The Harvest Moon, the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, brings potent magic and wisdom. Learn what this year’s Harvest Moon has to teach you.

Each full moon of the year has a special name that comes from cultures all over the world. Usually, these names refer to the season, and the moon’s appearance shifts depending on whether we’re in a year with twelve or thirteen moons. The Harvest Moon is a special name, as it refers to the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere). It’s called that because, at this time of the year, the full moon tends to rise around sunset for several nights in a row, giving farmers that little bit of extra light to work by during the vital harvest season. It usually rises sometime in September, but it can land in October as well.

The Blue Moon offers an opportunity for contemplation, completion, and tapping into divine femininity. Explore the spiritual meaning of this special full moon.

The length of a moon cycle is around 29.5 days, while the average length of a calendar month is 30.5 days. We usually have just one full moon per month, but every two or three years we have 13 moons in a year. This 13th moon is usually a Blue Moon, either the second full moon in a calendar month or the third full moon in a three-month season with four full moons. So what is the spiritual meaning of a blue moon?

And sometimes things don’t shift. Sometimes we’re stuck in a rut for a long long while and nothing seems to change no matter how many full moons pass us by. I’ll be honest—with everything I’ve been dealing with this year, I am in a sort of self-imposed, restorative rut. I’m in day-by-day mode.

April’s full moon invites us to delight in the gifts of being human and to enjoy the coming of spring. Explore the spiritual meaning of April’s Awakening Moon.

Before we followed our current 12-month calendar, cultures all over the world followed lunations, or moon cycles, to track the seasons. Each moon cycle had its own name, usually referring to something that was happening in the natural world at the time.

As all these names indicate, there is something cold, hard, and a little scary about January’s full moon time. From the perspective of people who lived off the land, this would have been the time when food stores from the harvest were running out, and the abundance of the spring was still very far away. It would have been easy to go hungry during this time.

The winter solstice, which falls on December 21, is the pinnacle of moon season. This is the darker half of the year when we tend to see the moon more often in the sky. From a spiritual perspective, this is the time for inward work, like learning, reflecting, meditating, and praying, while the brighter half of the year is better suited to external practices, like producing, creating, and expressing. The winter solstice also comes with the holiday season; the ancient pagans called this month’s moon the Moon Before Yule.

November is the month of the full Beaver Moon, according to Indigenous and European traditions in North America. Around this time, beavers settle into the lodges they so diligently built in the spring and summer, preparing for the colder season. The Cree and Assiniboine people refer to November’s moon as the Frost Moon, while it’s called the Freezing Moon by the Anishinaabe, referencing the cold shift we often feel so sharply in November.

The November full moon is the perfect time to wrap up projects and turn inward for the winter. Explore the spiritual meaning of the Beaver Moon.

November is the month of the full Beaver Moon, according to Indigenous and European traditions in North America. Around this time, beavers settle into the lodges they so diligently built in the spring and summer, preparing for the colder season. The Cree and Assiniboine people refer to November’s moon as the Frost Moon, while it’s called the Freezing Moon by the Anishinaabe, referencing the cold shift we often feel so sharply in November.

Many people experience September as a kind of spiritual New Year—Jewish people, for example, celebrate the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, during the September New Moon. There is a freshness as the cool air sets in and a new energy that may feel quite exciting. Though most of us may not literally be hunting, this time of the year is appropriate for setting clear intentions to achieve our goals, especially in terms of work or learning, and take action on reaching those goals.

To align with the spiritual meaning of the full Hunter’s Moon this October, complete your internal harvest.

The Hunter’s Moon is one of the few traditional moon names that isn’t associated with the month itself, but rather with the timing of the autumnal equinox. While the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox is always the Harvest Moon, the moon that follows is referred to as the Hunter’s Moon, and it makes its first appearance in either October or November.

During the August full moon, we are working with a double light: the intensity of the summer sun and the peak of the moon’s illumination. If our inner sea monsters are coming to the surface now, let’s greet them with kindness and listen for what they may have to teach us, rather than trying to force them back down into the dark. This doesn’t have to be a struggle. We can allow this time of stirring up to be medicinal.

Greet your inner sea monster as you embrace the spiritual meaning of the Sturgeon Moon.

Each month’s full moon has a special name that represents something about the natural world and the energy of that time. The Sturgeon Moon is the Algonquian name for the full moon in August, when the sturgeon were easiest to catch in the Great Lakes. Other traditions named this month’s moon the Full Red Moon, for the late summery haze that can tinge the moon red, and the Corn or Grain Moon, as this is a time to start gathering the late summer harvest in preparation for the fall.

Feeling wilted in the middle of summer? Channel the spiritual energy of thunderstorms and heat with July’s Thunder Moon.

The Western Abenaki have named July’s full moon the Thunder Moon due to the likelihood of thunderstorms around this time. The Anishinaabe call it the Halfway Summer Moon, which places it right in the middle of the summer as it tends to be felt, rather than according to the seasons or the solstice. Several traditions also call it the Full Buck Moon, referring to the time when the male deer are showing off their impressive antlers.

June’s full moon is commonly called the Strawberry Moon, a name that originated with the Lakota, Ojibwa, and Algonquin peoples. The Haida name for this month’s moon is the Berries Ripen Moon.

Of course, this refers to the fact that many berries begin to ripen in June. It’s a time not only of blossoming and ripening but of animal babies being born. It’s also the month that contains the summer solstice (on June 21st) and the shift into a new season.

April’s full moon has a traditional name given to it by indigenous peoples that would count time by the moons: the Full Pink Moon. It is named after the pink phlox that would cover the ground in April, indicating the first flowers of the spring season.

Are you ready to get down and dirty to tap into the energy of the full Worm Moon?

March’s full moon is called the Worm Moon, likely referring to the movement under the earth that begins in the early spring in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a time when the ground is melting, the frozen earth is beginning to give way, and the worms begin to wriggle and move beneath the ground.