Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, the shortest night, and a tipping point: from here on out the days get shorter and the nights get longer. The solstice, sometimes called midsummer because by now farmers have long done their planting, is technically the first day of summer. It both ushers in the warmest season, and reminds that the season is short, slipping away day by day. For those who revere nature, summer solstice may be celebrated by a bonfire, and staying up to greet the dawn. Celebration may be a small private event, or a large communal event such as the Pagan Spirit Gathering held on beautiful rural land in Missouri, with ritual, prayers, altars and sacred space.
Celebration may be among a broader spectrum of people, such as the 35,000 who gathered at Stonehenge last year. BBC's coverage of that event included an interview "with those who appreciate the solstice the most: 'We believe it is very important for people to move with the cycles of nature, and actually feel them. If you get up early in the morning and you watch that special sunrise, you've been a part of it. The rest of the year is shaped by that. And we think it's a really healthy thing to do, and a very spiritual thing to do.'" And clearly the large crowd shared at least some of this sentiment and journeyed to one of the world's most renowned sacred spots to observe the sunrise. For those for whom this is a religious practice, there are variations on the rituals or traditions. Some will burn a Yule wreath in a bonfire; some will dance, drum, sing, and pray. The variations are endless -- some rituals may be prescribed and ceremonial, while others will be more spontaneous: all are witnessing the turning of the wheel of the year. People attune themselves to the rhythms of the natural world and invite the seasons of waxing and waning, of birth, growth, death and renewal to reverberate more consciously in their lives.
Rituals for the day of longest light date back to ancient times, and Stonehenge is one of the most famous sites. Dating back to between 3000-1500 BCE, its main axis is aligned to the solstice sunrise. Many cultures and ethnicities have celebrated, from ancient Roman celebrations of Vesta to feast days in many cultures. In contemporary Goddess spirituality, the American writer Starhawk offers this litany for ritual:
This is the time of the rose, blossom and thorn, fragrance and blood. Now on this longest day, light triumphs, and yet begins the decline into the dark. The Sun King grown embraces the Queen of Summer in the love that is death because it is so complete that all dissolves into the single song of ecstasy that moves the worlds. So the Lord of Light dies to Himself, and sets sail across the dark seas of time, searching for the isle of light that is rebirth. We turn the Wheel and share his fate, for we have planted the seeds of our own changes and to grow we must accept even the passing of the sun. (The Spiral Dance, HarperCollins, 1999, p. 205)
While Pagans hold religious ritual on the solstice, there are many public celebrations that also acknowledge the turning of the wheel of the year. Summer is widely seen as a good reason to celebrate! In Detroit, the 2010 River Days festival culminates with fireworks on the solstice, meeting fire with fire. Such celebrations build community and focus on the pleasures of the warm season, but without a religious intention.
Honoring the solstice can remind us just how precious each day and season is, because the truth of its passing away is also acknowledged. Gifts need to be appreciated, not taken for granted. Some will use their religious ritual to raise energy for healing, for re-aligning and redressing environmental wrongs, or for strengthening the sense of being part of nature, not set apart and individual, but interconnected in a larger whole, including the past, present and future. Such is the power of participating in the turning of the wheel of the year.
Gibbon said the pagan could enter any temple of any god and feel the presence of the divine. He didnt need to have the name of god right. The diversity in the postings, not only here, challenges the importance Levantine religions have always placed on it, often, and still, being used to justify violence, with the result they never could deliver on the peace they preached.
Its worth remembering too the word 'pagan' Fox referred to originally meant rural person; who practiced spirituality, as with the case of the Solstice, outside, in nature. Stonehenge was not built to show the domination of hominids, but to show us more clearly what Nature has already done.
Christianity colluded with the state to control what we think. But now we see the net exposing what we really think, and its not what they said it was.
No one "ritual" is any more strange than any other, whether performed by an individual or by a group.
Thank you for an enlightening article.
"The rhythms of your body and of your consciousness follow the patterns of your planet."
