Today is the full moon. Not just any full moon, but the smallest and the lowest of the year. In the northern part of the country, even at it’s highest point, at 1:00 a.m., the tiny moon is only a third of the way up in the sky. Because it’s so low, it often has an amber color, which is why some call it the honey moon.
I know the Wickeds run from hot to cold on the woo-woo stuff, but tell me, fellow writers, are you affected by the full moon? Do you believe others are?
Liz: Oooh, my kind of post 🙂 I love learning about the moon phases and what they mean. So for this strawberry moon, I learned it’s in my sign (Sagittarius), and that means I can be rewarded for “hard and smart work and passions,” according to one horoscope site. Unfortunately it also means my emotions can be stronger as well, which isn’t necessarily a good thing these days!
Sherry: I’m on the not so woo-woo side of the Wicked woo-woo spectrum. That said, our dog Lily barks more in the middle of the night the few days before and the night of the full moon. I’ve also noticed that people seem to drive crazier around the full moon. But maybe that’s because they are tired from their dog barking in the middle of the night.
Julie: I love the moon. I took a class once, and had to go out for three nights and chart the path of the moon. It was October, and I was really grouchy about it the first night. Then I loved learning, watching. That, and From the Earth to the Moon was one of my favorite TV series ever. So full moons make me smile. But I also do feel affected by the moon, and notice it in others. According to an astrology site, I should stay clear of emotional triggers during the full moon. Considering Friday I have a graduation (morning) and wedding (evening) on the docket, fat chance of that!
Jessie: I am all about the woo-woo and the moon is no exception! Some people believe that the new moon is for setting intentions and plans for those things you wish to accomplish or to bring into your life before the next new moon. They believe the full moon is for letting go of things that no longer serve you like bad habits or clutter. I confess, more often than not I try to use that rhythm to move through my life.
Edith: I’m also not a particularly woo-woo person, but I do think there is something to be said for astrology. My sun and rising sign are in Scorpio – intense, given to extremes – but my moon (and I was born during a full moon) is in Taurus, which is how most people see me – the “crunchy granola” type (truth – I’m both). I love following the progress of the moon. As a former doula and now author who writes about a midwife, I can say that midwives swear there are more births during a full moon. The moon affects the oceans, why wouldn’t it affect the amniotic fluid in a full-term pregnant woman?
Barb: My mother-in-law held the moon in great esteem. She called herself a “lunatic” and swore she couldn’t sleep when the moon was full. The problem was, she never checked to see if was actually full, and often claimed not to have slept when it was not. I’m the blog skeptic, I know. I don’t believe in astrology. And I just read an article from a scientific journal that showed statistically that emergency rooms are not busier when the moon is full, even though we all believe they are and remark on it. I think it’s a noticing bias. But, the moon does exert a gravitational pull and control the tides–so on that level I’ll concede, who knows what it might be up to? And I do love looking at the moon, no matter what it is or is not doing.
Readers: Are you moon believers, or moon skeptics? Any good moon stories?
Sorry, I’m with Barbara Ross on this one. The moon exhibits no significance for me other than its beauty when it illuminates the sky. Gravitational pull is about the extent it goes for me in its mysteriousness. I don’t mess with woo woo.
As you can tell, I’m with you on this one.
Was it on Jeopardy last night that Alex said that only 1% of people in this country had ever taken an astronomy course? (Well, somebody said it.) Me, me! Freshman year at college, and we had a small and rather antique observatory on campus. We also celebrated a total eclipse that year, sitting on the hill in front of the observatory. I’m also thinking of including the winter solstice in one of my books for next year (okay, that’s alignment of the sun, not the moon, but it’s connected). And I visit prehistoric stone circles whenever I can. So count me in with the woo-woos.
The winter solstice figures in my novella-in-progress, but very tangentially.
So fun to see where everyone is on the woo-woo chart. I’m a woo-woo person, but I never think about the moon’s phases except for admiring its beauty. I need to learn more about them!
The Wickeds run across the spectrum, but we all respect one another, which is the key.
I’m with Barb, too. Horoscopes are fun to read, but I don’t really believe in them (that noticing bias). But the moon – especially when it’s full and bright – is lovely to look at.
