According to Vedic legend, the Moon did not always wax and wane. In the past, the Moon was full every night. The Moon, known as Chandra, was also a lucky man (or so you might think) because he had 27 wives!

But with great luck comes great responsibility, and Chandra, the Moon God, was not able to keep up with his responsibilities. He was not able to keep all of his wives happy. The reason: because he loved one of the wives, Rohini, above the rest. He spent all of his time and attention on her, and gave none to the rest. 

Why would he? Rohini was his favorite, and there was nothing forcing him to visit the rest. They had their safe mansions tucked away amongst the stars. (Indeed his wives are the stars, the 27 primary stars, called nakshatras, of Vedic astrology.)

But his neglect stirred up jealousy and resentment, and the other wives, spearheaded by Revati and organized by the eldest, Jyestha, decided they must do something about this. They went to their father, Daksha, and told them about what was happening.

Daksha was furious! Not only because his daughters were unhappy but because Chandra had broken his promise to keep them all happy. He went to Chandra and said: “You selfish planet, I curse you to wither away!”

From this day forward, the Moon started gradually to shrink. His brightness dimmed. As he began to look as though he would disappear entirely, he got fearful.

He prayed dearly to Lord Shiva for help. Shiva appeared and said that he could help. But he could not reverse the curse entirely. Instead he changed it so that after a period of waning, he would then proceed to wax (grow) as he went around and visited each of his wives.

And thus is the story of how the Moon came to wax and wane, and how he came to visit one wife (nakshatra) per day as he completed a steady orbit.

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To me this myth is so relatable! Not that I have 27 wives or would ever want to. But I see in the myth of these wives, all the important people in my life besides my “main person”. It’s so easy to get absorbed in that one person, or to think they’ll solve all our worries and woes. It’s especially easy if we look to them for direction and purpose.

But this kind of one-minded fixation only leads to misery…

The Chandra post-curse (and post intervention by Shiva) is a much healthier Chandra. Despite the fluctuation, he is able to spread his affection across many people and interactions, and to find meaning and purpose across these many people and interactions.

Although we have our situations and people that allow us to really be ourselves, and these naturally will be our favorite situations and people, we must admit that we have many sides of ourselves, and being in different situations brings out all these varied sides.

Do we not feel some magic in each of these experiences, however small or fleeting?

The Moon cannot truly “be himself” unless he travels the full distance, experiences the full range of emotion and life. This may involve some painful parting, some longing, some impatience. But that is all a part of the full range of experience. (If the Moon could receive some help from the Sun, then he might know that he is doing it not only because he has to but because it’s the right thing to do, and let’s not forget that the Moon reflects the light of the Sun.)

So that’s what I’ll leave you with today. I hope you enjoyed the story. There are many other interesting stories related to the Moon or planets, such as how Mercury (Budh) is the child of the Moon, who slept with Jupiter’s wife! So apparently 27 was not even enough. But we’ll have to save that for another time… 🌙