THIS YEAR:
Waxing moon period: 6/28/2014 to 7/11/2014
Waxing first quarter moon: 7/5/2014
Full Corn Moon: 7/12/2014
Waning moon period: 7/13/2014 to 7/25/2014
Waning last quarter moon: 7/18/2014
New Moon: 7/26/2014
Observations: none

In Britain, “corn” is a term for all cereal crops such as wheat and barley, but in the United States, corn means maize. Celebrate both meanings with the July full Corn Moon, which marks the first shift into the harvest season as you pick ripe maize. On this full moon night, work magic that is centered upon friendships, relationships, health, hearth, and home. Celebrate your blessings. Perform rituals of gratitude. Research, study, and deepen your relationship with your patron gods, or put forth your request into the universe to acquire a patron god or goddess.

Your altar
Dress your altar with the same large cloth of yellow as last month, this time to symbolize the yellow of wheat and maize crops and summertime. You could also add a smaller cloth in light-green to represent the crisp green husks and stalks of the vibrant maize plant. Turn each cloth diagonally so you can see the points of all. Decorate your altar with maize-husk dolls and trinkets and figurines to symbolize maize and wheat. You could add small dishes of sacred yellow and blue cornmeal. This month and next month, you can also decorate your altar with the intricate wheat weavings known as corn dollies.

Waxing Moon Magic
From the night after the last new moon to the full Corn Moon:

Now is the time to reap the first rewards from all the projects you planned and set into motion back in the spring. As you work magic during the waxing moon phase, visualize yourself gathering your results. As with a physical harvest that you garner with care to avoid damage or loss, you want to work summoning magic with subtlety, sensitivity, and keen observation so as not to overlook anything. Does one of your projects involve physical fitness? Use affirmations to strengthen your resolve to exercise and eat right. Bless your food as you cook it and eat it. Meditate to clear your mind of distractions so that you may observe even the tiniest hints of success – fractions of a pound lost, inches melting away from your circumferences, and more strength and endurance gained on your exercises.

Focus your summoning magic upon acquiring and strengthening the ties of friendship, family, health, hearth, and home. This includes your relationship with a patron god and goddess. Put forth your request to the universe and listen closely for a reply. It may take a while, even more than a year, but sometimes the gods want to test our resolve. Have faith that eventually you will be heard.

Full Moon Magic
On the night of the Full Corn Moon of July, you can work a summoning spell for the first results of this year’s projects that is either an all-purpose summoning for this month (if that is all your schedule permits), or a culmination of the magic you have been practicing during the waxing moon phase. Do a ritual of gratitude for the beginning of a successful harvest season. Commune with your patron god and goddess and make offerings of bread, fruit, wine, and flowers. Meditate to clear your mind and look ahead to the harvest season to come, which is both magnificent and baleful as it involves the ever-growing shadow of death and darkness. Use your favorite means of divination to predict what the rest of year holds and write your results in your Book of Mirrors.

Waning Moon Magic
From the night after the full Corn Moon to the next new moon:

Now is the time to clear any obstacles such as inertia, laziness, procrastination, fear, and distractions as you prepare to enter the harvest season. Work banishing magic to send away the relationships that are not working and the habits that are dragging you down whether they are a reversion to old faults or something new and unproductive that you have picked up. This is an exciting time of the year because you are clearing the way for a bountiful harvest.

See also Names of the Twelve Full Moons.

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