Buck Moon: The 7th Full Moon in Our 13 Moon Journal Club
- Danielle Baker
- Jul 9
- 3 min read
Welcome to the seventh gathering of our 13 Moon Journal Club: the Buck Moon.
Can you feel the shift in the air?
This month’s Buck Moon reaches her fullest glow at 9:36 PM UK time on Thursday, July 10th.
As the Northern Hemisphere stands in the fullness of summer, and the Southern Hemisphere folds deeper into winter’s quiet, we are invited into a different kind of strength, one that honors the slow and steady return.
The Buck Moon reminds us that growth isn’t always visible. Sometimes it’s velvet-soft, forming in silence, asking only for our patience and protection.
Oh, before we begin, here’s your invitation:
The Buck Moon’s Invitation
The Buck Moon takes its name from the time when deer begin to regrow their antlers, soft at first, covered in velvet, forming anew after a season of shedding. It is a symbol of quiet regeneration, of strength that is tender before it is sharp.
Other names for this moon include the Thunder Moon, Salmon Moon, and Hay Moon.
These names are rooted in Indigenous North American traditions and agrarian calendars, where moons were not abstract symbols but living guides, marking change, migration, and preparation.
This moon invites us to honor the becoming.
To recognize the places where new growth is forming, even if it cannot yet be seen. Where we are gathering ourselves again, slowly, quietly, persistently.
You do not need to rush this process. You do not need to prove that you are healed or ready or finished. Like the deer growing its antlers, your renewal is sacred, steady, and worthy of protection.
Regrowth: What part of you is beginning again, quietly and without fanfare?
Resilience: Where have you adapted in silence? What strength has returned?
Tending the Growth: What part of you needs softness, not pressure, in order to keep growing?
Offering from the Becoming: What can you share from this place of renewal, not as a performance, but as a presence?
“Invisible growth is still growth. And just because something is forming in the dark doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
Five Journal Prompts for Honoring the Becoming
What am I regrowing after a time of shedding?
Where in my life do I feel quietly stronger than before?
What does true strength feel like in my body?
What would it mean to protect my energy as it grows?
Where can I let go of the pressure to be ‘done’ and honor where I am?
A Simple Buck Moon Ritual: Antlers of Intention
This practice honors what is growing back. You don’t need actual antlers, just presence, intention, and a quiet space.
Set the Space: Gather two twigs, draw two antlers, or simply hold your hands up like antlers beside your head. Sit quietly with a candle and your journal.
Offer Gratitude: Acknowledge the strength you’ve gathered from your recent experiences—even the ones that broke you open.
Name the Growth: Speak aloud one quality that is returning or forming in you. “I am rebuilding trust.” “I am learning courage.” “I am growing peace.”
Write It Down: Draw your symbolic antlers and label each branch with something you are cultivating—strengths, intentions, healing edges.
Anchor the Feeling: Reflect on what it felt like to name this growth without needing to prove it. Let your body remember this moment as a seed of trust.
As the Buck Moon waxes and wanes, may you remember:
You don’t need to arrive fully formed to be worthy.
You don’t need to prove your growth for it to matter.
Invisible progress is still progress.
Quiet rebuilding is still sacred.
But it’s not always easy.
We live in a world that demands visible productivity, that praises relentless effort, that rewards performance over process. Strength is often confused with toughness. Healing with speed.
This culture has forgotten how to honor slow becoming. It doesn’t recognize the sacredness of rest, or the wisdom in the pause. But the Earth does.
The trees know when to stand still. The deer knows when to retreat. The body knows when to wait. You know, too.
This Buck Moon reminds us: renewal is not a show.
And if you feel called, offer something gentle back into the world.
A breath. A word. A prayer. A hand on your own heart. A moment of stillness with someone you love. These small gestures are not small. They are the shape of healing. The quiet medicine of presence.
Love, Danielle
With love, Danielle xx
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