Moon Goddesses: Names, Myths and Meanings from Around the World

Who the goddesses of the moon are, where they come from, how to say their names, and which phase of the moon each one belongs to

For as long as people have looked up at night, they have given the Moon a face and a name. In Greece she was Selene, driving her silver chariot across the sky. In Rome she was Luna. In China she is Chang’e, waiting in her palace with the Jade Rabbit. This guide gathers the moon goddesses together in one place, with their stories, their symbols and an honest note on what is ancient and what is modern. It grows as our series grows, so do come back.

Who is the goddess of the moon? Names at a glance Greek Roman The Triple Goddess Around the world Goddesses and moon phases Honouring a moon goddess The series Questions

Who Is the Goddess of the Moon?

There is no single goddess of the Moon. Almost every culture has its own, and many have more than one. In Greek myth, Selene is the Moon itself, while Artemis and Hecate are goddesses with strong lunar links. In Rome the Moon is Luna, with Diana beside her. In China it is Chang’e, in Aztec myth Coyolxauhqui, and among the Fon and Ewe peoples of West Africa it is Mawu.

What these goddesses share is striking. The Moon changes shape, vanishes and returns, so its goddesses are linked with cycles, renewal, time, night, dreams and the tides. They are often seen as guides and protectors in the dark, as keepers of intuition and inner wisdom, and as reflections of the feminine at every stage of life. The waxing, full and waning Moon came to stand for growth, fullness and release, and many goddesses carry those meanings with them.

Moon Goddess Names at a Glance

Name	Culture	Say it	Known for
Selene	Greek	suh·LEE·nee	The Moon herself, her silver chariot
Artemis	Greek	AR·tuh·miss	The huntress, the crescent, the twin of Apollo
Hecate	Greek	HEK·uh·tee	Crossroads, keys, torches, the dark moon
Luna	Roman	LOO·nuh	The Roman Moon, sister of the Sun
Diana	Roman	dye·AN·uh	Woodland huntress, her sacred grove
Chang’e	Chinese	CHAHNG·uh	The elixir, the Jade Rabbit, the Moon Festival
Kaguya Hime	Japanese	kah·GOO·yah HEE·meh	The moon princess found in bamboo
Coyolxauhqui	Aztec	koh·yol·SHOW·kee	Golden Bells, the Moon and the Sun at war
Mawu	West African	MAH·woo	Creator, paired with Lisa the Sun

A few famous moon deities are male. Japan’s Tsukuyomi (tsoo·koo·YOH·mee), Egypt’s Khonsu (KON·soo) and Thoth, and the Norse Máni are all moon gods rather than goddesses, which is why searches for moon god names bring up such a mix.

The Greek Moon Goddesses

When people ask who the three goddesses of the moon are, they usually mean the Greek three: Selene, Artemis and Hecate. Each looks after a different face of the Moon.

Selene, the Moon herself

Selene is the oldest and the most literal of the three: in Greek, her name simply means the Moon. She was a Titan, the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister to Helios the Sun and Eos the Dawn. Each night, as her brother finished his journey, Selene rose from the ocean and drove her chariot across the sky, drawn by white horses or, in some tellings, a pair of white bulls whose horns curve like the crescent. She is shown with a crescent crown and a billowing veil that frames her like the Moon’s disc.

Her best known story is her love for the shepherd Endymion, who was granted an endless sleep so that he would never age, and whom she visited each night. Selene is linked with calm, rest, sleep and dreams, and in our course work she stands for the Healer. Her colours are silver and white, and her time is the full moon.

Artemis, the huntress of the crescent

Artemis is the most searched moon goddess in Britain by some distance. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. Her world was the wild places: forests, hills, rivers and the animals that live there, especially the deer. She carried a bow, protected young girls and women in childbirth, and answered to no husband.

Honestly told, Artemis was first a goddess of the wild and the hunt. Her link with the Moon grew stronger over time as the Greeks came to pair her with Selene, just as her twin Apollo came to be paired with the Sun. By the classical period the crescent moon had become her sign. She belongs to the Warrior archetype: strong, free and self reliant, and she sits naturally with the waxing moon.

Hecate, keeper of the dark moon

Hecate is the goddess of crossroads, doorways, keys, torches and magic, and she belongs to the dark and waning Moon. She is the one who carried a torch in each hand to help Demeter search for Persephone. In later times she was often shown in a three bodied form, facing three ways at once. She is the Crone of the Moon’s three faces: wise, steady and unafraid of the dark. We have given her a full guide of her own: Hecate, goddess of crossroads, keys and the dark moon.

