Many Litha blessings to all of us in the Southern Hemisphere, we are having weird weather, although today up on the mountain it is sunny and warm. May our summer be gentle on us all and safe. Blessed Be!
The Season
Summer is such a buzz, of activity, of energy, so many places to go, people to visit, things to do, to prepare for… such a reflection of the summer life seasons of mother and father, and the energy of full moon, and ovulation and midday – these all being the correspondences
(matching energies) of the peak points of their cycle.
Using the wheel of the year, Summer starts at Beltane, October 31st, November 1, and goes until Lammas on February 2nd.
So at the start of Summer we can tap into the ‘building to climax’ energy of the Earth, of which we are all a part, and flow with it, be with it and apply it. And then after the Summer Solstice we can connect with the different energy that follows the peak and begins the descent.
The ‘building to climax’ energy that is the Spring side of the Summer Solstice is the energy of the sun wax- ing to full. ‘Full sun’ occurs on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. The year being the thirteen moon experience, the cycle of the seasons, that is the dance between our Sun and the Earth.
The other and very familiar time that we feel this building to full energy is in our bodies as we approach ovulation. It’s the time within the cycle, whichever cycle, of peak activity, creativity and energy, and al- though sometimes, for example in the life season of Mother, it feels like it is never ending, it will.
We get to experience many turns around the cycles through our menstrual cycle, the lunar cycle and the cycle of a day and night, and methinks those ongoing repetitions serve us well in enabling a big picture perspective to take to our life cycle.
After the Summer Solstice the days get shorter, but we hardly notice it because of our predilection for being outside later in the day, to play and party in the warm summer evenings.
However, only six weeks on from the Summer Solstice is the first (of three) harvest festivals, Lammas. When Lammas comes, Summer is over and Autumn begins.
The cycle of the seasons teaches us so much, especially and perhaps most importantly, to be present to what is, for soon enough it will pass, as we continue on the cycle.
This is the wisdom of the cycles.
Summer Spiritual Practice Make an altar for the season.
Don’t let the busyness of summer get in the way of honouring the season. You can easily make an altar to Summer, and this is especially fun with children. Creating an altar is an ancient, cross cultural, human practice. It serves to bring our focus to a particular thing, time or event. By creating seasonal altars we can deepen our awareness of what the energy of the season holds and how that is reflected in our inner and outer worlds. Nature is a great teacher!!
Choose a place that you will see often on your movements through your home or somewhere that particu- larly lends itself to being an altar. You’ll know the perfect place, maybe its outside. Decorate it with special things you have and things from nature that make you think of and feel all the different aspects of Summer. Perhaps light a candle on the altar each evening or morning, making particular wishes or setting intentions that are in keeping with the energy of summer – full potential, ‘full bloom-ness’. For example “I give thanks for ‘such and such’ being its full potential, expression, manifestation.”
And then after the peak of Summer, the summer solstice, the energy shifts into letting go. You know that late Summer feeling, like the party is coming to a close. So appropriate prayers at your altar could include prayers of gratitude and letting go.
“Litha also is the feast of the fairy, and at this time, doors between the worlds open, and we can peek through and dwell for just a little time in the Otherworld of the fairies – a place where youth is everlasting, and enchantment plenty, beauty, love and joy are ours for all time. For just a moment, Litha gives us a glimpse of life in all its perfection. It encourages us to seize the day, and to dwell completely in the magic of the present moment.”
Lucy Cavendish “White Magic”
Suggested Ceremony for the Summer Solstice
For the Summer Solstice our community gathers for a faery party. We create an altar together with flow- ers from our gardens going around the circle with each person expressing gratitude for whatever they are thankful for and then giving thanks for whatever they want to see come to ‘full bloom-ness’ or ‘fruiting’ in their lives.
You could gather with friends to do this or do it with your family or by yourself. The idea is simply to align with the energy of the season, the energy that is – full bloom, fruiting, maximum potential, beauty, ripeness, full light and use this energy to fuel your life, your prayer, your intentions. Give thanks for what you want to come to fullness in your life, and light a candle in honour of that, or make something to represent that.
Blessed Be!
Source: https://janehardwickecollings.com
Yule -Northern Hemisphere
To all in the Northern Hemisphere a Blessed Yule, stay safe and warm as the winter sets in and have a wonderful and joyous Yule. Blessed Be!
WINTER SOLSTICE, YULE: NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
Winter, the time from Samhain (or Hallowe’en) October 31st, through the Winter Solstice and to Imbolc (or Candlemas) February 2, is the time of metaphoric death and renewal.
