Welcome to the Full Moon in Gemini on December 15th , called the full Cold Moon by the Mohawk nation when the colds of winter blasts begin to bite. Others name it Long Nights Moon and the Celts Mourning Moon because it is the last full moon of the year and closest to the Midwinter Solstice and the shortest day. But the Winter Solstice is a time of rejoicing for the return of light in the northern hemisphere and Midsummer in the southern hemisphere. It rises at sunset, fades at sunrise and is visible all night highest in the sky as a promise if we are patient the Solstice energies of positive change are close at hand.

Happy full moon in Taurus November 15 at 21.28 UTC (see www.timeanddate.com for moon rise in your location). This moon is called by the Algonquin nation and others, Full Beaver Moon or Full Frost Moon, as beavers prepare for winter and by the Celts, Mourning Moon, as the old year moves towards its darkest times. This late year moon is in compensation a supermoon, the last of the year that appears larger and brighter than the average full moon because it moves closer to the earth.

Welcome to the approaching Time of the Ancestors, celebrated in both northern and southern hemispheres as Halloween on October 31. Our ancestors would have recognized these modern times when children go to school hungry and to bed cold, where previously honest mothers steal basic food items from grocery stores and millions flee with their children or shelter as best they can in war-torn lands.

Welcome to the Hunters’ or Travellers’ Moon full moon in Aries, on October 17 at 11.26 UTC. Hunters’ Moon is the Anglo Saxon name for the traditional time in the Northern hemisphere, especially in Northern Europe, Scandinavia and among the Native North American people for hunting animals and preserving the meat for winter (see www.timeanddate.com for the full moon rise in your location). In the southern hemisphere too, this Arian moon kick-starts or restarts those plans that ran out of steam and have been filed away under maybe one day.

Welcome to the Autumn or Fall Equinox in the Northern hemisphere and the coming of the Vernal or Spring Equinox in southern realms, equal day and night; the time of balance is at 12,43 UTC on September 22, the moment just for an eye blink when past and future fuse in the present, war and peace, poverty and plenty, sickness and health, love and loneliness sharing for that second, harmony and promise that there is light at the end of the tunnel as the world turns (check www.timeanddate.com for the precise time in your location).

Welcome to the Full Harvest Moon in pisces on September 18 at 02,34 UTC or 17th, varying according to where you live in the world (see www.timeanddate.com for the precise time and date of moonrise in your location).

Happy Full Sturgeon moon on August 19 at 18.26 UTC in Aquarius, a seasonal blue moon as it will be third in a series of four in the summer season under a more recent definition; blue moons are traditionally two full moons in the same month (see www.timeanddate,com for full moon times in your location)

Happy Lughnassadh, in the seasonal world the first harvest in the Northern hemisphere, between July 31 at sunset and sunset August 2. It is mirrored in the southern world by Imbolc, the first stirrings of new life as the land awakes after winter. In old traditions Lughnassadh marked the willing offering by the Grain god of his life to be made into the first loaf of the first harvest, Christianised as the Lammas loaf. On Imbolc the maiden goddess melted the winter snows with her willow wand and promised the return of ever lighter warmer days, still celebrated as Candlemas in many church calendars.

Welcome to the Full Buck Moon at 10.17 UTC on July 21, the second full moon in Capricorn this year (the previous one, the Strawberry Moon, was on June 21, mingling with the Solstice energies).

This Strawberry Moon is the first of two full moons in Capricorn - a rare occurrence. The name for this first one was given by the Algonquin people of north- east America as well as the Ojibwe, Lakota and Dakota nations because of the ripening of June strawberries ready to be picked. It is also called the Rose and the Mead moon and as the June moon, is associated with the Roman Mother Goddess Juno and favoured for marriage and making commitments in love.

Welcome to the Summer Solstice, the height of the sun in the Northern hemisphere and the Midwinter Solstice, the rebirth of light in the Southern world on June 20 at 20.50 UTC (check www.timeanddate.com for the variation of the precise times and dates the solstice illuminates your region).

at 13.53 UTC (see www.timeanddate.com for time of moon rise in your location).

Beltane and Samhain form gateways opening into and out of summer, a pathway to be followed with hope and with courage. For Samhain, the time of the ancestors is the alter ego of May-time that was once the ultimate festival of fertility and new life, sharing without conflicts the magical period from April 30 sunset till May 2 sunset,

on April 23, at 23.48 UTC (see www.timeanddate.com for moon rise in your region).

on March 25 at 0.700 (see www.timeanddate.com for the moonrise in your region).

Beginning on March 20 at 03.06 UTC. Its energies can be experienced right now and also in the days following. It is at precisely the same moment the Autumn or Fall Equinox occurs in the Southern hemisphere. For both it is the point of equal day and night (see www.timeanddate.com for the precise Equinox time where you live)

February 24 at 12. 30 pm, UTC, best seen in some places on the globe around sunrise or just after sunset (www.timeanddate.com for the moon rise in your location); the moon is furthest from the earth and so appears the smallest. Called Snow Moon or Hunger Moon in Native North America; yet the Tlingit nation named it Black Bear Moon because it is the time the cubs are born and so life stirs anew.

Welcome to Imbolc, or Oimelc, the first festival of early spring between sunset on January 31 and February 2, when it is told the Celtic maiden goddess Brighid melted the winter snows with her willow wand, to call back the lighter and warmer days. A special Imbolc because it is 1500 years after the death of St Brigid of Kildare in 524 AD, the saint who was linked with the Celtic goddess and the return of her relic to Kildare. Some say the first Brigid nuns may have been the goddesses’ converted priestesses who combined old and new ways and this is a time above all for reconciliation.

on January 25 at 17.54 UTC. It is the first full moon of the year and being in Leo we have a solar burst even as New Year resolutions are losing their sparkle and we are asking will this year be just more of the same?

January is ruled by Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways, who simultaneously looks in opposite directions, sunrise and sunset, endings and beginnings.