At the Newark Octagon, the Major Standstill is fading away. When the moon rises at its astronomically northernmost point on the eastern horizon every 18 to 19 years and pauses before returning southward. Aligning with or “framing” this lunar event, of course, are the corridor walls of this Native American-built earthwork.  

What makes this Major Standstill at the Octagon different is the earthwork has shed its golf course shackles and now wears the regalia of UNESCO recognition, meaning the entire world has full and unfettered access. The UNESCO designation depended on Moundbuilders Country Club vacating the site, and a settlement was reached in 2023 following the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Ohio History Connection to re-acquire the property’s lease for the greater good of the public.

The axis of the moon’s rotation and the axis of the tilt of the Earth are slowly moving apart, after having kissed as best they could on January 26 of this year and providing two years of near alignments of the Octagon with extreme northern moonrises. Lunar dynamics dictate that only the moonrises between July and December occur during the night and are highly and spectacularly visible. Come January, it will be moonsets that happen in the dark.

The paradigm that has been accepted for the past 40 years is that the design of Octagon was to point at the absolute northernmost rise of the moon once every 18.6 years. However, this has a very Western bias: that the alignment that mattered nearly 2,000 years ago was the biggest, the best, the brightest, the strongest, and the absolute northernmost moonrise.

Native American cultures tend to be more interested in the cycles of life and the world, not the absolutes. The point is, we Westerners may have screwed up the correct explanation for 40 years because we focus on the biggest (and winning), instead of appreciating the cycle of life and the world.

The cycle of northern moonrises, which occurs every year, Major Standstill or not, is that the July northern moonrise occurs with a thin sliver of a moon. This slowly increases to a 3rd quarter moon at the fall equinox and culminates in a full moon northern moonrise right around the winter solstice. The moonrises then move to occurring during the day and attention can be switched to the night-time moonsets. That full moon has a good chance of being an important point in the cycle.

In fact, the Zuni, 500 years ago, were already noting that, at the winter solstice, a “strong” moon (northern rise full moon) contrasted with the “weak” (cold, low in the sky) winter sun. And at the summer solstice, a “weak” moon (northern rise new or sliver moon) contrasted with the “strong” (hot, high in the sky) summer sun.

The Ohio History Connection is recognizing this cycle at the Octagon. They are hosting moonrise viewing events on November 7th (6:51 pm) and December 5th (half hour after sunset). The programs start with a presentation inside the main building and then head outdoors to view the moonrise. Registration is required, but it has been sold out. However, about 120 people attended an already completed October event, even though 200 were registered. So, it may be that they will be able to make room for more people. Also, the registration seems to apply only to the presentation, not access to the grounds.

The October viewing had beautifully clear skies. However, it should be noted that it took quite a while for the moon to appear from behind the leaves of the trees along the axis. By November, the leaves should be down and viewers will be able to see the moon much sooner shining through the bare branches of the deciduous trees.

The same applies to December, but there will be a viewing (and probably ceremonial) extra related to the full moon, something that had a good chance of being important to the Indigenous Peoples. A full moon rises just after sunset (this year, half an hour) and during twilight. That means that one can see the looming shape of the Octagon (particularly the corridor mounds between the circle and the octagon) without any external lighting source. Daylight fades into twilight, the mounds start looming as darkness approaches, and then the full moon pops over the horizon to take over the task of illuminating the mounds. Surely this had some sort of significance.

The full moon moonrise is the climax. The cycle renews. And the Octagon remains as a testament to the genius of the ancestors of our Native American population.