ten colds moon / winter full moon
oct/nov 2026
Hello All,
Welcome to the new moon in Libra — a balancing reset as the year tips more firmly toward the dark half.
In other news, my 2027 lunations calendar should be ready at the end of this month. This year I have based it on the Attic calendar: the ancient calendar observed by the Athenians. I also have a set of new graphite landscape drawings to accompany the months, which I’m very excited about.
☽O☾
American History – Ten Colds Moon
For the Kiowa people of the Great Plains, this is Gákiñăt'o P'a, the Ten Colds Moon.
James Mooney, recording the calendar from Anko and other informants, explains that it is so named because the first ten days of the moon are cold, after which the weather often warms again for a time. The moon corresponds roughly to late September and early October.
Importantly, it is both the first and the last moon of the Kiowa year. The old year and the summer are considered to end with the full moon of this period. Once the full moon begins to wane, winter and the new year have begun. Anko himself, speaking in late September 1895, noted that although they were still in Ten Colds Moon, it remained summer until the full moon passed and the waning began.
The Ten Colds Moon therefore carries a double character, reminiscent of Janus, the two-faced Roman god who presides over the turn of the year by looking both back to the old year and forward to the new at the same time.
This moon asks us: As the seismic shift of the changing season is upon you, what will you carry from the past into this new phase, and what will you say goodbye to that has no place in your future?
☽O☾
British History – Winter Full Moon
The Anglo-Saxons called this lunar month Winterfilleth, the Winter Full Moon.
Bede records in The Reckoning of Time that the old English people divided the whole year into only two seasons: summer and winter. They assigned the six months in which the days are longer than the nights to summer, and the remaining six to winter. Once the nights grew longer than the days, the following full moon began the winter season.
The Winter Full Moon asks us: What aspects of your life could do with a shift away from the external to spend time in the internal realms of reflection and of contemplation?
☽O☾
Lunar Astronomy
In recent weeks NASA has selected a new mission to study the Marius Hills Pit, a large opening on the Moon roughly 65 by 90 meters across. Scientists believe the pit may lead into a subsurface lava tube — a natural tunnel formed long ago by flowing volcanic rock.
Such tubes are of particular interest because they could one day offer future astronauts natural shelter from radiation and the extreme temperature swings of the lunar surface. The mission will use radar, gravity sensors and cameras to determine whether a substantial cave system lies beneath the pit.
There is something quietly poetic in the possibility. After all our technological striving to leave Earth, the first lasting human homes on the Moon may once again be found in caves — natural shelters formed by fire and stone, just as they were for our earliest ancestors. It seems fitting, somehow, that the first people to inhabit the Moon might be cavemen.
☽O☾
Lunar Astrology
The new moon of October 10th is in Libra — a balancing energy that supports harmony, fair negotiation, and the careful weighing of what is given and received. Libra invites us to restore equilibrium in partnerships, agreements, and the way we present ourselves to others, while remaining clear about our own needs.
The full moon arrives on October 25/26 in Taurus. Taurus brings steadiness and a focus on what is truly valuable and enduring. This polarity (Libra–Taurus) highlights the tension between relating and self-possession, between seeking harmony with others and standing firmly in one’s own values and resources.
What needs rebalancing under the Libra new moon so that, by the Taurus full moon, you can stand more securely in what you know is worth keeping?
☽O☾
All my best, and until next lunar month, Claire
