Full Moon Facts

The sky at night: 50 things you never knew about the full moon

So it’s not just a matter of superstition. According to a police study, the lunar event coincides with an increase in hooliganism. Jonathan Brown and Rebecca Bowle shed some light on the celestial phenomenon

1 The full moon is a lunar phase occurring when the moon is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun and all three bodies are aligned in a straight line. Viewed from earth, the near side of the moon is fully illuminated by the sun giving it the familiar circular appearance.

2 It is only during a full moon that the dark side of the moon – the hemisphere on the opposite side to the sun – is completely dark.

3 Lunar eclipses – caused by the passage of the earth’s shadow across the illuminated hemisphere – only occur during a full moon. However, because of the angle of tilt of both bodies the moon normally passes either north or south of the earth’s shadow.

4 The chances of being bitten by a dog are twice as high during a full moon, according to a study at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which reviewed 1,621 cases of dog bite between 1997 and 1999. However, a study at the University of Sydney in Australia concluded there was no identifiable relationship between the state of the moon and dog bites.

5 Gervaise of Tilbury, a 13th-century canon lawyer, was the first to link the full moon with the transformation into a werewolf. Writing in his Otia Imperialia he reports cases in the Auvergne, below. The philosopher Gottfried Leibniz described the popular work as a “bagful of foolish old woman’s tales”.

6 The full moon occurs every 29.5 days – the duration of one complete lunar cycle.

7 The female menstrual cycle has long been linked to the full phase of the moon. One theory is that prehistoric men were more likely to go hunting during their womenfolk’s period because of taboos associated with blood. The most profitable time to hunt was during the full moon and the best way to convince the men to return with food was with the prospect of sex.

8 Neo-pagans, including followers of Wicca, hold a monthly ritual based around the full moon called an Esbat. The term has been linked to the writings of the controversial anthropologist Margaret Murray.

9 The second full moon occurring within a calendar month is called a Blue Moon. The latest was seen on 31st May 2007. Far from being a rare event this phenomenon occurs once every three years on average.

10 “Blue Moon”, which was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934, became a standard ballad and was recorded by singers such as Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan. The most famous version was recorded by the doo-wapp band the Marcels, above, in 1961, selling more than one million copies.

11 The world’s tidal ranges are at their maximum during the full moon when the sun, earth and moon are in line. Sailors know the effect as the spring tide – a reference to the leap in the water level rather than the season of the year.

12 The only month that can occur without a full moon is February.

13 Farmers refer to the harvest moon, the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, which normally occurs in September. It is also called the elk calling moon or the wine moon.

14 A full Moon is considered unlucky if it occurs on a Sunday but lucky on Monday or moon day

15 According to superstition a male child is more likely to be conceived at full moon.

16 In October 1939 in Springfield, Missouri, the full moon appeared to fall from the sky. The event was reported in the local newspaper but was later revealed to be a plunging weather balloon.

17 The Gregorian calendar dates Easter as the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon – the first to occur after the vernal equinox. It is also known as the egg moon.

18 The Chinese Lantern Festival, dating back to the Han dynasty, is staged on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month after the new year. Chinese communities celebrate across the world by lighting lanterns and feasting on glutinous rice.

19 The Lunar Society, which included Erasmus Darwin, James Watt and Josiah Wedgewood, took its name from the practice of holding monthly meetings on the Monday nearest to the full moon. Members referred to themselves as the Lunatics.

20 A three-month psychological study of 1,200 inmates at Armley jail in Leeds in 1998 showed a rise in violent incidents in the days either side of a full moon.

21 Scientists have long battled to explain the “moon illusion” – whereby the full moon appears to be larger the closer it is to the horizon. The phenomenon is understood to be caused by human perception rather than the magnifying effect of the earth’s atmosphere.

22 Timber harvests in South America and South-east Asia are avoided during the full moon because it causes the sap to rise in trees, which in turn attracts deathwatch beetles which can devastate crops.

23 Thousands of revellers gather each month on the beach at Koh Phangan in Thailand, below, to celebrate the full moon and dance the night away.

24 The native American Algonquin tribes in New England give each full moon of the year a name such as the beaver moon, the sturgeon moon and the strawberry moon.

