Lunar or looney?

Why is it that whenever there is a full moon something seems to happen inside of you? Like a switch that is automatically turned on and you get moody, more emotional, over-sensitive and sooo stressed and worried? Is this the power of the full moon? Or are we simply experiencing a transformation into werewolves!?

Maybe it is all associated to the reason wolves actually howl at the moon. There are numerous myths trying to explain this. One of them traces its roots to a famous legend, telling the story of how wolves howl to the moon and sing at the stars because that is where the spirits of their ancestors are found. There are others too, like the one telling of how Coyote (the Native American trickster deity) is jealous of the love that the moon and Wolverine have for each other, and he tricks the Wolverine into going to the mortal world to fetch a bouquet of flowers. The Wolverine then realizes that once he became mortal, he would not be able to return to the spirit realm and every night, he looks up in the sky and sees the Moon and howls her name. But… he can never touch her again.

Thousands of ancient civilizations – some of which go back to the Neolithic Age – pair wolves with the moon in images and in literature, leading to today’s popular belief. Hecate, the Greek goddess of the moon, was known to be surrounded with the company of gods. The same applies for Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt. The Norse mythology relates the story of a pair of wolves chasing the moon and the sun to summon night and day. The Native American Seneca tribes believe that a wolf actually sung the moon into existence.

Yet there are also studies showing that the wolf’s howl serves as an alarm call, enabling it to reconnect with the pack if they become separated and warn off rival packs.

But does that all explain our change of behaviour during nights of full-moon? It could simply be psychological, but there is also the unfounded belief of a lunar effect – that there is correlation between specific stages of the Earth’s lunar cycle and deviant behavior in human beings that cannot simply be explained by variation in light levels. In fact, Even the word “lunacy” meaning “insanity” comes from the Latin word for “moon” and can be linked to this exact belief.

But you know what’s stranger? Nobody really notices this change of behaviour until something unusual happens. And then it is all linked to that bright round shiny thing in the sky – not the sun, but the full moon…

Also part of Daily Prompt: The Full Moon

Also part of Daily Prompt: Howl at the Moon

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