great deer horns dropping moon / holy moon
Sep/oct 2026
Hello All,
Welcome to the new moon in Virgo — a practical and refining reset that arrives just ahead of the autumn equinox.
The placement feels especially fitting to me as this new moon arrives in a sign also associated with diligent and meticulous work, just as I am gearing up for a final push to complete illustrations for next year’s calendar. A new set of images and a new ancient calendar for us to explore are on the way! But, more on that next time…
☽O☾
American History – Great Deer Horns Dropping Moon
For the Kiowa people of the Great Plains, this is Táguñótal P’a Edal, or Great Deer Horns Dropping Moon.
Last month we met its counterpart, the Little Deer Horns Dropping Moon. In the Kiowa calendar recorded by James Mooney, the “Little” and “Great” versions mark successive stages of the same natural cycle. The late-summer shedding of the soft velvet that covers deer’s antlers aligns closely with the timing of these two moons.
The Great Deer Horns Dropping Moon therefore carries a sense of completion within the cycle: the fuller expression of a process that began in the previous moon. It sits in the quiet transition of late summer into early autumn, when the land is already turning and hinting of a coming winter that will see the deer cast off their antlers entirely.
This moon asks us: What in your life is already preparing you? What is already reminding you how the story of the coming winter will go?
☽O☾
British History – Holy Moon
The Anglo-Saxons called this lunar month Halegmonath — Holy Moon or Holy Month.
Bede, writing in 725, records only that “Halegmonath means ‘month of sacred rites.’” He gives no further explanation.
The late tenth-century poem known as the Menologium treats the name as already traditional. It places the beginning of the month in the Christian calendar with these words:
…..through many nations
it is Holy-month, agreed upon by the heroes,
ferried to the folk, just as the fore-minded men,
aged historians, discovered much earlier,
the coming of September, and by the seventh day
the best of women was conceived, the mother of the Lord.
Then a multitude of days later, about thirteen nights,
a thane well-renowned, wise in God’s message
sent forth his spirit, Matthew into the keeping of the Measurer,
into perpetual joys. Then it always arrives
about three nights later to broad peoples
a night evenly long, to the children of humanity.
Listen, we worthy widely throughout the earth
the time of the high-angel Michael in the autumn,
so that many will know, five nights later
an Equinox is revealed to the earls, to the people.
In the poem’s reckoning, Holy-month opens near the birthday of the Virgin Mary (8 September), continues past the feast of St Matthew, and leads toward Michaelmas and the autumn equinox: the “night evenly long.” The old name is kept, but the month is now mapped onto the sacred Christian year.
The Holy Moon sits at a threshold: the turning from the long days of summer toward the darker half of the year, marked both by older rites and by the later Christian feasts. Across cultures, this is when we turn from the busy work of the external world to the quiet work of the inner realm of the soul.
Haleg means holy in Anglo-Saxon, and its etymology breaks down like this:
Hāl (Root): An Old English adjective meaning "whole," "entire," "uninjured," or "healthy".
-iġ / -eġ (Suffix): A Germanic suffix meaning "having the quality of"
Therefore, to the Anglo-Saxons, something that was holy was, in a sense, seen to be in a state of wholeness.
The Holy Moon asks us: What makes your spirit whole? What sacred inner work is awaiting you in the coming months of darkness?
☽O☾
Lunar Astronomy
Just days before the full moon, the autumn equinox arrives — the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night stand in near-equal balance.
Through the ages and around the world the equinoxes have been seen as a time to transition between the two halves of the year.
In ancient China, the autumn equinox was traditionally the time of moon sacrifice. There was a saying: “Sacrifice to the sun in spring, sacrifice to the moon in autumn.” Emperors performed formal rites to the moon at this season. Because a full moon was preferred for the ceremony, the festival was later shifted to the full moon of the eighth lunar month — the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The equinox itself was the original anchor.
☽O☾
Lunar Astrology
This new moon is exact at approximately 18°25' Virgo: a practical, discerning, and detail-oriented energy that supports getting organized, tending to health matters, kicking off new and improved schedules and routines, bringing order to anything in disarray, and (most importantly) getting down to work. No wonder it is the sign that annually presides over our back-to-school activities! Virgo invites us to serve what matters, to edit what is no longer useful, and to approach new beginnings with care, precision, and thoroughness – rather than haste.
The full moon arrives on September 26 at about 3°36' Aries. Aries brings a self-assuredness and the urge to act. This polarity (Virgo–Aries) highlights the tension between careful preparation and the boldness of just diving in and simply beginning.
With the autumn equinox falling between them, the whole cycle carries a strong theme of balance and transition. What needs careful consideration under the Virgo new moon so that, by the Aries full moon, you can move forward with the confidence Aries demands?
☽O☾
All my best, and until next lunar month, Claire
