My disability due to pulmonary sarcoidosis consistently spotlights my fears and mortality. Cultivating gratitude helps ease my distress, but shadows also contain gifts, as I discovered while exploring nighttime’s unique blessings.
 | Night’s special magic includes wishing on a star, listening to whip-poor-wills, and watching fireflies dance in the dark—but the shadows harbor other extraordinary secrets. Nighttime enchantment can also include bioluminescent fungi, known as foxfire (or fairy fire), which I once witnessed while camping. Luminescent Will-o-the-wisps haunt peat bogs. In his book, Nature at Night, naturalist Charles Hood explains that “phosphine, diphosphate, and methane—all three of which are produced by organic decay—can cause photon emissions. And since phosphine and diphosphate mixtures spontaneously ignite in contact with the oxygen in the air, only a small quantity of it [is] needed to ignite the much more abundant methane and create an ephemeral flame.” |
A similar phenomenon, naturally occurring eternal flames are a subterranean mix of hydrogen and methane (among other gasses), which spontaneously ignite when they reach the surface.
I’ve never witnessed a moonbow, but they occur when the full moon is low on the horizon and moisture fills the air in the form of light rain, fog or waterfall spray.
Longfellow's poem, “Hymn to the Night,” captures the rapturous beauty of nighttime:
I’ve never witnessed a moonbow, but they occur when the full moon is low on the horizon and moisture fills the air in the form of light rain, fog or waterfall spray.
Longfellow's poem, “Hymn to the Night,” captures the rapturous beauty of nighttime:
According to Charles Hood, our eyes adjust to the dark in phases: “There’s a ‘phase one,’ and that happens right away, in just a minute or two. But our final night vision takes up to thirty minutes to arrive. . . All humans have excellent night vision—it’s how we evolved. You can even hike using only starlight.”
Because artificial light bleaches the rhodopsin in our vision cells, few modern humans experience this intimate connection with darkness. Our night blindness can trigger fear. I’ve laid awake more than once listening to an enormous monster crashing in the dark—only to discover a raccoon or opossum making their nightly rounds when I finally dared to peek outside.
Because artificial light bleaches the rhodopsin in our vision cells, few modern humans experience this intimate connection with darkness. Our night blindness can trigger fear. I’ve laid awake more than once listening to an enormous monster crashing in the dark—only to discover a raccoon or opossum making their nightly rounds when I finally dared to peek outside.
This poem, “Mother Night,” captures the human impulse to look to divine entities to protect us from things bumping around in the night.
 | In my fictional world of Kolkha, the darkness is ruled by Night Rider, the sky god Tiamar’s son. He wears a midnight-blue cloak spangled with stars. I imagine him as a wise, forgiving presence. His priestesses wear midnight blue robes embroidered with star signs and use their astrology skills to scry the future. |
Here’s an introduction to nine other deities from around the world embodying night’s darkness:
 | 1. ʿAmm is a moon god worshipped in ancient Qataban, which was a kingdom located in present-day Yemen along the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. The inhabitants of Qataban referred to themselves as the Banu 'Amm, or the "Children of 'Amm." In addition to personifying the moon, he is also a weather god and wielded lightning bolts. 'Amm's name derives from the Arabic word for paternal uncle and he was actively worshipped into the 2nd century CE. |
2. Goddess of the Night was worshiped in the Hurrian kingdom of Kizzuwatna (central Anatolia, in present-day Turkey). She was also worshiped by the Bronze Age Hittites.
