With its subtle light illuminating the night sky, the Moon has always been an object of fascination, from its phoenixlike cycle of birth and death to its association with the female body and fertility. Jules Cashford explores the myths, symbols, and poetic images of the Moon throughout history, starting from early Paleolithic markings on horn and bone, up to present-day poetry. This captivating book traces our customs and secular events back to their sacred lunar source explaining how we have evolved to think in some of the ways that we do and why. Accompanied by 175 beautiful illustrations, The Moon investigates how the lunar image helped shape our mind, and more importantly, it examines what these myths and images tell us about our own consciousness. This is the most comprehensive and in-depth look at the moon and its vast influence on the structure and function of mythology, religion, and consciousness.
Jules Cashford read philosophy at St. Andrews and did post-graduate research in literature at Cambridge, on a Carnegie Fellowship, studying Tragedy, particularly in the novels of Joseph Conrad. She was a Supervisor in Tragedy and the Novel at Trinity College, Cambridge for some years.
She studied Psychology of Consciousness with Max Cade, and lectured on Mythology at Birkbeck College of Extra-Mural Studies, University of London, in a course called 'Before Philosophy.' She trained as a Jungian Analyst with the Association of Jungian Analysts in London, and is a member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP).
She is the co-author, with Anne Baring, of The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image (Penguin 1993) (still in print, translated into Spanish and Japanese). She is author of The Moon: Myth and Image (Cassell Illustrated, UK, 2003 and 4Walls8Windows, US, translated into German and Chinese, and Japanese translation forthcoming). She translated The Homeric Hymns from the Greek for Penguin Classics (2003). She wrote two books for children, The Myth of Isis and Osiris, and Theseus and the Minotaur (Barefoot and Shambhala, 1992 and 1994).
She has contributed chapters and articles to various books, newspapers and journals, including 'Joseph Campbell and the Grail Myth,' in John Matthews, ed., The Household of the Grail; 'Homo Duplex: An Epilogue to Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer"', Atalanta Ediciones, Girona, 2005; 'Ímagining Eternity: Weaving "the heaven's embroidered cloths,"' in Cosmos and Psyche, ed., Nicholas Campion, Floris Books, 2006.
Her latest book, El Mito de Osiris, an exploration of the Ancient Egyptian Mysteries at Abydos, has just come out in Spanish with Atalanta Ediciones, Girona, 2010.
With Kingfisher Art Productions, she made two films exploring the symbolism of the Early Renaissance Painter Jan van Eyck: The Mystery of Jan van Eyck, and The Mystic Lamb or the Ghent Altarpiece, which have been translated into Dutch, German, French and Japanese, with Spanish forthcoming. These dvds are for sale at www.Kingfisherartsproductions.com.
She now writes and lectures on Myth, Literature and Art(see Mythicimagination.info and the Schumacher College, Dartington), and works with the Gaia Foundation in London. (See www.julescashford.com)
