Lunar Conception: a Discovery by Dr. Jonas

1. The Discovery

In the middle of the 1950s a young Slovakian doctor named Eugen Jonas has discovered something completely unknown to the contemporary science: that in addition to the scientifically established hormonal cycle, women have another fertility cycle that resonates with the cycles of the Moon. He was led to this discovery by his interest in astrology that Dr. Jonas has developed in his student years.

It all began from an assertion in an Assyrian source that Dr. Jonas happened to find in a library: "Woman is fertile during a certain phase of the Moon." But which exactly phase? After a lengthy period of research and endless calculations, he managed to find the answer. As he wrote himself, "Finally, on August 15, 1956, I arrived at the first three fundamental rules on conception, the determination of sex and life capability of the fetus, all of which can be precisely formulated" (quoted from [1]).

These three rules were:

  1. The time of fertility occurs during the same phase of the Moon as that in which the woman was born. For instance, if the woman was born at the time of the Full Moon, when the Moon makes an angle of 180° with the Sun, the time of fertility during her adulthood will be whenever the Moon is full, and this independently of her menstrual cycle.
  2. The sex of the future child will be determined by the position of the Moon during the time of the woman's fertility — whether the Moon is found in the male or in the female sign of the Zodiac.
  3. Unfavorable distribution of gravitational forces of the near celestial bodies at the time of conception produces complications during pregnancy, particularly for the fetus.

These rules were officialy tested by experienced gynecologists (Dr. Kurt Rechnitz of Hungary was one of the most active researchers in this area). It was discovered that on the lunar phase day a woman is usually significantly more fertile than on the day of ovulation in her hormonal cycle.

For more information on the work of Dr. Eugen Jonas and his clinic and on the official control tests of his method please refer to the books listed in the end of this article.

2. The Details

Let's see how the method works.

Imagine that you can see in the sky both the Moon and the Sun at the same time (like it happens to be in the morning or in the evening). Point one hand at the Moon and the other hand at the Sun. There will be some angle between your hands, wouldn't there?

The Moon and the Sun move perpetually relative to the background of the stars, but the Moon moves approximately twelve times faster than the Sun, so the angle between them changes all the time. At the New Moon this angle is 0°, at the time of the First Quarter the Moon is 90° ahead of the Sun, at the Full Moon it is 180° ahead of the Sun, and at the Last Quarter it is 270° ahead.

If a woman was born at the time of a certain phase, say the First Quarter, then according to the discovery of Dr. Jonas, each time the same phase will take place in the sky, that will be her moment of unusually high fertility, her potential lunar conception moment (technically, this is the moment of her "lunar phase return").

Most of the people however are born not precisely at the time of a certain phase. Let's take an example — say, a fictional person was born on the 7th of June 1983 in London, at 9 o'clock in the morning. Using the Lunar Conception Calculator, we can find out that at the moment of her birth the Moon was in 26 degrees and 6 minutes of Aries, the Sun — in 16 degrees 1 minute of Gemini, and so the Moon was 310 degrees and 5 minutes ahead of the Sun. Every time when the Moon will be 310° 5' ahead of the Sun, this woman will have her lunar phase return, or her lunar conception moment when she will be able to conceive a child with a high probability.

Interestingly, it doesn't matter with which stage in the woman's hormonal cycle this lunar conception moment will coincide. If it will coincide with the ovulation, very well, the probability of conception will be very high. But even if this moment will coincide with the woman's menstruation, fertility at such time will be very high too.

The gender of the conceived child will depend on the sign of the zodiac in which the Moon was at the moment of the lunar conception. If it was in one of the masculine signs — Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius — the child will be a boy. If the sign was one of the feminine ones — Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces — the child will be a girl.

The calculations that are needed to define the lunar conception moment use quite complex astronomical algorithms, this isn't something you can do by hand. But the online Lunar Conception Calculator will do them for you quickly and easily using high precision algorithms.