25 The next full moon will occur on 30 June 2007.

26 The full moon may appear round, but is actually shaped like an egg with the pointed end facing earth.

27 The dark spots on the full moon that create the nursery-rhyme man in the moon image are actually basins filled up to five miles deep with basalt, a dense mineral. Other facial features are actually “seas” of frozen lava and sharp, rugged mountains.

28 In China, the dark shadows forming the man in the full moon are seen as a toad. The toad is considered one of the five poisons of yin. It is believed that eclipses occur when the toad in the full moon tries to swallow the moon itself.

29 The Moonlight Sonata, by Ludwig von Beethoven, left, is probably the most widely recognised classical work associated with the full moon. The name comes not from the composer but from a critic who compared the piece to the effect of moonlight on Lake Lucerne.

30 The innuit of Greenland believe the full moon is a hungry god, Anningan, who is intent on eating his sister, the sun goddess, Malina. Their cat-and-mouse sibling chase follows the cycle of the day, with Malina rising as Anningan sets and the cycle of the moon, with the chase waning when the moon is full.

31 The RAF used the moon to launch its first successful attack on a German city when planes attacked Lubeck in 1942.

32 Wesak, the most important of the Buddhist festivals, left, is celebrated on the full moon in May. It celebrates the Buddha’s birthday and, for some Buddhists, also marks his birth and death.

33 The full moon is the brightest object in the night sky. It has an apparent magnitude of -12.6 compared with the Sun’s of -26.8.

34 The Slovakian psychiatrist Eugen Jonas created a method of birth control and fertility based on the full moon.

35 An analysis of the birthdays of 4,256 babies born in a clinic in France found no relationship between the full moon and fertility.

36 A study by Tübingen University, Germany, claimed that police reports for 50 new and full moon cycles showed that the moon is responsible for binge drinking.

37 A telescopic drawing of the full moon by the English mathematician Thomas Harriot, right, from early August 1609, is the first on record and preceded the Italian physicist Galileo’s study by several months.

38 Renaissance artists traditionally depicted the moon as a crescent rather than in its full phase.

39 The full moon is said to be at perigee when it is full at the same moment its orbit brings it closest to the earth. However, the moon appears imperceptibly brighter at this time.

40 The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, above, was perpetrated by Richard Adams Locke for the New York Sun. His story claimed that the eminent scientist Sir John Hershel had spotted furry winged men resembling bats on the surface of a full moon.

41 The full moon is at its highest altitude from the Earth during the winter seaaon.

42 Some insomnia sufferers claim to sleep worse during a full moon; although others say they sleep more soundly.

43 It is a common misperception that the first Apollo landing occurred during a full moon. This did not occur until more than a week later.

44 The moon is 10 times brighter when it is full than when it is in a quarter phase.

45 Pagans believe the most mystical time at Stonehenge is when the full moon wanes leaving the earth to be reunited with her lover, the sun at dawn.

46 The honeymoon is named after the full moon in June. As it fell between the planting and harvesting of crops this was traditionally the best month to get married.

47 The oldest lunar calendar, showing the full moon was discovered in caves at Lascaux in France. It dates back 15,000 years and marks the phases of the moon, with a series of dots depicting the days in the cycle.

48 In 2001, the first test match between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe had to be postponed by one day due to new Siri Lankan government rule, which bans playing sport on a full moon.

49 The Californian grunion only spawns on the three or four nights after the highest tide associated with each full moon. The fish come ashore to lay their eggs.

50 In a study of 1,000 tonsillectomy operations, 82 per cent of post-operative bleeding crises occurred nearer the full moon than the new moon, according to the Journal of the Florida Medical Association.

http://www.independent.co.uk

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The Brownies Among Us

The Brownies Among Us by Anne MacGregor

The north winds are coming and there are Brownies that would like it very much if you were to invite them into your household before the snow flies. As with most spirit beings, interacting with a Brownie is both complicated and simple at the same time. Brownies are often called the Nis, Kobold, Shellycoats or Goblin, depending on the part of northern and western Europe they live. (There are also the Asian cousins, but that is another story.)

