The Frequency of the Full Moon

Footnotes linked in camel (the color)

What we call the "Frequency of the Full Moon" is the frequency of the Synodic Moon - or the duration between two new moons or two full moons. The lunar phase cycle changes over time, and the measurement is called a Lunation. From one cycle to the next, the duration can change by over 3 hours, and over a decade, it can vary by as much as 13 hours.

The Moon’s synodic period (the length of a lunar month) is 29.53059 days — or 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.8 seconds. To translate this into musical terms, that would be a note or beat with the frequency of 1 beat every 2551442.8032 seconds, or if measured in Hz, a 0.000000391935104Hz tone or beat.

In music, this information is unusable, as humans can’t perceive tones lower than (approximately) 50Hz in frequency.

If we threw a party with a beat every 29 days, it would take a decades-long party to get into the groove of that rhythm.

That is the party the moon is throwing that we call life!

For our more limited human parties that last just a few fleeting hours and are played by musicians who can’t possibly keep rhythm over such a vast time scale, we need to find a way to migrate the beat frequency to something usable.

Converting the Moon Frequency to Brainwave Entrainment Frequencies

Musically, we use octaves when talking about tones or double-time when talking about beats.

Here are some examples of the octaves of the Synodic Moon Frequency:

1.643894973753492 (22nd Octave)
3.287789947506984 (23rd Octave)
6.575579895013968 (24th Octave)
13.151159790027936 (25th Octave)
26.302319580055872 (26th Octave)
52.60463916011174 (27th Octave)
105.20927832022348 (28th Octave)
210.41855664044696 (29th Octave)
420.83711328089392 (30th Octave)
841.6742265617878 (31st Octave)

When thinking about creating brainwave entrainment signals, we also have the limitations of the human brain, which has frequencies between around 1Hz up to about 160Hz. In this case, only the beats of the 22nd to 28th Octave are usable as entrainment frequencies.

In alignment with brainwave entrainment best practice, and in light of what we are trying to achieve in performance when we tune to the frequency of the full moon, we chose to use the 23rd, 25th, and 27th doubled beats, giving us the following frequency set:

3.28Hz (Delta) - this signal is in high Delta, right underneath the border of awake and asleep, bringing us down into our subconscious and rooting us in the dream world.

13.15Hz (Alpha-Beta) - this falls right on the delineation of Alpha and Beta brainwaves. Alpha brainwaves can be thought of as a bridge between our everyday states of conscious waking awareness (beta frequencies from 13 to 30Hz) While this tone technically falls into the Beta range, it is at the far low end and will act as our connecting tone, helping connect our ordinary consciousness with our dream state.

We skip the 26th Octave, which falls right into our normal waking state. That state is typically the dominant brain state and doesn’t require additional stimulation for our purposes,

52.6Hz (Gamma) - this is a middle-field gamma signal. Gamma correlates to high-functioning brain activity and can relate to many different states of consciousness, but we target ecstatic states, flow states, and hyper-awareness. "If your brain produces high levels of gamma waves, you tend to be happier and more receptive."

Combined, this creates a mystical state where hyper-awareness can perceive and relate to the subconscious mind, and we can consciously explore the deeper parts of ourselves.

Theories on Frequencies

While most of what we have covered is grounded in scientific research, in brainwave entrainment research, it is essential to know that, where there is much anecdotal and experiential evidence, the analysis is not very substantial in scientifically measurable, statistically significant terms. There is research available, but it is a narrow field of study. Is there a measurable, difference, for example, between the effects 40Hz Gamma stimulation and 52.6Hz in the human brain? Does the alpha-theta bridge exist?

Can music tune your brain to sync with the natural rhythm of the moon?

We don’t know with scientific certainty - and we are entirely open to finding out!

We will be tuning our brain frequencies with mathematical frequencies derived from and related to the cycles of the moon’s rotation around the earth, and we will experience the effects of this together.

How deeply will this affect us as human beings?

We invite you to join us on a Full Moon to experience for yourselves….

Theories on the Effects of these Frequencies for Human Wellbeing

Moving from the math into the theory, here are a few other unsubstantiated ideas (we feel it is essential to separate what we know from what we believe, sense, or experience).

If you keep moving up this frequency spectrum (of the full moon), you get out of the range of sound and into the frequency of light at the 70th octave. Light doesn’t work in Hz; we measure light in nanometers. Converting from Hz, octave 70 is the equivalent of 647.8983042671 nanometers.

647nm is a very pure color of red.

Red is the color associated with the root chakra (the Muladhara).

Women are deeply connected to the moon through the menstrual cycle (our own 29 day inner lunation) and our blood.

Red is the color we most associate with love and passion, and "due to its connection to courage, will, life and vitality, and passion, the Muladhara is closely linked to physical desire."

Hans Cousto believes that the frequencies of music and light related through the octave calculation are all tied into a single mythology. "The tone of the moon is very suitable for meditation music at occasions like full moon rituals. This tone improves general and especially sexual communication."

In this case, Hans refers to the actual tone - a slightly modified G# that you find at the 29th octave.

Silvermouse are experimenting with these specific frequencies and tones at our Full Moon events.

Can music be an aphrodisiac?

What does it mean when we tune our minds and bodies to be ultimately in sync with the long-form cycle of the moon?

We hope you will join us at an upcoming event to find out!