We love Amanda Sophia’s wisdom, and the amazing advice and tips she offers in each edition of our magazine. In the newly-released Summer 2021 issue, she described a beautiful ritual we can use to harness and honour the energy of the summer solstice. Check it out below!
Celebrate the Solstice
Summer lightness beckons
by Amanda Sophia
Welcome to the Summer Solstice, Litha, with its message of energy, inspiration, outwardness, manifestation, and transformation. As a Celtic Priestess, I have discovered that my intention to seek holistic healing through nature has proven invaluable. The Celtic wheel of the year is a beautiful guide and invitation to this process, because nature invites us to align our internal and external rhythms with hers. We learn that time is cyclical and therefore includes death and rebirth. When we embody nature, we become one with the deepest part of ourselves.
Each festival on the Celtic Wheel is a point that encourages us to look into nature and pay attention to its teachings. When we work with these natural pauses, we have a chance to consider our lives and choices in a way that syncs with the energies of the earth.
My previous article was about the Spring Equinox, a time of blossoming, rebirth, renewal, and awakening your inner child. Day and night are then of equal length in perfect equilibrium; nature is coming alive.
Since then, we have experienced Bealtaine on May 1st, which was about honouring your inner world of sensuality, fertility, and light. Bealtaine is the time of the Fire Festival, when the boundaries between our world and the otherworld are thin, and magic can happen.
But now we are at the Summer Solstice in the Northern hemisphere, when the axial tilt of the earth is at its closest point to the sun, and the sun’s elevation in the sky is at its highest. This is the turning point of the year, when the sun shines brightest. It’s a time of balance between our inner masculine and feminine. The word “solstice” literally means the “sun stands still.” The sun has reached its peak; the days will gradually become shorter.
With the sun on your face, ask yourself these related questions.
- Where in your life are you forcing things to happen? Can you shift to inviting divine flow?
- What brings you alive?
- How can you reclaim your inner sensuality in a deeper way in your life?
- What action can you take today to step more fully into your joy?
- Do you need to unify the duality of opposites?
- Take some time to pause, stand still, and see where you may be feeling overheated. Can you bring cool, calm energy there?
The Irish goddess associated with the Summer Solstice is Grainne (pronounced GRAWN-yah), honoured at the summer solstice and the first grain harvest. She was also a herbalist and protector of the land. In Celtic mythology, Grainne eloped with Diarmaid, god of the underworld. She embraced the darkness, bringing together the duality of opposites through love.
Invite the essence of the goddess Grainne into your life and commune with her over the next six weeks for guidance while performing these Summer Solstice Rituals.
- Create a solstice crown to celebrate nature and the changing of the seasons. You’ll need flowers, floral tape, floral wire, and scissors. Wrap the wire around your head where you’d like to wear the crown. Weave the flowers through the wire and secure with the tape. Connect with the energy of the flowers and infuse them with your intentions for the next half of the year.
- Create wholeness and sensuality by inviting deep union with the land, yourself, and others. If you are in a relationship, make love outdoors on the land, and if you are single, lay on the earth naked and feel the oneness (find somewhere very private, of course, and don’t get caught).
