The October 28, 2023 Hunter’s Moon

October’s full moon is commonly called the Hunter’s Moon, harkening back to European and Native American traditions where hunters would use the light of the full moon to track down their prey and stock up for the coming winter. Contrary to popular belief, the Hunter’s Moon isn’t actually bigger or brighter than usual. It simply rises earlier, soon after sunset, which would give hunters plenty of bright moonlight to hunt by during the early evenings. To Neo Pagans, however, the Hunter’s Moon is known by a far more morbid name – the Blood Moon.

Humans through the ages have always found autumn’s full moons to be creepy, and not without good reason. There’s a reason why English folks in the Middle Ages called October’s full moon the Blood Moon, and it’s the exact same reason why even Halloween imagery today often features a large, low-hanging moon with an eerie reddish glow. The Hunter’s Moon rises early in the evening, which means that you are more likely to see it near the horizon. When you observe the moon while it’s near the horizon, it gives off the illusion of being bigger while it’s in fact the same size. In addition, observing the moon at the horizon makes it look redder. This is because you’re seeing it through a thicker atmosphere, which scatters more blue light and lets more red light pass through to reach your eyes.

 

Despite the Blood Moon’s spooky associations, it rarely actually happens on Samhain or Halloween night itself. The next time you’ll get to see the full moon on Halloween is 2020, and if you miss that, you’ll have to wait 15 years to see it in 2035. Sometimes, October’s full moon even happens early enough in the month that it becomes the Harvest Moon, which is defined as the full moon that’s closest to the fall equinox. In Chinese culture, the Harvest Moon is celebrated during the Mid-Autumn Festival, where people gather to celebrate by eating mooncakes. There is also a harvest festival in India that celebrates October’s full moon, called Sharad Purnima. Devotees fast all day before offering delicacies to the Moon God under the moonlight.

In contrast to the day-long fast of India’s moonlight festival, the Hunter’s Moon was a very important feast day in Europe as well as for many Native American tribes. Appropriately, the Ponca tribe’s name for the Hunter’s Moon is “the moon when they store food in caches”. Taking advantage of the fact that the fields have been reaped, hunters would capture foxes and other small animals who come out to graze on the fallen grains, as well as hunt down deer in the moonlight. They would butcher their prey and preserve their meat. Blood Moon is an excellent name for this month’s full moon, given that it was a final, bloody harvesting of meat before the winter months.

Sadly, the tradition of feasting during the Hunter’s Moon was lost around the year 1700, but its spirit still lives on in historical reenactments like the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon, or even the feast of candy enjoyed by trick-or-treaters everywhere on Halloween.

---

The Haab Date by Northern Count
October 28, 2023, 11 Sak’/Zac (White)
The hunters had their second festival of the year, this one to ask for the forgiveness of the gods for shedding the blood of animals.
Source: Mayan-Calendar.com 

The tradition of a feast would be a worthy community celebration to honor the blood sacrifice that makes it possible for life to carry on through winter. White is a color of purification. The month of Sak’ aligns with the symbology of MULUC, the “Christ Spirit” and a blood sacrifice. The glyph or  the month of Sak incorporates the image of 11 Storm/CAUAC.

The Tzolk’in count is 2 Night/AKBAL, the Dreamer that Believes the Dream, in the trecena of 1 Wind/IK, Destiny Kin 222. 

---

Old Farmer’s Almanac

The earliest use of the term “Hunter’s Moon,” cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, is from 1710. Some sources suggest that other names for the Hunter’s Moon are the Sanguine or Blood Moon, either associated with the blood from hunting or the color of the changing autumn leaves. 

The names of the Moon are most often related to natural signs of the season or to activities that were done at this time of year. Some of our favorites include:

• Drying Rice Moon, a Dakota name, describes part of the post-harvest process of preparing rice for winter.
• Falling Leaves Moon is an Anishinaabe term highlighting the transition between summer and fall.
• Freezing Moon (Ojibwe) and Ice Moon (Haida) refer to the increasingly cold temperatures of this period.
• Migrating Moon (Cree) refers to when birds begin to fly south to warmer climates.

