Honoring the solstice can remind us just how precious each day and season is, because the truth of its passing away is also acknowledged. Gifts need to be appreciated, not taken for granted.Some will use their favorite ritual to raise energy for healing, for re-aligning and redressing environmental wrongs, or for strengthening the sense of being part of nature, not set apart and individual, but interconnected in a larger whole, including the past, present and future.

Such is the power of participating in the turning of the wheel of the year.

For those of us living in the Southern Hemisphere, the Summer Solstice is a time of celebration, of honoring the light, our connection to the Sun and the Earth. Every culture has festivals to honor this day and our ancestors around the earth built numerous monuments to commemorate this time.

“Summer is a celebration of the earth incredible bounty… Summer is a festival of this inner fire/power, the power that makes abundance and nourishment grow from tiny seeds.”

“The power that brings things to fulfillment, and expands and brightens our lives, that makes good things come from seed–ideas and plans. And the warmth of the sun and the long, hot days continually remind us of how good it is to find a balance between intense activity and lazy, idle hours doing nothing.”

“Summer teaches us patience. The fruit is green until it’s ripe and you just can’t rush it. Something of the slow, sure rhythm of the time will enter into us if we let it; no, we can’t hurry things, but if we just relax and let go, things will reach their fullness without effort or ego–striving on our part.”

“And as we watch the ripening and flowering and fruiting all around us, we can’t help but be moved by and grateful for the generosity of the Earth Mother, who gives says what we need so unstintingly. Summer is a perfect time to discover our earth connection; by receiving her gifts with respect, taking only what we need, and doing what we can to minimize our impact on the delicate balance of the planet, we strengthen and nourish the bond we were given a birth with the great parent who sustains us all.”

“Many of us take vacations and summer; we can use this time to create whole days of celebration around ancient festivals that honor the Earth’s life– giving relationship with the sun. By entering into activities that teach respect for and connection with these great powers – vital sun and nourishing earth – we align ourselves with those powers in a very deep way.”

 

“And as we watch the field baking in the heat –as we feel the sun power to burn as well as to bless – we can feel our own gifts, our own special abilities as they ripen and swell, and know that we, too, have the power to make a difference for growth or for destruction in the world…. it is a time to mark peak moments, moments of warmth and growth.”

“Our ancestors built huge bonfires on this day to celebrate their tangible connection to the vital power of the immense burning star that keeps our planet bright, warm and alive. It’s a good time to remember that we, like the sun, contain the power to nurture and sustain, and that we have a responsibility to burn as brightly as we can.…”

“(It) is the time to invite fire into our lives –fire to burn away all that we have outgrown and all that no longer serves us; fire that makes the wild things grow in us, for which our inner selves have longed…”

“We are all connected –people, planet, and sun. If we align ourselves with the power in others and in the natural forces around us, what we are unable to do with our own puny ego–selves can be made to happen –if it is attuned to the needs of the inner self and those upon which we are connected.”

~ Cait Johnson and Maura D. Shaw from Celebrating the Great Mother

And for those living in the Southern Hemisphere this Solstice heralds the beginning of Winter!

“Many will be celebrating the Seasonal Moment of Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere and Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere – both happening at the same time. It seems like a good thing to get with Earth-Sun Creativity in your location and link up personal, communal and ecological story: it might make more of a difference to the state of ourselves and our Planet than we could guess at.”

“Winter Solstice is a time for celebration of the birth of the New, the birth of All – the advent of the Gift of Being, and the sheer surprise and Joy of Cosmogenesis. Summer Solstice is a time for celebration of the fulfillment of that Gift – its Creativity come to fruition and full flowering: and a re-Union with the Source of All, as all is poured forth. Both Solstices may be a Moment/point of celebration of Mother Sun – our lineage, and a Passion to fulfill our part in it.”

“The Solstices may equally be a celebration of the Dark Womb from whom we emerge (as dark peaks at Winter Solstice) and to whom we return (as light peaks and the year cycle turns into the dark), as much as both may be a celebration of Light (which is most often the focus on both occasions).”

“Winter celebrates Emergence – a coming forth at the same time as it is a separation, a differentiation, and articulation … the Great Om. Summer celebrates Radiance – which is a dispersion/dissolution at the same time as it is a giving forth, a fullness of expression … the Great Omega.”

~ Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. from Pagaian.org