Before you invite a Brownie to live with your household, make certain you know how to care for and and behave around a Brownie. First to find a Brownie. In this country, Brownies often live in the hollows at the bases of old trees in cemeteries. When our ancestor immigrants came to this country, the household Brownies boarded the coffin ships with them to sail to their new homes. Unfortunately, in many cases the descendants of the immigrant families forgot about their family spirits, and the brownies were left to wander, or they moved into the hollows of cemetery trees to be near the dead of their adopted families. If you know of an old cemetery, often times referred to an an ‘immigrant’ cemetery, find the oldest part in the cemetery and then find the oldest trees. The open hollows at their bases are many times the Brownie doorways. If anything has collected around the base of the tree – from trash to old leaves, this is often a good clue to a Brownie’s presence, as they like to collet all sorts of stuff. Sit by the tree and very casually, talk out loud about how you would like a Brownie in your household. Describe your house, your household members, any pets you have. Tell them about your kitchen and garden if you have one. Most importantly, talk about the problems you are having with your garden, your house plumbing, cooking, car, computer, or other such things that are happening. Don’t whine about it, just relate the problems. Remember, make it seem as though you are just ‘talking out loud’ and not to them in particular. A very important thing to remember, DO NOT ASK a Brownie to come home with you. No Brownie will take your offer. In fact, they will be quite offend. Another place to look is an old, ruined, abandoned house.

Brownies have rules. So should you come upon such a spirit, and are willing to ‘play by the rules’, the presence of a Brownie in your home is delightful, But be warned, attempt to change the rules, and the Brownie will probably disappear.

As a personage, Brownies are a small and wrinkled. They are often covered with short curly, brownish-red hair. They are both male and female. They wear a brown mantel with hood. Brownies are quit industrious. They will work the land, the garden, household work and work with the domestic animals. Do not ever attempt to bargain, pay, or heaven forbid, bribe a Brownie. If you wish to offer recompense for work done, do so in a genteel, delicate and secret way. Offer a piece of bread, a cup of drink, a new piece of clothing and the Brownie in turn will reject it with a sniff and much stomping of feet as they leave your home. Instead, casually leave a bowl of cream, or fresh honeycomb in a private corner, as if random, and alongside, casually leave the new coat, or coin bag as though you had forgotten it, or it is of no consequence. The Brownie will, in the darkest of night, abscond with the cream and honey, and new new coat or coin bag, and nothing more be said between you and Brownie.

On old rhyme from Scotland is a good reminder:

Gie Brownie coat, gie Brownie sark’
Ye’s get nae mair o’Brownie’s wark.

Brownies prefer to be invisible and only rarely show themselves to the mistress or master of a house. Never attempt to trap a Brownie, nor attempt by any means to make him or her visible to you. This will guarantee no Brownie help will ever come your way.

Be nice, be generous, though no obviously so. Invite them in, by making an inviting home. Talk with them, but expect no reply. You must not mind sounding as though you speak only with your self. Offer no payment or bribe, but leave casually strewn about things they may like. Remember Brownies can have roughish ways about them, and do not take offense. By all means, never have them baptized; shudder the thought of the repercussions you may experience.

So forewarned, good luck!

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IMAGINE…by Jeanne Troge

Imagine shamans from different cultures all over the world, coming together to share and learn from one another. Imagine the coming together of the Eagle of the north, and the Condor of the South, fulfilling ancient prophecy. Imagine a gathering where you are recognized by each person there as a beautiful child of the universe with gifts to share. Imagine drumming into the night, dancing around the fire, under a full moon sky, a multitude of drum beats coming together in unison, creating a heartbeat. Imagine participating in ceremony and ritual that honors the earth and one another. Imagine living in community where hugs and smiles and light shining in each other’s eyes greet you along with helping hands. Imagine being in community where no words are needed, connecting heart to heart, communicating heart to heart. Imagine discussions deep into the night on healing, caring for the earth, living joyfully, and teaching the children.

This was my experience at the Midwest Shamanic Gathering and so much more. There are no words to describe the experience fully. All I can say is that everyone should attend. It is held yearly over labor day weekend. Mark your calendars now!

May your day be filled with heartfelt joy in communion with nature,
Jeanne

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