This Full Moon in June is known as the Strawberry Moon. One reason is because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June. The Algonquin tribes of Native Americans named it the Strawberry Moon, as it appears at the time of year when they would harvest their strawberries. In other parts of the world, it is also known as the Honey Moon, Hot Moon and Full Rose Moon.
June is the month where strawberries are finally ripe enough to be picked, according to Farmer’s Almanac. Starting as light green and tasteless, they, over time, form plump, juicy, sweet, and reddened berries that are just begging to be eaten. Could there possibly be anything that gets us more excited for the month of June than the idea of eating fresh strawberries!
Strawberries are most often used in work that promotes friendship, love, kindness, sweet temperament, sensuality, beauty, and good fortune. Strawberry fruit is believed to possess a gentle aphrodisiac effect, and the leaves are often used as good luck charms.
If the name “Strawberry Moon,” wasn’t sweet enough already, there are even more names associated with the June Full Moon. Because not all regions grow strawberries during this time of the year, it’s additionally known as the “Rose Moon” and the “Hot Moon” in certain places.
The Rose of the “Rose Moon” represents love more than any other, not just romantic love but also God’s love, and the love of the angels. It is a soft scent coming from a flower that resonates at a higher frequency, closer to the angels. Angels and roses go hand in hand, and it is a known sign that angels are near if you can smell roses where none exist. With its roots deeply immersed in the dark soil of Earth Mother and its shining blossoms turned towards the light of Sky Father, it embraces both light and dark, male and female within itself. And so the rose teaches us to embrace everything, to unite the pairs of opposites and become whole.
June, the month that marks the culmination of spring and the launch of summer, is when roses are finally able to bloom in their fullest glory, spreading their velvety and perfumed petals wide open for the admiring. Since this is also the month in which the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year takes place, it makes perfect sense that it would also be known as the Hot Moon.
This Full Moon of June has other names in other parts of the world. In Europe, you may hear it called the Honey Moon, Mead Moon or the Full Rose Moon. In the Southern Hemisphere, it can go by Oak Moon, Cold Moon or Long Night Moon.
The Honey Moon is another name of the Full Moon seen in the month of June. Europeans called June’s full Moon the Honey Moon or the Mead Moon. Mead is created by fermenting honey mixed with water, sometimes adding fruits, spices, grains, or hops. Another name for this Full Moon is the Honey Moon. According to Wikipedia: “In ancient times honeymoon referred to the time of year when bee honey was ripe and cured to be harvested from hives or from the wild, which made it the sweetest time of the year.” This was usually around the Summer solstice at the end of June. The tradition of calling the first month of marriage the “honeymoon” may be tied to the custom of marrying in June, that was thought to make the “honeymoon” the sweetest month of the year.
There’s no denying that each month, the Full Moon comes crashing in with a wave of energy. But you don’t have to get swamped by it — ride it! Grounded, stable, and hard working are key words for this June Full Moon. In fact during this Full Moon, everything will be magnified, both good and bad. Therefore, this Full Moon should be viewed both as a time of crisis as well as a time of opportunity. It depends on our overall state and activity during the Full Moon day to cultivate its positive and negative effects. Many insights can come at this time! If you can’t sleep, use the time to dance, journal, or do something creative. Creative energies are heightened at the Full Moon.
This unique Full Moon brings unusual vibrations. The time is right under this Moon for change and new opportunities in your life. This Moon stage represents a wave of new possibilities and time for change, so, like a New Year’s resolution, it’s the time to jump into new experiences and take chances. Stay calm and relax the mind during this Full Moon day to avoid possible emotional and mental fluctuations.
A Full Moon night is an especially potent time for a smudging ritual, as after facing and releasing the negatives in your life, you can ceremoniously clear them away with the smoke of sacred sage. To perform the ritual, simply burn the dried sage bundle, keeping a ceramic/fire-safe dish underneath to catch the ashes, and simply waft it around your entire body (at about a two-feet long distance). As you do so, you can again set an intention such as, “I release all that no longer serves me for my highest good.”
Another way to take advantage of the strong vibrations of a Full Moon is to cleanse and relax your mind. Relaxing the mind can be done with affirmations. It is appropriate to use positive affirmations during the Full Moon. Repeat your favorite affirmation for at least three minutes, preferably outside under this Full Moon.
My world has an abundance of love, peace, and compassion.
I remember to remind myself that I deserve the best.
I know that I have the power to attract into my life anything I desire.
I always progress emotionally in the right direction.
The energy of a Full Moon can be good for you if you use it right. It can increase the level of your positive energy and it can definitely stir your emotions. The best way to embrace this energy is to stay calm. During the Full Moon, emotions are magnified. The time of the Full Moon is a powerful energy healing opportunity, an optimum time for meditating, recharging your energy field, and clearing your Chakras.
That is why so many cultures have Full Moon rituals and ceremonies—there’s so much pure energy in the Moonlight that anything it touches can’t help but respond to its radiance and love.
An even more primal way to connect to the Full Moon is in experiencing Nature beneath its light. Go out and breathe the fresh air, listen to the sounds of the night, and look inward and outward, at the millions of people throughout all of time who stood in your place, one with the world. The Moon shines on you as it shone on them, as it will shine on others after we are gone.
Celebrating the Magic of a Full Moon
- Write down what you want to release, rip it up and burn it.
- Light a candle for those you love.
- Light a candle for those you’ve lost.
- Honor your ancestors with incense, candles and chanting or singing.
- Write a letter to a passed over loved one and burn it to send it off to them. (They will be there watching you write it!)
- Put your crystals out by the window to clear and charge them.
- Clear your home with white light, and Smudging with sage.
- Start a gratitude journal.
- Go outside when it’s dark and just sit and absorb the Moon’s energy.