freezing moon / hunter’s moon

Oct/Nov 2025

Hello All,

This lunar month brings in the Freezing Moon in the North American version of my 2025 lunations calendars, and the Hunter’s Moon the UK version.

Many groups have historically viewed the year as having just two distinct seasons: the warm half and the cold half. The warm half was busy with outdoor work and interaction with the land. When the change-over to the cold half came it signaled a time to turn inward. As the world shut up shop, focus moved to the spiritual side of life. This could be a deeply personal and introspective time, but also a social time in which people bonded with family and friends around the fire while enduring the harsh weather. Even in our modern life we can experience this dual nourishing of the soul that comes with the winter months. It persists in the enduring practices of the holiday season. When else do we better experience both the depth of human connection and the call to check in and reflect on our inner spiritual lives? While many may think of this as strictly a Christmas thing (and Thanksgiving for Americans), I would argue that it all kicks off with Halloween.

American History

For the Anishinaabeg, the coming of the Freezing Moon (Ziigiibin Giizis) means more storytelling by the fire, along with a general broadening of social activities. With the busy work of summer over until next year, there is more time for friends and family. This is, in part, made possible by the freezing over of the lakes, allowing for easier crossing to visit and trade with one’s more distant relatives and neighbors.

This time of year, the Anishinaabeg often hold a feast called a Ghost Supper (Jiibay Giizhad Shanegewin, “Feeding of the Spirits Day”). After the previous moon saw the clearing of fields and stocking of larders, autumn is prime for feasting with fresh game, wild rice, and maple syrup.

Anishinaabeg lore says that Spirits wander in the freezing cold, and that feeding them prevents unrest and ensures harmony. Thus, while the people gather to eat together, plates of traditional foods like wild rice porridge, smoked fish, maple sugar, or corn soup are placed at gravesites or on altars in homes or community centers. These offerings of food to the dead can ease their winter journey to Waabanakiing (spirit land).

This all seems in good time for Halloween, or All Souls’ Day, or Samhain. Whatever you prefer to call it, the imagery of the Anishinaabeg Spirits wandering in the freezing cold winter is actually a more modern narrative. Before Colonial contact, these feasts happened in spring and summer and were focused on abundance and on the Spirits guiding the people in their planting. Colonial pressures reshaped the ceremony’s season and spiritual framing. The shift to autumn allowed the Anishinaabeg to preserve the ceremony under Christian missionary scrutiny, blending their cyclical view (spirits as ever-present) with Christian linear time (specific days for the dead, like All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on November 1st and 2nd, respectively). The “cold” imagery likely grew to reflect the new season’s starkness.

This influence persists, making early November common for the Ghost Supper, though it has no universal holy day. It is a moveable feast, or, rather, feasts. Families or tribes may host multiple suppers staggered over the broader fall-to-winter transition to accommodate travel and sharing. After all, the heart of the Ghost Supper is relational, reminding us that spirits don't follow a calendar, but arrive with the season's turn.

British History

Victorian Britain romanticized the Hunter’s Moon, with almanacs like The Gentleman’s Diary offering moonrise times for rural sports. While some link it to Native American names via colonial exchange (it is traced to Algonquin tribes via colonial adoption), its British usage celebrates the season’s shift to winter preparation. Like the Harvest moon that precedes it, due to the moon's shallow orbital angle in autumn, the Hunter’s Moon provides "extra" moonlight and was celebrated for aiding hunters in tracking game across the open fields now cleared of crops.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces "Hunter's Moon" to at least 1710, predating Victoria. It symbolized the start of the hunting season, when leaves fell, underbrush thinned, and animals fattened on harvest leavings, making them easier to spot. In Britain, this aligned with the "cubbing season" for fox hunting (starting October), a staple of aristocratic calendars. Almanacs like Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1840s editions) occasionally referenced it poetically, linking it to "sanguine" or "blood" moons—evoking the reddish hue from atmospheric scattering or, folklorically, hunters' spoils.

Lunar Astronomy

This lunar cycle brings another spectacular full supermoon on November 5, 2025, this time the closest full moon of the year, appearing 14% larger and 30% brighter. The supermoon’s proximity may even exaggerate its tidal pull, amplifying coastal tides slightly.

The Freezing Moon (or Hunter’s Moon in UK terms), also coincides with the Leonids meteor shower (active November 6–30, peaking November 17–18). Unlike August’s Perseids, the waning crescent moon during the Leonids’ peak won’t interfere, making it a prime viewing event in both the UK and US. Expect 10–15 meteors per hour under dark skies post-moonset.

The Leonids are one of the most storied meteor showers, caused by Earth plowing through dusty trails left by Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Its "shooting stars" are famous for their speed (up to 71 km/s or 44 miles/s)—the fastest of major showers—creating bright, fiery streaks that can leave glowing trains lasting seconds.

Lunar Astrology

The new moon of October 21st falls in Scorpio, whose themes of transformation, mystery, and confronting the unseen resonate with Halloween’s focus on honoring the dead, embracing the supernatural, and navigating the thin veil between worlds. The full moon of November 5th falls in Taurus. This Scorpio/Taurus axis is a powerful dance between transformation and stability, mirroring the Freezing Moon’s call to prepare and reflect.

Scorpio, ruled by Pluto (and Mars, more traditionally speaking), is all about emotional intensity, transformation, and hidden truths. This new moon is ripe for personal rebirth, and it’s a time to probe beneath the surface. Do you ever secretly feel like there’s a truer and more powerful you lurking within? There’s no better time than now to shed your old skin. Just be sure you’re ready, because the kind of transformation that Scorpio does best is the permanent kind. While you’re at it, beware Scorpio’s sting: avoid power struggles or obsessive tendencies, and plant seeds for emotional or financial security as Scorpio governs shared resources and intimacy.

Taurus, ruled by Venus, grounds us in comfort, stability, and earthly pleasures. This supermoon illuminates what you (perhaps secretly?) began to build on the Scorpio new moon, bringing rewards for staying the path. Focus on tangible outcomes—budgets, home projects, or self-care routines. Taurus craves loyalty and simplicity, so celebrate progress with a cozy meal or nature walk. However, Taurus’ stubborn streak can resist change, so balance Scorpio’s transformative push with Taurus’s need for calm. Although, it may take an extra effort to find some peace in the wake of Scorpio’s heavy-handed action.

The supermoon’s brilliance, paired with the Leonids’ streaks, amplifies this moment while Taurus invites you to savor the results of your transformation.

All my best, and until the next lunar month,

Claire