The Sun is almost exactly as much times wider than the moon as much as the latter is away from the sun. This results in a happy, aesthetic coincidence for us humans, one of the many species on Earth whose natural satellite moon is.
One should remember that we are not only just one of the many countless species that appear and disappear on this planet but we are also relatively new comers.
The human species is also a species of Religion.
We as a species seek noumenal experiences and have them. To a very large extent they shape and have shaped for millennia our histories and civilisations.
Whatever the civilisation, the greatest civilisational achievements have been mostly of religious nature.
The wonderful experience of the Sun and moon for our species resonated with its own brain structure of two hemispheres.
Many religious concepts, rituals and astro-theological Puranas and mythologies evolved around the celestial motion of these apparent pairs – Sun and the moon.
Prof. Subhash Kak explains this phenomenon beautifully:
Distance between Earth and Sun is 108 times Sun-diameter. Distance between Earth and Moon is 108 times Moon-diameter, and, most remarkably diameter of the Sun is 108 times the Earth diameter. The knowledge of the first two by the Indians shouldn’t surprise, because these can be calculated by anyone without the need for any instruments. ... I don’t believe the Indians knew the third fact, that is the Sun is 108 times as large as the Earth, because there is no evidence of it in the old astronomy texts. Since Indian thought takes the outer cosmology to be mirrored in the inner cosmology of the human, the number 108 is also taken to represent the distance from the man’s body to the consciousness within.
Of these two prominent celestial objects, the moon is also enigmatic through its cycles. From the very early days the humans noticed the cycle of the moon being intimately connected with ecological cycles, tidal movements, physiological and psychological cycles.
Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, historians searching for the Goddess religion within Western traditions, who approach the subject from a Joseph Campbell point of view, provide an interesting perspective of the emergence of Goddess association with the cycles of the moon.
This is worth quoting in detail:
In the rhythmical phases of light and darkness the Palaeolithic tribes must have seen a pattern of growing and decaying endlessly renewed, and this would have given them trust in life. In the waxing of the moon they would have felt life growing and felt the growth of their own lives. In the full moon they may have marvelled at the increase of life that overflowed into new life.
In the waning moon they would have mourned the withdrawal of life, the departure of the goddess; and in the darkness of the lost moon they would have longed for her and her light to return.
With the passage of time, they must have come to trust in the reappearance of the crescent moon, and so to recognize darkness as the time of waiting before the resurgence of new life. … Everything that existed, including themselves, was an expression of the Goddess. Everything, therefore, was an image that confirmed their relationship to her. Out of this ability to experience life imaginally arose the inexhaustible creativity of humanity.
The association of the Goddess with moon—the crescent moon, full moon and the new moon—existed in all cultures and civilisations. A primordial Darshana with which the planet’s celestial situation blessed our relatively young species.
But it was destined that the blessing would find its full expression, and all its variety, only in India. In most cultures Her temples were destroyed. Her devotees were killed. She Herself was appropriated and changed into an intermediary between the believers and a 'male jealous god'. In India, the Goddess association with the moon continues to be celebrated in all its splendour and diversity.
Sri Lalita Sahasranama brings out this association beautifully. The Goddess arises from the fire pit. The fire is no ordinary fire. It is Chit-Agni. That is what the very fourth name says.
And as we proceed, each of Her feature as it emerges out of the fire, gets described for our meditation.
She is bright as a thousand Suns. The description goes on. Her weapons with which She fights our inner battle for liberation; Her radiance engulfs all existence; Her hair and the flowers in it; Her crown resplendent with wonderful gems and then comes Her forehead.
One should remember that even before Her forehead the names have spoken about all Her engulfing radiance and the dazzling light of thousand Suns. If so, then how can anyone even see Her face? It should be dazzling like millions if not zillions of suns! But what a wonderful contrast!
Ashtameechandra Vibhrajadalikasthala Shobhita Her forehead is so cool and soothing. It is the comforting maternal light of the eighth day of the lunar cycle as the moon grows towards the full moon. It is an auspicious crescent moon and it is the moon that comforts rather than dazzles.
This name shows Her compassion. She is beyond all understanding and in Her full glory She is the mystery of unmeasurable light that human tools of cognition can never comprehend. But She allows Herself to be comprehended with the soothing light of the eighth-day waxing moon.
Read More at https://swarajyamag.com/culture/the-goddess-and-the-moon-meditations-on-kartika-poornima