The first full moon 
of the year is the second full moon after the winter Solstice. It is called the Wolf Moon. It will be at its peak on Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, at exactly 6:48 P.M. EST. This is the time of year/season when many important celestial bodies are visible in the night sky such as Orion’s Belt, the Eta Carina Nebula, and others which has implications to the possibility of establishing communication with extraterrestrial societies. This subject is discussed in some detail in my book “Extraterrestrial Communication Code” so I will not re-cover those topics again. The Wolf Moon is not discussed in my book, so that is the subject discussed here.
The Wolf Moon is tightly woven into many cultures across the globe as might be expected. In India, this full moon signifies the Shakambhari Purnima in the Hindu calendar, the last day of the eight-day Shakambari Navratri festival honoring the goddess Shakambhari. It was celebrated as the “Moon after Yule” by pre-Christian Europeans during a three-day winter solstice feast. It is also coincident with the Ananda Pagoda Festival in Myanmar, which is a celebration of this Buddhist temple established in 1105 A.D. at Bagan. This full moon is Duruthu Poya for Sri Lankan Buddhists, commemorating Siddhartha Gautama, Buddha’s first visit to Sri Lanka. In the Tamil Hindu community, they celebrate the Thaipusam Festival on this full moon.
Why is it called the Wolf Moon? The name Wolf Moon is often believed to be derived from Native American culture. In the 1930’s the Farmer’s Almanac began publishing “Indian” Moon names for each month of the year. Robert B. Thomas published the first issue of the Farmer’s Almanac in 1792 for the year 1793 during George Washington’s first term as President. I get a current issue every year, it is an interesting reference.
The Almanac records and predicts astronomical events such as the rising and setting of the Sun, tides, weather, and other phenomena with respect to time. Since Thomas’s format was written as nonfiction, it was believed that Thomas’s astronomical and weather predictions were more accurate, the advice more useful, and the features more interesting and relevant. Based on his observations, Thomas used a complex series of natural cycles to devise a secret weather forecasting formula, which yielded amazingly accurate results, said to be 80 percent accurate. To this day his formula is kept safely secured in the Almanac office in Dublin, New Hampshire.
The names of the full moons published by the Almanac have become widely accepted over the years. The original source of these names however, is not completely clear. There are some that say the moon names came from the Algonquin language as interpreted by colonial Americans. Prior to the introduction of modern timekeeping, cultural leaders/elders would choose the name of the Moon based on conditions at the time. For the most part, these cultures did not have or need calendars that specified exact dates far in advance. Full moon names were given to describe and remember what happened in the past and to remind people of what was likely to come in the near future. There are many different Native American names for the full moons. According to some sources, the Wolf Moon is a pre-Christian European name for the second full moon of winter.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the Wolf Moon is named as such, because of legends from long ago. It is thought that January’s full moon came to be known as the Wolf Moon because wolves were more likely to be heard howling at this time. Wolves were once assumed to be howling only because of hunger and wolves being terrifying, dangerous animals, they were greatly feared by tribal communities. Over time the howling was also understood as communication, to mark territory, hunts, and find other pack members. In the end, regardless of the true reason behind the howling, the Wolf Moon name for the full January moon stuck. It is easy to imagine hungry, dangerous, and scary wolves howling outside snow-covered villages at this time of year.
Indian Country Today is an independent nonprofit, multimedia news organization that covers the Indigenous world, including American Indians and Alaska Natives. Indian Country Today is also a public media broadcast carried via public television stations, including FNX: First Nations Experience and Arizona PBS World channel. They pointed out in 2013 that the name Wolf Moon does not appear on the lists of any American Indian tribe moon names compiled by Phil Konstantin, who worked for NASA, among other places. Indian Country Today wrote:
“Of the 29 tribes listed [by Phil Konstantin], not one calls January the Wolf Moon, although the Sioux name is Wolves Run Together Moon. The Algonquin actually call the January moon squochee kesos, or Sun Has Not Strength to Thaw”. Not Wolf Moon as claimed by the Farmer’s Almanac.
To the Haida in Alaska its táan kungáay, or Bear-Hunting Moon. The Hopi in southwest Arizona call it paamuya, Moon of Life. In the Pacific Northwest it is atalka, meaning Stay Inside. Moving farther south, the Choctaw word for the January full moon is rv’fo cusee, which means Winter’s Little Brother.
Some believe there is a much more cosmic connection going on by dubbing the first moon of the year the “Wolf Moon”. Each month’s full moon not only has its own name and story, but it also has a spiritual meaning. The belief is that each full moon signals the turnover into the next phase to varying degrees. After all – they happen at least once a month. The Wolf Moon, however, is much more meaningful. It is the first full moon of the year and the perfect place for starting a personal “next chapter” of your life and/or a marker for “turning over a new leaf.” Spiritualists believe it delineates a time for deeper reflection and longer-term transformation. It is a time of figuring out what one requires to have a “successful” life – which means different things to different people. It is a time for an individual to discover what is missing and find truth in what one truly desires to achieve happiness in this life and perhaps the next. It is about seeking ones purpose and how that purpose relates to the bigger picture of society and even the universe. There is a lot more to this than making another half-hearted “New Year’s Resolution”.
Nobody really knows for sure why we have come to accept Wolf Moon as the name for the first full moon of the year. Perhaps back in the day some cultural leader understood that this first moon represented the perfect time for personal reflection and in contemplating an appropriate name he recognized that more than anything else, wolves put their family first. The spirit of the wolf is a reminder to all of us that the greatest gifts in life are your relationships with those you love. Do you put them first like the wolf does? If you have children, do you put their protection and well-being ahead of everything else like the wolf does?
In a wolf pack the wiser but older and weakest wolves guide the pack on the move, and it is the strongest wolves and the Alpha male of the pack at the end of the line making sure no member of the pack falls behind. The Alpha wolf can see all the pack at the same time from the end of the line and makes sure that the pack is protected from attack from behind. Most other species (including humans) take more of a follow the Alpha leader approach. The weak fall behind and fall as easy prey to hungry predators. That is how animals hunt – take the weak ones that fall behind. I believe this makes Wolf Moon a good and inspirational identifier of the first moon of the year.
It seems to me that in today’s overly analytical culture, we often tend hold only analytical results as the truth and only analytical logic has become the law by which we live. We often judge circumstances and others (and ourselves) by numbers like income, age, height, weight, and other numerical metrics and calculations. Moving in this direction has devalued something that is invaluable, and which cannot be measured and graded. That something is our natural instincts. Our instincts have been developed over time since the day one of human existence. Our instincts are in our DNA. They are not something that can or should be removed, ignored, or trampled by cold analytics. Analytics and statistics are often manipulated to reach a desired result. Instincts are not because we do not control them. We see this every day in our government and the information the media chooses to publish to the people. Who the hell knows what the truth is these days. I submit that our instincts know if we would just learn to trust and listen to them again.
Because wolves remain wild, they have not lost their family instincts in the way that we humans have degraded the family structure and the behavior of government (pack) leaders in recent decades. Instincts often defy analytics and logic. Instincts can tell us on a first date, or even in a text message leading up to a first date, whether something is “off” and that we should avoid going on that date. Our instincts can tell us whether we can trust someone or not.
If a wolf appears in your life in some way, it just might be a strong signal for you to pay more attention to your instincts and not what you are told to believe and/or feel. Sometimes we need to be reminded to pay more attention to our God given instincts and less to the words of those who govern.
Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
Stephen J. Silva –