Pop Culture Moon Musings
October Event updates, the Dark Moon, and my Lunar Pet Peeve
Upcoming Event: Know the Night, October 25th
This fall we will be exploring the waterfront of Camp Sealth by night! Enjoy time around the fire with s’mores, night beach walks and hikes, a twilight sit spot, sensory games, and stargazing and astronomy activities! If it gets too cloudy to see the stars, we will head inside for some virtual stargazing.
Attendance is $10 / person, OR free if you attend the camp’s fall service day. Add on a cabin rental for $15 / person and stay Saturday night in a heated cabin on the shore.
Moon Musings
Sometimes I feel like there is nothing so misunderstood as the moon.
Almost every time I teach about the sky, I encounter a wide range of moon questions and myths - and I relish answering and reframing them. This month, I want to share a few lunar topics that have come up recently.
Question: Did you do anything for the Dark Moon? Wasn’t it just SO dark out?
Response: It’s interesting that you should say that. Did you go outside during the Dark Moon (on August 23/24)? What was your experience?
Here’s a funny thing about the term “Dark Moon”, or “Black Moon.” It doesn’t actually refer to any true astronomical anomaly, so much as it refers to a calendrical one. It is, essentially, the opposite of a “Blue Moon.”
When we have a Blue Moon, the moon doesn’t actually turn blue. It’s just a term for either a) the second full moon in a calendar month, or b) the third out of four full moons occurring during a season.
Likewise, the Dark Moon is a term for either a) the second new moon in a calendar month, or b) the third out of four new moons occurring during a season.
There is yet a third definition, where no new moon occurs in a month, as happens every 19th February or so.
In this case, the Dark Moon was the third new moon of a summer season containing four. The last one will be September 21st, and since astronomical autumn technically doesn’t occur until September 22nd this year, puts it just barely within summer.
This calendrical easter egg happens every 29 months or so, so it is somewhat rare. However, there is no visible difference in the sky between this and any other new moon.
However, that’s not to say that the night sky isn’t dark. It really is the darkest it can get out there (unless you’re also in a place far from light pollution and the sky is dense with clouds.) But it is interesting that several people have told me about their intense experience with the dark moon and being able to see so many stars. It’s also interesting that the AI on some search engines will tell you that this is a time that is especially dark. (Yet another reminder not to trust AI when you need answers.)
I know, however, that part of the reason why people asked me about what I was up to on the Dark Moon, is because a) of course, I’m a sky person, and b) because I’m also a self-proclaimed “witchy” person. And in “witchy” circles, the Dark Moon can be considered a powerful time for rituals that involve clearing, cleansing, setting intentions, or doing some Jungian shadow work.
As I’ve mentioned in several other newsletters, there are many cultures across the world which view the moon as the basis of a formal ritual calendar. There are also many other people who are not a part of these cultures, but are related or adjacent to them, or who just love the moon, and choose to make the moon’s phases a part of their own ritual calendar. I would place myself in this second group.
Because asking what I did on the Dark Moon is, at its roots, a personal question about my beliefs, allow me to indulge in a bit of sharing. If it gets too weird for you, feel free to move on to the next question. I think it’s very interesting how neopaganism, new-ageism and so many other belief structures intersect on the many things one can believe. I enjoy attending a nondenominational pagan church when I can, and the wide range of beliefs there is incredible and beautiful. I would consider myself a pantheist neopagan, and also, a skeptic. I do believe that to some extent, the cosmos has the ability to impact ourselves and our world – but only if we allow it. To quote public witch Amanda Yates Garcia:
“The stars do not have the power to influence us as concepts - for the mythology of astrology to be turned into an actual medicine, it has to have a vehicle. A substrate. To transform astrology from an abstract idea into an actual medicinal power, we need ritual. Ritual is the ladder the moon will use to enter the dwelling of our psyche and distribute her life saving elixirs.”
In other words - I think that creating rituals accompanying the moon’s phases can be a powerful way of aligning your personal intentions and affirmations with an embodied physical and visual experience. And people the world-over from many walks of life might put it differently but have agreed in practice.
In college and for some of the years after, I actually used to lead a new moon circle. We would gather to “plant” our intentions like seeds for the month ahead so they could grow as the moon appeared larger each month. There was usually a theme, a meditation, and a symbolic craft project. I don’t lead them anymore for many reasons that I won’t get into here, but they were a really nice way of building community and confidence.
You might also notice that the publications of this newsletter (and my former cultural astronomy podcast) align with the full moons.
That being said, I didn’t actually do anything out of the ordinary for the Dark Moon. I wrote a song about the Washington State Ferry system, watched my partner in a sporting tournament, and did a little stargazing.
Question: Is there an eclipse this month?
Response: Yes, there IS a lunar eclipse coming up, and it’s happening this weekend! And it’s visible just about everywhere on Earth EXCEPT the Americas. Womp womp.
