What is the summer solstice
The summer solstice is the time of the year when the day is the longest and the night is the shortest. It’s the beginning of the astronomical summer. Usually happens between June 20th and 22nd on Northern Hemisphere and between December 20th and 23rd on Southern Hemisphere.
Summer solstice in Neopagan religions
Litha is a modern Pagan and Wiccan holiday that celebrates the summer solstice. It is also known as Midsummer. Many traditions greet the rising sun: Wake up with the sunrise and soak the sun in.
Other celebrations include dancing around large bonfires, singing songs, telling stories, writing down on a piece of paper what’s bothering you, and surrendering it to the flames.
Summer solstice in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamians didn’t celebrate the light and fertility at midsummer. Instead, they dreaded the solstice as it brought extreme heat, droughts, and possibly famine. They associated the peak of the sun’s power with Nergal, the fierce solar deity of the netherworld, war, and pestilence. During this time, people held six- or seven-day funerals for Tammuz (Dumuzi), the god of food and vegetation, as they believed he dies each year as the summer heat killed the crops. During this funeral, they placed a statue of Tammuz on a funeral bier, while women mourners and goddesses like Ishtar (Inanna) wailed, sobbed, and sang lamentation hymns.
Simple ritual for the summer solstice
Ingredients
• White candle
• Black candle
• An orange or yellow (or any summer-related color, or use white as a universal color)
• A needle, or some tool to carve into the Summer candle
• A vegetable oil
Preparation of the Summer candle:
Carve the following symbol into the candle:
As you do so, recite the following: “May the arms of Chaos reach down and embed this candle with the powers of Summer. May you burn with the power of the Sun”.
After that is done, rub vegetable oil on the candle; while doing so, recite the following: “I bless you with power to illuminate the way and to burn what is hostile.”
Do what is described above either one day before the summer solstice or on the same day as the ritual.
The Summer ritual
Place the 3 candles on your altar in a triangular pattern. The triangle should point at you, with the Summer candle being right in front of you. The black candle should go to the left far corner and the white candle at the right far corner. If you want to use any incense, put it at the center of the triangle, if the space permits.
1. Close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths.
2. Say: “As above, so below”.
3. Light the black candle.
4. Say: “As within”.
5. Light the white candle.
6. Say: “So without”.
7. Stay silent for a while to get a feeling for the moment.
8. Say: “With the power of the ever-burning Fire!”
9. Light the Summer candle.
10. Say: “May Nature be protected from the heat”
11. Close your eyes.
12. Say: “But may the emanating heat of the Sun scorch my enemies”.
13. Open your eyes and say “As above, so below”
14. Take the black candle with your left hand; as you blow it, say “As within,” but keep holding it.
15. Take the white candle from the right side with your right hand; as you blow it, say “As without”, but keep holding it.
16. Say: “As below, so above.” Now you can put the candles aside.
17. You can let the Summer candle be lit, or you can blow it out and store it for the next year. This concludes the Summer ritual.