"As your spaceships to the moon must wait for the most effective overall conditions before taking off, so in other terms are there rhythms having to do with energy."
"You cannot consistently ignore your own rhythms and expect your best performance. YOU need light for painting--but you would find the nighttime good for writing. However, you are programmed otherwise. Society would be restructured if the self were trusted, yet more work would be produced."
"The body changes constantly, and there are rhythms of the soul, so that some people die young. Their desire is no longer with the earth. Others live to an old age."
"All of this involves relating to reality in a more natural, and therefore magical, fashion. There is certainly a kind of natural physical time in your experience, and in the experience of any creature. It involves the rhythm of the seasons—-the days and nights and tides and so forth. In the light of that kind of physical time, which is involved within earthly biology, there is no basic cultural time. That is, to this natural rhythm you have culturally added the idea of clocks, moments and hours and so forth, which you have transposed over nature’s rhythms."
Although I often find spiritual meaning in meaningful worship at some church services, I do really concur with your statement about finding meaning in the rhythm of nature as well. I love to be up before the sunrise every morning and watch it lighten the day. This is a meaningful ritual for me daily.
Can we not do that?
He taught:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."
How comforted we will all be, when we see, we haven't got a clue, as to the depth and breadth of pure love and mercy of The Divine Mystery of The Universe.
God's name in ancient Aramaic is Abba which means Daddy as much as Mommy and He/She: The Lord has said, "My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not yours." -Isaiah 55:8
"Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy."
In other words: how comforted you will all be when you choose to return only kindness to your 'enemy.'
"For with the measure you measure against another, it will be measured back to you" Christ warns his disciples as he explains the law of karma in Luke 6:27-38.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God."
In other words: how comforted you will be when you WAKE UP and see God is already within you, within every man, every woman and every child. The Supreme Being is everywhere, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Beyond The Universe -and yet so small; within the heart of every atom.
The Beatitudes spun for the 21st Century @
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=64&Itemid=195
3 men lived and walked, out of the burning furnace, which was to kill them, ordered by Nebuchadnezzar, call them pagans also? Read it.
Einstein had a strong aversion to so-called “Spiritualism”.
“The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion. Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory impressions, THE CONCEPT OF A SOUL WITHOUT A BODY SEEM TO ME TO BE EMPTY AND DEVOID OF MEANING.”
Albert Einstein, in a letter February 5, 1921; from Albert Einstein the Human Side, Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, eds., Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981, p. 40.
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html
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http://holyheretics.blogspot.com/
http://holocausthagaddah.blogspot.com/
EINSTEIN REJECTED RECONCILING SACRED SUPERSTITIONS WITH SCIENCE
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own — a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms."
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNf-P_5u_Hw&feature=related
In old testament, a song of praise, in Daniel about the 3 men of God who Nebuchadnezzar wanted to burn to death, in a heated furnace, for they would not bow to him. Sharach, Meshach, Aednego. They were to be put to death, inside the furnace, but came out alive, did not burn. But insided the raging furnace, they sang this long song in asking commanding, calling upon all creation to Bless the Lord.
Daniel chapter 3 Ver 52
All you beast, wild and tame, bless the Lord.Exalt him and praise his Holy Name etc
All you birds of the air, Blessthe Lord and Exult him etc
Lightinigns and clouds, bless the Lord ""
Nights and days Bless the Lord ""
Ice and Snow Bless the Lord ""
Frost and chill, bless the Lord "
Seas and Rivers Bless the Lord and exalt
You springs, Bless the Lord and exalt
Let the earth Bless the Lord and exalt him and praise his Holy Name
Dew and rain Bless the Lord
Everything growing from the earth Bless the Lord and exalt
You Dolphins and all water creatures Bless the Lord
Long list of all etc
I would be delighted if there were festivals in New Zealand that celebrate the summer solstice. I will investigate.
Many thanks!
Lara Jane
Founder of the Ultimate Lifestyle Project
http://ultimatelifestyleproject.com/the-ultimate-life
fanned and faved.