The Roman Moon Goddesses

Luna

Luna is Rome’s own goddess of the Moon, the Roman counterpart of Selene. She was sister to Sol, the Sun, and she too drove a chariot across the night sky. Romans looked to her as a guide in the dark, and sailors and travellers called on her by moonlight. She had a temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome, and the Ides, the middle of each month in the oldest Roman calendar, was timed to the full moon. Luna was often called on for fertility and childbirth, and for restful nights.

Diana

Diana is the Roman goddess of the hunt, the woods and wild animals, and she came to be seen as the same goddess as Artemis. Her most famous sanctuary was a sacred grove beside the lake at Nemi, south of Rome, where the still water was called Diana’s Mirror because it held the Moon’s reflection. Women came to her for help with childbirth, and her festival fell in August.

The Romans also saw the Moon’s three roles in three goddesses: Luna in the heavens, Diana on the earth and Hecate in the underworld. That idea of one Moon with three faces runs right through to the present day.

The Triple Goddess: Maiden, Mother and Crone

In modern moon practice, the Moon is often seen as one goddess in three forms. The Maiden is the waxing crescent: youth, new beginnings and growing energy. The Mother is the full moon: fullness, nurture and creation. The Crone is the waning crescent: wisdom, reflection and letting go. The triple moon symbol, a full circle held between a waxing and a waning crescent, shows all three together.

The honest history is in two parts. Triple goddesses are genuinely ancient: Hecate was shown in a three bodied form by the fifth century BC, and the Romans spoke of the Moon’s three realms. The neat pattern of Maiden, Mother and Crone, however, is modern. It was made popular by the poet Robert Graves in his book The White Goddess, published in 1948, and was then taken up widely in modern Paganism and goddess spirituality. It is a beautiful and useful way to work with the Moon, and it is best enjoyed knowing where it comes from.

Moon Goddesses Around the World

Chang’e, the Chinese goddess of the Moon

Chang’e was once a mortal woman, the wife of the great archer Hou Yi, who saved the world by shooting down nine of the ten suns that were scorching the Earth. He was rewarded with an elixir of immortality and kept it safe. In the best loved telling, Chang’e drank it to stop it falling into the wrong hands; in another, she drank it from ambition. Either way, she became weightless and floated up to the Moon, where she lives in a palace with the Jade Rabbit.

Chang’e is honoured at the Mid Autumn Festival, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, when the full moon is said to be at its brightest. Families gather to admire the Moon, share mooncakes and leave offerings for her. She stands for grace, longing, reflection and quiet strength, and China’s lunar missions carry her name.

Kaguya Hime, the Japanese moon princess

Japan’s main moon deity, Tsukuyomi, is male, so the Moon’s feminine face in Japanese story is Kaguya Hime, the shining princess. In The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, one of Japan’s oldest stories, an old bamboo cutter finds a tiny baby glowing inside a bamboo stalk. She grows into a woman of unearthly beauty, sets her many suitors impossible tasks, and at last reveals that she comes from the Moon and must go home. Her story speaks of beauty, impermanence and the bittersweet feeling of things passing.

Coyolxauhqui, the Aztec moon goddess

Coyolxauhqui, whose name means Golden Bells, was the daughter of the earth goddess Coatlicue. When her mother became pregnant in mysterious circumstances, Coyolxauhqui and her siblings rose against her. The child, Huitzilopochtli, god of the sun and war, was born fully armed, defeated his sister and cast her head into the sky, where it became the Moon. The story tells of the endless turning of night into day and the balance between Moon and Sun. A great carved stone showing her was found in Mexico City in 1978, one of the great finds of Aztec art.

Mawu, the African moon goddess

Among the Fon and Ewe peoples of West Africa, Mawu is the Moon and the great mother, who created the world together with Lisa, the Sun. She brings the coolness, rest and calm of the night, while Lisa brings the heat and work of the day, and the two are seen as equal partners. Across Africa there are many other moon deities, including Gleti of Dahomey and Amesemi of ancient Kush, who wore a crescent crown.

Egyptian moon gods and goddesses

Ancient Egypt’s main moon deities were gods rather than goddesses. Khonsu, whose name means the traveller, crossed the night sky as the Moon, and Thoth, god of wisdom and writing, was also a moon god. Isis is often called a moon goddess today, but her lunar link came late, in the Greek and Roman period, when she was shown with a crescent and sometimes equated with Selene.

Is there a Celtic moon goddess?

This is a question many people in Britain ask, and the honest answer is that no surviving early source names a Celtic goddess of the Moon. Modern practice often links the Moon with the Welsh Arianrhod (ar·ee·AN·rod), whose name is usually read as silver wheel, and sometimes with Cerridwen or Rhiannon. These are modern associations rather than ancient ones, but they are lovingly held, and Arianrhod’s silver wheel suits the Moon beautifully.

