THE MOON

 

HOME TAROT MOON PERSONAL LINKS ASTROLOGY

 

Moon struck or Moon touched. Affected by the Moon;

distracted, bemused; given to unnatural fantasies

(as when one is psychic and those about the person are not).

 

 

No one knows exactly when humans began to observe the Moon but it must have been very early in our development. The carving of the Great Goddess of Laussel, dating back to about 20,000 BCE, shows the Goddess holding a bison horn with thirteen marks for months on it. In a cave at the Abri du Roc aux Sorciers at Angles-sur-I'Anglin is a massive carving of three women, very likely goddesses. This carving dates from between 13,000 and 1 1,000 BCE. These three figures, standing on a bison, may well represent the three phases of the Moon.

The Sun was a constant factor to early humans, except for its seasonal rise and fall on the horizon, but the Moon was mysterious, changing Her faces and shapes, withholding and giving light during the dark hours of the night. It wasn't long before menstruating women learned to count Moon cycles, thus creating the first calendar. However, the Sun was no help in dividing time into smaller portions than seasons. Counting from one Moon phase through the cycle and back to the same phase enabled clans to plan gatherings and religious ceremonies.

For centuries, women were the calendar-keepers, priestesses, healers, and advisors of the clans because of their ability to communicate with the powers of the Moon Goddess. Men learned to read the Moon's seasonal passages for use in hunting and farming. All early people knew that no human was unaffected by the Moon and Her mystical powers.

Long before I knew what She symbolized. As a small child, I would stand under the light of a Full Moon, reaching toward Her and yearning for something I couldn't put into words. Some in my family called me Moon touched, to them a derogatory term, but little realizing how right they were under another definition.

Everyone is Moon touched, or influenced, some just more than others. About one third of all people have a Full Moon in their natal astrological chart. These people are highly sensitive and emotional, with intense reactions each time the Moon reenters its natal sign. For those whose religious views do not permit emotional and psychic sensitivity, these Moon phases can be miserable, upsetting experiences, particularly if a person's sensitivity takes the form of seeing non-physical beings, having precognitive dreams and visions, or recalling past lives.

Humans cannot escape the influence of the Moon, whether they believe in it or not. The Moon touches the lives of all people in one way or another. Some individuals, who make little effort to obey the social laws or take responsibility for their lives anyway, who are either unstable or on the edges of being so, allow Her influence to lead them into violence, robberies, overindulgence in alcohol or drugs, or antisocial, harmful behavior. Even the best of us may snap and snarl when the Full Moon is in certain astrological signs. The more unaware we are of Her influences, the more we tend to react.

The police, firemen, paramedics, bartenders, and hospitals know that Full Moons bring more dramatic, dangerous problems. A team of psychiatrists in Florida compiled a report on murders in Dade County and Greater Cleveland, Ohio, over a fifteen-year period; they found there was a sharp increase in deadly violence at the Full Moon. A similar study done in New York charted peaks in robbery, assault, and car theft when the Moon was full. Research in Buffalo, New York, discovered an increase in suicides during a Full Moon. Another study done by the Department of Psychology at Edge cliff College in Ohio found that ten categories of crime are affected by the Full Moon: rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, theft, auto theft, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and offenses against children or family members.

It isn't only the Full Moon that seems to stir up human emotions and irrational behavior, although the Full Moon appears to have the most influence. The New Moon also affects humans, especially those with mental instability. As far back as the sixteenth century, Paracelsus wrote that the New Moon made mentally unstable people worse. The New Moon is the second, albeit lesser, time in a lunar cycle when authorities see an increase in strange and dangerous behavior.

The influences and power of the New and Full Moons need not be all negative. Fishermen in Nova Scotia have passed down the information for many years that the largest catches of herring can be taken at the Full Moon. The grunion (smelts) of California spawn according to the Full Moon and high tides. Those in magick have long used various lunar cycles to increase their powers for manifestations.

Aristotle and Pliny both insisted that earthquakes usually occurred on the New Moon. An M.I.T. geophysicist was curious about the effects of the Moon on earthquakes and did a study on over 2,000 of them in Turkey. Dr. Toksoz discovered that twice as many earthquakes happened at the New and Full Moons, during the two highest daily tides. Perhaps if this information were taken more seriously, we would not be caught unaware by earthquakes.

Everyone complains about the weather and the inaccuracy of weather reporting. A Leningrad geophysicist, Sergei Timofeyev, decided to investigate old folk sayings that the Moon affected the weather; scientists now believe that only the sunspot cycle does this. However, Timofeyev found some very interesting facts by monitoring the air temperatures-

' in comparison with Moon phases, for a number of years over various places in Russia. Sunspot activity runs on an eleven year cycle; Timofeyev discovered that changes in air masses and temperature had a nine and nineteen year cycle, that of the Moon. By checking Moon phases, he discovered a parallel with historical catastrophic weather phenomena around the world.

The greatest proportion of the human body is made up of water. If the Moon affects the oceanic tides, the lowly grunion and herring, and possibly the weather through the moisture in the atmosphere, it is logical to concede that humans are directly affected also. Some scientists and medical experts will grudgingly agree because of the accumulating data on violent crime and mental upheavals during certin phases of the moon.

