu An, King of Huainan, and presented to the Han emperor in 139 BC. Its sixth chapter, often called Surveying Obscurities, holds the whole myth in a single sentence: Yi asked the Queen Mother of the West for the elixir of immortality, and Heng’e stole it and fled to the moon. You can read the Chinese text on the Chinese Text Project.

Notice the name. In the oldest texts she is Heng’e. The usual explanation is that Heng was the personal name of the Han emperor Wen, and writing an emperor’s name was disrespectful, so a similar sounding character replaced it.

How the story grew

Much of what people tell today was added gradually. The jealous student Fengmeng and the loving wife who swallows the elixir to protect it are later layers. Wu Gang and his tree are recorded in the ninth century, during the Tang dynasty. The great novel Journey to the West, published in 1592, placed her in the Palace of Vast Cold and gave the Jade Rabbit a mischievous turn, slipping down to earth to cause trouble.

What is modern

In Western witchcraft Chang’e is now often listed among the world’s moon goddesses, beside Selene and Diana. That is a recent and borrowed way of seeing her. In China she belongs to legend, poetry and family festival far more than to formal worship. We think it matters to say so plainly, and to honour her as a guest in a living culture rather than claim her as our own.

Chang’e and the space age

On the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, Mission Control read the crew a news item about a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang’e who had lived on the moon for four thousand years, with a large rabbit standing in the shade of a cinnamon tree. Buzz Aldrin replied that they would keep a close eye out for the bunny girl. You can read it in the Apollo 11 transcript.

Since 2007 China’s lunar probes have been named Chang’e, and its moon rovers, including the first to explore the far side in 2019, are called Yutu, the Jade Rabbit.

Chang’e and the Mid Autumn Festival

The Mid Autumn Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, at the full moon nearest the autumn equinox. The festival grew popular in the Tang dynasty. Mooncakes, round like the full moon, became part of it by the Song dynasty.

Today it is a public holiday in China and Taiwan and a time for families to come home to one another, sharing mooncakes, lighting lanterns and admiring the moon. In Vietnam the same night is Tết Trung Thu, a children’s lantern festival, and in Korea it is Chuseok, a great harvest holiday.

This is a living festival kept by millions of people, so the practice below is not a copy of it, simply a gentle personal moon practice inspired by her story.

Chang’e in the Week of the Hunter’s Moon

The Hunter’s Moon is full at 4.12am GMT on Monday 26th October 2026, in Taurus with the Sun in Scorpio. UK clocks go back an hour at 2am on Sunday 25th, and the moon is at its most beautiful rising that evening.

By Thursday 29th, her day in this series, the moon is waning. It is still a big, bright gibbous moon, around eighty five percent lit, rising in the early evening and riding high through the night in Gemini. Gemini is the sign of the twins and of messages, and a story about two people separated by the width of the sky sits naturally under it.

Chang’e is the goddess of the morning after the great decision: the elixir is swallowed, the full moon has passed, and now she must make a home where she has landed. On Saturday the week ends at Samhain, when many people remember those they have lost, and Chang’e, forever looking down at someone she cannot reach, is a tender companion on the way there.

Yesterday’s goddess was Luna, and tomorrow we meet Coyolxauhqui, the Mexica goddess of the golden bells. If you are not sure which goddess is reaching for you, our guide to which goddess is calling you may help.

Crystals for Chang’e

No ancient Chinese text gives Chang’e a crystal. The stones below are modern correspondences, chosen for the things her story is made of: the white rabbit, the golden osmanthus, the shining palace, the archer and the love that crosses the sky. Each is one we stock.

Green aventurine, for the Jade Rabbit

In Chinese culture jade is the most prized of stones, and the rabbit in the moon is named for it. We do not stock true jade, so we suggest green aventurine, a different stone with a similar soft green colour, often used for luck and calm. A green aventurine tower suits a bedside moon altar.

Howlite, for the white rabbit and the quiet palace

Howlite is chalk white with fine grey veins, a little like a rabbit’s coat or the pale face of the moon. It is known as a stone of calm. Try a howlite tower for the stillness of the moon palace.

Citrine, for the osmanthus flowers

Golden citrine has the colour of osmanthus blossom and of lanterns glowing in the dark, and is linked with warmth and abundance. Our natural citrine point looks lovely beside a candle.

Clear quartz, for the palace of light

A cluster of clear quartz looks like a small shining palace. Clear quartz is used to hold an intention and to amplify the stones around it. Place a clear quartz cluster where moonlight can reach it.

