Colored Moons

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Colored Moons

Blue Moon

Once in a Blue Moon ... is a common way of saying not very often, but what exactly is a Blue Moon? It is the second Full Moon to occur in a single calendar month. The average interval between Full Moons is about 29.5 days, whilst the length of an average month is roughly 30.5 days. This makes it very unlikely that any given month will contain two Full Moons, though it does sometimes happen. On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every
century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years. Isn't your definition of Blue Moon wrong? Blue Moon - what's the real definition? We've used Blue Moon to mean the second Full Moon in a single calendar month. In March 1999, Sky and Telescope magazine published an article about Blue Moons by Philip Hiscock, who has studied the folklore and history of the expression. In that article, Hiscock traced the many meanings of the expression over the centuries, but noted that
the "two Full moons in a single month" meaning couldn't be explained satisfactorily. In the May 1999 issue of Sky and Telescope, there appeared a follow-up article which proved that Sky and Telescope had in fact created the current meaning by mistake in an article published in March 1946. The author of the 1946 article had misinterpreted a page of the 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac.
By studying copies of the Maine Farmers' Almanac dating as far back as 1819, the authors of the May 1999 article showed that the compilers of the Almanac used the term to label the third Full Moon in a season which has four. We have calculated the dates of this type of Blue Moon for the 20th and 21st centuries and put them in a list for you to browse.

Year Astronomical Seasons Maine Farmer's Almanac
1902 May 22 10:46
1905 Feb 19 18:52
1907 Aug 23 12:15
1910 Aug 20 19:14
1913 May 20 07:18 Feb 21 02:03
1915 Aug 24 21:40 Nov 21 17:36
1918 Aug 22 05:02
1921 May 21 20:15
1924 May 18 21:52 Feb 20 16:07
1926 Aug 23 12:38
1929 Aug 20 09:42 May 23 12:50
1932 May 20 05:09 Feb 22 02:07
1934 Aug 24 19:37 Nov 21 04:26
1937 Aug 22 00:47
1940 May 21 13:33
1943 May 19 21:13 Feb 20 05:45
1945 Aug 23 12:03 Nov 19 15:13
1948 Aug 19 17:32 May 23 00:37
1951 May 21 05:45
1953 Aug 24 20:21 Nov 20 23:12
1956 Aug 21 12:38
1959 May 22 12:56
1961 Nov 22 09:44 No Blue Moon
1962 May 19 14:32 Feb 19 13:18
1964 Aug 23 05:25 Nov 19 15:43
1967 Aug 20 02:27 May 23 20:22
1970 May 21 03:38
1972 Nov 20 23:07
1975 Aug 21 19:48
1978 May 22 13:17
1981 Feb 18 22:58
1983 Aug 23 14:59 Nov 20 12:29
1986 Aug 19 18:54
1989 May 20 18:16 Feb 20 15:32
1991 Nov 21 22:56
1994 Aug 21 06:47
1997 May 22 09:13

Traditional Blue Moons in the 21st Century Year Astronomical Seasons Maine Farmer's Almanac
2000 Feb 19 16:27
2002 Aug 22 22:29 Nov 20 01:34
2005 Aug 19 17:53
2008 May 20 02:11 Feb 21 03:30
2010 Nov 21 17:27
2013 Aug 21 01:44
2016 May 21 21:14
2019 May 18 21:11 Feb 19 15:53
2021 Aug 22 12:02 Nov 19 08:57
2024 Aug 19 18:25
2027 May 20 10:59 Feb 20 23:23
2029 Aug 24 01:51 Nov 21 04:02
2032 Aug 21 01:46
2035 May 22 04:25
2038 May 18 18:23 Feb 19 16:09
2040 Aug 22 09:09 Nov 18 19:05
2043 Aug 20 15:04
2046 May 20 03:15
2048 Aug 23 18:06 Nov 20 11:19
2051 Aug 22 01:34
2054 May 21 15:16
2057 May 18 19:02 Feb 19 11:56
2059 Aug 23 09:41 Nov 19 13:09
2062 Aug 20 03:55
2065 May 20 02:05
2067 Nov 20 23:49
2070 Aug 21 19:53
2073 May 21 10:02
2076 May 18 17:38 Feb 19 23:48
2078 Aug 23 08:11 Nov 19 12:52
2081 Aug 19 11:15
2084 May 20 02:36
2086 Nov 20 20:12
2089 Aug 21 06:15
2092 May 21 10:00
2095 May 19 09:21 Feb 19 06:59
2097 Aug 22 23:52 Nov 19 13:03

