Greg Sez: Moon Names (2008)

Questions from the HeroQuest mailing list, answered by Greg Stafford. Published 15th Aug 2008

Q: …Moon Names

A: Sedenya is a generic name that can be applied to all or any of the phases of the Lunar goddess. The Solars tend to use it often because they don’t really care which moon phase they are talking about.

Q: I was thinking that Solars didn’t recognize the…

A: First of all, it is incorrect to say “the Solars” as an all inclusive term in such discussion as this. We need to take the time, place and people into account in such discussion. So if possible, we need to specify who and when, such as using a written source as the source of specific information.

Q: …different incarnations of the Lunar’s Goddess and that they considered that Blue Moon, Red Moon and White Moon were different goddess: Annilla/Vendara daughter of Entekos, the red one the False Sun, and the white one, a daughter of Yelm who disappear.

A: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Certainly in the current modern time many solar worshippers consider them to have been the same goddess.But the matter of same/different is complex. For instance, there are (and always have been) some solar worshippers who consider Murharzarm to be the same being as Yelm. To others, that is almost heresy. Same for Yelmgatha, for instance. is he the same or different from Yelm? Think of Krishna and Vishnu. Are they the same being or different ones? Or Jesus and Yahweh, same or different? So you can see the difficulties of being dogmatic in this. And frankly, in a mythological mind set, I can easily consider Yelmgatha to be BOTH the same as Yelm, AND a different being.

Q: I was thinking that Sedenya was the ancient Solar name of the first red moon and that Lunar used it later for all the phase of Rufelza.

A: Some people probably did just this.

Q: That’s why I was asking about the colour of the planet which crashed on Mernita in SOLAR mythology: was it red or blue. And if blue, was it Vendara or another goddess?

A: Blue, and it was generally considered to be Lesilla. But for some, Vendara. I will have to look in my sources to see exactly who Vendara was. If she is the goddess under the plateau, the mother of the “bat trolls,” then most people today consider her to have been a part of Lesilla, or a daughter of hers.

Q: (In GRoY, it’s said that Sedenya crashed on Mernita.)

A: Yes, but that is using the generic name.

Q: …

A: Again, Sedenya could have been red, blue, white or even (sometimes) black.

Q: But for only Lunars. Not for Solars, isn’t it?

A: For many modern solars, this is true. For others who are arch-conservative, it is false. But the truth of them being one entity is pretty hard to avoid today. Many consider this changing of colors to be no more significant than as if she changed her clothes.

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