Full moon October 2026: the Hunter's Moon, and a ritual for letting go

Something changes at the end of October. The clocks are about to go back, the light leaves a little earlier each day, and the garden begins to look as if it is packing for a long journey. The letters that reach my table in these weeks often carry the same quiet wish: before the dark months come, I would like to put something down.

If that wish has been following you, the moon is about to meet you halfway. On Monday 26 October 2026 the moon is full, and it is the Hunter's Moon, the old name for the first full moon after the harvest. This year it is also the last full moon before Samhain. In this letter I tell you what this moon has always meant, how to use it at your own table, and what I hold for the people who trust me with it.

When is the Hunter's Moon in 2026?

The Hunter's Moon of 2026 is the full moon of Monday 26 October, in Taurus. It is the first full moon after September's Harvest Moon, and this year it falls five days before Samhain. It is a moon for gathering in what you want to keep, and for letting go of what this year made heavy.

Older than any of us

The name comes from the fields. Once the harvest was in and the stubble was cut, the land lay open, and the bright moon that followed the Harvest Moon gave hunters light enough to follow deer across it. Meat was salted, wood was stacked, and households made ready for the months when little would grow. In England this moon has carried the hunter's name for centuries.

The Anglo-Saxons gave it even more weight. Bede, the monk of Jarrow who recorded the old English months in the eighth century, explained that October was called Winterfylleth, the winter full moon, because winter was counted from the first full moon of that month. One bright moon, and a whole people agreeing that a new season had begun. A few days later came Samhain, when the old year was allowed to end and the ones who came before were remembered.

I love how simple that is. Nobody needed permission to begin the winter. They looked up, saw the moon, gathered in what they wanted to keep, and let the rest go.

What a full moon in Taurus brings

This year the Hunter's Moon stands in Taurus, opposite the sun in Scorpio. Taurus is the sign of the body, of comfort and of what you truly value; Scorpio is the sign of depth and of letting things end. Between them sits a very practical question for a full moon: what am I holding on to out of habit, and what actually nourishes me? A Taurus full moon likes its answers concrete. A drawer, a diary, a habit, a promise you once made to someone who no longer asks for it.

At my table on the Hunter's Moon

For this full moon I held my ritual of the month, The Long Night Release: names on paper at my table, each with what was ready to be put down written beneath it, and a table laid for the turning of the year, with apples, rosemary for remembrance, a candle for each name and one for those who came before. If there is something you are ready to put down now, the Full Moon Release Ritual is held on the day of every full moon; the next one is Tuesday 24 November, and the name of someone who is no longer here can join yours on the same paper, with care.

I speak your release aloud as already done, and I hold it until it feels settled. Your report is in your inbox the day after, on Tuesday 27 October, with a few small gestures to carry with you through the week that follows, and afterwards I check in with you. You can order until Sunday 25 October; after that this ritual closes for the year. If you would rather meet the full moon every month, my Full Moon Release Ritual is held on every full moon, and a Questions Reading beside either ritual is half price.

Every new and full moon until the end of 2027 is on my moon rituals page. If Samhain itself calls to you, everything about that old turning point of the year is on my page about the Samhain ritual, and I wrote about kind spells for Halloween too.

See it, feel it, draw it in

Here is what I believe, and what I work with: what you hold in your mind with feeling, you draw closer. That works for letting go as well. A release is not only an ending. It is the moment you choose what you want more room for, and you begin to feel that room before it is even there.

So before the full moon, light a candle on your own table and take two slips of paper. On the first, write in one honest line what you are putting down. On the second, write what you are making room for, as if it is already here: "My home is warm and quiet", "I rest without guilt", "I spend my time with people who feel like home". Read the first slip once, fold it away from you and set it aside. Then read the second one slowly, close your eyes and step inside it: the warmth, the ease in your shoulders, the space in your week. Keep that slip where you will see it.

The day after the full moon, do one small thing that belongs to your second slip. Cancel the plan you dread. Put flowers in the room you avoid. Call the friend who feels like home. That is how a release turns into a beginning.

What came back to my table

I am grateful for every word that comes back to me after a ritual or a reading. These are a few of them, from people who came to my table carrying something heavy.

"Almost immediately, you can feel the shift to peace her work brings."

Ma, September 2026

"I feel alot lighter and empowerment was also included within her words."

Riocain, September 2026

"She helped me a lot go thru hard times. I am very grateful to her."

Monsa, August 2026

I read each of these more than once. They remind me that lighter is something you can feel long before anything around you has changed.

Questions people ask me about the Hunter's Moon

Put one thing down this month, and walk into winter with your hands free.

Ivy