Summer Solstice - Balancing -
Passion and Compassion
Summer Solstice is the season Mother Nature is at the peak of abundance, and you too can join this natural cycle, align with the abundance, and accomplish miracles.
If you are in the Southern hemisphere, then you are entering the season of Winter Solstice. The energy time of the season is the opposite of Summer. New Year planning will soon be underway. Plant the seeds now - of the future you want to harvest in the Fall.
Make this a time of balancing passion and compassion - and you'll enjoy rapid growth to your heart's desires. |
Give your full attention to your fiery passion for life, and at the same time - nurture and restore yourself with heart-felt emotional compassion.
Sound like a contradiction? It's not.
It is the season to love where you are now, and also eagerly anticipate the future "harvest" you desire. Balance both work and rest; desire and anticipation.
This is the ancient formula for assuring abundance at the time of Midsummer Solstice.
are always blowing,
but you have to
raise the sail."
Ramakrishna
The Summer Solstice Sun is at Zenith
Summer Solstice, June 21st, is the longest day and shortest night of the year. The Sun's power is at it's most potent - and on that day, the sun reverses, and the days shorten, as the nights lengthen. The journey into the harvest season has begun. At the Winter Solstice, the movement reverses and the Sun again "turns" - increasing in power - and the days begin to lengthen.
The solar cycle was revered by your ancient ancestors, and their "Sun Markers" are etched in stone cave drawings - in monuments like Stonehenge and in medicine wheels. The temples in Egypt, those of the Mayans, and the Inca in Peru center around the Sun.
Photo by Peter Strasser, Managing Director of The International Dark-Sky Association. |
Monuments to Sun cycles marking time.
The visual movement - and then the reversal of the Sun marked a turning point in the year that has been celebrated since time-out-of-mind. And many of the ancient traditions are embedded in our modern world -- their origins obscure. Yet your cellular memory still holds the wisdom of Natural cycles.
You are no longer dependent on seasons and daylight for your survival. A drought does not mean famine, and winter no longer means "early to bed." The importance of the sun is lessened by today's technology. Electricity, and infrastructure for travel and transportation advances eclipse the sun's dominance. It is easy to forget all life depends on the sun.
Sun as the source of life.
Ancient people knew that life came from the sun and without it, life could not exist. The journey of the sun through the solar cycle (seasons) guided the planting, growing, and harvesting times - as it does today.
some boats that
are not steered."
William Shakespeare
The sun may have lessened in importance in your mind - but not in your life. You are still bound genetically to the ancient cycles. Can you feel this special time of year as unique and offering you an opportunity? It is - don't miss it!
Summer Solstice - the season of abundance
An abundant harvest means concentration NOW on what you want more of in your future. |
Summer is a happy and joyous time, especially when compared to the darker, quiet and colder winter.
Midsummer (Summer Solstice) is roughly the middle of the growing season - the time when everything is abundant and flourishing.
Brilliant fields of flowers bloom, trees are luscious green with new leaves; and vegetables, sweet fruits and berries are ripening.
Nature is reaching her peak of abundance.
Ancient myths & symbols unite the earth and sun.
Midsummer is the time when the Sun's power peaks - and imperceptibly the days shorten and the nights lengthen.
In ancient Europe the Sun manifests as the Sun King, The Green Man, seated on his Oak-foliage throne - and lord of the forests.
His face surrounded by leaves is seen carved in stone or wood in churches,on fountains, and at gateways.
On this longest day of the year, light and life are abundant. At mid-summer, the Sun God has reached the moment of his greatest strength. His union with the Earth Mother Goddess is the promise of abundance, and she manifests as a pregnant Mother Nature, or Litha (Saxon).
in the present,
launch yourself on
every wave, find your
eternity in each moment.
Fools stand on their island
opportunities and look
toward another land.
There is no other land,
there is no other
life but this."
Henry David Thoreau
Capture the essence of Midsummer or Summer Solstice.
Natural cycles of the seasons influence you as do circadian rhythms of night and day. Why not align (and try using) what the ancient cultures knew to be the "energy of the times."
Those attuned with Natural cycles took the time at the Spring Equinox (March 21st) to carefully plant the seed ideas they want to grow into the future. Summer Solstice is the time to nurture your passions just as the sun nurtures all life. Focus on what is growing in your life, weed out what you do not want, and "water" (love and nurture) your Dreams.
Communities and abundance are both social concepts. Your relations with others are of primary importance to your over-all health and well-being. Money is a social concept - and good relations are the foundation of wealth and bountiful harvests.
must spring up in the mind,
and he who hath so little
knowledge of human nature
as to seek happiness by
changing anything but
his own disposition,
will waste his life in fruitless
efforts and multiply the grief
he proposes to remove."