I love walking out of an event or dinner and seeing the moon in the sky. I always pause to take it in. These are the good things in life.
Nothing to do with woo-woo, and no scientific basis as far as I know, but plenty of police and emergency room staff will tell you they always anticipate more work when the moon is full. The other stray writer fact I know about full moons, and the reason I look up when the moon was full for the dates in any historical novel I write, is that armies and highwaymen, as well as
ordinary people, needed a decent amount of moonlight if they wanted to travel at night. If I remember right, D-Day was weather and moon phase dependent, too.
So interesting. I’d never thought of this. Of course in a world before street lights, the full moon would lead to more night-time travel. Any maybe more accidents, too.
Pretty high on the woo-woo scale here, I guess. I firmly believe that we don’t even know what we don’t know, so I have an open mind about all possibilities. So I’m intrigued by many things: astrology (including Chinese astrology), birth order, stone circles, feng shui, Tarot cards–you name it.
The full moon does seem to affect my sleep, and others I know, as well. After a wakeful night we often discover that there was a full moon. That’s not to say I don’t have them other times, as well, though. My oldest daughter, who was an ER nurse for six years, firmly believes that a full moon brings out the crazy. She has ample evidence of that phenomenon.
My alarm clock is an atomic clock that updates at 2:00 AM every night, and includes room temperature and humidity, and the phases of the moon. I rarely look at anything but the time, but it’s easy to double check for the moon phase after a particularly sleepless night.
I’m low on the woo-woo scale, but I completely agree that “we don’t even know what we don’t know.” For most of human history, the idea that tiny microbes caused diseases would have been laughable.
For anyone who might like to see some of the arguments on the non-woo-woo side, here’s a link to a good article. I’m with Barb, basically, but even less willing to allow for tide/gravity effects. As the article says, the gravitational pull on the unborn baby is far less than the gravitational pull from the mother’s own body.
Not expecting to change anyone’s mind, of course! Not only is there observational bias, but there is confirmational bias – we all tend to pay attention to information which supports our existing beliefs. That said, I did used to believe a lot of the woo-woo ideas, and did change my mind on many of them. Even now I’m often surprised by finding something I always believed (communal reinforcement) is shown not to be so after properly designed studies are done and replicated.
http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html
Yes. And be sure to wait half an hour after you eat before you go swimming. 🙂
Since I go to bed early (because I get up so early), I catch the full moon in the predawn sky. My complaint about the full moon is that it is sometimes so bright I have to get up in the middle of the night to add an extra layer of curtaining so I can sleep.
Being the night owl on the blog (we’re also all across the spectrum on that one), I only see the predawn moon if I stay up for it–in which case it hasn’t been a good night.
You can color me skeptical. I honestly think that people just use the moon as an excuse for their behavior.
I hadn’t thought of that. I always think people use it as an explanation for other people’s behavior.
My moon story: I had just given birth. Because of complications, I was supposed to have a nurse check and attend to me every hour. All went well until that evening- the nurses were running around and twice I had to call for someone to help me. Finally, around 1 am a nurse stopped by to apologize. They had no idea that it was going to be a full moon tonight, she explained, normally one of the doctors mentions it to the staff. When there’s a full moon, the number of natural births increase and everyone is much busier. As the night wore on, I got the same explanation from more nurses and one doctor. In a weird way, knowing that these hard working medical professionals took the phases of the moon so seriously was almost comforting.
Great story.
I don’t have any particular full moon story to tell. All I know is as a former educator, a full moon meant hell on wheels at school.
🙂
I enjoy some woo woo now and then but wouldn’t call myself a believer. The night my second daughter was born was a full moon. A nurse told me they usually averaged 7 or 8 births a night but that night they had 21! But for me, that seems more science than woo woo. mostly I just appreciate the moonlight – I’m a night owl, too, and love to see it sparkle on the water.
The moon on the water is the best!
After working ten years in a police department, I can tell you it’s a fact that it affects a lot of people. I was talking to one of the detectives I used to work with yesterday. Besides a bank robbery, which is pretty rare in our township, they had three involuntary commitments yesterday. That’s a lot in one day!
Very interesting!