It's a delightful irony that Sky and Telescope, in publishing an article in March 1999 on the history and folklore of Blue Moons, should turn out to be celebrating a "tradition" which it inadvertently created in an article 53 years before! So which definition is "correct"? The authors of the May 1999 article admit, With two decades of popular usage behind it, the second-full-Moon-in-a-month (mis)interpretation is like a genie that can't be forced back into its bottle. And Charles A. Federer, Jr., the founder of Sky and Telescope magazine, adds, "Even if the calendrical meaning is new, I don't see any harm in it. It's something fun to talk about, and it helps attract people to astronomy."

How often is there a Blue Moon by the old definition? According to an article in the May 1999 issue of Sky and Telescope, the traditional definition of a Blue Moon is the third Full Moon in a season which has four Full Moons. Compilers of almanacs such as the Maine Farmer's Almanac would use a colored symbol to denote this third Full Moon, hence the name. Where did the expression Blue Moon come from? Surprisingly, it's not a very old expression. Philip Hiscock, in his fascinating article about the folklore of the Blue Moon, says that it was first used about 150 years ago as a way of saying not very often.

Does the Moon actually change color during a Blue Moon? There have been occasions when the Moon has appeared to be blue in hue. This isn't an astronomical phenomenon. Instead, it is caused by dust or smoke high in the Earth's atmosphere. The dust is thrown up by major volcanic eruptions such as Krakatoa, Mount St. Helens or Mount Pinatubo, whilst smoke can come from large forest fires. Why is there a bright ring around the Moon? Have you seen a ring around the Full Moon? It's called a halo and it's an optical effect caused by ice crystals high in the Earth's atmosphere. How often does a year have two Blue Moons? In about 4 years per century, there are two Blue Moons. The first Blue Moon always occurs in January. The second occurs predominantly in March. In the 10,000 years starting with 1600, this is true in 343 out of 400 cases, or 86 per cent of the time. In 37 cases (or 9 per cent), the second Blue Moon is in April. In the remaining 20 cases (5 per cent) it is in May.
How often does February not have a Full Moon? Several people have noticed that February 1999 has no Full Moon, and have asked me how often that happens. In 1999, January and March both have two Full Moons. The second Full Moon in January occurs late on the 31st, whilst the first Full Moon of March falls close to the beginning of the month, on the 2nd. You might guess, then, that February has no Full Moon in years when January and March have two Full Moons each. This happens, on average, about three times each century. How accurately can you calculate the time of a Full Moon? The Jet Propulsion Laboratory produces mathematical models for the
orbital motions of the Sun, Moon and planets. These are the models that are used to navigate spacecraft such as Voyager, Galileo and Cassini over billions of kilometres to rendezvous with the planets of the outer solar system. These models are used, indirectly, as the basis for the Blue Moon calculator. They are very accurate indeed between the years 1800 and 2100, but like any mathematical models based on real data which contains measurement errors, their accuracy will decrease as the date is extended further into the past or future. In particular, as the Moon slowly spirals away from the Earth, its angular speed is decreasing. This is called tidal deceleration. It amounts to about 25 arc-seconds per century per century, but we don't know the exact figure, and so we can't calculate the longitude of the Moon in its orbit with absolute certainty far into the future. An error of just 1 arc-second per century per century amounts to an uncertainty of more than an hour and a half in the time of Full Moon five thousand years ago or five thousand years hence. When did the 2001 Blue Moon occur? Our Blue Moon Calculator says that in 2001, there was a Blue Moon in November. You may have heard or read reports which said that the Blue Moon really occurred in October, or even in December. Who was right? How often is there a Blue Moon (or a Full Moon) on Halloween? To find the answer, we calculated the dates and times of all Full Moons between 2999 B.C. and A.D. 3000 using the same rigorous methods as those employed by the United States Naval Observatory and by Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office. In that 6000-year period, there are 74211 Full Moons. If the times of the Full Moons are calculated using Greenwich Mean Time, then 211 of them fall on October 31. Thus on average, there will be a Full Moon on Halloween three or four times per century. The 19-year Metonic cycle is an important factor, since it causes the dates of Full Moons to repeat at intervals of 19 years, or multiples of 19 years. This effect is especially evident in the 21st century, which has an unusually large number of Halloween Full Moons.

