The Myth behind why the Moon changes shape.

There was once a time, when the world was calm, and the Moon shone in all its glory every single night, reflecting the light from his brother Sun, to brighten the night skies. The Moon let his light dance on the water, and cut through the canopies of vegetation, illuminating the Earth as were his purpose in life. 

Now, one night as the Moon sat high in the sky looking at his round reflection, for then he was always round, there was a ripple in the reflection.  A Lotus tendril, the first ever, emerged from below the ocean, for then there were only one ocean and the earth was not divided in pieces, and looked straight up at the Moon.

As the nights passed, the dancing tendril soon grew into a beautiful white bud and the Moon  showered his heavenly light on her. Each night when the Moon came out in the sky, the Lotus grew her blushing petals, and these unfurled with every passing night till on the fortnight she came out in full bloom. The Moon stood overwhelmed, aching to come down to the earth and caress the Lotus that had just bared open her soul to him. But alas, what could the Moon do? He just stayed up in the sky and looked longingly at the Lotus.

Next night, a strange thing happened. The Lotus began to wither. Over a few days, the Moon watched with fear as the Lotus began to lose her pink petals, one by one. By the end of the next fortnight, the Lotus shed all her petals, humiliated and stripped to her very soul. And then she drew back into the sea. That night the pain of the Moon knew no bounds. He shone fiercely, in anger and helplessness, at his mightiest. The wolves howled in fear.

The subsequent night another tendril arose from the ocean, and the Lotus began to call out to the Moon again. The Moon initially delighted, was soon in despair, as by the end of the month, the Lotus, painfully, again withdrew into the ocean, much to the Moon's chagrin.

How cruel must he seem as while his love lived and breathed, and sighed and died every month, just for him, he stood there ever so consistent and seemingly unaffected. The Moon grew a pale white.

The Sun saw the struggle of his brother, with each passing month. He knew they could not abandon their purpose and he also knew that the Moon was irrevocably in love with the Lotus.  He pondered over what he could do for his brother, and came up with a thought. He told the Moon to pace about the earth and he would let his light fall gently on him in such a way as to soon render him to a shadow.

And thus began the phases of the Moon.  Every alternate fortnight, the Moon shone its brightest alongside the Lotus, and waned as the Lotus began to wither. And the day the Lotus greeted her death, the Moon was completely reduced to a shadow by the Sun, who did not lend any light to him, annihilating its existence for only a night. And when the new bud emerged, the Moon began to wax again, and both bloomed only to disappear from the face of the earth every month.

And ever since, the grave and ever-still Ocean, moved by this transcendental  Love, rose in tides alongside the Moonlight, sympathising with the star-crossed lovers. Her tides lap and dance higher as the Moon grows, and she is quietest on the ill-fated night when the two lovers mourn their everlasting distance, and their loss of each other, as they gradually fade away in eternal longing. 

© NG