I get excited about the moon just about every evening when it comes out, and judging by the vast collection of moon stories and myths from cultures all over the world, I don't think I'm the only one! The moon seems to draw in people of all backgrounds and cultures. The sun is heavily discussed in casual and scientific conversations, but the moon is better at inspiring people to write stories about it. Maybe it's because we can look directly at it and see shapes like a man or a hare, or maybe it's because the moon is associated with night, which is more mysterious and eerie than day. I also think it's interesting that, according to Timothy Harley in Moon Lore, moon deities are men more often than they are women. I would have guessed it was the other way around, since women and the moon are both labeled as mysterious, and since in Spanish and French the noun for "moon" is feminine. It might be fun to find and retell stories about the moon as a woman, man, and something else (inanimate or containing an animal, maybe).
Screenshot from the 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon).
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Women Saints
As I discussed in my post about reading options earlier this week, I am interested in stories about women saints because I like the mysticism of Catholicism and I am interested in the treatment and portrayal of women during Biblical times and the Middle Ages. I've had quite a bit of exposure to the Bible, but I haven't read many stories about saints from after Biblical times. If I choose this topic, I will probably narrow down to a more specific theme that connects a few women. I might tell the stories from the women's point of view, but I'm sure that's been done many times before, so I would want to put an additional spin on the retelling that would have to do with the narrower theme. The Golden Legend would be a good place to start reading for this topic.
Saint Gemma Galgani. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Buddhist Jataka Tales
Last fall I took a class on death and dying, and we did an entire unit on reincarnation. The class was focused on death and dying in America, so after some reading about the basics of reincarnation around the world, we directed our attention to reincarnation beliefs in America. I thought the Buddhist vision of reincarnation was one of the most interesting, especially because it places emphasis on spiritual and moral aspects of life and rebirth. I also think the idea of the Buddha is interesting, and I like that the Jataka tales track his many lives. From the few Jataka stories I have already read, the theme of self-sacrifice seems like it is very prominent. I think this would be an interesting topic to explore if I wanted to narrow down my project a little. Laura's Jataka unit that draws from Shedlock would be a good place to start, as would Buddhist Birth Stories by T. W. Davids, which discusses the history of the tales in Buddhism and includes literal translations of the original stories.
Bhutanese painting depicting the Jataka tales.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Celtic Water Creatures
When I was very young, my mom and I would listen to a CD called The Seal Maiden. I loved this album, which was a story of a selkie in musical form. Recently, I listened to the album again and was transported back to my early childhood and drawn into the story, which I can appreciate and understand more now that I am older. I like the story of the selkie because it involves a protagonist who has lost her home, beautiful descriptions of the ocean, and the pain of being torn apart from two different families. It is a sad story but contains a lot of beauty. I would like to read more selkie stories, since they can be either women or men, and maybe stories about other underwater Celtic creatures, such as waterkelpies. Donald Mackenzie's Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend has some stories about mermaids and seal-people, and Walter Gregor's Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland has a story about waterkelpies.
Stamp of the Faroe Islands depicting a seal-woman (selkie).
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
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