Full Moon in Ashwini – October 2026

The Healer’s Moon — Sharad Purnima in Mesha

The October full moon rises in Ashwini, the very first nakshatra of the zodiac. It is the star of the divine healers, of swift new beginnings, of the body remembering how to mend itself.

Here in the Lot Valley the walnut leaves are turning and the mornings are wrapped in mist. The season asks us to slow down. And yet this moon carries a spark — a quiet, fiery invitation to begin again, from the inside out.

Come, sit with me for a moment. Let’s feel into what this Purnima is asking of you.

When is the full moon?

The moon is perfectly full on Monday 26 October 2026 at 05:12 (Paris time) — 04:12 UTC, in the soft dark just before dawn.

Moment	Paris time (CET)
Purnima tithi begins	Sunday 25 October, ±07:25
Exact full moon	Monday 26 October, 05:12
Purnima tithi ends	Monday 26 October, ±05:12

A little reminder: the clocks in France go back one hour on the night of 24–25 October, so all times above are winter time.

The most beautiful moment to gather is Sunday evening, 25 October, as the moon rises almost full over the horizon. In India this night is celebrated as Sharad Purnima.

Taurus or Aries? The Vedic view

If you follow Western astrology, you’ll read that this is a full moon in Taurus — the Hunter’s Moon. In Vedic astrology (Jyotish), the moon sits in Mesha, sidereal Aries.

Why the difference? Western astrology follows the seasons. Jyotish follows the actual stars in the sky. Over the centuries the two have drifted roughly 24 degrees apart, so most placements shift back one sign when you look through the Vedic lens.

So on this night:

• The Moon shines in Mesha (Aries), ruled by Mars — fire, courage, initiation
• The Sun sits opposite in Tula (Libra), in the nakshatra Swati — air, balance, relationship

A full moon is always a conversation between these two. The Sun in Libra asks: how do I stay in harmony with others? The Moon in Aries answers: by first coming home to myself.

Ashwini: the star of the divine healers

The moon is full in Ashwini nakshatra, the first of the 27 lunar mansions (0° – 13°20′ Aries). Everything begins here.

	Ashwini
Deities	The Ashwini Kumaras, twin horse-headed physicians of the gods
Ruling planet	Ketu — the south node, liberation, ancestral memory
Symbol	The head of a horse
Shakti (power)	Shidhra vyapani shakti — the power to reach things quickly
Quality	Light, swift, healing

The Ashwini Kumaras arrive at dawn, riding a golden chariot. In the old stories they restored sight to the blind and youth to the aged. They are healers who move fast, not by force, but by trusting that the body already knows the way back to wholeness.

Ketu brings a deeper layer. It is the planet of letting go, of past lives and inner knowing. Healing under Ashwini is less about fixing and more about releasing what is no longer yours to carry.

The moon falls in pada 2 of Ashwini, which carries a Taurus/Venus undertone. So this fire is grounded. It wants to heal through the senses, through touch, nourishment and slow pleasure.

Crossing the threshold: from water into fire

Just hours before the full moon, the moon slips out of Revati — the last nakshatra, in watery Pisces — and into Ashwini, in fiery Aries. This meeting point between the end and the beginning of the zodiac is called gandanta, the knot.

In Jyotish, gandanta is a tender place. It is the moment between exhale and inhale, between the womb and the first breath. Something dissolves, something is born. You may feel this as restlessness, as old emotions surfacing, or as a sudden clarity that you’re ready to move on.

Sharad Purnima: the nectar moon

This is also Sharad Purnima, the full moon of the month Ashwin, which marks the turning from monsoon into autumn in India. It is said to be the one night of the year when the moon shines with all sixteen of her kalas — her full radiance.

Tradition says her rays drip amrit, healing nectar. Families prepare kheer — rice cooked slowly in milk — and leave it under the moonlight overnight, to be eaten the next morning as medicine. The night is also remembered as the night Krishna danced the Raas Leela with the gopis in the forest.

