Writer’s note: I’m one day late hitting publish on this newsletter. It was intended for the day of the Solstice (y-day, June 21) but alas, I got caught up in the vibe and spirit of Summer Solstice so my ritual time came first. I hope your Summer Solstice day was delightful!)
Here we are at the halfway point of the year, Litha Season, which begins on the Summer Solstice, the longest day and shortest night of the year. Exactly six months from the Winter Solstice and Yule season, which ushered in the shortest day and longest night. Happy Summer! Upon the Wheel of the Year (a pagan calendar of 8 seasons honored with celebrations & festivals) Litha is represented by the Sun and is the midpoint of the seasonal year.
At the Summer Solstice we are acknowledging the Sun at his highest point in our sky. Father Sun shines his radiant light onto our planet, giving it the elixir of life. We are also honoring Mother Earth at her most fertile and abundant. Abundance, warmth, blossoming, seeds growing, fertile ground swollen with food to be harvested in mid and late summer for lavish feasts and blessings.
The Egyptian Pyramids are positioned for the Solstice sunset to fit perfectly between them. At Stonehenge, the annual Solstice sunlight falls directly on the center stone. In the Celtic traditions they celebrated the Solstice with large bonfires on high hills to reach up to the Sun. Flames reaching up to El Sol in honor of shining his brightest light. Dancing, food, community and enjoying the fruits of the land is what this time is all about — but it gets even deeper.
The cyclical rhythms of Nature are calling to us. Just as at the Winter Solstice when we were at the height of nighttime, allowing the Earth to slow down and have us take stock of what we’d accomplished over the past year — now we are at the top of the circle before rotating back down toward Winter. This is Summer Solstice, the moment you breathe in the fullness of life, to nourish yourself from Earth’s flourishing bounty, and celebrate the beauty of simply being alive.
This is also a moment to slow down and just be — if even for the next few days. Review how 2023 has gone so far and where you want the rest of it to go. Go for a nature walk, a hike, a bike ride, work in your garden, spend time near water - all of these are ways to connect with Nature. And remember, we are now entering the Water sign of Cancer, so we will feel the urge to go into our emotional bodies and slow down all that mental chatter.
What would you like to affirm in your life? Where could you use an affirmation to empower you, to transmit the vibration you’re feeling for your life journey at this Summer Solstice 2023?
Bye bye Gemini and Hello Cancer season! As the Earth is at her most lush, we are under the influence of the Crab, emotionally mature and nurturing Cancer which is, ironically, ruled by the Moon. Cancer is a feminine and deeply intuitive sign where the Sun is masculine and an action-oriented archetype. It’s important to respect the duality and harmonize them rather than ignore one for the other. This is a time to get out of our heads and into our feelings. Cancer season is all about emotional wisdom, as feelings are actually bits of information — data, if you will — offering guidance on where you are emotionally and giving instructions on how you can move to a more preferable state of feeling. But feelings can only be deciphered, decoded, when they are acknowledged and actively processed. How do you deal with things when your feelings are churning?
Even with the speed of summer, it’s also a time to relax and pull away from the frenetic pace of everyday life. The “doing” or action that summertime demands can first begin as doing some inner work. Connecting with Nature is the perfect way to spend this Solstice weekend. Spend time playing in or near water in honor of the change from airy, verbal Gemini into watery, introverted Cancer.
What in you needs nurturing? Cancer represents Mother, home, family and ancestry. What part of you is missing love and care; what part of you needs a soothing and a soft embrace? We all have an inner child, a part of us that can still feel things like a child, that can still have fun and laugh like a child (even if it’s frozen in you presently). It’s the part in us that still may need to heal from past hurts and traumas that to this day you either push away and don’t deal with — or you’ve created habits that keep you from fully healing. Cancer season is here to offer the ideal energy for delving deeper into the places that need healing.
Like the crab that digs a sand cave to hide in, you too can find a safe, solitary space to dig into your emotions and nurture yourself with more tender, loving care than usual. Allow your emotional body to have some release. Movement, tears and crying, healthy expression (talking, writing, singing, dancing, playing music, making art, doing crafts) — are all wonderful ways to get in touch with those inner, more hidden parts of yourself — the basement of your heart, if you will. With the love of a Mom, examine, discuss and soothe your feelings, your triggers and your methods for handling things.
Nobody likes to feel pain or sadness, disappointment or grief, but there are healthy and unhealthy ways of reacting and dealing with life’s inevitable ups and downs. At the end of the day, there is no way to do truly make hard feelings disappear, except to feel them and let them pass. It just takes some time, but it is a process that can become quicker the better you get at it. The tides roll in and they roll out. If you try to navigate around or avoid, feelings find a way to hide out in your physical body. Physical health is intricately tied to emotional health.