3. Using the Method for Conception

The rule is: if you want to conceive a child at a lunar conception moment, then the intercourse should take place within the 24 hours period preceding this moment.

For instance, if the Calculator shows that your next lunar conception moment will be at 9:18am on the 21st of October then the intercourse should take place within the period from 9:18am 20th of October to 9:18am 21st of October. This is the rule as it was given by Dr. Jonas.

The natural question is: if the intercourse happened three hours before this 24 hour period, or three hours after it, can the conception still happen? The answer is: it could, but we don't know for sure. If we had at least a few reliable cases where it happened like this, we would be happy to confirm: yes, this is possible. But for now, we advise just to follow the 24-hour rule.

It is important to understand that in each month you have potentially two moments when you can conceive: the natural ovulation (a stage in your hormonal cycle) and the lunar conception moment. Some women have these two moments very close to each other, they might even coincide. So the probability of conception for these women at such a moment is as high as it can be. Francesca Naish in [2] suggests an idea that it is natural to have these moments coinciding when a woman lives a healthy, stress-free life in tune with nature.

But for most women lunar conception and hormonal ovulation are two different moments. Research described in [1] has shown that in such cases the probability to conceive at the time of a lunar conception is much higher than at the time of a hormonal ovulation. And it doesn't matter at which stage of your hormonal cycle the lunar conception moment happens to fall. In fact, Francesca Naish writes that the second highest probability of conception takes place when the lunar conception moment coincides with menstruation. This is something that contemporary science cannot explain, but it should be noted that the physiology of human fertility is still relatively poorly understood by science. For example, science doesn't have a clear explanation of why intrauterine devices help to prevent conception — but they are used around the world, and in many cases quite successfully.

4. Using the Method for Contraception

If human fertility worked exactly as it is understood by contemporary science, it would be very easy to avoid an undesired conception without any chemical pills with their side effects and without any other aids just by avoiding intercourse around the time of regular ovulation. This is exactly the idea behind the well-known "rhythm method of contraception".

However, experience and research show that such an approach to contraception is very unreliable. It looks like despite the scientific theory, a woman can conceive at any time of the month, even during her menstruation. According to [1], in 1969 a medical team headed by Dr. Franklin Brayer tested the reliability of the rhythm method. Their study of 2,300 American and Canadian women showed that only three out of ten women could rely on this method. In other words, 70% of the women did conceive even if they avoided the regular ovulation cycle.

The reason for this is that there is another highly fertile time in any month — the lunar conception moment. There are estimates (again, see [1]) that out there in the world 85% of women conceive during their lunar conception period, and only 15% — during their regular ovulation.

The natural conclusion would be that if a woman wants to avoid a conception without any unnatural means, it should be sufficient to avoid sexual intercourse both around the time of her regular ovulation and her lunar conception. Astra clinic led by Dr. Jonas has tested such an approach on 1,600 women and found that it is 98.5% reliable.

Here are the instructions that were given at Astra to those who wanted to use the natural method of contraception:

  1. In the calendar, mark with red the day of the lunar conception and three days prior to it. This is the time of highest fertility.
  2. Wait until your next menstruation begins and put a blue circle around that date. Count forward fifteen full days from the blue-circled day. Circle the fifteenth day in solid green. Mark with a green line six days before and after the green circled day. All thoose thirteen green days are potentially fertile due to the regular ovulation.
  3. To avoid pregnancy, do not have an intercourse on both red and green days.

5. The Viability Problem

Unfortunately, there are many women in the world who want to conceive a child but cannot because every time they try they have a miscarriage. And there are other women who did give birth to a child, but the child was born with serious anomalies.

Dr. Jonas did address this problem in his studies, but the information on his findings in that direction is very scarce. Previously, after analyzing the tiny bits of available information, we thought that the key to a viable birth is in how harmonious was the planetary configuration in the sky at the moment of conception, and so we introduced a so called risk factor. In the old version of the Lunar Conception Calculator each moment had a risk factor associated with it. However, the feedback from those who used the Calculator has shown us that there were cases when women successfully conceived and gave birth at the moment with a very high risk factor, and at the same time there was a case when the risk factor was low but the child was born with a serious mental pathology.

