Self Activated Or Full Moon?

The Guardian
“There are some stories that hook right into our primeval suspicions, that are unsurprising because they reinforce things we have believed, in however woolly a way, all along. A recent discovery by the Sussex police force, that incidents of anti-social behaviour rise significantly whenever there is a full moon, is one of them. Inspector Andy Parr, who has the unenviable responsibility of policing Brighton at weekends, set the number of violent crimes his force had recorded in the past year against the dates on which they had been committed and found that they peaked on payday – and when the moon was full. They now plan to beef up their patrols at full moon. “I’m aware that this is just one of many things that can influence public disorder, but if you speak to ambulance staff, they will tell you exactly the same,” he said.”

Recently a counselling client asked me what I thought of the full moon. He asked whether or not the full moon had the capacity to affect behaviours. Seeing it was the end of the session I politely nodded and mentioned that fish and some other fauna seem to be affected by the Moon; why not humans? Maybe he was  investigating the possibilities of the full moon effects and self actualising and his anger issues?

The Moon is constantly changing; softly reflecting light to earth in the dark night sky. The moon is always there or close by at least. The Moon is feminine, intuitively reflective and perhaps says much about a dark and light symbology. The Moon is a great distance away however it has been an object in the sky that many have loved, worshipped or blamed over the centuries. The Moon is a constant companion to humans and beasts and for that reason we develop a relationship to it. The Moon Goddess’ and worshiping are well documented in paganism. The Moon forms a relationship as the Mother in astrology and represents our fluctuating emotional circumstances. 

It seems that the full moon has been blamed for certain human behaviours over the centuries and most recently in the above Guardian news item. In post medeival times it was even argued in various court cases involving murders that the full moon caused some kind of temporary insanity for the defendant.

“It was the Full Moon that did it you’re honor”

“It turned me into a right monster it did”

There is a theory that if you stick two people in a room together for a period of time they form a “relationship”. The theory was tested with a baby monkey an a sack resembling a mother monkey. Eventually the monkey sought nurture from the silent sack and developed a relationshipto the object. The Moon has been a part of our every day life along with generations of references to her.

Like a silent friend in the sky she glows and changes shape from week to week. I propose that we form a kind of “object relationship” to her. She becomes a part of our life by fable and daily prescence. Obviously the Full Moon phase is quite a dramatic sight in the night sky and seems to trigger off all manner of self actualisation.

The word Lunacy derived from Luna was obviously a form of insanity aligned with the Moon by early psychiatrists. The Moon is an object in the sky that has great importance to human relations.

Real picture or hollywood movie set?

It seems that over the centuries humans have developed beliefs about about the effect of the Full Moon. Less seriously in recent times perhaps, when people joke about the Full Moon rising. That we “better watch out” or “its oing to be crazy tonight”. Another example of our relationship to our “Moon Object” is the nursery rhyme about the moon.

Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle

The Cow jumped over the Moon

The little dog laughed to see such sport

and the dish ran away with the spoon

I could never really understand the Dish and the Spoon bit when I was a child but my point is that we form a relationship to the Moon by its repeated use in art religion and science. One would describe the relationship in the above story as somewhat neurotic or dysfunctional. Nonsensical in that crazy stuff happens is the message being conveyed perhaps?

Do people become more self activated or self reactionated at the Full Moon? I believe so because I am an astrologer however one could argue that we instinctively believe that crazy stuff happens because of our long term relationship through ancient myths and generational stories about the Full Moon.

In the Object Relations theory - part of the relationship to the Moon we are perhaps working to her clockwork and we instinctively know when to go “crazy” because that is what our relationship to her means. She gets our attention when she is full and we attempt to fill her silent expectations by self actualising around full moon.

By the look of the article in the Guardian newspaper even Policemen are developing strategies for the full moon period in their communities. The Full Moon only comes around once per month. It is a timely reminder of the cycles of nature and the reality of such an embedded ‘object’ in our world. However she (Moon) seems to work astrologically in individual charts humans seem to have accepted the object of her affect. Whether we blame the Moon or indeed other planets for misfortunes in our lives is perhaps for another blog. 

Happy self actualizing

Kingsley