Dont Believe All The March 19 Extreme Supermoon Hype

What is a Supermoon?A supermoon occurs when a new or full moon is at 90 percent or more of its closest perigee. The moon's orbit around the Earth is slightly elliptical, and when it is at the near point it is known as a lunar perigee. So what does that mean in layperson's terms? It's close to the Earth.According to Yahoo News on March 19, the Moon will be closer to the Earth than it has in the last 18 years. It will be only 221,567 miles (356,577 kilometers) away. It seems these Supermoons are a somewhat an unusual occurrence. Another article that quotes Mark Paquette claims there has been four recent Supermoons occurring in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005. However, not everyone agrees with this.The real buzz is about the predictions that famous astrologer Richard Nolle has made. According to several articles including Yahoo News, AccuWeather.com, and Life's Little Mysteries, Richard Nolle has deemed this supermoon as "extreme" because it will be almost as close as it can possibly get to the Earth. He has predicted that it will trigger natural disasters. Yahoo News claims he says, "Chaos will ensue: Huge storms, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters can be expected to wreak havoc on Earth." And then Yahoo News adds, "It should be noted that astrology is not a real science, but merely makes connections between astronomical and mystical events." Really? Then why are you using this information to write such a dramatic article?Nolle does say this about the natural disasters but it seems Yahoo News along with several other media sources have managed to take it out of context. In fact, just about every article I read seemed to take these same claims and twist them into doomsday predictions. If you go by them, Nolle is predicting a mini-2012. They also keep emphasizing how unusual this supermoon occurrence is supposed to be. They keep misquoting Richard Nolle when he claims he was the one who invented the term "supermoon." The media simply has their facts about supermoons wrong.What Does Richard Nolle Really Think?I tried visiting his site astropro.com to find more details but navigating the site is difficult. It wasn't until I Googled the terms "supermoon" and "Richard Nolle" that I was able to find his article about the extreme supermoon. I was able to hear "from the horse's mouth" just what the truth is about this "extreme supermoon."The first thing he does is correct the misinformation about how often a supermoon occurs. It hasn't happened four times in the last several decades. Nolle says a supermoon actually happens that often in a single year. He says, "There are 4-6 SuperMoons a year. The one on March 19, 2011 is in fact the closest SuperMoon of the year, but it's not by any means the first one in 18 years, nor even the first extreme SuperMoon in 18 years."Nor is this the first "extreme" Supermoon in a decade. Nolle goes on to say, "The truth is, March 19 will be the second SuperMoon this year, and we only have to go back to January 30, 2010 to find the last example of an extreme SuperMoon; as revealed in my tables published in the last century. There was a SuperMoon in effect February 12-21 this year in fact, which anyone who actually read my 2011 World Forecast Highlights would know."I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy in how often these Supermoons are said to occur. Perhaps it's because one definition is based on natural science while the other is based on astrology.Nolle then goes on to explain that Supermoons are indeed capable of triggering natural disasters. The moon is associated with the atmosphere, the tides, the oceans, and the earth's crust so it certainly can affect storms, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Nolle says, "The entire natural world surges and spasms under the sway of the SuperMoon alignment." He goes on to give specific examples of past Supermoons and the natural disasters that occurred around them. However, his article by no means sounds like a cry that "the sky is falling" like the media has led people to believe. It makes me angry that such an esteemed astrologer is being painted as a Chicken Little.Science Confirms Nolle's PredictionsI know I certainly don't need to explain to you that the Moon has a direct effect on the Earth. So what effect will a Supermoon have according to science? Yahoo News says, "According to John Vidale, a seismologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, particularly dramatic land and ocean tides do trigger earthquakes."Yes, you read that correctly. It says "land tide." The Moon pulls on the continents as well as the ocean. This pull can trigger an earthquake. "Both the moon and sun do stress the Earth a tiny bit, and when we look hard we can see a very small increase in tectonic activity when they're aligned," Vidale told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com."Unfortunately, this is the same article that claims a Supermoon hasn't occurred in the last 18 years. So maybe we should bypass the mainstream media articles and find a more reliable source? I tried. Unfortunately versions of the same article are viral all throughout the media. This article distorted the truth even more saying, "Supermoons are closer to Earth and occur every 10 to 20 years." It even jokingly called the Supermoon a "moonapocalypse." Okay, so maybe that is a little funny.What Does This Mean Magickally?Well I learned from the Pagan & Wiccan site at About.com that this month's moon is it is named the Storm Moon. Hopefully, that is just a coincidence! Patti Wigington goes on to correctly explain that the moon is going to be the closest to Earth in around twenty years and shares some science facts about possible natural disasters. Sadly, there's no information about if there's any extra magickal "oomgh" with this Supermoon.Wiccan World News says the moon "will be as big as it gets." It seems the author was able to find what I couldn't, a quote from a NASA scientist. "NASA astronomer Dave Williams said there's no reason to believe that anything out of the ordinary -- aside from an especially big and bright full moon -- will take place next week. 'There's nothing really special about this,' he said."So is that to mean there isn't anything magickally special about this moon as well? I kept searching but all I found was a thread at a forum where someone asked just as I did if spells and rituals will have extra "oomph." So far no answer has been provided. Considering it was an astrologer or maybe an astronomer who coined the term (I'll leave them to fight about it amongst themselves), not a mage, witch, or pagan I suppose some extra magickal power is a bit too much to ask for. However, I know when I look up and see the Moon at her biggest and brightest, I will feel her special magick and her power.