t mysteries, that until a
comparatively recent time the moon was never worshipped as Isis. Until
the origin and meaning of the ancient religion had been forgotten, and
the ideas underlying the worship of Nature had been lost, the moon was
never regarded as representing the female principle.

When man began to regard himself as the only important factor in
procreation, and when the sun became masculine and heat or passion
constituted the god-idea, the moon was called Isis. The moon represented
the absence of heat, it therefore contained little of the recognized
god-element. It was, perhaps, under the circumstances, a fitting emblem
for woman.

In the sacred writings of the Hindoos there is an account of the moon,
Soma, having been changed into a female called Chandra, "the white or
silvery one."

While speaking of the moon, Kalisch says: "The whole ritual of the
Phoenician Goddess Astarte with whom that Queen of Heaven is identical,
and who was the goddess of fertility seems to have been transferred to
her."(36)

36) Historical and Critical Commentary of the Old Testament.

To such an extent, in the earlier ages of the world had the female
been regarded as the Creator, that in many countries where her worship
subsequently became identified with that of the moon, Luna was adored as
the producer of the sun. According to the Babylonian creation tablets,
the moon was the most important heavenly body. In later ages, the gender
of the sun and the moon seems to be exceedingly variable. The Achts of
Vancouver's Island worship sun and moon--the sun as female, the moon
as male.(37) In some of the countries of Africa the moon is adored as
female and sun-worship is unknown. Among various peoples the sun and the
moon are regarded as husband and wife, and among others as brother and
sister. In some countries, both are female. I can find no instance in
which both are male. Hindoos and Aztecs alike, at one time, said that
Luna was male and often that the sun was female.

37) Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 272.

The fact that among the Persians the moon as well as the sun was at
a certain period regarded as a source of procreative energy and as
influencing the generative processes, is shown by various passages in
the Avestas. In the Khordah Avesta, praise is offered to "the Moon which
contains the seed of cattle, to the only begotten Bull, to the Bull of
many kinds."

Perhaps the most widely diffused a