The Dance of Sol and Luna

Many, many aeons ago Sol was modest and the stars shone alongside him
They glowed amongst his brilliance
But Sol was arrogant;
He knew his power, he has the will to shine and grow,
And thus he decreed
'I shall be the only star of the day,
I will shine so bright that you shall not glitter before me!
You are little candles to my great lantern now,
I am far too powerful, little brothers and sisters,
You may envy, but you may never again stand beside my shining throne,
You are no longer worthy!'
And Sol hence burned more brightly, more brilliantly
And any who beheld him were struck blind
Such was his eminance that no man, woman, child are creature could bear to watch him.

And as he outshone all his brothers and his sisters in the sky
They plotted, and out of their vehemence came Luna,
She was gentle to their bitter hatred
And she spoke:
'I am Luna, the moon. I rise, I will rise, when Sol becomes tired,
As he will, he will burn himself to exhaustion,
And sink to recover below the great round belly of the world
And I will sit upon my own new throne is the sky where he cannot see
And you, my children, my new sons and my new daughters
You may shine with me
And I will guide your way through the clouds.'

And thus Sol grew tired,
He felt himself sink, too wearied to keep his great bulk afloat
And the clouds crept around him as a veil,
Blanketing his great body,
And the sky darkened from loneliness, blushing with shame,
Blue to red to black,
Cold and friendless.

The world in darkness,
The sky empty and the world's children striking blindly
Amongst the smothering shadows,
Then did Luna command, she floated up,
Gliding over the horizon,
The sky was hushed and soothed by her
And it awoke, a soft deep blue, to glow around her;

And one by one the sky's great belly was studied with brilliant white
Some small, some big, some clustered
They formed shapes and patterns
Brighter than they had ever been with brother Sol
Scorpions and hunting men
Oxen and their tools, virgin women conversing with twin siblings
Coiling snakes and goats with the tails of fish
Men with archer's arrows, running across the night sky
Dancing with the cheerful stars on fleet hooves
Playing with rams and glittering, glimmering fish with
Bright white scales, clear, pale candles on the quiscient purple sky.

All the men, the women, the children
The true fish and the real rams bleating in their pens
Gazed upon the little firey children, and saw the pictures
The writings, the beings
And were inspired by them,
Until Sol awoke, rested and grumbling, and chased them away,
Burned the soothing mist the moon had breathed across the land
And whipped the calm winds into fire in the deserts,
Throwing sand, tossing the oceans like a violent child
Gleeful in his great monstrous glory.

The clouds crept across, sought to smother him
But in time he pierced through
And the clouds wept for they loved Luna
They loved the sky that was not glowing fierce and reckless as cobalt,
Infatuated by Sol's gaud.

And once they were done weeping they shrivelled to mutter to themselves in thunder,
But again Sol expended himself,
His enormous energy
And again the world allowed him rest,
And again she was silent and did not tell jealous Sol of Luna's gentle embrace
And that is how it has been
Always will be, except when Sol and Luna meet and clash.

For every so often,
When the world finishes her slow and steady pace around the galaxy
Several times,
Sol and Luna converse
Be it the sky's slumber or the sky's light
And Luna's wrath is stirred
And she will smother Sol
Until his power pushes her away, smiting:;

Or he will eclipse her also
And that is the way
And though it is beautiful it is terrible,
But the creatures in time learned that these spats were temporary
And came to love them for their brilliance
And always netiher won and neither lost
And all was well.

And sometimes they will shine together,
Though the stars still fear Sol's wrath
Luna will sit in the sky, defiant for her smitten children,
And though weakened she will sit until she is chased away
By Sol, oblivious to her reign in the night-time
And that is how it is
Luna always waiting
Patiently,
To soothe the world of Sol's proud shine.