Four Images Model of Lunar Phases

The Four Images model appears not only in cycles of solar radiation but also, very visibly, in the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. This is the Four Images model of lunar phases. The waxing of the Moon (new moon to full moon) and its waning (full moon to the later crescent) form another recurring natural cycle interpreted as a source of Four Images influence. Most of the human body, and of plants and animals, consists of water. The text proposes that cyclical changes in lunar gravitation corresponding to the Four Images directly guide fluctuations in fluid resistance, qi-blood pressure, and neurotransmitter secretion in living organisms. The classical source cited for this model is the “Discourse on the Eight Seasonal Nodes and Divine Illumination” in the Suwen, which explicitly describes changes in blood and qi at different lunar phases. The article further states that modern scientific studies have found greater emotional fluctuation, anxiety, and sexual crime at the full moon (identified here with the Taiyang phase), along with intensified reproductive behavior in sea turtles and marine organisms and concentrated flowering in many plants; while at the last-quarter moon (identified here with the Shaoyin phase and autumn), plants are said to undergo a key energetic shift from leaf growth toward root storage.