The Shining Solstice

In the Northern Hemisphere we have the Summer Solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere the Winter Solstice is happening too, Gaia showing us how we too can go through all the seasons in one day, It is all about perspective.. 

It was also a New Moon last Monday, so when you turn to the Sun and smile also see if you can find sister Moon who kindly reflects the Sun when we can't directly see it.

In Nuneaton if that is where we find ourselves, we will experience roughly 16 hours and 41 minutes of daylight on Sunday, with the sun rising at approximately 04:44 am and not setting until around 09:26 pm.

Summer Solstice is the day when the Sun reaches his northern crown — the longest day and shortest night for us in the Northern Hemisphere. For countless generations, people have seen this moment as a sacred doorway: a time when the veil between worlds grows thin, when water and fire comes together in union, flowers carry yhe blessings, of the fruit to come, and the lands breathes in amd out abundance.

Across ancient Europe, Midsummer was a celebration of the Sun’s strength and a gentle reminder that every peak contains the seed of change. After the solstice, the days slowly begin to shorten, as the great wheel of the year turns onward. Teaching us of perpetual change in this manifest existence we call life.

In Celtic and northern European traditions, the season carries stories of the Oak King who rules the growing light of spring and summer; at midsummer’s height, the Holly King begins to gather his strength, carrying the world gently back toward winter and the cycle is complete.

The lands of Europe also held stories of goddesses and spirits of fertility, love, and the wild:

• Brigid — keeper of sacred flame and the bringer of water, inspiration, and the hearth.

• Freyja — connected with beauty, magic, the earth’s richness, and the mysteries of life.

• Sunna — the radiant traveller who drives the sun’s chariot across the heavens.

The bonfires we danced and sung around of the Midsummer were not only for warmth of an evening they had our celebration and prayers weaved in the flame. Folks leapt over fires for luck, danced beneath the stars, as we crowned ourselves with flowers.

As the fire rises, her flowers opens, and we all whispered: “May too the light within us grow, shine bright and unconditionally from within to without, in the as above and the so below”

In Indian traditions, the Sun is honoured as Surya the radiant being who rides across the sky in a chariot drawn by seven horses, carrying light, life, and truth. Surya is not only the physical sun; he is the inner sun the force that awakens consciousness, courage, health, and clarity.

The solstice season speaks of the sacred relationship between humans, nature, and cosmic rhythms. The sun’s movement marks spiritual turning points, and solar worship appears in practices such as Surya Namaskar a series of gentle movements offered as gratitude in the morning where once more the Sun has kept its promised and risen again. Stories tell of Surya’s light nourishing the world:

'He does not hoard his flame. He gives it away freely and in giving, he becomes eternal.'

His chariot rides through the heavens like a golden river, reminding people that life itself is a gift carried on waves of light.

Indian deities connected with this season’s qualities include:

• Agni the sacred fire, messenger between humans and gods, guardian of transformation.

• Lakshmi associated with abundance, beauty, and the flowering of life.

• Parvati representing the nurturing power of the Earth.

Fire indicates passion, transformation and consumes all that is no longer needed, it gives warmth to what is beginning. Midsummer waters are honoured as we are blessed. water gifts life too. Springs and wells became places of healing, renewal and offerings. The fields full. Plants, flowers and herbs are at their strongest. carrying our Mother Earth’s deepest medicine. The solstice was a time of music, chanting, dancing, where we move our spirit share and listen to stories beneath open skies. A reminder that the outer sun mirrors an inner sun carrying wisdom, love, creativity, and awakening.

Our world, is she not a great garden. The Sun rising above a crown of gold. The Earth wearing her spring/summer velvet green and an adornment of flowers as she open her arms to the sky.

In Europe, the people light the fire flames and ask “May we remember the wild beauty of the Earth?”

In India, the people honour Surya and say: “May we remember the light that lives within us all.”

The same ancient question arises at this time of year “How shall we live while we are blessed with light?”

I hope you are able to take a pause and observe, bask and give thanks to the light of the sun as we move into Summer stillness. It is a miracle of spirit, of nature, that we exist, that it all exists, this beautiful abundance and all her creations. Today's invitation is to be like a plant, a flower. Reach up your limbs to the sky, yes all of them, turn your face to the light, and allow it's ever shining warmth to bathe your skin.

Enjoy that cutaneous photosynthesis (vitamin D3) through your photoendocrine organ (skin), my dear friend and remember that it is on Surya's rays that we are all nourished and thrive. So our summer solstice is not one single tradition, but a weaving, a meeting place where many ancient stories are remembered and woven to honour the longest light of the year, as we celebrate and absorb our thriving medicine.

Hari Om Tat Sat