Boiling Sap Moon / Milk Moon
April 27th 14:31 CDT / 20:31 BST
Hello All,
Here we are on the cusp of another new moon. As the names given to this moon month suggest, all things spring are in full swing by now. This one is often known as the Flower Moon, but it has also been called the Corn Planting Moon, the Budding Moon, the Grass Moon, and the Hare Moon; among others. In my 2025 lunations calendars, it is the Boiling Sap Moon in the US and Canada, and the Milk Moon in the UK.
American History
The maple tree has historically been of great importance to many Native American groups. The Anishinaabeg people of the Great Lakes Region in the US and Canada named this month the Boiling Sap Moon because this was the time of year they processed the syrup they collected from the maples.
Making maple syrup from maple sap is a bit of an ordeal. The sap begins to flow in the trees when the temperatures rise above freezing. The collection is slow, and then the sap must be boiled for long periods of time to condense it into syrup. It takes, on average, 40 gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of maple syrup!
This process was so laborious (and so important) that the Anishinaabeg had a mythology around the work. They told a story of a time when the maple trees gave ready-made syrup, that was thick and sweet, from wherever its branches were broken. The people were lazy and simply lay beneath the flow and gathered it in their mouths. They did little else with their time.
One day, a trickster spirit called Nanabozho came to visit the people. He saw that they were not doing any work and had become excessively indolent. This wouldn’t do! He drew pailfuls of water from the river and filled the maple trees with it to dilute the syrup into a watery sap. The people would now have to gather the sap. They would have to build big fires and tend them while the sap boiled down in pots.
The resulting maple syrup was such a valuable part of their diet, and took such a great effort to produce, that they named this month for the important work of harvesting and processing it.
British History
The Milk Moon, as it is now known in Britain, is actually a shortening of the original Anglo-Saxon name for the month. They called it Þrimilcemōnaþ. While this Old English spelling is illegible to most today, the translation goes like this: Þri (three) milce (milkings) mōnaþ (month) - the Three Milkings Month. This was the time of year when their cows, who had by now calved, were so rich in milk that they could be milked three times a day.
Incidentally, you can see above that the Old English word for month is mōnaþ. This comes from mōna, the Old English word for moon. If you follow that word back in time far enough, it comes from the Proto-Indo-European méhns (moon, month) which, in turn, likely came from meh (to measure).
Lunar Science
I have recently been learning about the tidal drag that the moon causes on earth. Its pull on our masses of ocean water causes the Earth’s spin to slow ever so slightly over time. This, along with a couple of other factors, results in the slowing of our rotation by about 2 seconds every 100,000 years.
What’s more - what the earth loses, the moon gains. As it slows us down, our moon takes on more energy. When the Apollo mission astronauts visited our moon, they placed reflectors on its surface. By firing lasers at these reflectors from Earth, we can measure the distance of the moon. Over time, these measurements have led to the discovery that the moon is drifting farther away, slowly, by about 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) every year.
Lunar Astrology
The new moon on April 27th will be in Taurus, while the May 12th full phase will be in Scorpio. As with all new/full moon pairs, they sit at opposite ends of the zodiac. But these are opposites that are cut from the same cloth. They are each a mirror image of the other: identical, yet flipped around.
Taurus/Scorpio business is all about ownership vs control, money earned vs inherited wealth, material stability vs emotional stability, stagnation vs transformation, even life vs death.
This is a great new moon for a financial reset. Now is the time to suss out and put on track anything to do with money that needs a closer look or a different approach. Resolve to save more, begin a new budget, tally the books: it’s all about pragmatism and steadying your fiscal boat.
Taurus also loves the earthly pleasures. Resolutions to pamper yourself more will be equally well-suited to the moment.
Taurus and Scorpio both demand loyalty, so sticking with it could pay off this month as a real, long-lasting change. As Scorpio, the sign of permanent transformations, takes over in the full phase, there is an opportunity for the determined and the steadfast to reap the rewards of this moon.
Otherwise, if you haven’t got any big changes in mind, Scorpio loves a passionate display. You may just want to go out and howl at the moon.
All my best, and until the next lunar month,
Claire
