The Hunter's Moon of October

In the northern hemisphere, October's full moon rides a deep velvety evening sky, one spangled with the first winter stars like sequins and touched with crackling frost. This is the sparkling stuff a moon lover and backyard astronomer's dreams are made of, but there was impermanence in the air last evening and a sense of things passing away, a feeling of wabi-sabi as we (Spencer and I) watched the moon rising behind the leafless sumacs.

The harvest is over except for late yields of apples, squash, pumpkins and gourds, and we are readying ourselves for the longer nights to come, filling our larders like squirrels and turning the earth in readiness for a springtime that is still many months in the future. As the days grow shorter, we begin to spend more time indoors and closer to the hearth. We pickle and can and freeze and preserve; we pile up firewood and eye our hoards anxiously. Will there be enough wood to last through the winter this time? Will there be enough potatoes, corn and beans, tea and toast makings? Sprigs of hope are tucked into every mason jar and sealer we "do up", and into the jars too go large dollops of the obdurate self-sufficiency and forbearance needed to make it through a long cold winter here. I've already checked the bindings on my snowshoes, and I know where my boots, gloves and parka are stashed.

There is a delicious melancholy in these late autumn days and nights with their intense stormy skies and fiery sunsets. All the world seems to be either migrating or falling asleep, and only gormless humans seem to be awake, alert and on the go. Somewhere in the midst of our frantic scurrying, we decorate our doorways and thresholds for Samhain (or Halloween) with scarecrows, wreaths and swags, flying witches, bales of hay and jack-o-lanterns, and we plan celebrations for that magical time at the end of the month when the veil between the worlds is gossamer thin and woven through with strands of dazzling potential. If I have a favorite night in the whole turning year, it is October 31st.

We also know this magnificent autumn moon as the: Acorns Cached Moon, Acorns Falling Moon, Big Wind Moon, Big Chestnut Moon, Blackberry Moon, Blood Moon, Calendula Moon, Changing Season Moon, Chrysanthemum Moon, Corn Ripening Moon, Corn Ripe Moon, Drying Grass Moon, Falling Leaves Moon, Frosty Moon, Hallows Moon, Harvest Moon, Ivy Moon, Joins Both Sides Moon, Kindly Moon, Leaf Falling Moon, Leaf Dance Moon, Leaves Change Color Moon, Maple Moon, Michaelmas Daisy Moon, Middle Finger Moon, Moon When Birds Fly South, Moon of Poverty, Moon When Geese Leave, Moon of Changing Season, Moon When Quilling and Beading Are Done, Moon When Water Begins to Freeze on the Edge of Streams , Moon of Harvesting, Moon When Deer Rut, Moon of Acorn Gathering, Moon When Corn Is Taken in , Moon of Changing Season, Moon of Falling Leaves, Moon That Turns the Leaves White, Moon of First Frost, Moon When They Store Food in Caches, Moon of Long Hair, Nut Moon, Raking Moon, Samhain Moon, Shedding Moon, Small Trees Freeze Moon , Song Moon, Striped Gopher Looks Back Moon, Strong Moon, Ten Colds Moon, Travel in Canoes Moon, Trees Felled by Fire at Butt Moon , Trout Moon, Vintage Moon, White Frost on Grass and Ground Moon, Wild Turkey Moon, Wilted Moon, Wine Moon, Winter Coming Moon

I am rather fond of the names "Kindly Moon" and "Leaf Dance Moon".