3. “At night, particularly at the dark moon, Hekate could be seen walking the roads of ancient Greece accompanied by her howling dogs and blazing torches” —from Mysteries of the Dark Moon.
 | “Queen of the Night, triple-faced Hekate [is] most often linked with the dark of the moon and presides over magic, ritual, prophetic vision, childbirth, death, the underworld, and the secrets of regeneration. Mistress of the crossroads, this lunar goddess dwells in caves, walks the highways at night, makes love in the vast seas, and is the force that moves the moon.” |
For those who worship her honorably, Hekate bestows her magical knowledge of “love, metamorphosis, and pharmaka.”
 | Her most famous pupils in Greek mythology are Circe and Medea. “As priestesses of Hekate, Circe and Medea were held in awe and fear as potent sorceresses well versed in the properties of magical herbs, enchantments, witch’s lore, and shape-shifting.” In my fictional world of Kolkha, the priestess Sary and her niece, Mezia, personify these two powerful women—but from a non-Greek perspective. |
Greek women set idols of Hecate outside their homes to keep them safe and “called upon Hekate to protect their families from her hosts of the dead. It was felt that this goddess could hold back the spectral hordes from the living if she chose.”
From Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: “Hoards of ghosts led by Hecate and Her baying hounds roamed the earth on moonless nights. Yet She protected those mortals who purified themselves in Her name, With faces averted they offered Her ritual suppers at lonely crossroads, the gathering place of spirits.”
From Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: “Hoards of ghosts led by Hecate and Her baying hounds roamed the earth on moonless nights. Yet She protected those mortals who purified themselves in Her name, With faces averted they offered Her ritual suppers at lonely crossroads, the gathering place of spirits.”
 | 4. Hine-nui-te-pō (“the great woman of the night”) is a Māori goddess of the night who receives the spirits of humans when they die. In one story, she flees to the underworld when she discovers her husband is also her father. Hine-nui-te-pō shepherds souls into the first level of the subterranean land of the dead, Rarohenga, to ready them for the next stage of their journey. |
5. Nótt is a Norse goddess whose name means “Night.” She is also referred to in the Poetic Edda as “The Lightless,” or “The Unsorrowing,” as the elves’ “Sleep’s Joy,” and by the dwarves as “The Weaver of Dreams.”
 | She is both a jötun and a divine goddess. The jötnar are supernatural beings with elemental powers in Norse mythology. According to Myths of Northern Lands, Nótti rides in a dark chariot, drawn by a sable horse named “Hrim-faxi (frost mane), from whose waving mane the dew and hoarfrost dropped down upon the earth.” |
6. Greek poets and playwrights said Nyx lives at the ends of the Earth as a black-robed goddess who drives through the sky in a chariot pulled by a pair of black horses.
 | In Mysteries of the Dark Moon, Nyx (aka Mother Night) arose out of primeval chaos “in the form of a great black-winged spirit hovering over a vast sea of darkness. Ancient Night conceived of the Wind and laid her silver Egg in the gigantic lap of Darkness. The upper section of this gigantic Egg formed the vault of the sky and the lower section was the earth. … The description that Nyx laid a silver egg is another way of saying that Mother Night gave birth to the moon, silver being the lunar metal.” |
It’s interesting to note that in “the earliest mythologies night was given precedence over day, and the moon over the sun.” This is true not only of ancient Greeks, but of Jewish and Celtic cultures, for example.
We can call on Nyx “to reclaim our awareness that our original essential nature arises out of formless potentiality embodied by the night.”
We can call on Nyx “to reclaim our awareness that our original essential nature arises out of formless potentiality embodied by the night.”
 | 7. Oxomoco (also known as Oxomo) is an Aztec deity, the goddess of the night, astrology and the calendar. Her name means “First Woman” and comes from the Huastic word Uxumocox: Uxum (Woman) and Ocox (First). Oxomoco usually wears a priest’s tobacco gourd on her back and is shown divining with knotted cords in the Florentine Codex. In some depictions she wears a butterfly mask or throws maize and beans from a vessel. The butterfly symbolizes rebirth in Aztec religion. |
These symbols of rebirth and planting seeds lend to her interpretation as a fertility goddess. “According to various myths, she was born from the primordial waters that existed before the creation of the world. … In Aztec society, where agriculture was the backbone of the economy, her influence was significant. Farmers would invoke her blessings to ensure bountiful harvests, and rituals were conducted in her honor during planting and harvesting seasons. The Aztecs believed that her presence in the [dark] soil was essential for the growth of plants and the fertility of the land.”
