I hope you all had a great day yesterday, even if the weather may not have been overly summery (or wintery). I know it was much cooler than I would have liked in my part of the world, but at least we got to see the sun for a bit.
Midsummer was the ritual I planned for our IDGAF stuff, so I thought I would share what went down last night, and my thought process behind the whole thing.
So quite a while back I did a bit of looking into traditional celebrations and customs for the summer solstice and found lots of really neat stuff. I'm the kind of person that would try to incorporate a bit of everything into a "holiday" ritual if I could (Hello Gemini), so I really hope it didn't seem too all-over-the place. The things that stuck out in my mind the most were the customs around bonfires and just fire in general. While it would have been awesome to have a huge bonfires and usher our beloved pets through them (not actually through the fire...between two separate ones...I'm not that crazy), I knew that couldn't happen. I also really wanted to do a ritual that would have been in parts...so that we would have been able to see the sun come up and go down yesterday, but that just wasn't practical for obvious reasons. I also really wanted to just do a high tea or light-hearted BBQ, but I scrapped that idea because I wanted to do something...not just mix and mingle, so to speak. So then I came up with the idea of making a sun charm. I figured the sun is at it's highest point, so the solar energy would also be at its highest, which would be great for energizing and uplifting - hence, sun charm.
I also wanted to incorporate some kind of healing spell into the ritual, because I'd come across a lot of stuff that said it was a great day for that kind of work. I'd also come across a custom to send paper boats down a waterway of some kind, lit on fire. What's better than sailing boats down a stream...sending boats down a stream that are on fire! So I ended up combining the two ideas. I also wanted to keep it a bit light-hearted and fun. The end result was this:
We each had our lanterns from Beltane, and as soon as we got to a certain point in the marsh, we lit them and walked in, sort of single-file, to our ritual spot. After getting things situated on the altar, I took a piece of bread that I soaked in a bit of milk and drizzled with a bit of honey and placed it a bit away from where we were. That way any wondering faeries would be drawn to that instead of us (essentially, I was trying placate the faeries, since was is kind of their night).
Then I went back and started to set up the solar wheel. I took a picture of everything looked like before we went out so that you could see it in the light, since there was pretty low light outside at the time (dusk, and very cloudy).
(yes, that is the bottom of a springform pan :P)
So now that everything was all set up, we cast a circle and called the elements and whatever deities we wanted, and then I lit the wheel and we did our charm bags, energized the boats, and talked a little bit about the dark and light halves of the year, and that was that! Except that on our way back, we let our little boats go down one of the offshoots of the stream in the marsh. We tried to light them, but because they're made from folded computer paper (thick), and it was damp, they didn't really want to stay lit. Here are a few more photos I was able to quickly snap during the ritual, but the light was fading so I couldn't really take any more than these.
We cast the circle with sparklers!
I thought it would be kind of fun
The solar wheel all lit up - yes, those candles in the middle have coloured flames.
So all in all, I think it went well. It was my first time single-handedly planning and running a ritual involving other people, which was kind of neat. I've collaborated and co-run stuff before, just not by myself. I just hope everyone else took something meaningful from it and also had a good time.
I'll also note that when we were leaving the marsh, we noticed tons of fireflies, which we've never really seen there before. I thought it was really cool not only to see them, but that the first time we've ever seen them there was on the solstice. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not? Regardless of the appearance of the fireflies though, there was most definitely something enjoying the energy of the night in the marsh - we could all feel it.
So that pretty much sums it up. I hope everyone had a great weekend, and blessed solstice, whichever one you were celebrating!
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