Samuel Johnson
Nurture and enjoy NOW.
Enjoying the old traditions. |
Take the time to celebrate both work and leisure -
...for it is in enjoyment and childlike play that life grows abundantly.
Accept the natural rhythms - like night and day - and make time for enjoying your friends and family as well as work time and creative time - before harvest.
Take responsibility now for your happiness as a daily requirement - and you assure abundance at your fall harvest.
Find a balance between your passion "to get things done" and your gentle compassionate nature that allows for natural cycles and sporadic growth in yourself, others and in your emerging Vision.
The power of the sun at Summer Solstice is at its most potent, and the earth is fertile with a promising harvest. You feel that cycle within - and see it mirrored out in life.
Midsummer is a time to balance the Sun's warming rays - strength and passion - and the cooling freshness of the "water or compassion" that nurtures all growth.
Your genetic code holds these traditions and your delight now is a reflection of centuries of culture and ceremonies around weddings. |
Through your focused awareness, willpower to live mindfully, and the strength of conscious action - your creations come to fruition at harvest in the coming Fall.
Explore your passions and the "fiery force - the heat" within you. This time of year you too are the most creative and potent.
Next, find a good balance to your fiery passion in your love and compassion for your relationships, your creations, and your love and desire to share your harvest with others.
Deep heart-felt caring nurtures your dreams and your future.
Without the balance - the passion alone is easily misdirected and can "burn up" your destiny in wasted efforts, wrong directions and intense misplaced emotions.
by fighting the existing reality.
To change something,
build a new model that
makes the existing
model obsolete."
Buckminster Fuller
Without the soothing, nurturing of your heart-felt compassion, like a plant starved for water, your dreams dry up and wither on the vine.
Yet compassion alone (the watery emotions) may lie stagnant, without the balance of the fiery passion and direction of a clear focus. In right combination, fire and water nurture a productive, abundant future.
to our biological welfare,
to our internal clockwork,
as light itself."
Verlyn Klinkenborg
A balance between the light and the dark, your passion and compassion fine tunes your sense of purpose, and your inspiration guides you in the right direction. When your heart and compassion are your guides, your creativity will blossom, bear fruit and return you a bountiful harvest.
Summer Solstice and the first day of summer.
Weddings symbolize the sacred union that continues life into the next generation - especially potent this time of the year. |
"Solstice" is Latin for "sun stands still" (sol "sun" and sistere "to cause to stand still.") To those watching, the (apparent movement of the Sun's path north or south) comes to a stop before reversing direction.
For ancient Europe, summer begins on Beltane (May 1st) and ends on Lughnassadh (August 1st), with the Summer Solstice midway between the two: or "mid" summer.
Although "Midsummer" is a far more accurate description of Summer Solstice than the "first day of summer"
- the natural solar cycles are often lost on a modern calendar.
To the observers, the sun appears stationary in its northern and southern progression and seem to rise and set at the same location on the horizon for about five days before and after the actual solstice.
At that time the Sun begins to wane or lose power - and the days shorten and nights lengthen.
The Summer Solstice and Marriage.
The union of a couple in marriage was a symbol of the deeper wisdom message of balancing the summer season's energies. |
The union of the Solar power and Mother nature is the promise of abundance, and the fruit of that union is the harvest or birth of your Dreams.
In a similar fashion, the potency of this time joined couples in marriage.
The Romans celebrated Summer Solstice as sacred to Juno, the patroness of marriage, and her month, June, remains today the most popular time for weddings.
In old Europe, the time between planting and the harvesting of the crops, allowed time for weddings.
June was selected, as the sacred marriage or union of the Goddess and God occurred in early May at Beltaine and it was unlucky to marry in May.
The Druids' celebrated the day as the "wedding of Heaven and Earth", and that may also be one of the beginnings in the present day belief of a "lucky" wedding in June.
The only moon of Midsummer is the Honey Moon, a time when the hives are harvested for honey.
Fermented honey is the ancient drink of the Gods, known as mead, and customarily drunk at wedding parties. The roots of the modern day "honeymoon" survive in current customs.
Summer Solstice is currently celebrated around the world.
In England at Stonehenge and Avebury thousands gather before the sunrise to welcome the Sun. Hundred's of thousands more gather together from various cultures around the world. They celebrate old traditions and restore and continue ancient customs.
More ancient names and celebrations for Summer Solstice.
Midsummer eve was also called Alban Heruin or Alban Hefin, Whitsuntide, Vestalia (Ancient Roman), Cerridwen (England), the Faiery goddess Aine of Knockaine (Ireland), the Feast of Epona (Ancient Gaulish), Feill-Sheathain, Gathering Day, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, All-Couple's Day, Johannistag, and St. John's Day.
