The Rose Moon of June

We also know this moon as the Midsummer Moon, for it occurs near the Summer Solstice, when the Sun reaches its zenith and seems to stand still for a short time before beginning its slow inexorable tumble toward shorter days and longer nights, toward autumn and winter. The word solstice means "sun standing still" or stopping, and the Sun does indeed seem to stand still on the two solstices of the calendar year, but it is we earthlings and our dear little blue planet who are in constant motion, not the Sun dancing serenely in place at the center of our universe.

In the northern hemisphere, it is high summer, and we tend to think of the burning intensity and power of old Helios ascendant, not the gentler silver aura of Lady Moon lighting up the summer night against a tapestry of twinkling stars.

When June's full moon makes her appearance, we are tending our shaggy fruiting gardens and thinking ahead to timeless rhythms of harvesting, gathering in and putting bounty by for the long nights of winter. In the Lanark Highlands, the first harvest of the year is already in progress, and the fields are dappled with great round bales of fragrant hay: timothy (or blue grass), alfalfa and sweet clover. Is there anything on this planet to compare with the delightful and rather spicy fragrance of freshly cut clover?

The corn is growing by leaps and bounds, and fields of barley are "pinking up" nicely. At sunset there are deer and fawns grazing along the shadowed verges of our freshly mowed fields, wild turkeys foraging in the high oak groves and expressing their pleasure at the dainties on offer. Our cups and our baskets runneth over with light and abundance and contentment in June. We know autumn and winter are coming, and we accept their coming, but our thoughts are lodged in warmth and golden sunlight.

We also know this moon as the:

Bass Moon, Big Mouth Moon, Big Summer Moon, Blackberry Moon, Bulbs Mature Moon, Columbine Moon, Corn Tassels Appear Moon, Dancing Moon, Duckling Moon, Dyan Moon, Egg Hatching Moon, Egg Laying Moon, Egg Moon, Eucalyptus Moon, Fatness Moon, Fish Spoils Easily Moon, Fishing Moon, Flowering Cherry Moon, Full Leaf Moon, Gardening Moon, Green Corn Moon, Hoeing Moon, Honey Moon, Hot Moon, Lady Slipper Moon, Leaf Dark Moon, Litha Moon, Lotus Moon, Lovers' Moon, Mead Moon, Middle of Summer Moon, Midsummer Brightness Moon, Midsummer Moon, Moon of Horses, Moon of Little Fawns, Moon of Making Fat, Moon of Planting, Moon of the Turtle, Moon When Green Grass Is Up, Moon When June Berries Are Ripe, Moon When the Buffalo Bulls Hunt the Cows, Moon When the Hot Weather Begins, Moon When the Leaves Are Dark Green, Moon When the Leaves Come out, Moon When They Hill Indian Corn, Oak Moon, Peony Moon, Planting Moon, Pomegranate Moon, Raspberry Moon, Ripening Moon, Ripening Time Moon, Seventh Moon, Sockeye Moon, Solstice Moon, Strawberry Moon, Strong Sun Moon, Summer Moon, Sun High Moon, Thumb Moon, Turning Moon, Watermelon Moon, Windy Moon