If we take your symbolism and turn it back to the matter of silver/mechanical hands, then the natural hand — which is a solar symbol, we agree — is replaced by a lunar symbol; it is thereby made imperfect. Very nice!

I don’t know whether I agree about both Naudu and Lugh being aspects of the same god. It comes to me that I have never really understood what people mean when they say one god is an “aspect” of another…

I agree that there is a deeper meaning behind the loss of Naudu’s hand, that extends beyond the waxing and waning of the moon. The Norse myth of the god Tyr, whose hand was bitten of by the wolf Fenrir, is probably related, which contains no immediate lunar reference, other than the usual association of wolves and moons, that is :). Fenrir was a threat to the god’s existence, and their destruction would eventually come to pass at the end of the old world age to make way for a new. It is this idea of the cosmic cycle, that I think relates to the lunar cycle, and the old moon dies and is reborn anew. Although whether that was how the Irish themselves understood it, I’m unsure. I’m betting those wise in such matters had a much more profound understanding

For me the moon is a symbol of the cosmos as we experience it, with Naudu as presiding deity. The sun symbolizes a higher level of reality, presided over by Lugh the god of ’solar’ light. And both gods are actually two aspects of the same god, that are united within the threshold between death and life, and it is here that the solar reality breaks through into our own.

While I like your idea that the hand of Nuadu is connected to the moon, I’m always a little suspicious of astronomical explanations for myth. I don’t deny that the explanations work, and may even be entirely true; but I don’t see how they can be the whole story.

After all, this myth resonates on a deep level. People in Ireland told it to each other for eons, and after Ireland became Christian, they still thought the story was worth writing down. Why do that if the story is only a metaphor for the changing moon? After all, everyone knows the moon waxes and wanes; you don’t need a myth to remind you of it!

There must be something deeper going on — something connected with our own sense of vulnerability, our dependance on our limbs… The silver hand may be the moon, but silver is also associated with water, the Otherworld, and the Sidhe: is Nuadu’s new hand somehow associated with these things? And of course Nuadu was judged unworthy of kingship because he’d lost his hand — which speaks to the old Celtic ideas of kingship, in which the health of the king was representative of the health of the land.

One further example to show that something deeper is going on in this myth: notice the parallel with Star Wars? Both Vader and Luke lose their hands, and they’re replaced with “silver” ones — mechanical ones. This is such a powerful symbol; it’s something that resonates with us very strongly. Why? I don’t have a satisfactory answer!

What do you think?