Rose quartz, for love across a distance

Rose quartz is the classic stone of love. With Chang’e it speaks to the bond with Hou Yi that the sky could not break. A rose quartz heart is a gentle choice for anyone missing someone.

Tiger’s eye, for Hou Yi the archer

Tiger’s eye glows with bands of gold and brown, the colour of the one sun Hou Yi left in the sky. It is a stone of courage and focus. A tiger’s eye tower honours the husband who waits below. Any of these six can also be chosen as a tumblestone.

A Simple Moon Letter Practice for Chang’e

This is a quiet practice for the waning moon after the Hunter’s Moon, or any evening when you are missing someone. You need a white chime candle, a small round cake or piece of fruit as an offering, a pen and paper, and one of the stones above.

• Set your space. Sit by a window where you can see the moon, or where you know it is. Set the candle, offering and stone before you.
• Light the candle. Say her name aloud three times: Chang’e, Chang’e, Chang’e.
• Make your offering. Set the cake or fruit beside the candle, as Hou Yi did in the story.
• Write a moon letter. Write to someone you miss, near or far, living or gone. Say what you would say if they were sitting with you. Nobody else will read it.
• Sit with the light. Hold the stone and rest for a few minutes. Some people like to ring a small bell or hum softly as well.
• Close. Thank Chang’e and put out the candle. Keep the letter somewhere safe, or burn it in a heatproof dish if that feels right. Leave the fruit outside for the birds the next day.

The Seven Moon Goddesses Film

Chang’e is one of seven goddesses in our short film for this week, painted in the same style you have seen on this page.

Questions People Ask About Chang’e

How do you pronounce Chang’e?

Say CHAHNG uh, in two syllables. It is not pronounced like the English word change. In Mandarin both syllables carry a rising tone.

What is the story of Chang’e and Hou Yi?

Hou Yi was an archer who shot down nine of ten suns and was given the elixir of immortality. Chang’e swallowed it, in most modern tellings to keep it from a thief, and rose to the moon, where she lives apart from her husband.

Why is there a rabbit on the moon?

In Chinese legend the Jade Rabbit lives on the moon with Chang’e, pounding the elixir of immortality with a pestle and mortar. The dark patches of the full moon can look like a rabbit with long ears.

Why is China’s moon mission called Chang’e?

China named its lunar programme after the best known figure linked with the moon in Chinese culture. Its rovers are called Yutu, the Jade Rabbit, after her companion.

Luna, the Roman goddess of the moon: her silver chariot, her temples, her bond with Selene and Diana, and the months she ruled

Luna is the moon itself in Roman religion, the bright one who drove her chariot across the night and was said to rule the months. Here is who the Luna goddess is, what the Roman writers really tell us about her, how she differs from Selene, and the crystals and gentle practice people use to honour her in the waning light after the Hunter’s Moon. She is the fourth of our seven moon goddesses this week.

Who Is the Luna Goddess?

Luna is the Roman goddess of the moon. Her name is the ordinary Latin word for the moon, and it comes from an old root meaning bright, the same root that gave Latin its word for light, lux. When a Roman looked up and said luna, there was no gap between the silver disc in the sky and the goddess who lived in it. She was not a goddess who looked after the moon. She was the moon.

That sets her apart from the other goddesses in this series. Diana, whom we met yesterday, was a huntress who became linked with the moon over time. Luna never had another job. She is the night light of Rome, paired with Sol, the sun, side by side in Roman art for centuries.

People come to the Luna goddess today for a sense of rhythm, the comfort of a steady light in the dark, and a simple way into moon work. Her gift is the month itself, the reliable turning from new to full and back again.

The Story of Luna and Her Silver Chariot

The chariot across the night

The Romans pictured Luna crossing the sky each night in a chariot. The sun drove four horses, the quadriga. Luna had a lighter two horse chariot, the biga. Isidore of Seville, writing in the seventh century, explained that the moon runs a twin path with the sun, seen both by night and by day, and that one of her horses was black and one white.

On Roman coins of the late third and early second centuries BC, Luna in her biga was one of the most common designs, often with a crescent above her head. In other art and in later poems the horses are sometimes swapped for a pair of white oxen or bulls. It is easy to see why: their curved horns echo the crescent moon.

