Mist covers the landscape. A Full Moon peers through the clouds. In the distance, a wolf howls. Alone in his room, a man grabs his face in horror. Hair sprouts from his hands and face and quickly covers his whole body. His screams convert to throaty growls. Racing into the night on all fours, he’s going to kill something. In the horror flicks I grew up on, this was a familiar scene. In real life, I’ve often heard that Full Moons drive people crazy. On Full Moon nights around the globe, it’s anecdotally reported that murders, arson, and suicides increase; also, traffic accidents, domestic violence, fights at hockey games and in prisons; calls to poison centers and admissions to psychiatric hospitals soar. Yet most scientific research has shown no link between the Moon and increased violence.
The few studies that have proven a connection are widely quoted. They are also criticized as lacking proper research controls (one covered a period where a high percentage of Full Moons fell on weekends, days that also show a high correlation with strange behaviors). Bottom line, the Moon statistics can’t be replicated. What’s more, they often contradict each other, with some proving the Quarter Moons are more traumatic. Nonetheless, in a study among students at universities in Florida, Canada, and Hawaii, when queried about the Moon, half agreed that people are strange when the Moon is full.
After years of watching Full Moons, I vote with the scientists. Blaming the Moon is unfair. Most Full Moons are positively lovely. I’ve never wanted to kill someone or even had an accident when the Moon was full, nor have most people I know. So why do the Moon rumors persist? I think it’s because there are two kinds of truth: the empirical and the imaginative. Empirical truths happen to a statistically significant portion of us. Imaginative truths, delivered through rumors and stories, can capture an equally significant number, whether the tale happened to just a few people, or never even happened at all. Empirical facts we can count, but of imaginative ones, we need to ask: What does this story serve? What is it trying to tell us?
As image, werewolves do describe an essential human conflict—from wild nature we emerged, but into societies we go. What do we do with our wild instincts? How do we quell them to abide peacefully with our fellows? How do we cope with those who don’t? Like the opposing forces of Sun and Moon at Full Moon time, the werewolf evokes at once our desire for the wild and its repression. Today this conflict seems difficult as ever. Cemented, corralled and cowed into our cubicles, staring at computer screens, or in our vehicles racing hither and yon, it’s a wonder we aren’t constantly crazy. So it’s understandable that when the Moon is full and beautiful, something deep within us stirs. Perhaps it’s even coded into our DNA, the memory of countless lifetimes spent raising our eyes skyward to bless the Full Moon with joy and gratitude, then lolling, lazing, making love, and dancing in the Moon’s bright bliss.
In the years I’ve been studying the Moon, I’ve learned to listen to these ancient memories. I’ve discovered that appreciating the Full Moon like this hasn’t made me crazy. It actually makes me feel quite sane. Even when I howl.
I agree with Mary “ripeness” above. For me, it’s not so much “crazy” as “everything coming to a head.” If I’ve been positive and forward moving all month, then positivity reaches a crescendo. If I’m anxious and worried, that volume increases, too. It’s as if a giant magnifying glass was held over us on full moon days, exaggerating our feeling of things.
I have a personal theory but it’s so out there… First, I love science and astronomy. The moon never changes it’s distance or mass in relation to the earth, regardless of which phase it’s in, right? So why these behaviors? The key seems to be in how reflective it is. What if by fullness it were acting like a huge mirror, reflecting the world’s psyche back on itself? I find no other explanation.
~ Junius
it definitely effects my behavior I notice I act completely different on the day when the moon is full or one step away. Somethings just cannot be proven. I am a person that feels energy and I feel the energy them days its very hard to explain. Its one of them things you gotta experience. I told someone on 2 occasions it was a full moon without even seeing it I could feel this energy. The word to describe the feeling is overwhelming thanks for the post and thanks for the time. Feel free to message me at my email.
Thanks Joe
This writer/blog reader,often thinks that amidst all the catastrophies that we are witnessing,there is also some very good things going on in each and everyone of our lives,for example the emotion of compassion is growing in all of us that we are all dreaming up a new configuration,this writer is deeply hopeful that humanity has a much bigger role to play in the reality of the Cosmos because we are intrinsically connected to it
To become a pattern reader is the ultimate act of non-denial,thus bringing balance to a planet and its inhabitants.
Yes, the Moon’s sign, along with aspects from the other planets, helps to explain the changing character of each Full Moon. The bigger question is whether the Moon influences us–or whether it’s a potent sign (like the flight patterns of birds and other divination symbols) of the nature of the time. Astrologers have been debating that one for centuries! As for the menstrual cycle, I believe current research has shown that a woman’s menstrual cycle may be more influenced by the women in her environment than the Moon–that is, women who live and work together tend to eventually cycle together. Since the Moon rules women, this may be another example of the Moon as symbol rather than cause.
Under the Full Moon I don’t feel crazy; I feel ripe. Ripe with emotion, ripe with possibiliy, ready to spill out all over everyone and every thing at a moments notice and not always in appropriate ways…only by centering myself in its golden light can I keep myself within my boundaries…
What about the sign the moon happens to be in? Does that not influence people? I’m pretty sure my moods are influenced by it at times. Why can’t that be if women’s menstrual cycles can be influenced by it?