the summer solstice
Summer Solstice (called Litha in Pagan traditions) is a celebration of the longest day of the year, where the Sun’s powers are at their peak, and the plants are full of the Sun’s life force! It is a day to honour the High Sun, the power of the growing season, and the life-giving gift of our Sun.
This is a potent time of year where the Earth is full of vitality, strength, vigor and abundance! This energy too, runs through you! It’s easy to tap into this energy and let it course through your body. Everything that occurs in nature is mirrored within yourself. You are also experiencing the High Sun within your solar plexus and growth and abundance in your consciousness and spirit.
As the Sun shines its beauty, grace and strength upon you, may you too feel this vibrancy move through your life as you set your intentions to live a more expanded life!
How to Celebrate the Solstice
Set some time aside this week to honour the Solstice. Revel at the beauty that surrounds you- flowers in full bloom, the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, the blessing of rain that anoints the soil, and the force of the full Sun.
Here are 8 ways you can step into the energy of the Summer Solstice and align yourself with your highest good.
8 Ways to Celebrate the Summer Solstice
1). Make a Summer Solstice Altar
Pick an area of your home- a side table, a night side stand, the top of a dresser, or even a safe place on your floor- to be your altar. Decorate it with all things that represent the energy of summer. This could include gold, yellow or orange candles (I like to use natural beeswax candle which you can find here), crystals such as citrine, honey calcite, yellow calcite, sunstone, pyrite or tiger’s eye. You can gather pieces from nature; sunflowers, calendula, buttercups, or any flower that is in bloom in your area. A small dish of honey represents the sweetness this time of year, and any in season fruits can represent the abundance of the growing harvest.
Traditionally the 4 elements are present on this type of altar; incense, a feather or a pinwheel to represent air; candles for fire; a bowl of water, seashells or river stones for water; soil, a plant or sand for earth. In many traditions, the air element is placed at the east corner, fire in the south, water in the west, and earth in the north. However, you may have been taught differently based on your spiritual traditions, so place your elements in their correspondences that feel right for you.
If you have kids you can have them help you incorporate elements that feel festive. They may want to colour pictures of the sun, or the full trees, the flowers in bloom, or their favourite fruits. Go for a nature walk and collect bits of nature that represent summer to them.
2). Make a Seasonal Sun Tea
Sun teas are a really fun way to use fresh and local ingredients (or even ingredients found in your garden!) to make a delicious, refreshing and enchanted drink. Once you gather your ingredients, you’ll leave them to steep under the full sun all day to infuse, and then imbibe on your magical beverage and feel the power of the Summer Solstice Sun move through you. In this sun tea ritual there are 4 different sun tea recipes you can follow, or get inspired by the fruit and herbs in your own garden! You can find everything you need here to do your own Summer Solstice sun tea ritual.
3). Be in Nature and Under the Sun
It is the celebration of the life-giving sun after all, so what better time than to feel the rays on your skin? Frolic in a meadow, enjoy the dappled sun through the trees in a forest, or sun bathe at the beach. Wherever you find yourself outside, consciously take in the beauty around you; feel the warmth on your skin; give thanks for the life under foot; appreciate the vigor of the plants growing and the flowers blooming. Collect any bits of nature to bring home with you… sticks from the forest floor, water from the body of water you find yourself nearby, sand from the beach, soil from the earth, or any foraged plants or flowers you come by (please forage responsibly).
4). Make Beeswax Candles
Traditionally on Litha- or Summer Solstice- bonfires are lit into the night as the longest day of the year is celebrated. If you don’t have access to a bonfire pit, candles are a great option. They harness the energy of the sun right in your home, they give strength to any solstice intentions you might be setting, and they invite the beauty of the fire element. These beeswax candle making kits are a great idea to make your own solstice candles, or to even gift to friends and family if you have a solstice gathering. They are also a really fun activity to do with kids! You can find them right here!
Light a candle while you set your Solstice intention to give focus and strength to your intention. If you are interested on how to create your own intention setting candle ritual, you can find a guide right here!
