This is the week the year has been building toward.
Not just this lunar cycle — the whole year. Every eclipse, every retrograde, every balsamic dark and blazing Full Moon has been leading, in its own way, to this particular convergence: the Hunter's Full Moon rising on Sunday night, Scorpio season deepening its searching gaze, Venus retrograde still pulling at the roots of everything we thought we understood about love and connection, and Halloween — Samhain, the ancient festival of the thinning veil — arriving on Saturday to close the week in the most atmospheric night of the entire year.
The Hunter's Moon takes its name from the tradition of using October's Full Moon light to hunt by — to stock provisions for the long winter ahead, to take clear and honest aim at what was needed and bring it home before the dark settled in for good. There is something in that image that belongs precisely to this moment in Scorpio season: the willingness to see clearly in the dark, to aim honestly, to take what is needed and leave what is not.
And then Halloween arrives — a Saturday this year, the first Saturday Halloween since 2020 — with the Moon still enormous and bright, 84% illuminated, lighting up the night with that particular Hunter's Moon glow. The veil between worlds is at its thinnest. The ancestors are close. The things that ordinarily stay hidden have a way of becoming visible on this night, whether you invite them to or not.
This is Scorpio season at its most itself: the dark that illuminates, the ending that is also a beginning, the night that sees everything.
Cosmic Toolkit
Moon Phase: Hunter's Full Moon (Sunday night October 25 / Monday October 26) → Waning Gibbous (Tuesday–Saturday)
The week opens at the peak and moves into the rich, integrative waning phase — just in time for Halloween's Samhain energy on Saturday. The Hunter's Moon illuminates. The waning Gibbous integrates. By Halloween, the Moon is bright enough to cast shadows and still full enough to feel the Full Moon's power.
Herb of the Week: Mugwort
The herb of the veil, the ancestor, and the dream. Mugwort is Samhain's oldest companion — burn it on Halloween night to honor what has passed, to open the channel to what ordinarily stays hidden, and to dream with unusual vividness in the nights that follow. This week, let mugwort be your guide through the thin place.
Crystal Ally: Obsidian
The stone of the deep dark and the honest mirror — obsidian has been used in scrying, protection, and the revelation of hidden truth across cultures and centuries. Under the Hunter's Moon and Scorpio season, obsidian helps us see what we have been avoiding with a clarity that is simultaneously uncomfortable and liberating. Keep it close this week. Let it show you what the thinning veil reveals.
Elemental Focus: Water + Earth
Scorpio's deep water reaches its most powerful expression this week — feeling, intuition, the knowledge that lives beneath language and logic. Earth grounds the Hunter's Moon's revelations in something practical and real, and receives what Samhain releases back into the soil where it can be composted into wisdom. Let yourself feel deeply this week. Let the earth hold what you cannot.
A Closer Look at the Week Ahead
Sunday, October 25 — Hunter's Full Moon
Step outside near sunset tonight and look east. The Hunter's Moon rises large and amber on the horizon — low enough at first that it seems almost close enough to touch, golden as late October itself. For most of the US, this is the best viewing night, the Moon at her most visually stunning just before her technical peak just after midnight. Let her light reach all of it — the courage you have been building since the New Moon, the truths Venus retrograde has been surfacing, the Scorpio season depths you have been wading into all week. The Hunter's Moon sees in the dark. Let her look.
Monday, October 26 — Hunter's Moon Peak
The Moon reaches her precise fullness just after midnight for East Coast readers — which means Monday opens in the immediate, electric aftermath of the peak. The Hunter's Moon energy is still completely present today, still blazing, still asking its Scorpio season questions with that particular Full Moon clarity that bypasses all polite self-deception. What has been illuminated? What can you no longer look away from? What are you ready to hunt down and bring home — finally, honestly, before the winter of avoidance settles in?
Tuesday, October 27
The Waning Gibbous begins and the week starts its gradual, graceful turn toward integration. The Hunter's Moon has shown you what it came to show you. Today is for sitting with the revelation rather than immediately acting on it — for letting what was illuminated settle into genuine understanding rather than reactive decision.
Wednesday, October 28
The waning energy deepens and Scorpio season continues its thorough, unflinching work. There is a quality of emotional honesty available today that is rare and worth using — the kind that arrives in the days after a powerful Full Moon, when the peak has passed but the clarity remains. What did the Hunter's Moon show you about your relationships, your direction, your life, that you are now ready to act on with Scorpio's characteristic decisiveness?
Thursday, October 29
Two nights before Halloween and the atmosphere is already electric. The Moon rises later now, still bright enough to illuminate the October night but no longer dominating it from dusk. The thinning of the veil that Samhain celebrates is not just a metaphor this week — it is a felt quality in the air, a permeability between what is seen and what is not, between the living and the remembered. Pay attention to what arrives in quiet moments. The ancestors are already close.
Friday, October 30
All Hallows' Eve — the night before Halloween, the traditional beginning of the Samhain threshold. In many traditions, the veil is at its absolute thinnest tonight and tomorrow night. Light a candle for someone you have lost. Set a place at the table for those who are no longer here but have not left entirely. Let Scorpio season's understanding of death and transformation hold you in its deep, surprisingly tender arms. What has ended in your life this year that deserves to be honored tonight?
Saturday, October 31 — Halloween / Samhain
The most atmospheric night of the year, and this year it falls on a Saturday — the first Saturday Halloween since 2020 — with the Moon still bright and gibbous in the sky, rising after midnight but casting enough glow that the night never goes entirely dark. Scorpio season, Venus retrograde, the waning Hunter's Moon, and the ancient festival of Samhain all converge in this one extraordinary night.
Honor what has ended. Remember what has been lost. Celebrate the thinning of the veil not as something to fear but as the annual reminder that what we love does not disappear — it simply moves to a different room, one whose door opens, briefly and beautifully, tonight.
Relational Spellwork
Hunter's Moon Clarity Practice (Sunday)
On Sunday evening, under the Hunter's Moon, ask yourself the question this lunation was always going to ask: what have I been hunting for in my relationships — what have I been pursuing, seeking, working toward — and is it actually what I need? The Hunter's Moon in Scorpio season does not let us chase the wrong thing for long. Let her light show you what you are actually after, beneath what you thought you were after.
Samhain Ancestor Honoring (Friday or Saturday)
On Friday or Saturday evening, create a small ancestor altar — photographs, objects, a candle, anything that connects you to those who have gone before. Speak their names aloud. Thank them for what they gave you, including what was difficult. Scorpio season understands that the dead are not separate from the living — they are woven into us, informing who we are in ways we rarely stop to acknowledge. This is the night to stop and acknowledge.
Halloween Veil Practice (Saturday)
On Halloween night, sit quietly for a few minutes before the evening's festivities and ask: what have I been afraid to feel this year? What has stayed behind the veil of my own making? Scorpio season and Samhain together make this question answerable in a way it rarely is. You do not need to do anything with the answer tonight. You only need to be honest enough to let it through.
The Hunter's Moon, Halloween, and the most magical week of the year — this is Scorpio season doing what it came to do. Let the dark illuminate everything.