---

Full Moon Eclipse in Taurus – YogaJournal.com

What a Lunar Eclipse Means
While a solar eclipse opens the portal for new beginnings and change, a lunar eclipse help us complete a journey or shift our course in some way. Lunar eclipses, like full Moons, are revealing. They convey the truth in an often dramatic way. They are also much more emotionally charged compared to a solar eclipse, as they affect the emotional body to a greater degree.

A lunar eclipse is an opportunity to create significant change in your life. This change may come about abruptly. You may find yourself feeling surprised or caught off guard by what is revealed. Not all of the information is negative. Some of it may be positive and bring you inspiration along with encouragement to shift your life.

Old energies may rise to the surface of your conscious mind to find understanding and closure. Even if you thought some of these had released from your field, you may find yourself facing them again as they make their final exit from your consciousness.

Sometimes this forward motion can feel disruptive to your nervous system, and you may even resist it initially. There is no moving backward on the lunar eclipse. You cannot fight this knowledge. You can only take it in and ask yourself what you can create with this. If you attempt to cling to energies that no longer serve your evolution, you will be met with frustration and misalignment. If the lunar eclipse reveals something in your life that needs to be released, it’s best to find the least dramatic way to move on.

 

---

The Astrology Page is updated with Molly McCord’s forecast for the Taurus Lunar Eclipse

 

---

THE TRECENA OF OFFERING/MULUC: HEALING OUR EMOTIONS
MAYAN CALENDAR DAYKEEPER’S JOURNAL
11 Storm/CAUAC, Cherokee, Redbird/TOTSU’HWA, Destiny Kin 219, Position 19
October 24, 2023, 10/24/2023

MASTER NUMBER 11:11
Master Number 11 represents the Light Source for Divine Inspiration. 11 is the Life  Path Number, a mission that calls to our Soul. We are completing the 11th uinal, representing a “higher order” of Resolution. Repetition, “seeing again,” magnifies the power of the symbol. Master Number 11:11 is the symbol of a Divine Wake-up Call, or Code of Activation. Everything begins from the One. Our first journey from the womb was a dark passage that ended when we were born to the Light.

Galactic Tone 11: Resolution; 11 assists every new thing to find its place in the universe in the process of ‘fitting in.’ some modifications must occur. Eleven is the energy of dynamic actions facilitating change, simplification and improvement.

Storm/Cauac: Day of the blessing of rain, giver of all life and lightening, a gift of nitrogen to Mother Earth and ozone to Father Sky. Cauac is also associated with the moon and the cycles of the moon, which are the meter of the feminine aspect of creation. The essence of Storm is the feeling of unity, security and warmth experienced in the home while the tempest of trouble rages in the world outside. Perpetually youthful, Storms exist to experience the ecstasy of freedom. They have the great capacity to both learn and teach. Their constant quest for novel experiences often leads to difficult tests and storms of emotion. Looking at these difficulties for the lessons they indeed are, will enrich our lives rather than destroy. Cauac individuals teach much through their electricity of being. Lightning energizes earth, this same energy energizes humans. Divine connections can be accessed.

A GOOD DAY TO: Count your lessons as blessings and your enemies as angels.

Cherokee, Redbird/TOTSU’HWA: Redbird’s symbol is Alcyone of the Pleiades Star in constellation Taurus.  Alcyone is the Central Sun of the Universe, heart of heaven. Lightning is the visible evidence of the presence of Redbird Spirit in the Sky, daughter of the Sun Spirit, sign of Fire, Sun’s alter ego on Earth. Redbird is a feminine sign; the hand that rocks the cradle. The symbol of nurturing, the lightning nurtures and energizes, with energy for zest, curiosity, imagination, and ideas. Lightning adds spiritual force to the human by way of “lightning of the blood” of a healer, directly body to body vibration. The key to spiritual communication and access to the wisdom of the Ancestors lies in the ability to bestir the blood to speak. Sacred stones such as flint, obsidian, crystal are created by lightning striking the ground.

[Text in italics was the primary source of inspiration for my journal. These are the sources that started my journey and they are the reference for interpretation each day. By providing the original text, I hope to offer a way to see what inspired my thoughts and by including all the aspects – allow for something more to inspire you. Mayan descriptions are those written by Ian Lungold. Cherokee descriptions came from multiple sources. Links to sources and other resources of study are offered on the Daykeeper Resources Page. ~Debra]