The Buck Moon of July

As I wrote in July last year, the full moons of the waning year always seem a little brighter and more luminescent to me than their earlier counterparts do, as if the Old Wild Mother is making up for the waning daylight hours by granting us a little more moonlight when the late summer darkness comes tumbling down. These golden summer moons float and sparkle - they croon above the earth and they seem to be dancing up there in the velvet darkness.

July's moon is ruled by Saturn, and this is a good time to honor all those who have been our teachers, tutors and mentors on this earthly journey, to give thanks for the lessons they have given us and the wisdom they so freely shared. If we are fortunate, we have had many such teachers.

Let us also honor the poets and photographers (not this fumbling one however), the rockers of boats large and small, the free thinkers, the song spinners, the storytellers, the passionate lovers of Mother Earth, all the wild untrammeled artists who shared their vision with us and granted us a rich inheritance of words and images when they passed beyond the fields we know. Thank you, one and all.

Alas, July's full moon was hidden behind dense dark clouds and attended by thunder, lightening and torrential summer rains, but I pictured her up there dancing serenely in the dark last night and was soothed by her calm radiant presence - even though I could not see her.

We also know the July moon as:

Blackberry Moon, Claim Song Moon, Corn Moon, Crane Moon, Daisy Moon, Fallow Moon, Fishing Moon, Flying Moon, Gathering Moon, Grass Cutter Moon, Ground Burning Moon, Hay Moon, Heat Moon, Heron Moon, Horse Moon, Humpback Salmon Return to Earth Moon, Hungry Ghost Moon, Index Finger Moon, Larkspur Moon, Lightning Moon, Little Harvest Moon, Little Moon of Deer Horns Dropping off, Little Ripening Moon, Lotus Moon, Meadow Moon, Manzanita Ripens Moon, Mead Moon, Midsummer Moon, Middle Moon, Moon of Claiming, Moon of Fledgling Hawk, Moon of the Home Dance, Moon of Middle Summer, Moon of Ripeness, Moon When the Buffalo Bellow, Moon When People Move Camp, Moon When Limbs of Trees Are Broken by Fruit, Moon When Squash Are Ripe, Moon When Indian Beans Are Ready, Mountain Clover Moon, Peaches Moon, Raspberry Moon, Red Berries Moon, Return from Harvest Moon, Ripening Moon, Rose Moon, Salmon Go up the Rivers Moon, Smokey Moon, Strong Sun Moon, Summer Moon, Sun House Moon, Thunder Moon, Water Lily Moon, Wattle Moon, Wort Moon

I am very fond of both "Water Lily Moon" and "Meadow Moon".