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Midsummer

(June 21*)

 

Midsummer, also called Litha, is the Sabbat of the Summer Solstice.  This is the time of the year when the sun is at his peak (for the Northern Hemisphere anyway).  The days are longest and nights shortest, and earth is harboring life at the greatest of her potential.  At this time, the God, wed to the Goddess at Beltane, sees his wife full and pregnant, and she asks him to leave the free life he has known and loved, and to take on his responsibilities to her, their child and the land.  This change is very difficult, because with these responsibilities comes the promise of old age and death.  The God becomes the Sun King and oversees the land with the memories of his youth.  He has now accepted his destiny.  It’s no coincidence that Father’s Day is placed so close to Midsummer.  We use this time to show respect and appreciation to fathers for all that they have given to care for their families.

Certain views of the God and Goddess are different for this day.  In many cultures this is a time when the Oak and Holly Kings battle again, as at Yule, and this time, the Holly King comes out victorious, signifying the end of the sun’s rise and coming of darker times.  Celebrate the Holly King and mourn the Oak King, but remember that they are just two sides of the same coin.

Midsummer is also a time for letting go.  As with the God letting go of his youth for his responsibilities, so must we let go of things to move on and grow.  This is the bittersweet time in life.  A time to remember the good times and feel the sting of realizing they are in the past.  At this time many ceremonies involve the creation of beautiful things only for the sake of destroying them again, to remind us that nature gives us beautiful things to admire for only a small time and they are meant to be let go.  The tradition of the wicker man involves building a wooden man and adorning him with beautiful flowers, then setting him on fire.  It is not only to remind us of the things we have or the times we spend, but the lives of loved ones and also ourselves.  This life is to be enjoyed, but to be let go of when our time has come.  We are given beauty, but it cannot last forever.  With that in mind we celebrate the wonderful state of the earth and the power of the sun at this time.

Celebrations of the sun usually involve lighting a bonfire and “leaping the bonfire” for fertility, love, health, and purification. Petitions are offered up to the flame to purify the self and clear out worries and troubles that the person is ready to give up.  On the altar, we place fresh flowers and fruits, images of the sun and other symbols of the season, and things we are now ready to give up, such as baby blankets, old letters, shoes that don’t fit anymore or items that we are finished with, but that other people might find of use.  Let go and free up your future for the new.  You will always have these things in your mind and that is the most powerful vault you could hope to store anything in.

 

What am I doing for Midsummer?  Well, this week my pet fish died and I thought it unsuitable to send my beloved friend down the city sewer, so I’ve kept him in the freezer for this time of letting go.  I have been thinking of drying him and cremating him in not only a way of letting go, but in reverence of flame and its ways of transforming material.  Good journey, my tiny friend.  Until we meet again, blessed be.

 

[BOS]

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