This year the summer solstice falls on Friday June 20th. I’m sending this a few days early so if you would like to do the rituals, you can prepare.
Well, the first strawberries are ripening, and the air is sweet with honeysuckle and rose here on the west coast. My skin is turning brown again, my muscles relax into the heat, and I find myself suddenly reading too many books at once and starting creative projects that I know may never be finished. I have to make a lot of space to direct my life force where I want it at this time of year, because everything is just so appealing, life is intoxicating in its abundance. The summer solstice is at work and the creative explosion is my body’s way of being in sync with the season.
Nine years ago, my husband and I got married just before the solstice. We chose that time for its magic and joy. It’s a thin time when the veils between worlds soften, and when a boost of extra help and blessing from the spirits is so so accessible. Perhaps you sense the pregnant potential for change in the air? Fun fact - I also had a concussion/strongest awakening experience of my life on June 21 many years ago, and my second elbow surgery on the solstice 4 years ago. Both were full of teachings and drew my ancestors closer to me. My bow to this point in the wheel of the year is the deepest and most humble.
For my Celtic, Scandinavian, and likely Icelandic ancestors, midsummer or the summer solstice was also a time for a deep bow to life. It was a time for honoring sun deities and nature spirits, gathering healing herbs (they have increased power when gathered around this time), lighting fires of clearing and protection, doing rituals for luck, feasting and celebrating. It was also a time to do rituals to bring clarity to ones dreams and to engage spirits (or fend them off - depending on the culture and the practitioner’s preference!) who are less visible at other times of the year.
So these days carry a portal quality. When we turn toward our own ancestors at the times of the year when they turned toward theirs in celebration with the land, there is a heightened blessing potential and a door opens to a chain of love, celebration, and power that goes way back.
It’s also an exciting time for those in the Northern Hemisphere, and it can be hard to remember to intentionally bring the existing energy and light of the season to the things you want to grow, be they personal, community wide, or global. I hope this ritual will help.
Ritual Part 1: Omen Walk
Before the day arrives, decide whether you’ll do your walk at dawn or dusk on the summer solstice (June 20 this year), or sometime in the days surrounding it.
Let your ancestors and guides know you’ll be doing the walk and when. You can write them a note, speak it out loud, or simply let the intention ripple out from your heart.
Decide what period of time you want guidance for. I usually ask for insight from the summer solstice to the winter solstice, but you could also ask for guidance until the next turn of the Wheel of the Year, Lughnasadh (August 1 this year), guidance for a full year, or another time frame. Whatever you choose, make it clear.
As you begin your walk, give thanks to those who guide you and restate your intention. Ask for omens for the time ahead.
Wander. Don’t rush to interpret what you see. Simply notice what jumps out to you and what feelings arise. If you find yourself trying too hard or grasping at meaning, sing a song or dance a little to relax (I’m serious, this really works).
Let the messages come in their own time. If they aren’t clear right away, ask your guides to continue revealing them in your dreams or in the days following the walk.
Ritual Part 2: Intention Setting
If you’d like to take the ceremony further, notice whether any new intentions for the season ahead begin to take shape as the messages from your omen walk settle (over a few hours or the day after the walk).
For example, I might head into the walk intending to embrace joy and pleasure in the second half of the year. But if I receive strong omens around death and grief, and feel that this is indeed what’s coming, I may revise my intentions toward cultivating resilience, making space for grief, balancing sorrow with joy, and allowing more flow in my life.
Take your intentions out on the land, to a place you feel is a thin place, a place where spirit is more accessible. Breathe in the sun and invite the power of the sun and the summer solstice to join with your intentions. Visualize the two coming together. Speak your intentions aloud into this space of joining. Perhaps you write them in a prayer. Perhaps you sing them.
Join them with the solar energy of solstice until you sense it is complete. Give thanks.
Appreciating
One of my favorite dance teachers to ever learn from, Lee Su Feh offers the below instructions for movement and life. I think they emanate the flavor of summer solstice beautifully too. This image is a snippet, click for more detail.
2. Photos from No King’s Day protests around the US.
3. Radical genealogy with David Dean starts on June 22.
Blessed solstice dear ones. May the sun warm your hearts, bring life to all the good you are doing out there, and help us to be kind hosts for each other’s broken heartedness and wisdom.
