The colors of the Moon and their meaning

Red and low on the horizon, blue, black or pink: the Moon seems to change its dress from night to night. Yet our satellite is gray, in a thousand shades of gray.

What lies behind these colors and names? And what do they say about the energy of the moment? Here is the guide to colored moons.

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Why does the Moon change color?

With no atmosphere, water or vegetation, the Moon is gray: it simply reflects the light of the Sun. The colors we see in it are born in our own atmosphere.

When it rises or sets, its light crosses a thicker layer of air, which scatters blue and lets orange and red through: hence the big orange moon just above the horizon. In autumn, the full moon closest to the equinox, the Harvest Moon, rises at dusk several evenings in a row and often takes on these golden hues.

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Blood moon, blue moon, black moon: the great colored moons

The blood moon

During a total lunar eclipse, our satellite passes into the Earth's shadow. It does not disappear: light filtered by the Earth's atmosphere tints it a coppery red. This is the blood moon, rarer than a simple partial eclipse.

The blue moon

The blue moon… is not blue. The term refers to the second full moon in the same month, which happens every two to three years: the year then has thirteen full moons instead of twelve. Hence the expression “once in a blue moon”, meaning almost never.

The black moon

The black moon refers to a second new moon in the same month: the lit side faces the Sun and the Moon is invisible. Not to be confused with the astrologers' Black Moon, or Lilith, which is a point of the lunar orbit.

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Pink moon, egg moon: names more than colors

The pink moon is the name given to the April full moon, from North American tradition, where it coincides with the blooming of pink phlox. It carries the color of spring and of opening hearts: discover the meaning of pink too.

In France, the red moon (lune rousse) is the lunation that follows Easter. On clear nights, it announces the late frosts that turn young shoots reddish-brown: it is a gardener's landmark, not a color in the sky.

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How to live each moon

Each colored moon carries a particular energy, more intense than that of an ordinary full moon:

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