Blue Moon

Blue Moon

There are many references to a “Blue Moon, “in our modern society. Most often the phrase, “Once in a Blue Moon, “is uttered as something that happens only occasionally; something rare and sometimes, something very special. Songs full of loneliness and sadness surround the Blue Moon. This wasn’t always this way. The Phrase “Blue Moon,” comes to us around four hundred years ago and was a saying to express absurdities. It was like saying that the moon was made of green cheese. “He would argue that the moon was blue,” was someone that would argue that black was white. It was also a way to say that something never happened or was never going to happen. “I will merry you at the Blue Moon.” Meaning he would never marry her.

The term Blue moon seems to have four distinct definitions. One refers to an actual Moon whose light appears blue in color. This occurs very rarely only a few times in a century, it happens when large amounts of dust or smoke particles linger in the atmosphere. Usually this is after a catastrophic event like a raging wildfire or a volcanic eruption. The smoke causes the long-wavelength light, which appears red to the viewer, to be scattered out of the line of sight and short-wavelength light, which appears blue to the viewer, is selectively transmitted into the viewer’s eyes.

The second and older definition for a Blue Moon is an extra Full moon that occurred in a season; one season usually had three Full Moons. If a season had four full Moons, then the third Full Moon was the Blue moon. This event can only occur in February, May, August or November, about a month before the Equinoxes and the Solstices.

A third for a Blue Moon is two Full Moons that occur in a row with the same sign. This only occurs when the first Full Moon is in Zero or One degree of the sign and the next Full Moon is in 28 or 29 degrees of the same sign

The fourth most recent, most common and wildly accepted definition for a Blue Moon is a Full Moon that occurs twice in a calendar month. This happens because a lunar month is a 28-29 day cycle while our calendar month is usually 30-31 days long. This means that the extra days begin to accumulate about, 11 or 12 days a year and about once every 28 months you have an extra full moon. For a Blue Moon to occur, the first of the Full Moons must appear at or near the beginning of the month so that the second would fall within the same month. Blue Moons can occur in any month except for February, because it s shorter than a lunar month. A Blue Moon occurs about 7 times in a 19 year period. Occasionally whether a moon is called blue depends on the time zone. Any full moon occurs simultaneously everywhere, but at that moment clocks and calendars are not the same. It may be early evening in Europe on August 31, but it is early morning in Australia. So people viewing the Moon from England would see that this was the second Full Moon of the moth and would deem it the Blue Moon while those in Australia would not.

Double Full Moons which is when two Blue moons occur in one calendar year happens approximately once every 19 years. The months of the Double Blue Moon are almost always January and March. That is because the short month of February falls in between them. February is a key ingredient in this once-every-19-year phenomenon. For January and March to each have two full moons, it's necessary for February to have none at all. Since February is usually 28 days long, and the average span between full moons is 29.5 days, if a full moon occurs at the end of January, it's possible for the next full moon to skip February entirely and fall in the beginning of March.

Whichever definition you go by a Blue Moon is a rare and powerful event. Oftentimes these Moons are called “Goal Moons,” and are especially powerful times for spell work involving setting goals especially longer terms goals that you would like to accomplish between now and the next Blue Moon. Blue Moons are good times to look over your past and review your accomplishments and failures.

At the Blue Moon the Lunar energies are amplified. Some say that Blue Moon energies are Full Moons on steroids and are potent times for all kinds of attracting spell work prosperity, love, luck and healing magick is very powerful at this time, just make sure to be very clear on your intentions and what you want or it can have unexpected and sometimes undesired results.

Blue moon energies are said to hold all the knowledge and wisdom of the Goddess and is an accumulations of the Goddesses three sides; Maiden, Mother and Crone. It is also a Full Moon that allows greater ad easier communication between us and the divine. It is a thinning of the veil; meditation, prayer, divination and acts of prophecy are easier at this time.


It is said that during a Full Blue moon that the Moon has a face and that she spoke to those in its light, imparting wisdom for the year to come. So seek her out and enjoy this rare, powerful Moon.







http://www.examiner.com/x-22920-Atlanta-Alternative-Spirituality-Examiner~y2009m12d13-Once-in-a-Blue-Moon--New-Years-Eve-2009
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Rare-Blue-Moon---How-to-Take-Advantage-of-This-Special-Event&id=3454836
http://www.keen.com/CommunityServer/UserBlogPosts/SunGoddess78/Blue-Moon-Lunar-Eclipse-December-31--2009/499674.aspx
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4303283/Moon-magic-the-magic-of.html
http://shamanicastrology.com/articles/understanding-the-blue-moon
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=words&id=8525
http://celticanamcara.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/glossary/g/BlueMoon.htm
http://www.paganspath.com/magik/moon.htm#bluemoon
www.houseofakasha.net/files/HOA_May_2007.doc
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~korista/blumoon.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/bluemoon.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bluemoon1.html
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/errata/a/blue_moon.htm
http://space.about.com/od/astronomynews/a/bluemoon.htm
http://www.tryskelion.com/tryskelion/fullmoon.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/magick1/moon_magick.htm
http://www.themetaarts.com/archives/200302/wicca.html