 | 8. Ratri (“Night”) is a Vedic goddess in Hinduism who personifies the night and represents cyclic patterns of the cosmos. She is a powerful mother who strengthens vital power. Because Ratri is so familiar with the things that lurk in the darkness, she is often invoked with spells of protection. “She prevents any harm befalling [the Brahmins] from that which flies or crawls or prowls the mountains. She protects the citizens from the villain and the marauder and the thief in the darkness.” Ratri also takes the form of those things contained within the darkness: “the splendor of the lion and of the stag, the form of the tiger, the leopard…. and the wild-man's bellow.” |
Quoted in The Goddess Companion, by Patricia Monaghan
Ratri “symbolizes both the literal darkness of night and the deeper, metaphorical aspects of rest, rejuvenation, and the mysteries of the subconscious. … In modern interpretations, Goddess Ratri serves as a reminder of the importance of rest and self-care in our fast-paced lives. She encourages individuals to embrace the darkness not as something to fear but as an opportunity for introspection, growth, and renewal. By acknowledging her presence, we can cultivate a deeper appreciation for the balance of light and darkness in our lives.”
 | 9. Shay-Al-Qawm was a god of the night, war, and guardian of caravans among the al-ʾanbāṭ (or Nabataeans), a nomadic dessert-dwelling people of northern Arabs. His name may mean “the one who accompanies (or aids) the people” pointing to His role as a protector of caravans and soldiers and anyone traveling at night. He was also known as the “Protector of the Clan” or “Guardian of the Army.” As a night god, “he protected the souls of the sleepers in the form of stars, accompanying them on their nightly journey through the heavenly realms, as well as guiding caravans in the desert by means of the stars.” |
His name was inscribed on numerous offering pillars, including one carved in 132 CE where he is called Shia Al-Qawm.
Quoted in The Goddess Companion, by Patricia Monaghan
I had two goals researching this essay: to quiet my own shadow-fears, and to explore what night magic might look like for the fictional priesthood of Night Rider.
 | In the live role-play game Empire, gamers describe night magic as “subtle, intuitive, deceptive and secretive. It is never direct, and never the same twice - it is the essence of transformation and mystery. … Night magic lives in the unconscious and the subconscious. … The divinatory powers of Night magic are always somewhat dreamlike in nature [and] full of symbols and metaphors that must be interpreted. Magicians who make extensive use of Night magic often talk about its elusive, mercurial nature [and] powerful rituals often leave the magicians feeling dazed or in some cases even cause phantasmagoric hallucinations.” |
A real-world exploration of night magic by Korey Ebrima is equally poetic:
 | “In the tapestry of the night, where the heavens are adorned with constellations like diamonds scattered across a velvet canvas, lies a realm of infinite mystery — the realm of darkness. … The darkness becomes a canvas upon which our deepest fears and desires are painted, a mirror that reflects the depths of our souls [and invites] us to explore, to question, to marvel at the infinite wonders of the universe. The night is not just a canvas upon which we project our fears and fantasies; it is a doorway to understanding, a gateway to the unknown.” |
However you choose to embrace the darkness, may you be comforted and guided.
Read related essays, poems, and books:
Night Creatures, Inanna’s Descent, Ancient Funerals,
“Inanna Eclipsed,” “Night Communion,” “Dragon Moon,”
The Underworld, The Witch’s Heart, Mexican Gothic, What Moves the Dead
Night Creatures, Inanna’s Descent, Ancient Funerals,
“Inanna Eclipsed,” “Night Communion,” “Dragon Moon,”
The Underworld, The Witch’s Heart, Mexican Gothic, What Moves the Dead
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