OCTOBER - BLOOD MOON 


The Moon of October is also called Harvest Moon, Hunter's Moon, Shedding Moon, 
Winterfelleth (Winter Coming), Windermanoth (Vintage Month), Falling Leaf Moon, 
Ten Colds Moon, and Moon of the Changing Season.
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The Aztecs and Toltecs celebrated the Festival of Ciuteotl, the snake woman
Goddess at the Full Moon.

The Disirblot (or Disablot) of Freyja observed at the Full Moon marked the 
beginning of the Winter season for the Norse.

The ancient Hawaiians celebrated a four-month long festival called the Makahiki, 
beginning at the first Full Moon of this month.  The God Lono had a special 
celebration of five days during this time, filled with games, pageantry, the 
hula, surfing, feasting, and tax collecting.

The Irish name for the month is Deireadh Fomhair.

The Frankish name for the month, Windermanoth (Vintage Month), refers to the
wine harvest.

The American backwoods tradition calls the October Full Moon the Hunter's Moon.
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Old Sayings & Lore 

The more bright red berries that can be seen in the hedgerows this month, the 
more frost and snow there will be in the forthcoming winter.

October is known for its second summer in much of the Northern Hemisphere:

Sweden - St. Bridget's Summer.
U. S. - Indian Summer.
Italy - Summer of St. Teresa.
Germany and Switzerland - Summer of St. Gall.
England - St. Luke's Summer.
The Gaelic word for fortune comes from "that which denotes a Full Moon."  The 
Druids believed that when the circle of the Moon was complete, good fortune was 
given to those who knew how to ask the gods for it.

A verse:

O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east:          
Shine be increased.                                     
O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the west:          
Wane, be at rest.                                       
New Moon, true Moon, true and trusty,               
Tell me who my true love must be.                      
New Moon, true Moon, true and bright,               
If I have a true love, let me dream of him/her tonight. 
New Moon, true Moon, tell unto me               
If (name), my true love, he/she will marry me.
If he/she marry me in haste                             
Let me see his/her bonnie face,                       
If he/she marry me betide                               
Let me see his/her bonnie side,                       
If he/she will not marry me                             
Turn his/her back and go away.                          
The Moon and the weather may change together;           
But change of the Moon does not change the weather.     
If we had no Moon at all, and that would seem strange,  
We should still have weather that's subject to change.  
 
Theodore of Tarsus was archbishop of Cantebury from 668 C.E. to 690 C.E.  He
condemned "anyone who goes about as a stag or bull, that is, making himself into 
a wild animal, and putting on the heads of beasts, those who in such in such 
wise transform themselves into the appearance of a wild beast, penance for three 
years."

The birthstone of October is the opal:

October's child is born for woe,       
And life's vicissitudes must know:     
But lay an opal on her breast,         
And hope will lull those woes to rest.