For the first Full Moon of the year, I am endeavoring to ‘feed my wolf’ of self-confidence. Native Americans named each month’s full moon, and January’s is called the Full Wolf Moon. Recalling the Tale of Two Wolves, I asked myself: Which of my many wolves is most hungry? My conclusion is to feed my self-confidence.

Full disclosure: I am not Native American, nor do I claim to be knowledgable in Native American culture. If you feel I have misrepresented or offended Native culture (or any culture), please let me know via my contact page.

Revealing the Insecurities

Well, there’s the obvious – am I pretty enough? Sexy enough? There’s the modern obvious, as well, about being a powerful woman, the woman I want to be, cue I Am Woman by Emmy Meli. There are the intrusive insecure thoughts that wonder if I’m being too vulgar, or too slutty, what will my family think of these photos?

There’s also the overall fear that no one will understand why I’m even taking and posting these photos. The imagined conversation between my friends of friends goes something like – “Why is she modeling? Doesn’t she draw and paint? She should just stick to that.” And the other shmoe Joe responds, “I agree. Posting sexy photos about the Full Wolf Moon has nothing to do with GSOVIBES events or linework illustrations of creepy creatures.” And they go on to criticize my short nails and patchy tattoos, of course.

The other day, I had a conversation about this with a friend of mine. She expressed similar insecure intrusive thoughts that encourage her to change the way she looks, to initiate habits that she knows are unhealthy in order to presumably achieve that look, and she asks aloud to me and yet to no one in particular: “How do I overcome these feelings and thoughts?”

And I gave the wise answer, of course, that it’s as simple as practice. If you go most of your every day life sitting at a computer, sitting in front of the TV, sitting in a car, you can’t exactly expect yourself to wake up one day and run a marathon or climb a mountain. Similarly, if you spend most of your every day experiencing negative self-talk, why are you surprised that looking through your full wolf moon photo shoot you struggle to think that you’re an eclectic badass witch woman?

Feeding the Wolf of Confidence

You know what, though? I have been putting in the practice necessary, so I’m not as fearful as I would have once been. Look at me! I am a wolf woman! Posing with my random witchy props! Asking my boyfriend to take photos! (I am lucky that he happens to be an intuitively talented photographer.)

Native American Full Moon Names

Evidently, in order to arrive at the idea of a self-confidence boost photoshoot for the Tale of the Two Wolves, I had to first learn about full moon names. Unsurprisingly, we have adopted names from Native American tribal names for each full moon. The Old Farmer’s Almanac has an extensive chart of the many names for each moon and their respective tribal origins in an article about Full Moon Names for 2023.

The Tale of Two Wolves, though commonly known, is originally a Cherokee fable, and can be read in full on this page of the Nanticoke Indian Tribe website.

Full Wolf Moon

The Full Wolf Moon was named as such for the regularity of hearing wolves howling around this time. It was believed that the howls were a result of hunger, but as the Old Farmer’s Almanac states, we have since learned that “howling and other wolf vocalizations are generally used to define territory, locate pack members, reinforce social bonds, and coordinate hunting.”

According to the almanac, this year’s Full Wolf Moon is also a micromoon. This means that the moon is at its farthest point from earth as it can be. This accentuates my symbolism for self-confidence because it is during the winter blues that I am the least confident in myself!

Thank you!

Special thanks to Chris & B, my roommates and friends, for letting me borrow their furs and bony friend. Another thanks to my partner Peterson who, upon hearing me say that “he made me look so good,” responded, “I didn’t have to try very hard.”