In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, nature plays a very important role in the healing and growth of Lily, the young protagonist. The regeneration and rebirth that we witness in the cycles of the natural world have long provided meaning and comfort to the observing human. The waxing and waning of the mysterious and enchanting moon, which itself was in some cultures once worshiped as goddess, has long been a powerful symbol of the feminine divine.

As for your question about what the moon may symbolize throughout the book, let us first have a look at some of the instances in which the moon appears. In chapter 2, Lily dreams that the moon breaks up and falls over her father’s peach farm. When she awakens, she looks for the moon to reassure herself that it is still intact. Here it seems to me that the bizarre and cataclysmic event that takes place in the dream is an expression of the enormity of the loss Lily has experienced as an unmothered child.

In chapter 6, a news report that the government plans to send a rocket to take photos of the moon’s surface causes August to comment that such an expedition would spoil the sense of mystery that the moon has always inspired in humans. One may also argue that, in a very symbolic way, it is an intrusion of male power over feminine forces.

As the novel concludes, Lily begins to heal from the deep wounds of being a motherless daughter, realizing that all the women in her special circle are “the moons shining over her.”