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The Influence of the MoonBy Dr. H. Spencer Lewis, F.R.C.(From The Triangle, October 1923) [Reprinted in The Rosicrucian Digest August 1947]
WE DO NOT have to resort to the principles set forth in any arcane science to discover that the moon has certain definite influences on our lives or on life generally, and it is the purpose of this article to set forth in a simple manner some of the most vital of these influences and relate them to incidents which affect us all. The subject is worthy of a volume, but after all is said the whole matter resolves itself into a study of the simple laws of rhythm. We will not take the time, here, to argue the point or even completely outline the principle of rhythm in life. It is, or should be, too well known to most of our members or readers to require such presentment here. Rhythm has its place in all the functioning of the organization of the animal body and manifests itself in the physiological and psychological phases of functioning. We may refer to the peristaltic motion of the intestines, the constrictions of the oesophagus, and the pulse of the blood in circulation. These and many others are typical of the physiological organic and functional process rhythm. The psychic or emotional system of man has its rhythm or rhythmic activity, often made more manifest than that of the organs, and in all mental or neuromuscular diseases such as spasms, tics, tremors, and others, where excess energy expresses itself, there are perfectly rhythmic periods of manifestations. And, we have learned that rhythmic breathing is an aid to building up health and balance. While all this is generally admitted by the masses and by medical authorities, and undoubtedly seriously considered by the student of nature's laws, the relation of such rhythm to the phases of the moon is not generally known. Recent discoveries by science, however, have confirmed many of the principles known to a few and used by them in many ways. It is the recent [1923] discoveries united to what many have known that will be presented now. The moon, as a planet, has a very definite cycle of phases, the cycle covering a period of approximately twenty-eight days and known as a lunar month or a lunar cycle. We will use the term cycle. Because this cycle is divided into phases, and these phases are also divisible, we will proceed to divide the cycle into units, each unit being a rhythmic unit as we shall see. One half of the moon's cycle is fourteen days; one half of this (or one fourth of the cycle) is seven days; one half of this is three and one-half days. This three and one-half days equals eighty-four hours. The full cycle of the moon, constituting one complete revolution from perigee to apogee and back again to perigee, is the lunar month referred to above and this complete cycle is often referred to as the long cycle of the moon; while a short cycle would be the ordinary tide cycle corresponding to the upper and lower transit of the moon. This short cycle is, on the average, twelve hours. Hence, we have two moon-cycles to refer to: the short one of twelve hours, known as the moon's tide cycle, and the long one of twenty-eight days on the average. We can deal only with averages because of slight variations in time. Because there is a long and a short cycle we will also have long and short units of these cycles. Not as an arbitrary matter, but because of fundamental laws you will recognize, we will call the three and one-half days, arrived at above, as the unit of the long cycle, or a long unit. Taking the short cycle of twelve hours and dividing it we will have units of three hours as a short unit. First, let us note that a long unit of three and one-half days equals seven short cycles, or seven times twelve hours. The two units, arrived at as above, one of three hours and one of three and one-half days, manifest themselves in the rhythmic actions of mind and body like waves or undulations of a rhythmic wave. Here is where we make important discoveries and can go beyond the finding of science, even, through our other knowledge of certain laws of nature. In the case of diseases we find some very interesting and helpful facts by analyzing average cases and using the averages of units of the moon's cycle. These averages betray the effect of anabolic or katabolic lunar phases or units of the cycle as follows: The incubation period of typhoid fever is from 7 to 21 days, or 2 to 6 long units. The incubation period of Varicella is 14 days, or 4 long units; of Smallpox, 7 to 14 days, or 2 to 4 long units; of Scarlet Fever, 3½ days, or 1 long unit; of Measles, 10½ days, or 3 long units; of Whooping Cough, 10½ days, or 3 long units; of Dengue, 3½ days, or 1 long unit; and of Diphtheria, 3½ days to 10½ days, or 1 to 3 long units. In all acute fever cases the rhythmic period of these units is very pronounced and definite. Regular changes occur every 7 days (as has been noted for years) or, in other words, after every 2 long units (one positive and one negative, as we shall see). The longer the disease continues the more definite are the changes every 7 days, and even the single long unit, 3½ days, is well marked and important. These units of rhythm also manifest in the process of germination and gestation of life, and have the effect also of determining sex. The average time in hatching eggs of many species is 3½ days, or 1 long unit. In many insects it is 1½ weeks, or 3 long units. The hen lays eggs for 3 weeks (6 long units) and sits on them for an equal period. The ovum possesses structurally, the elements of both sexes, but by a slight functional change is one time actively female and at another actively male. The periods of change agree with the units of rhythm referred to above. Fertilization of the ovum arrests these periodic changes in one of its active sex conditions, and this determines the sex of the embryo. We have spoken of the negative and positive units or periods. It is this difference in potentiality that determines the sex of the unit and also the strengthening or weakening influence of the units during disease. These different potentials can be determined easily. Returning again to the short cycle of twelve hours, called the moon's tide cycle, we find that the action of the