Also called total lunar eclipse, red moon, eclipsed moon
A blood moon is the copper-to-deep-red moon seen during a total lunar eclipse, when the only sunlight reaching it has passed through Earth's atmosphere. It has been read as an omen in many cultures, and this page gives a safe, quiet watching rite for the eclipse night.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: A lunar eclipse is safe to view without eye protection. Keep candles in a lantern or indoors, never leave them unattended, and dress warmly for a long outdoor watch.
The prophet Joel says the moon will turn to blood before the great day of the Lord, and Peter repeats the line in Acts 2:20, applying it to Pentecost. Revelation 6:12 describes the moon becoming like blood. These verses are the root of the English phrase.
Pastors John Hagee and Mark Biltz claimed a tetrad of four total lunar eclipses, from April 15, 2014 to September 28, 2015, signaled the end times. Hagee's book Four Blood Moons became a bestseller. Critics pointed out that most of the eclipses were not visible from Israel, and no prophesied event followed.
The Inca explained the red moon as a jaguar attacking it and made noise and waved spears to drive it off. In Mesopotamia an eclipse was read as demons attacking the moon and, through it, the king, so a substitute king was sometimes put on the throne for the danger period.
During a total lunar eclipse the moon passes into Earth's full shadow, so no sunlight reaches it directly. Some light still gets there by bending through Earth's atmosphere, which scatters away the blue and passes the red, the same Rayleigh scattering that colors sunsets. Dust, cloud and volcanic ash change how dark the result looks; the French astronomer André Danjon devised a five-step scale, from nearly invisible to bright copper-orange, to rate it.
The red moon has worried people for millennia. Besides the Inca and Mesopotamian readings, the Chinese Book of Songs linked a darkened red moon with famine and disease. In English, blood moon has also been used for the Hunter's Moon, but since the 2014 to 2015 tetrad prophecy it has mostly meant a total lunar eclipse. Unlike a solar eclipse, it is safe to watch with the naked eye.
A full moon ritual is a simple monthly practice done at home on the night of the full moon to give thanks, release what is finished and charge water or tools in the moonlight. This is a complete solo version for beginners, separate from the Wiccan coven esbat.
How people have answered eclipses: Chinese courts and villagers beat drums and pots to drive off the creature eating the sun or moon, Hindu tradition tells of the demon Rahu swallowing them, and modern witches treat eclipses as charged times for endings and resets.
A supermoon is a full (or new) moon that happens when the moon is near perigee, its closest point to Earth, so it looks somewhat bigger and brighter than usual. The term was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, and this page gives a tide-and-intention rite for it.
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