After converting Europe to Christianity, the Pope declared the feast day of St. John the Baptist to be June 24th and is one of the oldest feasts in church records. The date was the Summer Solstice time of Jack-in-the-Green or The Green Man. His image and tradition was converted to the Feast of St. John the Baptist, and St. John was then often portrayed in leafy and rustic attire, sometimes with horns and cloven feet (like Pan, the Greek half-man, half-goat God of the woods) and with the classic face in the foilage of The Green Man.
Summer Solstice was a time of magic, meeting with the Fairies and of protective garlands of herbs and flowers to deflected evil spirits. St. John's Wort (also known as "chase-devil") is used today by herbalists to calm emotions and relieve depression.
The ancient Celts or Druids celebrated Alban Heruin ("Light of the Shore") midway between the spring Equinox (Alban Eiler; "Light of the Earth") and the fall Equinox (Alban Elfed; "Light of the Water") a time of balance between the earth, water and fire.
Most celebrations (Celts & Slavs among others) marked Midsummer with huge bonfires that celebrated the power of the sun. Couples jumped through the flames, with the belief their crops grew as high as they leapt. Some traditions celebrated this time of year by setting large wheels on fire and then rolling them down a hill into a body of water.
The Chinese marked the day by honoring Li, the Chinese Goddess of Light. The Summer solstice ceremony in balance celebrated the earth, the feminine, and the yin forces of darkness.
Ancient Egypt worshiped the sun and many temples and monuments mark Solar Solstice cycles and star formations.
In ancient Greece, The Earth Goddess of abundance was Demeter, together with the return of her daughter, Persephone, from the underworld in the Spring - assured an abundant harvest. In the Fall, when Persephone returned to the underworld, Demeter withdrew and the earth 'withered' from loss of her and joined her in her grief.
In Ancient Gaul the Midsummer celebration was called Feast of Epona. The Goddess Epona rode a white mare, personifing fertility, sovereignty and growing crops.
In ancient Sweden a Midsummer tree was cut and decorated in each village. The tree was a center of feasting and dancing - similar to the winter holiday tradition.
Native American rock formations, petroglyphs (carvings etched in stone) and stone markers dot the North and South American continents. In addition, the mounds of central USA orient to the Solar seasons. Ancient cultures from the Mayan, Oltec, and Aztec to Machu Pichu in Peru mark solar times and stars with stone temples and markers.
The Hopi - danced and enacted the Kachina's stories - as messengers between the tribe and the Gods. At Midsummer, the Kachina spirits of rain and fertility left the villages to spend the next six months in the mountains, visiting ancestors.
The Bighorn Medicine Wheel west of Sheridan, Wyoming is one of the largest in the Rocky mountains. The center of a small pile of stones, forming a rough pyramid and external to the main wheel, lines up with the center of the wheel and the sun rising at the summer solstice.
An ancient Native American formation called "Calendar One" is in a natural depressed clearing of about 20 acres in Vermont. From the center of the stone medicine wheel are a number of markers at the edge of the clearing marking sunrise and sunset on Summer Solstice.
The ruins at Qumran (location of the Dead Sea Scrolls and linked to the Essenes) are a sun temple. At the time of the summer solstice, the rays of the setting sun shine along the building's axis, and illuminate the eastern wall. The room is oriented at exactly the same angle as the Egyptian shrines dedicated to the sun.
for fulfillment, you will
never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness
depends on money,
you will never be happy
with yourself.
Be content with what
you have; rejoice in
the way things are.
When you realize there
is nothing lacking,
the whole world
belongs to you."
Lao Tzu
Classic story of the Changing seasons: Unity in Diversity.
The alternating Oak King and the Holly King are two aspects of the Solar God. In ancient cultures they meet in combat at the two Solstice changeover points.
The Oak King rules from Midwinter to Midsummer and the time of fertility, abundance, and growth. The Holly King reigns from Midsummer to Midwinter and the time of harvest, of rest and restoring - and inner wisdom in silence.
They are two aspects of the same God, one inward looking, the other focused out into life. Each depicts a phase in the natural rhythm of the solar cycle of life.
Summer Solstice is the turning point when the energy of the season shifts imperceptibly into the new cycle. Tune in during the five days before and after the turning point and prepare now for the coming Fall season and harvest. Stay in the natural flow of the cycles and you'll find yourself quickly aligning with your own Good Fortune.
Your Good Fortune: "Aligning with the natural cycles empowers you now to succeed against all odds."
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Solstice Astronomy Facts and Insights
Are you interested in the sciences behind the phenomenon of Solstice?
Visit Wikipedia for all the astronomy details and science facts.
The Open Course on astronomy is very detailed and get's you "inside" the information with great visuals.
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