The Cycles Of The Moon

The Cycles Of The Moon

It takes 27+ days for the moon to complete its cycle, and that cycle can be an important one in planning your work schedule -- or your schedule for finding work. You can find out where the moon is on any given day by consulting most almanacs -- Old Moore's Almanac even has a complete ephemeris of all the planets, which can be helpful in tracing other cycles as well. Avoid the popular Old Farmer's Almanac, because it gives moon positions in constellations (sixteen of them) rather than zodiacal signs. Many popular calendars give daily moon positions, including the St. Joseph's Aspirin calendar, which is given away free at drugstores around New Year's.

The Most Important Time In The Lunar Cycle

The most important time in the lunar cycle is when the moon is over your Ascendant. This will usually be the busiest time of the month for you, and you will tend to look better to others at this time. Therefore it is a good time for job interviews or for closing deals in your favor. Why this should be so is anybody's guess, but perhaps, as Dr. Lieber (a University of Miami psychologist who researched the effects of the moon) suggests, the moon has a pulling influence on everybody, and when it's in your Ascendant position, it pulls people in your direction. Conversely, when the moon is in its opposite place, six signs away, you will generally find things a bit quieter and less likely to turn out in your favor.

The second time of importance in this cycle is when the moon is in the same sign as your sun. At this time you will likely feel a monthly energy peak. When the moon is opposite your sun (180 degrees away, each sign equaling 30 degrees) you'll feel an energy low and it's a more likely time to catch cold as well, because your resistance is lower.

If, as in about one out of twelve cases, your Ascendant falls in the seventh sign from your sun, the effects will tend to cancel out, and you'll just have to find out the lunar high points by observation over a period of time. In any case, it is useful to watch the lunar rhythm, because it may trigger regular pockets of activity in certain other signs, depending on your natal planetary placements. When you establish a rhythm, it will give you the advantage of knowing what parts of the month are going to be busier in general so you won't overbook yourself at those times -- rather, you should set them aside for important matters that need to be tended well.

From Full Moon to Full Moon: 29+/- day Phase Cycle

There is a second, better documented lunar cycle, and that is the 29+-day phase cycle from full moon to full moon. You can find the phases of the moon listed not only in almanacs and calendars, but also in many newspapers. If the sky is clear, all you have to do is look up. If you don't see the moon day or night, it's the time of the new moon. If you see it at night, it's going from full to new; if you see it during the day, it's going from new to full, as a general rule of thumb. If it's the time of the full moon, the moon rises at sunset and you can't miss it.


innerself subscribe graphic


As a categorical statement, it may be said that the full moon produces a higher state of tension and excitedness in human, animals, and plants. This is well documented by extensive research. Thus, at full moon judgment may be colored by these feelings -- knowledge you can use to your advantage.

The Full Moon: Fun & Party Time

For instance, the full moon is a better time for partying or making love than for doing important work that requires a steady hand and clear judgment. Enjoyable pastimes where the unexpected is part of the fun use up that extra energy and tension in a positive, creative manner. To do more sober tasks at this time requires repression of those emotionally charged feelings. This attempt may prove difficult and will certainly adversely affect performance.

It's a lousy time for a job interview, for example, because the general feeling of pressure, both on you and on your potential employer, will not work in your favor. The same goes for important business deals, because all parties concerned will feel somewhat on edge and that will tend, at best, to make for doubts about the deal and, at worst, to make the whole thing blow up in your face. Be like the hardwood industrialists and cut your timber away from the full moon. The new moon also produces some tension, but not nearly so much, and it's much easier to use it creatively.

Challenges of the Full Moon

This is all good advice, based on firm statistics, but here's a personal example. For many years I have had the enjoyment of performing on summer evenings with a sea chanty group on the piers at New York City's South Street Seaport Museum. It's a very pleasant pastime, singing the crusty old folk songs of working and drinking under the tall spars of the nineteenth-century square-riggers docked there.

But I have come to look with some trepidation upon those nights when the moon has reached its full. It's very dramatic, watching the fat orb of the moon rise over the East River and pulling the water up with it to its highest tide, just barely underneath the docks. But as a performer, you never know what to expect, either from the several hundred people in the audience or from the group itself. These nights are always our best or worst of the summer, depending on how we handle them. If we try to make ordered, well-designed sets of songs, everything inevitably falls apart and the evening is a bust. Guitar strings break, we forget the words, everything gets out of tune and sounds awful. If, on the other hand, we just create our performance as we go along, everybody has a good time and the evening turns into a fun, spontaneous happening.

Our group doesn't make a living singing, so this is not really a crucial matter. But were we a struggling pop music group with an important audition or recording session on a full-moon night, it could be professional disaster and cause us to blow the one 'big break' that everyone in the music biz is always looking for. Forewarned is forearmed.


This article was excerpted from the book:

Dynamic Astrology: Using Planetary Cycles to Make Personal and Career Choices, © 1997,
by John Townley.

Reprinted with permission of Destiny Books an imprint of Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont, USA. www.innertraditions.com

Info or Order this book.


About The Author

John Townley is a lifelong astrologer, author, composer, and historian. His professional experience has spanned the fields of business, science, journalism, maritime history, and the creative arts. He may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..