Divination: 2010 Forecast, or The New Year Full Moon with Partial Lunar Eclipse

I thought 2 December 2009 would be the last full moon for 2009. Technically, the twelfth month of 2009 had two full moons. This is known as a Blue Moon.

The modern definition of a Blue Moon is "the second full moon in a calendar month"¹. There is an older definition, which calls a Blue Moon "as an extra full moon that occur[s] in a season; one season was normally three full moons."² But of course, this refers to the parts of the planet which have four seasons. The old definition will not sit well in tropical countries, which do not measure time in four seasons, and the onslaught of global warming might soon affect the planet's seasons anyway. So I go for the modern definition.

A Blue Moon is a rare event. This is experienced usually after approximately 31 months. The last modern Blue Moon before this one occurred in 31 May 2007 (31 months ago)³, and the next modern Blue Moon will occur in 31 Aug 2012 (32 months from now)⁴.

Last night was also a New Year Full Moon. As I mentioned in my earlier post about the Full Moon, the "full moon lasts for three nights. The fullest full moon is on the second night."⁵ It is thus rare for any of the three nights of the Full Moon to fall on the last night of the year. The last night of the year 2001, for instance, was the third night of the Full Moon⁶. The last night on the year I was born (1979) was lit by the first night of the Full Moon⁷. The last night of 2009 was a Full Moon at its peak, or the second night. Although this in itself is a rare occurrence, this actually only becomes special for societies which do not have a lunar-based calendar, like the Westerners, which follow the Gregorian calendar.

And finally, last night was also a partial Lunar Eclipse. It wasn't enough to cover the moon in a distinct shadow, but still, you could really see the spot on the lower left of the Moon's face where the Earth's shadow eats at the corner, creating an unmistakable chip. Again, I do not need to stress that a Lunar Eclipse, no matter how partial, is a rarity.

Now, for all three events (the Blue Moon, the New Year Full Moon, and the Lunar Eclipse) to happen individually is quite rare. But all three events happening at the same time--highly improbable. Therefore, last night's Full Moon should be read as an omen.

The Blue Moon: Signifies doubling. Being the second Full Moon of a calendar month, the Blue Moon acts like a mathematical exponent, raising something to the second power.

The New Year Full Moon: Signifies bounty, or fullness. A New Year Full Moon heralds good fortune and bounty for the incoming year.

The Lunar Eclipse: Signifies specialty, or added value. It adds flourish, sort of like an autographed hardbound edition of your favorite book, or your favorite song as an encore at a concert of your favorite band. In workers' terms, it is a bonus. A huge, hefty bonus.

Therefore: The Year of Our Lord, Common Era, two thousand and ten, will be a year of bounty and good fortune, filled with bonuses (or is it boni?), multiplied by the power of two. And I'm sure most of you felt this in the air last night.

And if you still doubt how special last night was, read this story.⁸


*pic from iomastronomy.org


1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon
2 Ibid.
3 http://www.celestialtimings.com/articles/blue-moon.html
4 Ibid.
5 http://thesorcerersstoned.blogspot.com/2008/04/full-moon.html
6 http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=145&month=12&year=2001&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1
7 http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/index.php?month=12&year=1979&css=moon.css&Submit=Go
8 http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/partiallunareclipseandbluemoonnewyearseve

Full Moon

Tonight is the peak of the full moon.

The full moon lasts for three nights. The fullest full moon is on the second night, which is tonight.

Magical lore has always mentioned the power of the full moon, but most people refuse to recognize the power of that satellite out there in space. They think it's just an etymological coincidence that the word lunatic derives from the Latin word for moon.

The thing is, it's okay for those people to take the moon for granted, because the moon is an untapped source of power, and the fewer the people who can tap into that power, the better.

Light is energy. Energy has a mark, which can be measured. Like sound waves, light waves can be graphed visually. Different light sources emit different signatures. As the sound wave of a dog's bark is different from the sound wave of Lionel Richie's voice, so is the light wave of sunlight different from the light wave of candlelight.

Now moonlight is simply reflected sunlight. But because it is reflected, it does not have the exact same properties as sunlight because of the reflective surface, which is moon rock. So of course, moonlight will be totally different from sunlight.

Light is one of the strongest magical elements, but the ones used the most in magic are firelight, moonlight, and---not as popular---sunlight. A huge percentage of spells are designed to be cast in the moonlight. But in order to maximize the power of the moon, you must first learn and understand the behavior of moonlight. You literally have to "feel the magic in the air". It is a skill that requires a lot of training.

In order to cast really powerful nighttime spells, your wand must first be consecrated for nighttime use---that is, under the light of the full moon. The spell for consecrating wands varies between spellcasters, but there is one basic structure or flow that must be followed.

If you already have a night-ready wand, then now would be a good time to try casting spells which require a full moon (not all spells require a full moon; some are designed for the half, crescent or new moons). If your wand is not yet night-ready, and you don't know the consecration spell, I'll publish the spell on the next full moon. And if you don't have a wand yet, you have twenty-eight days more to get one.