Happy Summer Solstice, Sparkly Friends!
Friday June 21, 2024 is Summer Solstice, as well as the full moon in Capricorn, and the sun moves into Cancer. Summer Solstice is the peak of the sun's energy. It's like if the sun was full like the moon gets full, it just happens once a year instead of every month like the moon. Whew, that's a lot!
Summer Solstice is a turn of the wheel and a time to pause and reflect about where we are in this year's growth cycle. What's growing in the metaphorical garden of your life. What's been growing well? Where are you flourishing? What might you be over committed to? What corner maybe feels a little neglected? The key here is to look at what you've done in the last 6 months without judgment. Celebrate the wins and look at the neglected areas with compassion. They wilted because you were focused on other areas of your life and that's ok. Maybe you got a promotion at work and stopped going to the gym. Maybe you needed to care for a parent or child and work wasn't your focus. Maybe you had time to try new hobbies, rediscover old ones, or find a new book series. We can't give 100% of ourselves to absolutely every area of our lives all the time and that's ok. All things in our lives have seasons where they need a lot of attention/energy. When that season passes, we can choose what to focus on next.
The purpose of pausing is to look and what we giving time and attention to and ask ourselves if that's where we want our focus to be. Are we spending time and energy on something that is taking from our life force energy or giving us more? Do we have more or less joy and love than we did at winter solstice? Again, no judgement, only an opportunity to refocus and set our sites on what we'd like to do with the rest of the year.
Simple Summer Solstice Ritual:
Materials:
Candles
Pen
Paper
Envelope
A small flower from your garden or other token that represents summer to you
A snack eat and a drink-try something summery like fruit and sparkling water!
Ritual:
Call the quarters if your do that in your tradition, or otherwise set the intention of being in sacred space.
Light your candle on a fire safe surface and be careful that it won't catch anything else on fire.
Write a letter your future self at Winter Solstice. Write down all the things that made you happy so far this year. Write about how you've grown and changed since last winter. Write about experiences/people/places. Write about how you've felt this year. What are the accomplishments and events you don't want to forget. Write about the struggle. Write about what you need help with. Really whatever you write is the correct topic. Maybe add some hopes/dreams/plans for who you'll be by the time Winter Solstice gets here. Sign it with love to yourself from yourself.
When you're finished, fold the letter with the flower or small token and seal it in an envelope. Write your own name an Open and Winter Solstice on the front. Feel free to add any decoration you like to the outside of the envelope, make it fun!
Hold the sealed envelope in both hands and with a soft gaze look at the candle flame. Feel the heat from the flame and imagine it filling you up with the essence of summer. Think about everything you love about summer. If not maybe now, then when you were a kid. Feel the heat come through your chest and down your arms, filling the envelope with the energy of summer joy; days at the pool, gardens full of flowers, sticky popsicles, sweaty bike rides, languid days of reading, going out with friends, the sound of live music, the smell of sunscreen. Once you feel like your envelope is full of energy, take a deep breath. Blink your eyes and widen your gaze to see more of the room. Feel the chair underneath you. Feel where your breath lands in your body. Come back to the present.
Extinguish your candle and release the quarters if you called them.
Enjoy your snack and drink to ground your energy. If you feel called, put a little bit of it outside as a gift to the earth.
Put the envelope somewhere special, but not so special you forget about it. Maybe under your keyboard or on your altar if you have one. Somewhere you see it once in a while. You'll open it at Winter Solstice as a gift for yourself!
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