But what has all this to do with the average law-abiding person, stable in mind and emotions? History tells us that there were other influences of the Moon, mystical influences that most people once knew and used to better their lives. This knowledge was forgotten when the modern religions gained control and either forbade their practices or ridiculed them into near-extinction along with the ancient deities that represented and symbolized the Moon.

These powers of the Moon phases were ancient knowledge in a great many cultures around the world and that same Moon knowledge is being used today by Pagans, Ceremonial Magicians, and the Wiccan groups. Certain phases of the Moon produce unique energies which can be tapped by humans through rituals large and small. In simple terms, spell working for banishing, decreasing, or removing problems takes place from after the Full Moon until the New Moon, with the day or night of the New Moon being strongest. Spell working for increase, growth, and gain takes place from after the New Moon until the Full Moon, with the day or night of the Full Moon being the most powerful. This use of Moon magick is ancient, and it still works.

But actual Moon magick is a little more involved than this simple explanation. The Moon month has traditionally been connected with three aspects of the Triple Goddess: Maiden (Crescent Moon), Mother (Full Moon), Crone (Dark Moon). These three aspects are further joined by specific energy paths: waning (decreasing) and waxing (growing). There are thirteen Moon months in a calendar year. Each Moon month is directly connected with a different type of seasonal energy flow.

With the Goddess coming into Her own once again, the Moon is being more openly recognized for Her influence and importance in the lives of humans. Anne Kent Rush, in Moon, Moon, wrote that the importance and position of women in a society can be judged by the importance that society gives to the Moon. Hidden in that statement is the religious fact that where the Moon is ignored or denigrated to the role of fantasy and fairy tale, so the Goddess is ignored, forbidden, or cast in the role of the wife/mother of a deity. Women,, the Moon, and the Goddess are inextricably bound together. What is doubly sad is that the patriarchal societies have concealed the fact that men also are caught up in the weaving of the Goddess and the Moon.

Women subconsciously know their connection with the Moon through their bodies and menstruation. Men do not have such obvious physical connections.They found that each male seemed to have

periods that affected his reactions, and these periods corresponded to certain lunar positions. When schedules were changed to fit around these lunar cycles, the rash of accidents ceased.

The entire Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang is linked to the waxing and waning of the Moon and the rise and fall of life-energy in humans. This would place the New and Full Moons as times of extremes in energy. Hindu astrology places great importance on the Moon phases as well, saying that people born during a waxing Moon live longer.

So, of what use is watching the Moon and Her phases? Being aware of the Moon and Her influences upon your life can save you a lot of frustration, time, and wasted energy. The Crescent, sometimes called the New Moon is a time for introversion, of starting new projects and plans, and making personal changes in general. It is an excellent time for self-examination in everything from your love life, career, moving into a new house, and breaking habits, to spiritual intentions. The Full Moon, the most powerful phase, is a time of extroversion, high energy tasks, and work with other people.

Are you letting the intense Moon energy lead you by the hormones, and are you really seeing your lover as she/he is, not a fantasy-person? Are you suddenly restless in your career? Watch out for those Moon phases! Are you making quick decisions to move or join a religious group? Back off, and let the Moon slide into another phase before you make a commitment. Check the Moon cycle before you shop for any item that requires you to sign a contract. You can be more easily swayed emotionally during a Full Moon. If you must deal with someone you really don't get along with, stay away from Full or New Moon meetings. Chances are you both will be edgy and the communication will be off. If you must undergo surgery of any kind, check the Moon before setting the date. Simply, don't set a surgery during a Full Moon or for four days before or after it. Bleeding will be more profuse at this time.

There are benefits to being in tune with the Moon as well. By cutting your hair and nails during a waxing Moon, they will grow back stronger and faster. Planting by the Moon has been known for centuries; certain plants grow better when planted during certain phases. There are Moon sign almanacs, such as the excellent one by Llewellyn Publications, that give you all the information on this you need.

This is all interesting information on the Moon but hardly of much practical use unless you combine it with magickal techniques. And magickal techniques are of little use unless you apply them in practical ways to your personal life. After all, magick is for improving your life physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

To do this throughout a lunar year can be a challenge. The lunar year consists of thirteen months, the old calendar reckoning. I have divided Part Two of this book into these months, filling each lunar division with old sayings about the Moon, ancient religious information, recipes, practical rituals and spell workings, and a great many other things to make your lunar year one of interest and enthusiasm. By working with the Moons energies, instead of against them, you should find yourself in greater harmony with yourself, others, and the universal spiritual rhythm.

We can't escape the influence of the Moon and Her powers, even if we don't consciously believe in them. The collective unconscious, or universal mind, still holds all the old information from our own past lives and those of our ancestors. The Moon knowledge of all those ancient civilizations still can affect our subconscious thinking, and our lives, in subtle ways. Each human, however, can learn to deliberately access this portion of the mind through deep meditation and, therefore, be more aware of how it is influencing life. Add this to the fact that the physical Moon affects our bodies and emotions, and it seems rather absurd not to work with the flow of power instead of against it. Life is difficult enough. Why not use Moon magick to smooth the path a bit?