tides gives us the key to the potentials. The six hours of time preceding the maximum point of high tide are strengthening and the six hours immediately following the hour of high tide are weakening in their effect on the physiological and psychological processes of life. The first three hours before high tide point are positive hours, or constitute a POSITIVE SHORT UNIT (or wave) of the rhythmic cycle; while the first three hours after the point of high tide are negative and constitute the NEGATIVE SHORT UNIT. Each positive unit is preceded by a negative and followed by a negative; hence in every twelve hours, or tide cycle, there are two positive and two negative units; in each day of twenty-four hours there are four of each of these units. But, to be able to determine when they are negative or positive we must take the hour of high tide as the key--taking the hour of high tide as it is known for each locality on the face of the earth, regardless of whether the locality is near a body of water or not. Taking the long cycle or lunar month cycle of an average of twenty-eight days, we have the long unit of three and one-half days. There are eight of these long units in each long cycle. We find that the first of these units immediately preceding the hour of full moon is a positive long unit and the unit following a full moon is a negative unit. Hence we have three and one-half days before full moon as positive in nature and three and one-half days immediately following full moon as negative in nature. There are four such positive, and four such negative units of three and one-half days in each lunar cycle of twenty-eight days. It is easy to see now that we are living under the influence of a very systematic, though strange, series of alternating units of positive and negative rhythmic waves, some three hours long and others three and one-half days long. Therefore, while one of the long positive units of three and one-half days is in effect there will be twenty-eight short units of three hours each, alternately negative and positive in effect also. A positive short unit in effect during a positive long unit will give a very positive effect; a negative short unit in effect during a positive long unit will give a neutral condition; a negative short unit in effect during a negative long unit will give a decidedly negative condition. The long units of three and one-half days have their greatest influence on purely physiological functioning of the organs or physiological processes during disease or abnormal conditions of the body as a whole. The short units have their greatest effect on the mental, psychic, nervous, and biological functionings and processes of the body in either health or disease. It is for this reason that the long periods have an important effect on such diseases (fevers) as we have mentioned, and many others; while in such conditions as fertilization, fecundation, contagion, and similar processes the shorter units have a greater effect. A purely positive unit or period of time produces a strong, life-giving masculine condition, while a purely negative unit or period produces only a weaker, feminine condition. The one is active, the other restive. The neutral period, as mentioned above, produces a passive condition. We find the short units exerting their influence very strongly in the conditions relating to childbirth. Here the nervous system, the sympathetic processes, and the organic functionings, are very sensitive to the influences we have been describing. During the negative long unit of time, especially the first three hours after high tide maximum point, the body is at rest and the contractions are weaker and less helpful during labor, while the positive long unit, especially the first three hours immediately preceding the high tide point, produces an active condition so far as the contractions and other process conditions are concerned, and less willful effort is needed by the patient, with no external or artificial assistance given by the physician. If the birth does not occur during the first two units (six hours) preceding high tide it will not occur without forced and painful conditions during the next three hours (the first unit after high tide) or without unnecessary suffering and weakness during the next three hours (the second unit after high tide). The patient should be permitted to rest and be restive during the negative units and become active and helpful only during the first unit before high tide. It will be noted that the contractions through labor are rhythmic and become stronger during the positive units of time, and passive or weak during the negative units. By taking advantage of such influences on the rhythm the patient retains much strength, the use of drugs becomes unnecessary and artificial assistance is entirely avoided. Of one hundred tests made of this method, ninety-eight confirmed each principle involved and the other two were affected by other causes and conditions of abnormality. In thinking or planning, in talking or doing any mental or functional act that requires strength of the nervous system, impressiveness of personal magnetism and good vitality, take advantage of the positive units of time. In the treatment of disease administer all help possible during the long positive units and the short positive units, but permit the patient to rest during the negative periods. If a crisis is due during a long negative period keep the patient as quiet as possible until a positive unit is at hand, especially a long one, then if the patient has not reached the crisis, the positive unit will assist in passing over it successfully. To properly determine the units of time one should secure from an authentic source the daily or weekly schedule of tides for the city or locality where one lives; and likewise a moon table, such as is published in most almanacs, giving the revolutions or phases and cycles of the moon for each month. The matter is not a subject that can be widely published or even discussed with many because of general disbelief in the principles of moon influence; but we trust that our readers will be discreet enough to realize the importance of the matter, make some tests of it, and help to establish further facts. | |||
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