5). Bake a Honey Cake
Mirroring the golden hue of the sun, honey is a sacred food at the Summer Solstice- and often considered a gift from the gods. This is a delicious and very simple cake, sweetened only with honey. It looks like the golden sun at the Solstice and incorporates citrus of your choice to bring in even more solar energy on this special day. Enjoy eating at a Solstice feast, and you can even leave pieces outdoors for an offering to the faeries and elementals, or place on your altar as an offering to ancestors passed.
This recipe has been adapted from a recipe I found at A Taste of Home.
SUMMER SOLSTICE HONEY CAKE
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream (can replace with coconut yogurt)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
zest of 1 lemon or orange
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9” cake pan (I used my cast iron skillet, however it’s slightly smaller than 9” and took longer to bake).
Beat butter and honey until blended in a large bowl. Add eggs, beating until well combined, then beat in yogurt and vanilla.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and sea salt. Then add to butter mixture and mix together. Grate in your zest of choice.
Pour batter into pan or cast iron skillet. Bake 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. It will brown around the edges and top nicely.
Drizzle with extra honey and sprinkle with bee pollen, serve with lemon or blood orange gelato, or vanilla ice cream would be delicious
6). Adorn your Home with Elements of the Season
This can mean making a lovely centerpiece for your table, a vase of flowers beside your bed, or if you have kids, working together to create a space that honours the season.
Personally, I love incorporating pieces of nature that speak to the season. If you have a garden, lovingly gather clippings you can put into your favourite vase. If you have a local farmers market, you may find a vendor selling their in-season blooms. Some flowers that really embody the high sun are sunflowers, rose, calendula, marigold and cornflower, but really anything that is in bloom is just perfect.
And don’t limit yourself to just flowers, herbs carry a wonderful, magical quality- particularly at the Solstice. St. John’s wort, thyme, rosemary, hyssop, mullein, basil, lavender, chamomile are just examples of herbs you could arrange into a vase (and later make a delicious, Solstice tea with!)
This year I plan on making beeswax candles with my daughter, painting pictures of the sun, and crafting a sun with kite paper to adorn our home and windows. My favourite seasonal crafts are those I make with my kids, so if you have kids, by all means, invite them into this activity!
Bring out all your solar/fire crystals such as citrine, pyrite, sunstone, tiger’s eye, honey calcite, yellow and orange calcite. Circle them around your candles or your vase of flowers. Orange and yellow candles are perfect for your dinner table (natural beeswax are truly the best).
7). Charge your Crystals in the Sun
You often hear about cleansing your crystals in the full moon light, but what about bathing your crystals in the full sunlight? The Solstice is an optimal day for bathing some of your crystals under the Sun and charging them with the powerful, vigorous and energetic solar energy!
Your stones that resonate with solar or fire energy such as ctirine, honey calcite, orange and yellow calcite, pyrite, tiger’s eye, sunstone and even your clear quartz are all great stones to bathe in the sun. You want to stay away from watery stones like moonstone, aquamarine, rose quartz, etc as stones like this are better suited to the full moon.
Place them out in a dish or tray in a sunny spot where they can charge up all day in the sun! Bring them inside in the evening and adorn your dinner table or altar with their magic and potency!
8). Make a Summer Solstice Feast
Feasting with loved ones at the Solstice is a great way to honour and appreciate the abundant Earth and all the blessings she bestows upon us. Incorporate as much in season and local food as you can, and recognize that as you eat this food you are consuming the energy of the sun that helps these foods to grow and eventually nourish you.
You can dine with a loved one, your family, or invite friends or family to join in on the festivities. You can include fun activities like making daisy chains for floral crowns, together pick fresh herbs (like mint) to flavor your water, light a bonfire, or even get everyone to make their own beeswax candle to adorn your feasting table.
Some traditional Summer Solstice foods could include a new potato salad with fresh dill and chives, grilled patty pan squash (or other summer squashes), fresh salads with greens, peas, radishes with an herby dressing of thyme, rosemary, marjoram and hyssop. And for dessert, strawberries sprinkled with cane sugar, a honey cake (recipe above), or perhaps a strawberry rhubarb pie.
Embellish your dining table with seasonal flowers or herb clippings, lots of candles, and splashes of colour of yellow, orange and gold.
Wishing you the most abundant, joyful and radiant Summer Solstices! May you be blessed with all things good and delicious this growing season! Many blessings.