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The lunation cycles have a powerful influence upon all that is Earth bound. This is true especially for the new and the full moon. Most of us have heard "A man who is good by day and says his prayers by night will become a werewolf when the wolf bane blooms and the full moon shines bright." Although this is not literally true, there is some basis in fact of the influence of the full moon upon earth, beast and man.

We begin our tour by looking at the tides and how this profoundly affects coastal life and even how we respond to the events generated by the effect of the moon. All sailors and ocean coastal folk know of the tides. This was especially true in the days of sail, when ships left port at high tide. There are times when the tides run higher than usual and this coincides with the two great lunation events, that is, the full moon and the new moon. Further, there is a nineteen year cycle that repeats for a specific day of lunation. Many people have also heard of the spring tide, where there is a greater than usual lunar caused tidal surge. This occurs on or about January 4th of particular years when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up. The Earth Moon system is closest to the Sun on that particular day of the year due to the alignment of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. This means that the gravitational effect peaks on that day and if there is a full moon, then the spring tidal surge is at its greatest. Should the weather also be windy and foul, then the surge can run over dikes and cause inland flooding.

It so happens that the new moon lined up on Jan 4th in the years of 1954, 1973, 1992 and will line up in 2011 and 2030. Conversely, the full moons lined up in 1950, 1969, 1988, 2007 and will line up in 2026. These years are ones of higher than usual spring tides. Tides around the world are not equal by any means. There are regions where they are amplified and other areas where they hardly exist at all. David Levy eloquently makes the point in his book, "Impact Jupiter," where he describes the resonant tidal phenomena of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia where there are twice daily tidal variations of 50 feet or more. It is also known from other researches that there is a 25-hour circadian rhythm, which is strongly linked to the moon's relation to the Earth since the Earth rotates in relation to the orbiting moon. Astrologers know that the Earth has a precessional cycle of nearly 26,000 years, which is also driven by the moon acting on the Earth's tidal

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