Which Moon Goddess Belongs to Which Phase?

• Dark moon: Hecate. A time for rest and quiet rather than big workings.
• New and waxing moon: Artemis and Diana, the Maiden. Beginnings, courage, setting out.
• Full moon: Selene and Luna, the Mother. Fullness, gratitude, invocation and recharging. Also Chang’e, honoured at the full moon of the Mid Autumn Festival.
• Waning moon: Hecate as the Crone, and Coyolxauhqui. Release, letting go and clearing.

One gentle rule from traditional moon magic: rituals, charging and moon water are set aside during an eclipse. If a full moon falls on an eclipse, simply watch it and wait for the next one.

How to Honour a Moon Goddess

Moon goddesses have been honoured in much the same ways for thousands of years: a light in the dark, an offering, a few words spoken aloud and some time spent under the Moon. Here is a simple traditional way to begin, with whichever goddess you feel drawn to.

1. Choose your night. Monday is the Moon’s own day. The full moon suits Selene and Luna, the waxing crescent Artemis and Diana, and the waning moon Hecate.
2. Make a small altar. A white or silver cloth, a bowl of water to hold the Moonlight, and a white or silver candle. White can stand in for any colour. A triple moon offering plate or a selenite moon bowl makes a lovely centre.
3. Bring an offering. Traditional offerings include white flowers, milk, honey, bread, cakes or a little wine. For Chang’e, a mooncake; for Artemis, something from the woods.
4. Light the candle and call her. Speak her name and a few words of welcome. Many people close their eyes here and picture the goddess: Selene in her chariot, Artemis with her bow under the crescent, Hecate at the crossroads with her torches.
5. Ask, give thanks, or simply sit. Share what you hope for or what you are ready to release, then sit quietly in the Moonlight for a while. Write down anything that comes to you in a moon phase notebook.
6. Close. Thank her, snuff the candle rather than blowing it out, and return the offering to the earth the next day.

Not sure which goddess is right for you? Our guide to how to know which goddess is calling you covers the signs people notice, simple ways to find out, and a short quiz.

Crystals for moon goddess work

These are the tumblestones we reach for most often, each with a goddess it suits well.

• Howlite: soft white and calm, for Selene and restful sleep.
• Silver leaf jasper: silver grey and grounding, for Luna.
• Opalite: a man made glass with a milky moonlike glow, for the full moon.
• Blue labradorite: flashes of light in the dark, for intuition and for Artemis by night.
• Purple labradorite and snowflake obsidian: for Hecate and the dark moon.
• Chevron amethyst: for the Crone’s wisdom and quiet reflection.

The Moon Goddess Series

Each goddess is getting her own full guide, with her story, her symbols, her crystals, a crystal grid and a ritual for her phase of the Moon. They appear below as they are published.

Questions People Ask About Moon Goddesses

Who is the goddess of the moon?

In Greek myth the goddess of the Moon is Selene, who is the Moon itself. In Roman myth it is Luna. Artemis, Diana and Hecate are also closely linked with the Moon, and other cultures have their own, such as Chang’e in China and Mawu in West Africa.

Who are the three goddesses of the moon?

Usually Selene, Artemis and Hecate in Greek myth, or Luna, Diana and Hecate in Roman thought, where the three ruled the heavens, the earth and the underworld. In modern practice the three are often the Maiden, Mother and Crone of the waxing, full and waning Moon.

Are Hecate and Selene the same?

No. Selene is the Moon itself and belongs to the full moon. Hecate is the goddess of crossroads, keys and magic and belongs to the dark moon. Ancient writers sometimes linked them, which is why the question comes up so often.

Is Artemis the goddess of the moon?

Artemis began as a goddess of the hunt and wild places, and came to be linked with the Moon over time as she was paired with Selene. By the classical period the crescent had become her symbol.

What colour represents Selene?

Silver and white, the colours of moonlight. A white or silver candle on a Monday, the Moon’s day, is the traditional choice.

Who is the African moon goddess?

The best known is Mawu of the Fon and Ewe peoples of West Africa, the creator who works in partnership with Lisa, the Sun. Others include Gleti of Dahomey and Amesemi of ancient Kush.

Who is the Celtic goddess of the moon?

No early source names one. Modern practice often links the Welsh Arianrhod, the silver wheel, with the Moon, along with Cerridwen and Rhiannon.

Keep reading: Hecate and the dark moon, the moon phases explained, and what is coming up in the Grove.