Well, here we are at the dark of the moon. Traditionally this was a time when bad influences were at work, and just about anything could happen. Hecate, that feared, crone-like goddess from the classical world was particularly associated with the ‘dark moon.’ Yet, despite all the bad publicity, Hecate is not, intrinsically a bad, or evil goddess.

Part of the problem lies in our concept of her, and where that concept came from. The idea of a completely evil deity was unknown before Christianity which took either over many heathen/pagan gods and turned them into saints (for example, the Celtic-Irish goddess Brigid became St Brigid) or turned them into aspects of Satan. For this latter procedure, think of Herne/Cernunnos with his horns, or Pan with his cloven hooves.

In the Ancient World, all deities were capable of great kindness and also of mischief, spite and virtually every other motive or emotion known to man. That’s what made them so accessible. You could do a deal with them. If one god appeared to dislike you, another might befriend you. At the very least, you had a chance of getting help from one of them. All the classical gods could and did both help and hinder mankind, having distinct dark and light sides to them.

What we learn at the dark of the moon is that our dark side is nothing to be feared, it is part of what we are. True, sometimes the dark side has to be controlled if we are to live decently in society and avoid prison or regular punch ups, but that’s also true of the light side, believe it or not. Being goody two shoes can make you just as much of a positive liability if that side of your nature is allowed to run out of control!

At the dark of the moon it’s a good time to examine ourselves honestly. We don’t have to tell anyone else what we find, just ourselves. Remember that all our character traits have a positive and a negative. So anger might be regarded as negative – but isn’t always. There are times when anger can be justified, or used to great advantage. (Christians out there might remember that Jesus was pretty angry when he threw over the money changers’ tables in the Temple.) Anger is only a liability when it lacks control and one becomes the sort of person liable to erupt in fury at the slightest provocation. Anger (or any other perceived character trait) itself isn’t the problem so much as the sort of leash we put on it.