7 Simple, Magical Ways to Celebrate Summer Solstice
Everything is in bloom, the sun is shining, and you may be feeling the heat. It’s time to visit the beach, jump in the pool, or turn on the sprinkler and celebrate the height of Midsummer! Litha (midsummer) or Summer Solstice is a holiday that honors the longest day of the year and the shortest night. This year, in the Northern Hemisphere, Litha falls on June 21st, but you can celebrate within the energy window of June 20th-24th. In the Southern Hemisphere, they are celebrating Winter Solstice, which we will cover in another article.
Everything is fresh and fertile, filled with abundance. This is a time of joyful celebration as we honor the light as it has reached its climax. After today, the darkness begins to return and each day night grows a little longer.
Ways to Celebrate
Decorate your Altar or Home
Some symbols of the season include mirrors, seashells, fruits, flowers, crystals that represent fire and water and certain herbs. Take time the night before or the week before the solstice placing lavender or sunflowers or other beautiful flowers of summer around your home and altar. Get out the seashells and some bowls of water to honor the element of water at this time. You can also bless your water with some sea salt or pink Himalayan salt and see it being filled with white light. The more you decorate, the more the energy of the Summer Solstice will vibrate within your home, blessing you with abundance.
Heighten your Intuition
Go outside as the sun rises on this day and collect the dew of plants using your hands. They say if you wash your eyelids with this dew that you will have heightened psychic abilities and be able to see the fae.
Connect with the Fae
This pinnacle point is also one of the three times when access to the faery realm is easiest. Their powers are potent on this holiday especially. The dance around bonfires, sing and enjoy meals. Make sure to honor the faery during this time as they are the ones who make sure we have an abundant harvest. They will help you if you show kindness and respect. Place honey, bread, cheese, edible flowers, citrus fruit, mead, wine, milk, ale, vegetables, or make elderflower champagne (recipe below) and leave out for the faery feast. You could also leave out some shiny things like crystals and connect with them through meditation. I have created a faery meditation here to connect with your faery guide. Enjoy!
Have a Ritual Bath
After that, you could create an early morning ritual bath and choose oils and herbs that are sacred for the day. Placing rose, lavender, elderflower, or other herbs and oils you feel drawn to into the bath creating a sacred space honoring your abundance. As you lower yourself into the bath say, “all dirt and dread I leave behind, my bright future is now designed.”
Collect Powerful Herbs
If you grow your own herbs, spend time this afternoon harvesting them as they have extra potent powers on this day. Below is a recipe you can use with elderflower. If you do not grow your own, you can go and get some from your local herbalist and place them in an airtight glass jar in the Summer Solstice sun for a couple of hours. Use these herbs in teas, tinctures, mojo bags as they will be infused with the abundance of the Summer Solstice.
Spend time outside
If it’s not too hot where you are go out to the woods, to your favorite tree, or to your favorite body of water. Spend some time connecting to mother earth just by being in her presence and connecting with father sky and the sun by letting those rays shine down upon you. Notice all of the abundance around you and be grateful for the air that you breathe, the trees that shade you from the sun, the water that you can drink, and so many other ways you are provided for.
Have a Bonfire
As the sun begins to set, invite some friends over, light some tiki torches and candles, fire up the grill, and enjoy the longest day of the year. The bonfire was one of the ways our ancestors kept the evil spirits away. For us this is a wonderful time to connect with those you love, dance and sing around the bonfire, do some tarot card readings, and have a feast— don’t forget those s’mores!
How do you plan on celebrating? I want to hear from you! Comment below or join us in our Awakened Avalon Sisterhood Group where we will be sharing more magical tips and ways we are choosing to celebrate this magical day! Or join me on Facebook Live or Instagram Live at 8pm EST for Live Card Readings!
Elderflower Champagne Recipe
Elderflowers peak at Midsummer. Pick them in the fullness of a sunny day, ideally on Midsummer’s Day or collect them from your local herbalist. The Elder is sacred to the Mother Goddess and is often called the Witch’s Tree, the Elder Mother, or Queen of the Trees. It is protective with wonderful healing properties. It aids transformation, change and renewal, and we are at a major turning point in the Wheel of the Year, so the gift of Elderflowers is welcome.
Ingredients:
8 litres water
1.25 kg sugar
8 large elderflower heads
4 lemons
4 tablespoons mild white wine vinegar
Use screw top bottles – large plastic bottles used for squash etc are perfect. This stuff will fizz and if not bottled tightly it can explode! I keep mine in the garden so should the worst occur it isn’t going to make a mess all over the kitchen or larder… Before you begin make sure the elderflowers are clean – no little wandering insects or bugs.
Boil the water and dissolve the sugar into it
When the water is cool, add the elderflowers, juice of two of the lemons and slices of the other two, plus the vinegar.
Cover with a clean cloth and leave for a day.
Strain through a fine sieve or piece of muslin, carefully squeezing the flowers to extract as much flavor as possible.
Store in clean screw top bottles.
**You can find this recipe in the book, Witch: Untamed, Unleashed, Unapologetic