There’s going to be another “blood moon” lunar eclipse this month, and the religious wackjobs and con artists—and note that these two are often one and the same—are back at it, prognosticating on all sorts of occult implications for the event. It’s pure horsehockey. There are going to be something like 85 such lunar eclipses within the next century, so they aren’t nearly as uncommon as the conmen would lead you to believe. There was one this past summer, though it wasn’t visible from the United States, and there was a super blue blood moon almost exactly one year ago. (A “blue moon” is when you have two full moons in a single month. These aren’t that uncommon, either, really, despite the old expression “once in a blue moon.” They happen once every couple’a three years.)
We get the names for our full moons from the Farmer’s Almanac. Their system for naming the moons came in turn from the American Indians, although there is considerable variation amongst the many tribes for the designations of the full moons so I’m not sure how the printers of the Almanac decided on which ones to use. Probably they just went with the consensus. In any case, the full moon for January is designated the “Wolf Moon.” And, because the moon will be at its closest to the Earth during its orbit (its “perigee” as opposed to its “apogee” when it is farthest from Earth) the forthcoming eclipse will be a “super” blood moon. The effect this Super Wolf Blood Moon will have on werewolves is unknown, but for the rest of us it means a cool celestial event, so hopefully it won’t be cloudy that night.