new moon

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/

This is about moon phases and tides. Yes there is a correlation between the two.

That being said, it doesn't mean the tides were the reason for it. Lol. Darkness is considered evil and bad in many traditions, so a dark moon is evil or bad. On unlucky days no one would do anything out of fear of something bad happening, so it may have been a simple luck precaution built out of superstition. Someone may have had some idea outside of it like you said though. Lol. But I think for most it would be nothing more than superstition.

Well, I'm glad you've sorted that out! My head hurts.

The way I understand it is that the moon has been the center of many magic traditions for centuries, a representation of the balance between the positive and negetive aspects of magic, Light and Darkness. As the moon is waxing the positive energies used to enhance spells and ritual increase, being strongest on the full moon, and as the moon starts to wane, the negative energies used to enhance spells and rituals increase, being strongest on the new moon. This is simply my understanding of it of course

While I am no expert I would suggest anther reason for the phase of the moon effecting magick even if it is always there 24/7 is there is diffrence in the energy given out by the moon during diffrent phase. This could explain why the waining tends to work best with spells harming or pushing somthing away and the waxing moon works best with helping and pulling somthing to you.

This is only a theory but I think this would be a interesting thing to study