MOON RHYTHMS IN NATURE

Wolfgang Schad, co-author of this translation of Biologes des Mondes 1997, is also author a most remarkable biology book: Man and Mammals (Schad, 1977). If labels were important, Endres and Schad might be loosely categorised as holistic, or integral, Goethean biologists, since Schad's on mammals has been extensively used in Waldorf schools. In the present joint work they introduce us to 'chronobiology" and build an extraordinarily rich picture of the integration of time and biosphere around lunar, solar and terrestrial dynamics. Palmer (2002) addresses such topics from a different perspective in another recent book on biological rhythms. Written, and effectively translated, in a charming, lyrical style appropriate to nature's organic, sidereal rhythms we learn how Christopher Columbus' first view of the new world was illuminated by "many lights flickering like candles" created by the luminescent marine worm Odontosyllis along the Bahaman coast. We also learn how lunar rhythms imprinted in the beautiful shell of the pearly Nautilus may give us clues to the slowing down of the moon's orbit through time. Similarly we learn how the simultaneous spawning of hundreds of coral species on the Great Barrier Reef gives it the appearance of a giant super-organism.

Following these chapters on marine invertebrates, all with excellent line drawings, black and white and color photos, especially of North Atlantic species, the authors turn to broader synthetic issues such as the degree to which rhythms are endogenous or exogenous. They conclude that they are an integration of both processes: "the environment is not something separate from the organism but is part of its existence, just as the organisms exists as part of the world to which it belongs. That clearly is the nature of life." (p. 100). Having said this, they show that lower organisms (e.g., prokaryotes and invertebrates) are more strongly influenced by exogenous factors, whereas higher, more complex species including humans, where lunar periodicity is strongly internalised, function more endogenously. Thus we "continuously carry all stages of evolution within us." (p. 115).

One example of this is our ever-changing sensitivity to light (and colour) which varies according to annual, lunar and daily cycles. Another is the case of a blind man, living near a beach, whose sleep cycle synchronised completely with the lunar/tidal cycle when he stopped forcing himself into the 24 hour solar cycle followed by everyone else. More mysterious, but also related to lunar periodicity are changing birth and death rates and sex determination (not to mention crime rates at full moon). The 106/100 male/female birth ratio (which may be as high as 150/100 when allowing for naturally aborted pregnancies: the Gods look out for men too!), must have a strong endogenous component, as must the extraordinary increase in male births after wars!

In the final chapters we consider that "the quality of time" - and hence rhythm - is the essential character of life as in action-rest, inhalation-exhalation, etc., - antagonisms that belong together: that are "entirely different without excluding one another." Moon Rhythms concludes with a remarkably clear and simple philosophical exposition on the quality of time as the integration of retrospective inheritance and "prospective potential" (as used in physiological vocabulary). This view serves as an excellent characterization of "the human search for knowledge itself" and may fruitfully be extended from chronobiology and philosophy to consciousness studies. SMN members should be intrigued by suggestions that there is a time and reason for everything including the administering of medicine and the planting of seeds: just before the full moon is empirically proven for optimal germination and long term health and fruitfulness. I highly recommend this book as a rich and artful interdisciplinary synthesis that does justice to the vital, dynamic "element" of time. Enderes and Schad are very insightful biologists who provide a useful antidote to the currently excessive emphasis on linear, reductionistic and causal/deterministic thinking. They challenge us to integrate chronobiological thinking into our repertoire of biological understanding, and suggest the considerable rewards that may arise from such paradigm shifts in comprehension. Ever since Goethe defined morphology as a dynamic process of change through time, the importance of time as an active or dynamic element in biological and evolutionary studies has been acknowledged, if only as a specialized discipline (heterochrony) outside the mainstream. Shapes of Time (McNamara, 1977) provides an excellent, readable introduction. A world classic on the evolution of consciousness, by Jean Gebser (1987) adroitly lays out the difference in emphasis between the chronological mental/rational, spatial consciousness and the integral consciousness, in which time and space are integrated (as achronon). Ever since Einstein, science has seen the path to this integral paradigm. But, until now, overly-rational paradigms in biology, and in intellectual life in general, have prevented us from following this integral path without the impediment of outmoded mental baggage. But "C'est la vie" paradigm shifts from mental to integral comprehension must play out "in their own time."

Gebser, J. 1987. The Ever Present Origin. Ohio University Press. 615p. McNamara, K. 1977. Shapes of Time. John Hopkin's University Press. 342p. Palmer, J. D. 2002. The living clock: the orchestration of biological rhythms. Oxford Univ. Press. Schad, W. 1977. Man and Mammals: toward a Biology of Form. Waldorf Press, New York. 309p, 181pls.