The seed-pod falls to the Earth, the deciduous trees look lifeless, everything appears to stop growing. The land is shrouded in fog or snow, the cold winds blow.
We live the shortest days and the longest darkest nights.
However, the seed lies dormant underground, gestating; for the trees, root growth is happening, deep with- in the Earth and the sap is moving through the trunk.
And then at Imbolc we see the moment of rebirth when the seed germinates, it’s life force breaking through the seed pod heading for the Earth’s surface, life returns to the tree’s branches with the beginnings of the buds forming and the light and heat of the sun increases.
The cycle goes on. Birth, growth, full bloom, harvest, decay, death, rebirth….
Winter is the final phase of the cycle of the Earth’s seasons, although really there is no beginning or end, just one ongoing cycle, over and over.
Like all the parts of the cycle winter holds evidence and clues within it about what came before, what is and what will likely be.
The energy of winter; is an ending, a void and a new beginning.
We see this in the vegetation growth cycle, in the length of the days and nights, in our energy levels and we feel it metaphorically.
There is increasing darkness, the darkest point and then the shift toward increasing light.
Literally and metaphorically.
And herein lay the opportunity, the energy to be with, to recognise the effects of and to flow with on our life journey.
Winter Spiritual Practice
It is not wise to ignore and attempt to avoid any of the parts of the cycle, consciously or unconsciously, and one could say – especially winter. Now is the time for rest and all the other ‘re’ words – rejuvenation, replenish, revitalise, renew. We all know the importance of this part of the cycle, and what happens if
we don’t honour it.
“You are alone in your responsibility for balance”
Tamara Slayton, The Menstrual Matrix
Midwinter is a time for deep contemplation, of traveling deep within, to the darkest place, the still point, to find the inner light that is there, to then bring it back out to increase and shine.
Make an altar with things from Nature that represent the season and take some time to rest, reflect and rejuvenate, or else!
Creating an altar is an ancient, cross cultural, human practice. It serves to bring our focus to a particular thing, time or event. By creating seasonal altars we can deepen our awareness of what the energy of the sea- son holds and how that is reflected in our inner and outer worlds. Nature is a great teacher!!
Choose a place that you will see often on your movements through your home or somewhere that particu- larly lends itself to being an altar. You’ll know the perfect place, maybe its outside. Decorate it with special things you have and things from nature that make you think of and feel all the different aspects of winter. Perhaps light a candle on the altar each evening or morning, making particular wishes or setting intentions that are in keeping with the energy of Winter – stillness, dormancy, gestation. For example “I give thanks for cultivating stillness, (etc.) and I let go of (such and such) to enable me to rest, rejuvenate, replenish and heal.”
Suggested Ceremony for the Winter Solstice
For the Winter Solstice, members of our community often gather to conduct a ceremony to mark and hon- our the specific energy of this time. Sometimes we gather in the dark outside and stand in a circle around a bonfire each holding unlit lanterns that we’ve made, and sometimes the ceremony happens inside. We walk, one by one, or in families, in a spiral to the fire, or lit candles, in the centre, enacting the journey within that winter represents and enables, to the point of stillness at our own centre. We walk in silence and con- templation to the fire, light our lanterns at the centre of the spiral and return out to the circle.
Journeying into the dark and back out, carrying back the ‘light found within’.
It’s a strong ceremony that poses the questions:
How are you changed when you return from your journey through the dark to your centre and bring forth your light?
Who or what is reborn in you anew, as the sun is at the Winter Solstice?
For the children we suggest that in the dark and the quiet they listen to what their heart is telling them. Lis- ten to what’s on the inside.
You could adapt this ceremony and do it with your family on December 21st in the evening before your dinner. Have some unlit candles on your dining table, one each. Take the time together for each person to go inside themselves, to feel the stillness within and to ‘see’ their inner light. Then, when in that place inside, to pose oneself a question “what can I see if I shine light on my current situation?”
For the children perhaps something like “If I shine light on… (a current situation)… what will I see more clearly/ what will I know to do? (etc). Following that, and in as much silence and stillness as is possible with children, each person light their candle (bringing back/forth the light ). Then have a talking circle to share the insights from the journey within, making sure each person speaks uninterrupted. Or do a ceremony alone, take your time, and reconnect with your inner light.
Blessed Be!
Source: https://janehardwickecollings.com
Ch'kara SilverWolf 