After an additional research we have found that, according to Dr. Jonas, the main factor in viability of birth is not the cosmic situation on the date of conception but the natal potential of the mother shown in her birth chart, or cosmogram. Here we are entering the realm of the hardcore classical astrology, and there is no doubt that Dr. Jonas is a very knowledgeable astrologer.

Here is what we have found in the Astrological Birth Control book: If the birth cosmogram of the mother and the conception cosmogram of the child both show a pattern of unfavorable influences, there is an indication of poor viability of the offspring. If the conception cosmogram for the child is not well aspected, but the mother's own cosmogram is favorable, the negative influences are overcome to a certain degree.

As a result, the new version of the Lunar Conception Calculator does not calculate any risk factor. This factor can be misleading when the mother's birth potential is not taken into account. Instead, for a number of years we were offering a personal consultation for those who want to avoid any risk and to select the safest and the most harmonious moment for conception. Such consultations were given to hundreds of women around the world but they are not available anymore.

6. Can the Method be Useful for Men?

Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

First of all, Francesca Naish has discovered (see [2]) that men have their sperm count very significantly increased at the time of their lunar phase return, i.e. their Lunar Conception moment. This discovery can help those couples who cannot have a child because of the man's low sperm count.

But what if the man's lunar conception moment does not coincide with a fertile period of the woman? Francesca Naish has suggested a solution for this. She found that using auto-suggestion techniques it is possible to move the regular ovulation day backward or forward, thus moving the whole hormonal cycle. This can be used to synchronise the fertility period connected to the regular ovulation with the man's lunar conception date — and as a result, to significantly increase the probability of conceiving a child.

For more details please refer to The Lunar Cycle book.

Also, we remember reading an interview with a successful sports trainer who trained some of the champions. This was quite some time ago, and unfortunately we were unable to recover any traces of that interview, but what was amazing is that that trainer used lunar cycles in his work. Whenever it was possible, he tried to make sure that the most important training sessions or competitions coincided with lunar phase return of the sportsman or sportswoman — exactly what we call the lunar conception moment.

That trainer found that on their lunar phase return dates both men and women can mobilize and do their best. And on reverse, when the phase of the Moon is opposite to the one at which the sportsman was born (say, it is the New Moon while he or she were born at the Full Moon), that will be the period of weakness when nothing important should be undertaken. This information lacks a confirmation, but it would not hurt to use it and see if the knowledge of the Moon's cycles can really help sportsmen to break records.

7. The Sources of Information

1. Sheila Ostrander & Lynn Schroeder, Astrological Birth Control, Prentice-Hall, 1972. A thorough and detailed discussion of all the aspects of Dr. Jonas's discovery. You will find here a significant amount of detail about how the theories of Dr. Jonas were tested, who took part in that and what other facts and ideas are related to this discovery. An invaluable source of information on the subject.

2. Francesca Naish, The Lunar Cycle, A Guide to Natural and Astrological Fertility Control, Nature & Health Books, 1989. This book is unique because it is written by a practitioner who uses the ideas of Dr. Jonas in her everyday work. And she doesn't stop on that but goes further and adds her own findings. For example, she found a solution for those couple who cannot have child because of the man's low sperm count. She found that the sperm count increases sharply on the date of the man's lunar conception. She also discovered that the date of a woman's regular ovulation can be moved using auto-suggestion techiques. As a result, it is possible to synchronize the man's high sperm count and the woman's fertile period!

3. Lesley-Ann Bowles, The Art and Science of Reflexology and Astrology. The author is a British reflexologist and astrologer who combines her skills to help women with infertility problems to conceive. Through her knowledge of astrology, she has discovered a method for predicting precisely when a woman will ovulate and this has led to a very high conception success rate in her clinic.

© 2024 Alexander Kolesnikov