Luna and Endymion

The best loved moon story in Rome was first told of Selene. The moon fell in love with Endymion, a shepherd, and visited him every night on Mount Latmus while he slept. In most versions he was given eternal sleep and eternal youth, so he would never grow old.

Roman writers knew the tale well. Cicero jokes in his Tusculan Disputations that Endymion has slept so long on Latmus he is surely not awake yet. Roman families chose the scene for their marble coffins, a gentle picture of death as a long and loving sleep. A beautiful example in the Metropolitan Museum shows the moon stepping down from her chariot, while a figure stands over Endymion holding a bunch of sleepy poppies.

She did not wake him. She simply kept coming back, which is exactly what the moon does.

This is a myth, told as a story rather than history, and Romans borrowed it from Greece along with much of Selene’s imagery. If you would like the Greek telling, our post on Selene covers it in full.

Luna, Diana and the goddess of three ways

Over time Roman poets blended Luna with Diana and with Hecate. In his hymn to Diana, the poet Catullus calls her Trivia, goddess of the crossroads, and Luna, named for her borrowed light, and says that her monthly journey measures out the year. Later the commentator Servius explained the three formed goddess as one power with three names: Luna in the sky, Diana on the earth and Proserpina below. That threefold idea runs straight on to Hecate, who closes our series on Samhain night.

The Honest History of Luna

What the old sources say

Roman tradition held that Luna was one of the gods brought to Rome by the Sabine king Titus Tatius, who ruled alongside Romulus. The scholar Varro, writing in the first century BC, lists her among the gods Tatius vowed altars to, and also names her among the twelve gods every farmer should call on, because the sun and moon decide the times for sowing and harvest.

Her main temple stood on the Aventine Hill, and Romans credited its founding to King Servius Tullius. Its feast fell on 31 March, and Ovid marks it in his calendar poem, the Fasti, with a lovely line: the moon rules the months, and so this month ends with her worship on the Aventine. Livy records that in 182 BC a storm tore off the temple doors and flung them against the temple of Ceres below, and Tacitus lists the shrine among the old buildings lost in the great fire of AD 64.

Varro also mentions a shrine on the Palatine to Luna Noctiluca, the Night Shiner, which he says glowed at night. Scholars still debate what he meant. In 17 BC, at the great Secular Games of Augustus, a choir of boys and girls sang the poet Horace’s hymn, in which the girls call on Luna, the two horned queen of the stars, to hear them.

What is modern

Beyond these lines, little is known about how Luna was worshipped. No ritual or list of offerings for her survives. The Victorian Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology put it plainly well over a century ago: further details of her worship are not known.

So anything you read about Luna’s crystals, colours or place as maiden, mother or crone comes from modern practice. Her link with cypress trees and poppies is also a modern reading, built on Roman art: poppies stood for sleep, as on the Endymion coffins, and the dark cypress was a Roman tree of mourning and the world below. The pairing of the moon with silver as a metal is best known from the medieval alchemists, who simply called silver luna. None of this makes modern practice less meaningful. It simply tells you which layer you are standing on.

Luna Symbols and What They Mean

The crescent

A crescent on her brow or behind her shoulders is the surest way to spot Luna in Roman art.

The biga and the white oxen

Her light two horse chariot says she is always moving and always on time. The oxen, horned like the young moon, suit a goddess of slow and steady cycles.

The torch

The light carried into the dark, which ties her to Diana Lucifera, the light bringer, and to Hecate’s torches.

Silver, cypress and poppy

Silver is the colour of moonlight. The cypress and poppy are a modern pairing, for stillness, sleep, dreams and remembrance.

Luna and the Roman Month

When Ovid said the moon rules the months, he meant it quite literally. The earliest Roman calendar followed the moon. On the first day of the month, the Kalends, a priest watched for the new crescent and then called out to the people how many days were left until the Nones. The Nones fell at the first quarter, and the Ides at the full moon. The days after the Ides were counted down towards the next Kalends. You can read how the dates worked in the Dickinson College Commentaries. The three names outlived the lunar calendar itself.

Her day, Monday, comes from the Roman seven day week, where each day belonged to a planet. The day of the moon was dies Lunae, still heard in lunedì, lundi and lunes.

Luna in the Week of the Hunter’s Moon

The Hunter’s Moon was full at 4.12am GMT on Monday 26 October, in Taurus with the Sun in Scorpio. That is Luna’s own day, which feels fitting. By Wednesday 28 October the moon is a waning gibbous, still more than nine tenths lit, and early that morning it moves into Gemini, the sign of the twins.