The more you can observe with objectivity what you are feeling and examine why, again with no judgement, the more you can acknowledge yourself and ease triggers or anxiety. Adjusting your perspective on what emotions really are and how feeling actually guides your experiences and outcomes — can help you give your range of emotions the space and nurturing they need — which will lead to you gaining more understanding of yourself. And that can lead to true healing.
The crab has a hard shell but is quite soft inside. Remember that we, too, are that way. We may be able to put on a good face when needed, but it’s important to honor the variety and depth of what we are feeling, when we are feeling it, and sit with it. Not to share it or express it right when it happens, but rather to process it and integrate it into our current state of being — and then we’ll be at a better place to express or share with others when we are ready (if that is something we wish to do).
Think of raw emotions like water in a meandering stream slowly making its way through a grassy field, then suddenly the speed picks up as it meets a river, going from calm to fast, then white currents. Before you know it the stream, now part of the river, is rushing and will soon be going over a cliff splashing onto the water below it. The stream has become a water fall — and then it goes back into a smooth, meandering stream again. So, too, do our emotions flow and then get blocked, churn up in currents, go off cliffs and intensely hit us with splashes of feeling. To give a simple-but-true platitude — what goes up must come down and will go back up again. What slows down must speed up, will slow down again. Trying to block the river of your emotions is as effective as trying to catch water with your hands. You can divert water (feelings) as much as you want but water will simply flow elsewhere.
Upon this Summer Solstice and into the first few days of Summer, spend time in solitude outside with yourself, in communion with your feelings. It’s not about the thoughts so much — let the thoughts come just like that rushing river, but pay more attention to what is emanating from your middle, what feelings are rising to the surface. As you feel your emotions, thank them for expressing and notice what they are and where they stem from. Go deeper than events to actual structure. Ask yourself: what is the real nugget of this feeling, the core or nucleus? Not all the layers around it, but the center — let’s get to the marrow of the bone of this piece of meat and find some real truth.
Releasing judgment is the #1 rule when exploring your emotional self! Simply feel, notice, remember what you are noticing and if you are ready, do a small ritual to release unwanted feelings or to call upon feelings you’d like to increase. Burning a candle is a good way to bring in what you desire and writing thoughts on paper to burn afterward in fire-safe place is a good way to release.
If during your explorations, feelings become too intense — try laying directly on the Earth or kneel with your forehead touching the ground and hands outstretched, or stand barefoot on the grass and do deep breathing, or take a foot bath with epsom salts.
Now is the time to live in affirmation to your highest purpose, to honor your feelings and use them as wisdom and guidance. The mind is not always right and can really trick you sometimes. The mind is all about keeping you comfortable and “safe” so when growth moments occur, it may prefer to retreat to a more comfortable place. The problem when that happens is missing out on guidance from the feeling body. After all, it’s in discomfort that we find growth and can even shortcut past some additional time spent in anguish — and really, wouldn’t we all like more time for ourselves?
Summer Solstice Ritual + Affirmation
Grab some live flowers - from the store or your yard
If you have some dried flowers, use some as well
Place some citrine, amber, jade and Tiger’s eye crystals or any yellow, green or blue crystals or stones for your altar
Gather sage, sweetgrass, Palo Santo and Nag Champa for prayer and meditation
Spend time with feet in the grass or on the dirt, touching Earth, feeling water in your hands or on your feet. Let the electromagnetic pulse coming from the center of Mother Earth soothe and wash away any negativity hanging out in your aura
Do some Qi Gong, Yoga or other body work outside with nature (if possible)
Mix the live and dried flowers in a container and prepare for dropping the flowers into a body of water or in a meadow, your backyard, somewhere outside that feels sacred to you — as you set intentions and commit to the hard work of creating the outcomes you desire. Burn the sage and other herbs to anoint and bless the flowers (before or after you put them in the container, doesn’t matter). You can do all this at home before you go outside. When you are ready, take your anointed flower mixture to the spot of your choice. Make sure you are facing the Sun and then speak aloud your intentions/goals for the rest of 2023. When you are finished, release your flower mixture into the body of water, meadow or other sacred place. Ask the Guardian Angles to carry your intentions into the light, to plant them into the Earth and water them with love.
Feel free to say this affirmation either before or after your intention setting moment — or anytime this summer.
Summer Solstice, I welcome you. Let us dance with the sun!!
We are grateful, Mother Earth, for your lushness, abundance, and blessings
Giving and receiving in Nature is a gift to behold.
Dear Sun, let us reach up to your light and bask in the possibilities of new dawns!
With each warm day, we welcome the chance for happiness
Knowing it is you and this precious planet that keep us connected to Life.
Wishing you a beautiful Summer Solstice and Litha season filled with abundant happiness and creative freedom! Summertime is here! Capture the light in your hands!
Embrace the light and acknowledge the dark, for all is yin and yang, negative and positive, good and evil — the extremes of the spectrum are not the point. The middle path is the path of peace.
Listen to your inner guidance system.
Image of Cancer Crab: Dorothe + Darkmoon_Art - Pixabay
All other images from Getty Images