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Summer Solstice
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Happy Summer Solstice
Finding
New Ways of Spirituality.
The Summer
Solstice is held on the 20th or 21st of June.
The word "Solstice" is derived from
two Latin words:
"sol"
meaning sun, and "sistere," to cause to stand still.
So as the summer solstice approaches,
the
noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky
on each
consecutive day. On the solstice,
it rises
an to its highest.
So it
seems like it is "standing still."
Therefore
the word 'solstice' means "standing still sun".
The earth
spins around its axis
(an axis
is an imaginary line going through the Earth
between
the north and south poles).
The axis
is tilted somewhat off the plane of the earth's revolution
around the sun. The tilt of the axis is 23.5
degrees;
this tilt
creates out four seasons.
For
several months of the year, one half of the earth
receives
more direct rays of the sun than the other half.
Then it is
reversed.
Solstice
happens when because of the earth's tilt,
the
northern hemisphere is leaning as close as
it can to the sun and therefore, the sun has
its highest arc in the sky.
It marks
the longest day of the year
(in the
Northern Hemisphere) and is the shortest night.
It marks
the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere
and at the
same time initiates the beginning of winter
in the
southern hemisphere.
Summer
occurs in a particular hemisphere due
to that
hemis-phere receiving more direct rays of the sun
than the
opposite hemisphere where it is winter.
In winter,
the sun's energy hits the earth
at oblique
angles & is thus less concentrated.
The sun is
at its highest and strongest,
a pivot point from which the light
will grow
steadily weaker and dimmer.
Joyous
Time
Significance
of the summer solstice was significant
because in
pre-historic times,
summer was
a joyous time of the year in the northern latitudes.
The
various signs of winter disappeared like
snow,
frozen ground or ground frost, chilly breezes and dampness.
This made
way for the various signs of the summer,
namely
buds, new leaves, insects and plants for medicine and food.
There was
a feeling of security as the storage of food
had
reached its bottom and the summer assured people
that
prosperity would return.
The
Poles are Different
On June
21, there are 24 hours of daylight
north of
the Arctic Circle (66.5° north of the equator)
and 24
hours of darkness south of
the
Antarctic Circle (66.5° south of the equator).
The sun's
rays are directly overhead
along the
Tropic of Cancer (the latitude line at 23.5° north,
passing through Mexico, Saharan Africa, and
India) on June 21.
Discovering
and Marking
Ancient
people used four primative ways of marking
the
solstices and equinoxes. The first way was
the
creation of spot lighting effects on the walls of passages,
chambers
or caves. Carved or painted symbols would be
struck by
a beam of light at sunrise or sunset
on one of
the solstices or equinoxes.
This
method was used in Newgrange, an ancient chamber in Ireland.
A second
method used was measuring the shadow of
an upright
pillar usually at noontime.
In
temperate zones, shadows are shortest
at the
summer solstice, and longest in midwinter.
This was
used by Perubians, Babylonians, Ionian Greeks, and the Chinese.
A third
custom employed by central American tribes
centered
around a specially prepared ceremonial structure.
Only at
noon on the longest day of the year would the sun
directly
shine through a hole or tube in the ceiling
and onto a
specific spot on the ground.
The fourth
way to indicate the solstices was to watch,
from a
fixed position, where on the horizon
the sun
set over a period of years.
The use of
this last method was generally used throughout Europe, Asia,
and the
Americas. Stonehenge, in England,
assimilated
this one. The summer solstice sunrise is marked here.
The
Karnack temple in Egypt also intergrated the solstice alignments.
This
is the turning point of the year
The
solstice observance comes from many cultures
and has
its roots in the older more ancient traditions
long
before Cristianity or any of its contemporary religions.
Among
those observing the solstice were the Druid Celts,
Chinese,
Swedes, Roman, Essenes, Gauls,
many
native tribes of North and South America
including
the Natches and Hopis to name a few,
the Slavs,
Germans, Babylonians, Ionian Greeks, Peruvians and more.
Since Christianity
could not prevent people
from
celebrating the old believes and celebrations,
they created new ones alongside of the old
ones
in the
hope that the others would be discarded and forgotten.
Midsummer
Day- Europe
Although
the summer solstice is the longest day of the year,
when the sun is at its highest point and
officially marks
the first
official day of summer,
in Europe
it was considered the middle of summer.
And just as Christmas was the replacement
for the
winter solstice festival of Yule,
the feast
of St. John the Baptist was put in place of the Summer Solstice.
And this counter-balances the winter solstice
for Christ,
as St.
