Summer solstice is the moment in the year when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky in the northern hemisphere. It's the celebration of the moment in time when the light is most present, the solstice marks the longest day and shortest night of the year. Like all other holidays in druidry, this passage holds a specific energy potential and we can greatly benefit from consciously transitioning across the threshold of this portal in the year. The solstice is a suspended moment in time, a change in dynamic. From this moment onwards the nights lengthen and the days shorten.
In Ancient Egypt, the time of the solstice coincided with the swelling of the Nile and the rain season. The sun at its summit announced the coming of the water, the masculine at its most powerful (solar power) called in the energy of the feminine to bring softness and fertility. This dynamic is reflected in the architecture of Egyptian temples that are built on the banks of the Nile where the paths or stairs that go down to the Nile are being guarder by lion statues: the sun that calls in the water.
The ancient peoples knew that this passage was a voluntary shift, not a fight between opposing forces like we tend to interpret reality, but a necessary change of the guard that allowed life to continue. The summer solstice reminds us that we need inner balance and that moments of action need to be balanced out with moments that allow us to replenish. Masculine and feminine energy hold equal importance in our inner kingdom and outer world.
For the ancient Celts this festival was celebrated by lighting bonfires on the summits of the sacred mounds, mimicking the trajectory of the sun in the sky or by lighting fires at the coast, or on the banks of great rivers and lakes to celebrate the season of fertility, the season of abundance. This tradition has survived in some countries as the Saint John celebrations where great fires of purification are lit to honour the memory of Saint John the Baptiste, just a few days after summer solstice. For the Celtic people, this holiday would mark the end of a period of great effort. During the previous months they would've prepared the soil, sown the seeds and taken care of the young plants. At the moment of solstice, the biggest part of the work would be behind and now they had to trust the workings of mother nature and wait for the harvest.
The message of the solstice is one of letting go. This gateway in the year impels us to surrender. Surrendering means accepting that we don't control everything, that there is a force greater than us, the universe, God or the mysteries, that operates in our lives. Surrendering means ceasing the fight and letting life take care of you. You are doing your best, you are doing what needs to be done to live from the heart, so now you can let go and trust the universe. Doing our best is only possible when we act from the heart, all other action that is undertaken because we "have to" and that is inspired by anything else than love, cannot be done to the best of our ability.
Our capacity of surrender is essential is we want our life to be the expression of our soul and if we want the divine to help us out. It makes all the difference between free-lancing from time to time with the divine or being a full-time vehicle for divine inspiration. we need to let go of our resistances is we want the divine to flow freely through us and if we want to enter the flow of life. In reality, the solstice fires help us clear our resistances, grieve who we thought we were to b reborn to our true selves.
Be grateful for all that you have already accomplished and learned through all of your experiences, be conscious of the gifts you have already received. Since time doesn't exist, that which you desire most is already present, you're already in the place that life is going to, you are already there since you're already on the path that is leading you there. Life would never ask you to do something you are not capable of doing. Have this confidence, have faith. Solstice is a time to open and receive. You have put in the effort, you have climbed the mountain, now it is time to let go of the brakes and soar down the other side. Open your hands, your hearts and your whole being to receive the divine gifts, surrender yourself to life.
