The Summer Solstice and My Relighting the Sun Within

The Summer Solstice: The Zenith of the Sun and the Return of the Blogger

The Summer Solstice is vast approaching and I realise I have not written in a long time. It has been a long, dark time of mourning, betwixt the Wolf Moon of January and the Snow Moon of February, I quickly and unexpectedly lost the great Pillar Stone of my life, my patriach, my earth and solar king whom I had loved, and loved me deeply, and raised me from when I was but a seedling, to the woman I am today, with his gentle nature and the care of a wise old gardener, a brilliant father figure, he was both my grandfather and my father, my hero. What I knew of the world, and my safety within it, was put to rest the moment he took his last breath and in the time of darkness and recluse for the soul, the animal world, my Grandad's spirit went into hibernation, like the sun, he was in the depths below the horizon, and I was left to fend, adapt and grow in the winter of these months.

Summer Solstice, also known as Litha, marks Midsummer and is both the longest day and shortest night of the year. To Neopagans the Sun God is at the height of his virility and the Goddess is pregnant with child. The solstice is a joyous celebration of cycles, the sun rises and sets each day, and each year we mark the passage of the seasons and will flourish in times of abundance and strive through times of hardship and cold nights. The Goddess will again rebirth the Sun God after he perishes and abdicates his throne to his brother the Holly King, and we will soon be celebrating the zenith of the sun again. 

Two things can be symbolised with the journey of the sun and both have a personal significance with this time in my life and the lessons I have been reminded recently, as it will for many for it is the true gift of life. The first is the eternity of the soul and the passage of life with the threefold birth-death-rebirth. The sun guides us through the day and illuminates the vivid world around us  in effervescent green and blues, nourishes the ground and feeds the plant world and revitalises the animal kingdom before it sets below the horizon and plunges us into darkness leaving us to the mercy of predators. The void and darkness hints at death in our psyche, our beloved sun who provides life is lost and nowhere to be found, and there are dangers unfortold to us as we can not see them edging around the corner without light and our life can end in a moment. As humans we fear death, the ending of our short sacred time upon earth, but the ever return of the sun offers us our security, our assurance that things can return after disappearing, that things can pass on and exist elsewhere in our cosmos. The same is true with seasons, there is a poetic beauty in spring time with fresh new blossoms, baby animals, the flux between spring rain and sunshine and then summer is full of power, promise, ecstaticness, the oak is a deep green, the grass is vibrant, the sunset is full of colour and life is at its fullest.  But like all things must they start to dwindle in autumn, the leaves age and go through a fiery montage of colour, red, brown, orange, yellow, before the branches are left bare. Animals hibernate and as the rough winter approaches only the evergreens remain and life is lucky to survive the harsh  cold temperatures. 

But there lies the miracle of life, when all things seem lost, when hope has drained, when our vegetation has died and our sun seems to have eluded us, hope raises its glorious face and breaches the clouds and a new season, a new dawn, a new sun emerges once more and life on earth rejoices and is fertilised. We celebrate the Goddess and the God as they walk amongst the earth throughout our year, and give us the gift of life and spirit, we know these forces will guide and nurture our souls through this life and the lessons they teach assure us there will be a next for all things return to earth and arise from again.

The second symbol of solstice is the ascent of consciousness for as the sun reaches its zenith, so too is the mind and soul uplifted. It is believed the sun can act as a gateway between worlds and as it reaches its peak in the skies souls look upwards and aspire to journey from this world into the beyond. 

Solstice is a fire festival, fire being the element symbolising spirit and ascension, and many ancient cultures marked the solstice with monuments aligning to highlight the rising of the summer sun at olstice. Bonfires are lit, wheels burned and a procession of lanters are traditional celebrations of the solstice and to brighten ones inner and outer light. The solstice is also a favoured time for weddings, a fertile month, taking place in June, named after Juno the Roman patron of Marraige. 

My faith wavered earlier this year, but as the sun started to ascend towards spring time a slight feeling of joy was rekindled when I walked through his garden, the ghost of him hanging flowers, tending to saplings, a living icon of the Green Man himself to me, like a child I watched bewildered and the memories of my Grandad and his green thumb started to take life as the bird song returned and I cherished the gentle gardener teaching me how to grow sunflowers, the attention he paid to seeds, watering them, talking to them, rotating them indoors and outdoors to maintain the correct temperature, not too hot, not too cold, and all the time he smiled at me, he was letting me know for things to grow and flourish one must care for them, be attentive, guide them, as the sun does for all life, as the Green Man tends the forest and the Goddess tends all living things. I started to hear his voice, he began to reappear in dreams as the sun broke through the windows. And slowly but surely this empty shell of a girl started to find herself again. Now the summer has returned and the Sun is reaching its zenith, and though I doubted shortly, my belief has returned again. 

Today, clearing out his greenhouse to make space for tomato plants that he had ordered before christmas, we found a growbag at the back, abandoned in a corner, from a few summers past. It should have been withered like the others, old, dead, unwatered and threw in a corner away from the sun, a rare thing as it was considering he used to throw out the contents of the bag and renew them the next year, we found it bursting with forming perennial plants, a living symbol of the return of life. Although we could not see him, although he wasn't physically tending his garden, his nature, his spirit, has and will return again, the summer sun renewing its life.

 I know now, like the deities that guide us in spirit world, my Grandad walks hand in hand beside me, whispering to me, still tending to me like the Gentle Gardener he is, like the Green Man, and that like all things, he may have perished but he awaits the next step in the Grand cycle, rebirth, and that maybe not in this life, soon I will see him again and hug him once more. The sun will shine down again, Summer has returned. And will return.

In Loving Memory of a Gentle Giant x