1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,399 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the 3 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,120 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form theories from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:19,680 Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on unmithical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. 5 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 2: In celebration of the lunar New Year, I thought today 6 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,360 Speaker 2: it would be a great time to consider the lunar rabbit. Now, 7 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:32,680 Speaker 2: exactly what you see in the dark splotches of the 8 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:37,159 Speaker 2: full moon will depend on your individual and or cultural priming. 9 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:40,640 Speaker 2: You may see a face, a man with a cane 10 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 2: or a fork, a frog or toad, or some other 11 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 2: animal reel or imagined. But the rabbit has been a 12 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,360 Speaker 2: popular choice since Time out of Mind, and why not. 13 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 2: Indigenous rabbit or hair species exist on every continent except 14 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 2: Australia and Antarctica. The rabbit also boath's a great deal 15 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 2: of character, inspiring numerous and varied tales that detail just 16 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 2: how that rabbit made it to the Moon, or from 17 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:10,959 Speaker 2: the Moon to the Earth in the first place. Author 18 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 2: Randolph S. Albright recounts several of these in his twenty 19 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 2: twenty book House of the Three Rabbits. According to Albright, 20 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:22,600 Speaker 2: the Yoruba people of Nigeria and the Woloff people of 21 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:26,040 Speaker 2: Senegal recount legends of a rabbit sent down from the 22 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:30,640 Speaker 2: moon with the secret of immortality, but the rabbit got 23 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:33,919 Speaker 2: the message backwards or mangoled in one form or another, 24 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:39,759 Speaker 2: and instead bestowed mortality upon human beings. Oops the moon 25 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 2: punished the rabbit by splitting its nose and forcing it 26 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 2: to accompany each dying mortal into the afterlife. The Siberian 27 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 2: moon goddess caltes Uku sometimes takes the form of a rabbit. 28 00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 2: The Mayan moon goddess Excel often carries a rabbit. The 29 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 2: Cree people of North America telle of a rabbit who 30 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,520 Speaker 2: traveled up to the moon with the help of a 31 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 2: passing crane, and the Celtic goddess Ostra took on the 32 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 2: form of a hare during the full moon. In Buddhist teachings, 33 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 2: Albright shares the rabbit's image appears on the moon because 34 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:18,639 Speaker 2: the rabbit offered up its own body to feed a 35 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:23,240 Speaker 2: starving beggar who was actually Sakra, lord of Davs in disguise. 36 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:28,799 Speaker 2: The Aztecs told a similar tale concerning the god quetzalkotal. 37 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:31,959 Speaker 2: As Victoria Dickinson explores, in her book Rabbit from the 38 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:36,400 Speaker 2: excellent Rakotan Animals series. The Aztecs associated the rabbit with 39 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:39,120 Speaker 2: drunkenness as well as the moon, and held that the 40 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 2: rabbit must first pass through fire on its way to 41 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,680 Speaker 2: the lunar's surface. And of course, the lunar rabbit has 42 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 2: an important place in many East Asian traditions, often as 43 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:54,080 Speaker 2: a lunar zodiac animal, and Chinese traditions invoke the creature 44 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,959 Speaker 2: in the myth of Chenga. We discussed various versions of 45 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 2: this myth in great detail in our Stuffable your Mind 46 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,920 Speaker 2: episode Chinese Mortality, which you can find in our archives. 47 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:08,200 Speaker 2: But the simple version is as follows. The hero Ye 48 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 2: the archer, receives the elixir of immortality from the Queen 49 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 2: Mother of the West, and then, while her reasoning varies 50 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 2: depending on the telling. Sometimes it's to protect the potion 51 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 2: from theft by an enemy, Yi's wife shang A, drank 52 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:24,920 Speaker 2: it instead and was instantly transported to the moon. In 53 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 2: some earlier tellings, she is then transformed into a toad 54 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 2: who pounds the elixir of immortality there, and it's of 55 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 2: course the very toad we might see when we gaze 56 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:37,120 Speaker 2: up at the full moon other times, and certainly in 57 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 2: later tellings, she retains her human form and is accompanied 58 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:44,680 Speaker 2: by the jade rabbit, who pounds the elixir of immortality instead. 59 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 2: Thus we see the rabbit on the moon. Dickinson writes 60 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:53,240 Speaker 2: to Chinese alchemists the pale jade moon rabbit embodied the 61 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:56,600 Speaker 2: yin or female principle that was associated with the moon, 62 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 2: not only in Asia, but in the West, where the 63 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 2: moon is often referred to as feminine. She also pointed 64 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:07,000 Speaker 2: out that in Japanese traditions, the rabbit doesn't pound the 65 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 2: elixir of immortality, but instead pounds the rice that will 66 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 2: be used in lunar New Year mochi cakes. Tune in 67 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 2: for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or 68 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:23,120 Speaker 2: Anamalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email us 69 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:34,479 Speaker 2: at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 70 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,560 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 71 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,440 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 72 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:43,359 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.