To the Mani Cult page
Manny Olds, Head Lunatic
Mundilfari, a giant called the Turner of Time, had two beautiful children. He was proud and called his daughter Sunna, sun, and his son Mani, moon. The gods put Sunna and Mani into the sky to drive the sun and moon, either as a punishment for their father's arrogance or because they really were so beautiful (or both, I suppose).
Sunna drives the chariot of the sun, which is pulled by two horses, Early-Waker and All-Swift. She is called Bright Light, Everglow, Dvalin's Doom (or Delight), Fair Wheel, and All-Bright. Her husband is Glow, probably one of Surtr's sons. Some people think that they have a daughter, who will drive the sun chariot after Ragnarok.
Mani governs the movement of the moon and decides its waxing and waning. If he has a horse, we don't know its name. Mani is called Mild Light, Whirling Wheel, Speeder, Time Teller, and Counter of Years. The dwarves call him Shining One, because he is the brightest sky-light they ever see.
Mani has adopted two children, Hjuki and Bil. This brother and sister were carrying water for Vidfinn, their father, when Mani took them; you can see the buckets and pole even now if you look at the moon.
The sun and moon are pursued in their movements by two wolves, sons of Hrodvitnir. Skoll chases the sun; Hati chases the moon. One day they will catch them. Then the great wolf Managarm will eat the moon, whose blood will darken the sun.
Night, Norvi's daughter, and Day, her son, also travel the skies. Night rides the horse Frosty-Mane; Day rides Shining-Mane. Some people say that the father of Day is called Delling, the Dawn. Night has other children with her other husbands--Aud is the son of Naglfari; Earth is the daughter of Annar.
This is the oldest and most obvious entry in the Mundilfari family's product line. If you want to make a fresh start; to mark a rite of passage, birth, or death; to celebrate the glory of the cycles of the world--share a horn with Mani. Or dance by the light of the moon.
We are told very little about Mani, but we do know he controls the moon. According to Kveldulf Gundarsson, in Teutonic Magic, "In Teutonic thought, the Moon is not associated with emotion and the subconscious but with measurement, regulation, and reason."
Historically, we know that the cycles of the moon were the basis of calendars. Mani, son of Time Turner, obviously has an affinity for timekeeping and calendars. Mathematics rose from many different springs, but certainly the process of making calendars was one of them. Counting and number theory have roots here.
We see another source in man's desire to understand what he sees when he looks up--what we would now call astronomy. This was one important spur to the development of geometry.
The regular cycle of moons and tides surely contributed to the belief that the world we live in is orderly but not fixed, which really forms the basis for all science. In particular, the need to understand (in a fundamental way) what change means was the impetus for the development of calculus.
Of course Odin and Njord have some interest in applied mathematics (cargoes [tallying] and navigation], but if you are looking for a specialist in math or physics, then I think Mani is your guy.
Sunna and Mani both travel constantly and are sympathetic to travellers.
My interpretation: You can appeal to them for good conditions for your journey. Since they are always looking over Midgard, you can also ask them for help when you are lost or have lost something, particularly outdoors.
Also, Mani has no horse (as far as we know), so he is particularly in tune with walking and walkers.
We know that the sun is the source of energy on earth, either directly or stored chemically or kinetically (fossil fuels, wood, wind). The moon reflects the sun's energy to us and causes the tides, which can be a source of energy on their own.
My interpretation: Sunna and Mani are associated with energy and power. Someday, I hope to pursue this more.
Mani and his sister were both adopted by the gods. Mani himself adopted two children, Hjuki and Bil (also known as Jack and Jill). Some say that he rescued them from their cruel father who forced them to carry water all night.
My interpretation: Mani is interested in adoption and will help children, particularly those who are abused by their parents or who are lost.
Sunna and Mani are both figures associated with the sky. Early memorial stones show symbols associated with them (small whirling disks sometimes encircled by a serpent) next to symbols associated with Thor (larger disks, spirals, and swastikas).
In Latvian lore (heavily influenced by the Vikings that lived there), the thunder god Perkons is a friend or relative of Meness, the moon. One of his known adventures occurs when he strikes an oak on the way to the wedding of Meness.
In the Gylfaginning, Snorri's euhemerized family tree of the Aesir associates Thor with a "king called Munon or Mennon", which is suggestive, if not exactly informative.
My interpretation: Thor and Mani are associated in some way. I have my opinions on how, but I haven't found much in the lore to back that up. I also think that they have in common a stronger than average (for the Aesir) interest in the doings of the common people of Midgard.
(Note--I know there are no references or footnotes. If you are consumed with curiousity, I can point you to my sources. But it is really all just the Usual Suspects: HRED, Young, Terry, Hollander, Guerber, Gundarsson.)
Here's a long paragraph by Mircea Eliade from The Sacred and the Profane: the Nature of Religion, translated by W. Trask.
In the same way a rapid analysis of the many and various religious valorizations of the moon shows all that men have deciphered in the lunar rhythms. It is through the moon's phases--that is, its birth, death, and resurrection--that men came to know at once their own mode of being in the cosmos and the chances for their survival or rebirth. It is through lunar symbolism that religious man was led to compare vast masses of apparently unrelated facts and finally to integrate them in a system. It is even probably that the religious valorization of the lunar rhythms made possible the first great anthropo-cosmic syntheses of the primitives. It was lunar symbolism that enabled man to relate and connect such heterogeneous things as: birth, becoming, death, and resurrection; the waters, plants, woman, fecundity, and immortality; the cosmic darkness, prenatal existence, and life after death, followed by rebirth of a lunar type ("light coming out of darkness"); weaving, the symbol of the "thread of life", fate, temporality, and death; and yet others. In general most of the ideas of cycle, dualism, polarity, opposition, conflict, but also of reconciliation of contraries, of coincidental oppositorum, were either discovered or clarified by virtue of lunar symbolism. We may even speak of a metaphysics of the moon, in the sense of a consistent system of "truths" relating to the mode of being peculiar to living creatures, to everything in the cosmos that shares in life, that is, in becoming, growth and waning, death and resurrection. For we must not forget that what the moon reveals to religious man is not only that death is indissolubly linked with life but also, and above all, that death is not final, that it is always followed by a new birth.
If that makes you want to enlist, the Cult of Mani is currently accepting applications for Field Agents. Apply to the Head Lunatic.
Last Modified 19 May 97
Comments to Manny Olds, oldsma@pobox.com
To the House of Mundilfari