There are many phenomena related to the Moon:
It is known from antiquity that the Moon influences the water masses of oceans, lakes and rivers, producing the tide effect. The variable lunar gravitational attraction on earth surface causes the flood tide, i.e. the rising of water height, and the ebb tide, i.e. the falling of water height.
Newton tried first to explain the tide phenomenon; he also referred to the contribution of sun attraction. It is known now that the tide’s intensity is bigger during the syzygies. The height increase depends also on the morphology of the coastline, the winds, the atmospherical pressure etc. The high tides can produce floods and are dangerous for sailors and fishermen. Therefore, their predictability has always been most valuable.
The lunar influence to the earth atmosphere, including the weather, is known from long ago. The scientific research suggests a statistical correlation between typhoons and rains from one side and moon phases on the other.
There is, however, disagreement whithin the scientific community about the empirical method of land people for the prediction of rains and drought seasons by observing the colour, the shape or the clarity of the Moon in the sky. According to this method:(1) (i) a big blear ring on Moon indicates bad weather after some days; (ii) a small blear ring indicates soon bad weather; (ii) a red-like colour of the Moon indicates warmth; (iv) a simple blearness indicates wind.
The flora —the base of food chain, as well as a source of medicinal substances— is most sensitive to the lunar influence. Therefore, its influence on plants is indirectly also an influence on humans.
The fauna activities are also influenced by the Moon. The birds collect material for a strong nest during certain moon phases. Fishermen know how much the sea organisms are influenced by the Moon…
Man is subject like other mammals, birds, and even insects, to that mysterious law, which causes certain normal processes, such as gestation, as well as the maturation and duration of various diseases, to follow lunar periods.(2)
Our biological functions are subject to “tide” phenomena with an analogous periodicity to that of the oceans and the atmosphere. The flow of liquids inside our bodies and their retrogression may change the hormonal function affecting, therefore, the psychic and mental activity and mood.
The chemical and pharmacological progress and, most recently, the introduction of Genetics, stepped aside ancient knowledge (fallow land, fasts) and made us lightly ignore the cosmic rhythms. We depend upon products and services (synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, genetically modified foods, industrialized livestock) that are not simple at all to be audited, either by producers or by consumers, whilst ultimately downgrade sometimes the quality of food, while the industries pursue higher production rates. On the contrary, the natural forces and their influence on every life appearence, are directly observable phenomena.
While Technology continues to develop and Science shows new achievements, a presupposition for every essential change is the personal conscious reaction to Reality. Two of its basic elements are the harmonization with Nature and the knowingly cosmic observation. Ouranio, as well as its calendar products, has been created as a auxiliary instrument for this daily vigilance.
- Όμηρος Ερμίδης, Το ημερολόγιο της Σελήνης, εκδ. Περίπλους, Αθήνα, 2001.
- Charles Darwin, The descent of man and selection in relation to sex, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1981, vol. I, p. 12.