John was considered the forerunner to Jesus Christ.
The Church
told people that Midsummer fires should
represent
St. John instead of the sun,
however it
took a long time before the rites and
their
meaning changed for the people.
"Midsummer
is the time when the sun reaches
the peak
of its power, the earth is lush and green,
and holds
the promise of an abundant harvest.
Mother
Goddess is heavily pregnant,
and the
God is at the peak of manhood and
is honored
in his facade as the supreme sun.
For the
ancients it is a time for divination and
healing
rituals. Many magical tools such as divining rods
and wands
were traditionally created during this period.
The
mysterious stones of Stonehenge
in England
build in stages between 3000 and 1500BC,
the main
axis is aligned on the midsummer sunrise.
It was
probably used for ritual rather than scientific purposes.
In
addition there are four "station stones"
within the
monument that form a rectangle
whose
shorter side also points in the direction
of the
midsummer sunrise. We can only speculate
that the
solstices was probably a very important celebration
for these
ancient folk.
The Summer
solstice was celebrated by the Germanic tribes
and their
European neighbors, the Celts and Slavs with huge bon fires.
Lovers would jump over the flames that brought
luck.
They
believed that the crops would grow as high as they could jump.
Young
maidens could find their husbands.
The fire
also banished demons and bad spirits.
They also
generated good magic
to
increase the sun energy for the whole growing season.
The Druids
celebrated it as the wedding of Heaven and Earth.
It was
celebrated as the night of fire festivals, of love magic,
love
oracles and divination. It had to do with lovers and predictions,
when pairs
of lovers would jump
through the luck-bringing flames,
maidens
would find out about their future husband,
and
spirits and demons were banished.
It was
about cleansing the negative and
welcoming
in the new and the positive.
Traditions
and customs regarding health and fertility for fields,
domestic animals and humans took place.
Celebrations
with parades, pageants, plays
and
festivals in the market place,
the town
green or in the forests were prevalent.
Midsummer
Fertility Unions
The summer
solstice is intuitively linked with fertility
and
sexuality by people everywhere.
Formally
there were ceremonies symbolic of marriage
taking
place at midsummer.
In
Sardenis, solstice couples were known as sweethearts of St. John
and their
ritual featured pots of sprouting grain
emphasizing
the connection between sexuality
in humans
and fertility in nature.
In the
month of March, a young man of the village would present
himself to
a girl requesting she be his sweetheart.
When
accepted, a few weeks later a girl would make a pot out of cork
and plant barley and wheat seeds.
The plants
had matured by midsummer and
the couple
dressed up to go to the church accompanied
by adults
and children.
They
brought the pot of grain against the door and
sat in a
circle eating eggs, herbs and wine.
Afterwards
they sang and danced in circles until the evening.
This
magical rite was designed
to make
woods grow green, flowers bloom, etc.
Sexual
unions during these ceremonies were
more an
essential part of the rites.
The people
believed that the marriage of trees
and plants could not be fertile
without
the real uniting of human beings
joining in
a sexual union.
Honeymoon
The first
full moon in June is called the Honey Moon
and it is
the best time to harvest honey from the hives.
This was
traditionally the month for weddings
because
many ancient peoples believed
that the
"grand [sexual] union" of the Goddess and God
occurred
in early May at Beltaine.
Tradition
says that it was unlucky to compete with the deities,
so many
couples delayed their weddings until June.
This month
remains a favorite month for marriage today.
In some
traditions, "newly wed couples were fed dishes
and
beverages that featured honey for the first month of their married life
to
encourage love and fertility.
Hence the
name given to the holiday
immediately
after the ceremony: The Honeymoon."
The month
of June may have been named for
Juno, the
Roman goddess of marriage.
Other
names for the Summer Solstice are Alban Heflin,
Alben
Heruin, All-couples day, Feast of Epona,
Feast of
St. John the Baptist, Feill-Sheathain, Gathering Day,
Johannistag,
Litha, Midsummer, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, Vestalia, etc.
During
this time when it is the middle of the summer,
it is a
time when the feminine earth energies
are at
their height.
Traditionally,
women were the healers and they used herbs for this reason.
Herbs
popular at this time are geranium,
thyme,
pennyroyal, chamomile and mugwort
which was
the herb of St. John.
As part of
the summer solstice festival,
herbs were
thrown on bonfires.
This was
done all over Europe in order to banish sickness
from their
livestock and to get rid of bad luck.
Blessed be all !
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Updated July 27, 2011
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Robert