What about double New Moons? To Wiccans, the second New Moon is called the Black Moon, and any magic worked during that period is deemed to be especially powerful. Of course, the chances of two New Moons falling within one calendar month are just the same as two Full Moons, but because New Moons are generally invisible, most people tend not to notice the occasions when a month has two of them. That's not to say that New Moons aren't important to non-astronomers. To the world's Muslims, the date of New Moon is of great interest, since the Islamic calendar is governed by the phases of the Moon: the start of each month is marked by the first sighting of the new crescent Moon.
http://www.obliquity.com/astro/bluemoon.html

The "Black" moon

One witch once said "The Earths own religion, that´s Witchcraft. Her ally is the Moon." Both the Moon and the Earth itself has since ancient times been connected to the female aspect of the All. And to the elements of earth (planet: The Earth) and water (all fluid) (planet: The Moon). Most people who get in contact with modern Wicca hear about the threefold Goddess, that is three moonphases waxing-full-waning, symbolized by the Maiden (young woman), the Mother and the Crone (old woman). Notice that the fourth phase isn´t mentioned in this threefold Goddess, the dark, hidden (sometimes called the new, although this is more correct to use at the very first appearence of the waxing moon). We call it the Black Moon.

The Moon is Black or Dark three nights every moon cycle AND ANY TIME when the Moon is hidden behind clouds or in any way is invisible. Because of this the Black Moon has a very special symbolism. Especially for LHP-witches. Although, as I say again and again, the Craft is LUNAR (symbolism: the night, Yin, the female, the Dark etc. i e Left Hand Path in its essence) It is not a coincidence that the three-fold Goddess is what is emphasized in what has become "white" witchcraft and the dark/black is sometimes put aside in this process. But as Raven Grimassi writes:

" As we noted earlier, in the Mystery Tradition the Moon Goddess is known by traits linked to the four phases of the moon: new, waxing, full and waning. In the public tradition of ancient times, the Moon
Goddess possessed three aspects: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. In the Initiate level her fourth aspect was revealed as the Enchantress. Thus each phase of the moon is identified with an aspect of the goddess:
New moon Waxing Moon Full Moon Waning Moon
Enchantress Maiden Mother Crone

The new moon (when the moon is unseen for three nights) is the time of the Enchantress. Actually, whenever the moon cannot be seen or is obscured by clouds is also her time of power. The Enchantress doesn´t follow an order of appearance as does the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Her nature can appear in any of the other three aspects of the Goddess, and can also be reflected in her human counterparts. She weaves her way in and out of the other three natures as she pleases, just as one would expect of a goddess so named. The Lunar mysteries were not of a linear orientation, like the Solar Mysteries, and so the progression of the personified phases did not necessarily follow a set pattern. The need to establish a chronological order is something that we as modern people have inherited from our patriarchal ancestors. The nature of the Enchantress can appear within women in any of the phases of Maiden, Mother, and Crone, for the Maiden can be alluring and enchanting/tempting just as the Mother can; the natures are different aspects of sexuality. The crone can be enchanting/tempting as well, attracting through her grace, knowledge and experience. This is why the Enchantress was also known as the Temptress." End of quote

(From pp 91-92 in his book Wiccan Mysteries. Note: the book is a lot about pre-wicca although Grimassi prefer to use the word Wicca on the Craft as a whole, but the terms Old Wicca and Neo-Wicca. Note also from Nightwings point of view: The first step, the "public" is the threefold Goddess, the fourth aspect was revealed at the intiate level. This shows what has happened when the "first" that is literally the "light", "white" stuff, is confused with the whole. The "darker" is the esoteric, the inner which comes with step 2. Note also that he uses the word "new" moon instead of dark/black. A matter of taste?!)

The Black Moon and the Dark Goddess is an archetype for the LHP-witch. not restrained by a predictable pattern, she does what SHE pleases. She acts, dresses, talk, lives as SHE pleases. No norm whatsoever in any official "right" context controls her. It is therefore also about questioning ANY norm, EVEN the norm that tells how a "liberated" woman should live or behave. It is a contradiction and should be exposed for what it is! The LHP-witch sees beyond the obvious, taken-for-granted "norms" and attitudes and goes deep into the darkest night to find her true, wild self. http://www.devilworshipping.nu/nightwing/hax.htm