Full Moon

> **Stiles**: "You know what the full moon will do to you, right?"
>  **Eli**: "It makes me sleepy, I don't know why you're so concerned."
>
> -  Stiles to  Eli

The **Full Moon** is a celestial event and is the second-brightest, regularly visible celestial event in the Earth's sky, after the Sun. It functions as a source of power for Witches and is at the core of the Werewolf mythology. For Shifter Werewolves, who are also affected by the full moon, it is believed that they are given their powers by the Moon, and the price of these powers comes in the form of heightened aggression and bloodlust that causes them to attack any living thing they come upon if they do not learn to control themselves. Because of this, these shapeshifters make it a point to train their young born and/or newly-bitten werecreatures in staying calm and disciplined with regards to their powers, both to ensure the safety of those around them as well as to maintain the secrecy of the supernatural world from humans, the majority of whom have no idea that they even exist.

## Description

The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth, which was created as a result of an impact between Theia (a planetary body the size of Mars) colliding with the newly formed Earth, causing an immense amount of planetary material to be released into the Earth's orbit, ultimately accumulating together to form the Moon. The lunar cycle is a term used to describe the Moon's continuous orbit around the Earth, making only certain parts of the celestial body visible based on what phase it is in, which also tells us the "age" of the moon in terms of the lunar cycle. There are nine phases in this lunar cycle: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent, and new moon. Additionally, there are also several rarer events involving the full moon, such as a lunar eclipse or a supermoon.

## Moon Phases

### New Moon

The New Moon and the days leading up to it, which are known as the "Dark Moon," is known as a time to reflect on grief and loss, which is one of the reasons that the Tlanta Family hold their memorial services and/or funerals on the New Moon, and a lot of the time, births occur on, directly before, or directly after the New Moon.

### Lunar Eclipse

A Lunar Eclipse occurs during a Full Moon, when the Moon passes through the Earth's umbral shadow, causing it to be obscured and appear in vibrant colors. This celestial event is a negative one for the shapeshifters whose powers are tied to the moon; while it was once speculated that a lunar eclipse could make them stronger, in reality, the Lunar Eclipse causes these shapeshifters to lose their powers for the duration of time that the Moon is obscured by the Earth's shadow, which can be anywhere between ten and twenty minutes.

### Supermoon

A Supermoon, also known by the term *perigee syzygy*, are Full Moons that are even closer to the Earth than they normally are (hence the term *perigee*, which is defined as the closest point of the Moon to the Earth), making the Moon's influence even stronger to shapeshifters. Like normal Full Moons, they enhance a shapeshifter's superhuman strength, speed, healing, etc., in addition to their aggression, bloodlust, and violent urges, but to an even more potent degree; it is also strong enough to be felt by a werecreature during the day, making it more difficult to control their aggression and transformations even before the Moon rises.

## Function

### For Werewolves

The Moon acts as a weakness to Werewolves as it forces them to painfully turn from their human form into their feral wolf form when it is full. However, with the help of a witch, a werewolf can control their form and escape this weakness using Moonlight Rings.

### For Witches

Being a celestial event also means that the Moon can be drawn upon by witches (using the basic power of Channeling) as an external source of power to aid them in performing feats that they would not naturally be able to achieve using their own strength. This typically seems to happen only when it is visibly full in the night's sky and at apex. Apart from acting as a power source for witches to channel, it also seems to act as binding agent for certain spells, for example, Boundary spells.

## Mythology

Numerous cultures throughout history have given names to the monthly full moons, particularly the indigenous tribes of North America, who used moon phases and cycles to keep track of the seasons, giving names to them to help them anticipate events through the entire month. Some of these names have been referenced in the series, so the names used by the Algonquin and associated tribes are detailed below:

* **January**: Wolf Moon (or, less commonly, the Snow Moon)
* **February**: Snow Moon (or, less commonly, the Hunger Moon)
* **March**: Worm Moon (less commonly the Crow Moon, the Crust Moon, the Sap Moon, or the Lenten Moon)
* **April**: Pink Moon (less commonly the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and the Fish Moon)
* **May**: Flower Moon (less commonly the Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon)
* **June**: Strawberry Moon
* **July**: Buck Moon (less commonly the Thunder Moon or Hay Moon)
* **August**: Sturgeon Moon (less commonly the Red Moon, Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon)
* **September**: Harvest Moon (less commonly the Corn Moon)
* **October**: Hunter's Moon
* **November**: Beaver Moon (less commonly the Frosty Moon)
* **December**: Cold Moon (less commonly the Long Night Moon or Moon Before Yule)

The moon has an important role in the mythology of nearly every culture. For example, in Inuit mythology, Alignak was the god of the moon and the weather. Selene, a Greek Titaness, was a lunar goddess associated with the moon as a whole as a result of her brother, Helios, being a Titan sun god. In a similar twist, Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, was also a lunar goddess (particularly the crescent moon) due to her twin brother Apollo being a solar god, just like her Roman counterpart, Diana. Another Greek goddess, Hecate, the goddess of magic and the crossroads, is associated with the dark moon, or the new moon, as a result of her connection to the spirit world.

In Celtic mythology, Cerridwen, the keeper of the cauldron of knowledge and the goddess of wisdom and inspiration, is associated with the full moon. Meanwhile, in Chinese mythology, Chang'e, who knew her tyrannical husband intended to take an immortality potion, drank the elixir before he could do so, causing her to fly up into the sky and become the new moon. Coyolxauhqui, the goddess sister of Huitzilopochtli, was killed by her brother, who threw her head up into the sky and caused it to become the moon. Sina, a Polynesian (specifically Tahitian) goddess, is known for residing within the moon itself after being curious about what it would be like there. Finally, Thoth, the Egyptian god of magic and wisdom, is associated with the crescent moon, which he wore on his head.

## Trivia

* For werecreatures who have been able to resist the power of the full moon, such as Shifter Werewolves, special ceremonies and rituals are performed on the full moon, including pack induction ceremonies, as shown when Derek Hale welcomes new members into the Hale Pack on the night of the full moon. This was something that Conri did not understand because he had never had any special ceremonies on the full moon, due to the pack turning into wolves and hunting.
* Genetic Werewolves have only one special, tradition on the full moon, which was long out of practice, after most of the ancient packs were killed, which was for every wolf of age to kill a human on the night of their first full moon.

## Gallery

Full MoonLunar EclipseSupermoonWerecoyote on the Full Moon