It is a gentle match. Luna’s two horses, one dark and one light, ran a twin path with the sun, and Gemini is the sign of pairs. The moon now rises a little later each evening and rides high through the night. In Roman terms we are past the Ides, in the waning days that count down towards the next new moon, with Samhain waiting at the end of the week.

The waning gibbous is a time for gratitude: a good night to look back over the month, notice what has come to fullness, and choose what you will let thin away. Many people also make moon water under these bright waning nights.

Crystals for Luna

No Roman text gives Luna a crystal. The stones below are modern correspondences, chosen for her story and symbols: the white oxen, the silver light, Endymion’s sleep, the poppies, the cypress groves and the torch carried into the dark. Each is one we stock.

Howlite, for the white oxen

Howlite is a soft white stone with fine grey veins, often kept by the bed for calm. Its quiet whiteness suits the patient oxen that pull Luna’s chariot. Try a howlite tower on a bedside table.

Amethyst and silver, for Endymion’s sleep

Amethyst is a favourite stone for sleep and dreams, and set in silver it carries the Endymion story beautifully. Our twisted silver wand with amethyst makes a lovely tool for opening a moon practice.

Almandine garnet, for the poppies

Deep red garnet holds the colour of the poppies at Luna’s feet. As remembrance poppies appear across Britain in the weeks before Remembrance Sunday, it also makes a thoughtful stone for honouring those we miss. See our almandine garnet sphere in matrix.

Moss agate, for the cypress groves

Moss agate carries green, branching patterns that look like tiny trees caught in stone. It brings the dark cypress groves into your space. A moss agate tower sits well beside a window.

Clear quartz, for the torch

The Romans believed rock crystal was ice frozen so hard it could never melt. A point that gathers and spreads light suits Luna Noctiluca, the Night Shiner, and her torch. A clear quartz point is also the easiest stone to begin with.

Agate moon, for her face on your altar

Agate forms slowly, layer upon layer, a fitting picture for a goddess who measures time. Our crazy lace agate moon on a stand gives you Luna’s crescent to keep in view all month.

A Simple Practice for Luna’s Night

The Romans left no ritual for Luna, so this is a modern practice built from what the old sources do tell us: her month, her light and her name spoken aloud. It suits Wednesday 28 October or any waning night. You need a white chime candle, a pen and paper, and one of the stones above, ideally near a window.

• Set your space. Place the candle in front of you with the stone beside it.
• Light the candle. Say aloud, in Horace’s words or your own: Luna, two horned queen of the stars, hear me.
• Look back over the month. Write three short lines. What began at the new moon? What came to fullness at the Hunter’s Moon? What are you ready to let thin away before Samhain?
• Give thanks. Read the second line aloud and thank Luna for it. Gratitude is the old work of the waning gibbous.
• Sit with her light. Hold the stone and rest for a few minutes in the glow of the candle or the moon. If you like, breathe slowly and let a soft hum ride on each out breath. Silence works just as well.
• Close. Thank Luna, put out the candle, and keep your paper until the next new moon.

If you are not sure Luna is the goddess reaching for you, our guide to which goddess is calling you has some simple ways to find out.

The Seven Moon Goddesses Film

Luna is one of seven moon goddesses in our short film, which follows the moon from the Hunter’s Moon to Samhain night.

Questions People Ask About Luna

What is the Luna goddess known for?

Luna is the Roman goddess of the moon, known for driving her chariot across the night sky and for ruling the months. She was honoured at temples on the Aventine and Palatine hills in Rome.

Is Luna the same as Selene?

They are closely linked. Selene is the Greek moon goddess and Luna the Roman one. Rome borrowed Selene’s stories, including Endymion, but Luna had her own temples and festival.

Is Luna the same as Diana?

Not at first. Diana began as a goddess of woods and wild places, while Luna was the moon itself. Roman poets later blended them, and Diana was often called Luna.

What are the symbols of Luna?

The crescent, her two horse or two ox chariot, the torch and silver. In modern practice people also add cypress, poppies and moon stones.

What day is sacred to Luna?

Monday, the day of the moon, called dies Lunae in Latin. Her temple on the Aventine celebrated its birthday on 31 March.

How do you honour Luna?

No Roman ritual for her survives, so modern practice keeps it simple: a white candle, her name spoken aloud, a stone and a little time with the moon.