A healer’s nakshatra on the nectar moon. It feels like an invitation we’re meant to receive.

The wider sky: a season of looking back

The Sun does not stand alone in Tula. Mercury and Venus are both retrograde in Libra, close to the Sun. And the Sun itself is debilitated here — its light is softer, less sure of itself.

This is not a time to push or perform. It is a time to review: how you relate, what you value, where you give too much. Old conversations may return. Old loves, old patterns, old agreements with yourself.

Meanwhile Jupiter rests in Cancer, its sign of exaltation, offering a warm, nurturing grace in the background. Saturn is retrograde in Pisces, quietly asking us to soften our boundaries with compassion rather than fear.

Put together, the sky says: heal the way you relate — first to yourself, then to others.

A ritual for the Healer’s Moon

Ashwini lives in the head — Aries rules the head and the face. Many of us carry this season in our jaw, our temples, the back of the neck. So let this ritual begin there.

1. Prepare your nectar. On Sunday afternoon, slowly cook a small pot of rice in milk (or oat milk) with cardamom and a little honey. Cover it with a light cloth and place it outside or on a windowsill where the moonlight can reach it.
2. Arrive in your breath. Sit comfortably. Breathe in through the nose for four counts, out through the mouth for six. Let each exhale be a little longer, a little softer. Ten rounds.
3. Release the head and jaw. Place your fingertips on the muscles of your jaw, just below the cheekbones. Make slow circles. Then move to your temples, and up into your scalp. Let your mouth fall slightly open. This is fascia work at its gentlest — melting, not pressing.
4. Lie down in a yin shape. Supported child’s pose, forehead resting on a cushion. Stay for five minutes. Feel the front of the skull held, the back of the body widening with each breath.
5. Let go with Ketu. Write down one thing you are ready to stop carrying. Read it aloud to the moon. Then fold the paper and burn it safely, or bury it in the earth.
6. Receive. On Monday morning, eat your moonlit kheer slowly, as medicine. You have been tended.

If you long to be held more deeply this full moon, you can let me guide you through the Full Moon Cacao & Rite of the Womb Ceremony. Water carries this ritual — fitting for a moon that rises from the waters of Revati into Ashwini’s healing fire.

Questions to sit with

• Where in my body am I still holding on, even though the moment has passed?
• What would healing look like if it were gentle and quick, instead of hard and slow?
• In my relationships, where have I given myself away and how can I come home?
• What is beginning in me, quietly, right now?

Continue the journey with me

If this moon stirs something in you, I’d love to walk beside you.

• Receive the Rite of the Womb — the Full Moon Cacao & Rite of the Womb Ceremony is an ancient healing ritual, passed from woman to woman, to release fear and pain held in the womb and welcome your feminine power back home. It is a guided recording, so you can receive it on the night of this Sharad Purnima, in your own space, with cacao, water, roses and two letters: one for what you release, one for what you call in (€37).
  
• Bring the practice home — my book Feminine Embodiment gathers the fascia release, Yin yoga, elemental wisdom and womb healing practices I return to on my own mat, through every season. Available as e-book (€37), paperback (€47) or together with fascia balls (€67).
  
• Live it beyond the mat — this moon asks us to heal how we relate, and that is exactly where yoga philosophy begins. In Yoga Beyond the Poses we gather online for four Thursday mornings in November (5, 12, 19 and 26, 10:30–12:00) to explore the yamas and niyamas, breath, mudras and meditation, woven with nourishing Yin. Beginners and teachers are both welcome, and replays are included (€47).
  
• Read your own sky — curious where Ashwini, Ketu or the Moon live in your birth chart? A personal Vedic Birth Chart Reading shows you the deeper map of your soul, and what this season is stirring for you.

Whichever calls to you, I would love to welcome you.

With love, under the nectar moon, Joyce