Summer Solstice

In the Northern Hemisphere ~ Happy Summer Solstice!

May the longest day of the year bring you grace, peace and joy!

Summer Solstice is one of the significant quarter celebrations of the pagan year. It marks the longest day. Though we often label it the 'start' of summer, it is more the midst and high point of summer instead. Neopagans refer to it as Litha or Midsummer.

Summer slides in as Spring slides out ~ on Beltane. The seasons are not so clearly delineated that they never overlap. But their cycle is predictable as one follows upon the other. With those changes, we have an inkling of what is to come.

Today has been a very low-key Solstice for me. I didn't go to the celebration where many of my women friends were gathering. Although I miss the contact with them, this particular year, I appreciate the solitude even more. My celebration is quiet, alone, gentle, reverent. In other years I relished the dancing, the reverie, the community celebration. My daughter grew up attending the women's gatherings at the Summer Solstice. So many beautiful, strong women gathered around her. She knew them for the wonder that each of them was. They saw and called forth her strength and her voice. Even in my solitude, I send a prayer of blessing and gratitude for each woman who ever shared Solstice with me.

I know many who celebrate Solstice ~ women and men alike. It is a day of Light, a day for Gladness, a day overflowing with Life. I wish each and every one of them Light, Joy and Love for the coming year. [For my friends in the Southern Hemisphere, the wish is the same, as they celebrate the Winter Solstice, the Return of the Light.]

What do you do to celebrate Solstice? How do you acknowledge the changing times of the year? Do you recognize the Wheel of the Seasons? or do you have another way to celebrate?