The Hunter's Moon

The full moon in October is known as the Hunter's Moon. It shines down on the start of the autumn hunting season.

In many cultures which depended on hunting game for survival, it was taboo to hunt pregnant or nursing animals, essential as they were for the future of both hunted and hunter. But in autumn when the year's young were weaned and often searching for a territory of their own, and the old and weak were declining in fitness as food became scarce, the hunting season began.

Those animals which wouldn't survive the winter were culled, which then left what food there was for those able to breed next season. And those fit young animals which were now surplus to requirements often went the same way.

Thus the delicate balance between hunter and hunted, life and death, each equally dependent on the other, was carefully maintained to enable that balance to perpetuate into the future.