In almost every culture the moon is a woman. The monthly cycles of the moon seem to show the monthly cycles of women as though in a sacred magic mirror. Each month the Goddess paints the face of the moon with the same picture; over and over. And the theme of that picture is the power of women and the sacredness of the energy that each woman carries in her womb. The crescent moon, set against the stars, echoes each woman's unique sense of herself, even as she lives as only one person among many. In many cultures, arms held over one's head is a posture of prayer. The hands seem to reach toward the higher; toward the stars, the moon and planets, and toward the infinite reaches of space. It expresses a longing toward something that lies without; toward the larger universe in which we live. Although this posture reaches outwards, the longing it expresses finds fulfillment by looking within.