We got ours back in the spring. But never fear - Pacific Northwesterners are going to get another total lunar eclipse in March of 2026. Just barely.
That being said, I’ve already seen a red moon this month - but that’s because the smoke from nearby fires is out of control. Womp womp again. That’s a bit of a different occultation.
Question: Why is it so difficult to find accurate moon phase merchandise?
Response: Actually, this is MY question. And I would love a response.
My pet peeve, whenever buying something that can be personalized, is that they very often DO have a cosmic option, and that very frequently that option includes moon phases, and those moon phases are very frequently wrong.
Can you spot what’s wrong with the moon phases in this photo?
I love Passion Planner, and I’m excited about the upcoming launch of their 2026 line. I would love to carry around a book that looks like an embossed grimoire all year. Unfortunately, seeing the moon like this really, really bugs me.
The same thing happens when I try to order moon stickers for my planner (to help myself track the year, of course.) Can you see anything wrong with these?
What about these leggings that were advertised to me?
The same thing happened when I moved and went looking for rugs:
Y’all.
This makes me so sad.
Have we as a culture never seen the gibbous moon before?
Unfortunately, everywhere I go, I see versions of the moon where the crescent just gets increasingly more and more stuffed, like a cookie with increasingly smaller bites taken out of it. Rather than filling up halfway and spilling over like a tablespoon full of sugar that is measured with the heart.
There is one place where this graphic is accurate, and that’s when the moon is eclipsing the sun. Then, the sun might look exactly like the cookie I described.
When I can’t avoid this graphic, I try to imagine it as a solar eclipse, because that’s also pretty dang cool and cosmic.
My other pet peeve is a moon phase full of stars, as if you could see straight through the part of the moon that isn’t being illuminated.
However, I’m a little bit more forgiving with this one, especially if the shape of the moon is correct. I understand that graphic design can be difficult, and you often have moons sitting on a starry background.
The moon also has a very distinctive surface pattern, and I can usually tell when the waxing phases have just been flipped upside down to become waning phases, or when a random pattern is passed off as “realistic.”
I understand that pointing out inaccurate moon phases in shops and on merchandise is perfectly pedantic. I get that sometimes the moon/sun/stars are just a vibe, or an aesthetic. I just feel like sometimes we should know better, you know? Especially about the whole gibbous thing. And especially in science museum gift shops, or in “witchy” circles that claim to follow and honor the moon.
And now you know enough to be annoyed by these things too.
Into the Dark Again
I started this substack in September of last year, so this marks the 13th full moon of publishing. That means that it’s been a year since I left Wilderness Awareness School and my beloved Night Club behind. That also means it’s been 3 years since we started Night Club.
I wish I could say that I have everything all figured out, and that it has been easy to transform Night Club into a continuing free program through my own business. I wish I could say that it is easy to own, run, and budget a little LLC, and easy to find opportunities as a sole proprietor. I wish I could say that running programs in public parks at night is simple and that event insurance, business filing, and business expenses with no income are easy to navigate. I wish I had $34,000 to buy a portable planetarium, so I could do what I love and teach about astronomy and culture both indoors and outdoors, regardless of the weather or the sky conditions. Unfortunately, none of that is true. Especially when trying to stay afloat by oneself and work a full-time job on an island.
There are still incredible opportunities ahead. I am definitely programming more nighttime content at Camp Sealth, including a spring Know the Night event. There are talks to bring something like Night Club to Seattle parks in 2026. There are also talks with several arts spaces that I may be collaborating with to bring some cosmic theatre to you. I‘m also still available to hire for stargazing lessons and your own private versions of Night Club for parties, scout campouts, etc.
I know this is still my soul’s work. I led an incredible stargazing group at a private Jewish camp last weekend, and I hadn’t felt so alive in days as I did after our hour of questions, answers, mythology, history, and solar system modeling on the beach. I am still just as in love as ever with researching and sharing cultural astronomy, and answering “What’s going on with the moon?!”
I just wonder if my little LLC, or Night Club as it was, are the way to do it in this phase of life. So, that might change. But life is relentless change, and like everything else, I continue to alchemize. I look forward to applying my skills and gifts where they are called for, rather than forcing them into a structure that has withered.
In the next few months I plan to update The Sky Connection website to better reflect what I’m currently offering. If you have any words to share about what my work has meant to you and you would like to share them with potential future collaborators, I welcome your messages and quotes for the site. I also welcome any ideas for offerings you feel are missing! I will continue to look for collaborations with the time I am able to spare.
AND, I look forward to continuing this newsletter. Don’t worry - this isn’t going away. You can stay subscribed for updates on all the astro things in the works.
That’s it for now. But don’t forget to sign up for Know the Night in October! It’s going to be so much fun! And it’s SUCH a cheap way to experience camp. Seriously, come get away with me. :)
