• Wort Moon
• Moon of Claiming
• Moon of Blood (because of mosquitoes)
• Blessing Moon
• Maedmonet (Medow Month)
• Hewimanoth (Hay Month)
• Fallow Moon
• Buck Moon
• Thunder Moon

JULY - HAY MOON

The Moon of July is also known as Wort Moon, Moon of Claiming, Moon of Blood(because of mosquitoes), Blessing Moon, Maedmonat (Meadow Month), Hewimanoth (Hay Month), Fallow Moon, Buck Moon, and Thunder Moon.

The Panathenaea was observed at the July Full Moon to honor Pallas Athene.

Wort is the old Anglo-Saxon term for herb. And as the "Wort Moon" as they called it waxes Full, the time for gathering herbs is at hand.

The Anglo-Saxon name for July is Aeftera Litha, which means "After Litha".

An alternative Anglo-Saxon name for July is Maedmonat, which means "MeadowMonth" due to meadows being at their greatest point of growth in this month.  Iuil, the Irish name for this month is also based on the name Julius.

Old Sayings & Lore

If the New Moon is seen for the first time straight ahead, it predicts good fortune until the next New Moon.

If there are either two New of Full Moons this month, the weather will be unfavor-able until the next New Moon.

If you have corns, cut them during the waning Moon and they will disappear for good.

Wood cut at the Full Moon is easier to split than that cut at the New Moon.

Welsh fisherman avoid the Moon line, or Moonlight showing on the water when setting out to sea, considering crossing it to be bad luck.

July 15th is a weather marker known as St. Swithin's Day. A country weather rhyme for July goes:

"A shower of rain in July, when the corn begins to fill,

Is worth a plough of oxen, and all belongs there till.

In this month is Swithin's Day,

On which, if that rain, men say,

Full forty days after it will

For more or less some rain distill,

Till Swithin's Day is past and gone

There may be hops, or there may be none."

The birthstone for July is Ruby

The glowing Ruby shall adorn

Those who in warm July are born

Then will they be exempt and free

From love's doubt and anxiety.

When the Wort Moon of July is full, magickal herbs of vervain are ready for harvest., magickal mugwort is ready to gather at this time.

The ancient Greeks used vervain to adorn their altars, and Druids in Britain included it in their rituals of prophecy.

The time that an herb is gathered is important, whether for magickal purposes or culinary. If the aerial part of the plant is to be used, the plant should be harvested as it is coming to bloom during a waxing Moon. If the roots or bulbs are to be used, the herb should be gathered during a waning Moon when first coming up, or after it has grown for a season and all of the foliage has died back down.

It is also important to collect magickal herbs at the correct planetary hour and day of week.