SUMMER SOLSTICE AND MIDSUMMER’S DAY

We’ll watch the Sun

As his chariot rolls

Far down the horizon’s rim.

                                                                                                Mary L. Wyatt

At the summer solstice we cross the threshold of the year.  The sun has reached the peak of his strength, and after this day will begin to diminish.  Almost imperceptibly, time and the season adjust all around us; days grow shorter and recede before the lengthening hours of the night.  Like the sun, the season will gradually lose its warmth and brightness.  At the summer solstice we stand between the seasons in a breathless moment, and watch as the wheel of the year rolls on. 

Some Summer Symbols

The summer solstice usually falls near the cusp between Gemini, the Twins, and Cancer, the Crab.  Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the messenger of the gods, in the 3^rd House of communication, journeys, and siblings – all echoed in the open, outreaching sociability of the season.  By Midsummer’s Day (June 24^th) the Sun has entered Cancer, ruled by the Moon in the 4^th House of the home and family, domesticity and stability.  The Moon dictates our emotional responses to things, and we carry these wherever we go – just like the crab carries its shell.

In Tarot the summer connects with two cards, the Lovers and the Chariot.  The Lovers typically features two figures, a man and a woman, and is associated with many manifestations of this duality – not just the twins of Gemini, but also brother and sister, Adam and Eve, and the embodiment of the intangibilities of choice.  The Chariot suggests forward movement – both mental and physical – accomplished by looking beyond immediate circumstances, following intuition, and allowing the universe to carry us out of stasis to change, or, it might be said, out of our comfortable shells.

John the Baptist - Midsummer’s Saint

In the Christian calendar, the nativity of St. John the Baptist is celebrated at Midsummer on June 24^th.  Some traditions suggest that the early Church incorporated many of the incantations used by the cult of Bel, a pagan sun-deity, into re-dedicated litanies to St. John.  One ritual that that crosses the boundaries of many belief systems is the gathering of the plant St. John’s Wort on the feast of St. John.  When gathered at the appropriate time, St. John’s Wort is considered a cure-all; if it is gathered in on any other day, it might make you allergic to sunshine.

Midsummer Superstitions

v  On Midsummer’s Day, decorate the house with birch twigs and roses.

v  It is very unlucky to hear a cuckoo calling on Midsummer’s Day; she is not supposed to sing on this day of the year.

v  When gnats cluster and dance up and down, good weather is on the way.  But if they rush around and sting, a prolonged period of rain is coming.

v  If the first butterfly you see on Midsummer’s Day is white, you will eat white bread for the rest of the year; if brown or dull, you will have to survive on inferior brown bread.

Spells of Midsummer

Against Weeds in the Garden:  Under a waning moon, break one leaf from the garden’s tallest weed.  Crush it with your teeth and spit the fragments upon the earth, saying:

Malum Depuo, Hostem Veneno, Caedo Caedo

Cut the plant’s stalk off short with a silver knife and spread a handful of salt over the hidden root.  The entire garden bears witness to this act, and its enemies (the other weeds) must soon withdraw.  (It is not suggested to attempt this spell with garden pests, however.)

A Small Blessing on Vegetables:

Beans and peas and lettuces,

Radishes and beets,

Rise up soon for me to make

A garnish for my meat!

Source:  This Article Includes Spells and Poems from Slade, Paddy.  

Encyclopedia of White Magic: A Seasonal Guide © 1990, The Hamlyn Publishing Group/Mallard Press.

BELTANE: "Summer's Lease" Begins

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease has all too short a date . . .

But thy eternal summer shall not fade . . .

Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade . . .”

                                                           

                                                                        William Shakespeare

Summer, the season of joy and pleasant climes, is ushered in with one last fiery blast from the bluster and rain of March and April.  May Eve, April 30, is the night when witches the world over commune to celebrate the sacred marriage, the union of the Lord and Lady, the Sun and Moon. 

German witches celebrated the night in honor of the goddess Walpurga - their May Queen – with wild festivities on the Brocken, the highest peak of Germany’s Harz Mountains.  Since Saxon times, the region had a supernatural reputation; the gods were believed to manifest there on May Eve.  With the advent of the Christian faith, the pagan celebration that had come to be known as Walpurgisnacht was truncated; the Church canonized the German goddess, creating her St. Walpurga, and moved her feast to February to discourage the orgiastic rituals that associated her with May.  But this did little to discourage her followers, who continued to celebrate Walpurgisnacht, though in a decidedly less overt manner.

“If you love me, come discretely down to meet me, under the greenwood tree.”

                                                                                                                        (Traditional rhyme.)

The festivities of Walpurgisnacht give way to the light of the fires of Beltane, May 1^st, the first day of summer in the Old Style calendars.  Fire played a prominent role in Beltane celebrations; before the great bonfires were lit on the Celtic hills, the hearth-fire of every home was extinguished.  Bearing faggots and torches from the great fires, folk would rekindle their hearths, reclaiming them from the darkness and recognizing the growing light of the summer sun.

            It was common to choose a King and Queen to reign over the celebrations of May Day, but theirs was no tender love.  Indeed, in May, “the lusty month of May,” romantic love, trysts, and sexual desire blossomed feverishly alongside Nature’s bountiful blooms.  May’s association with sensuality and pleasure caused many minstrels to celebrate it as the month to “make much joy” – and the lush allure of greenery made a natural lover’s bower.  On May Eve, men and women, noble and common alike, would venture into the greenwood to go “a-Maying,” and would spend the night out, making love in woods and fields. 

“I have heard it credibly reported . . . that of fortie, threescore, or a hundred maides going into the woods over night, there have scaresly the third part of them returned home againe undefiled.”

                                                            “The Anatomie of Abuses,” Philip Stubbes, 1583.

The May Pole

No image comes more readily to mind when one thinks of May than that of people dancing joyfully around a flowered and beribboned May Pole.

            In addition to gathering flowers from the woods, it was also the custom to bring back a young tree.  Stripped of its branches, it would be set up in the midst of the village and decorated with flowers and long, flowing ribbons. 

            The May Pole was a powerful fertility symbol, representing the Sun God in the guise of Green Man, and embodying the spirit of growth and the promise of seed.  Its placement in the earth – the phallus of the god into the mother’s womb – continued the highly-sexual imagery of May celebrations.  Groups of dancers would circle the pole “sunwise” (or deosil), binding it about with the long ribbons, and “calling up the power” to strengthen it with dancing, singing, and drumming.

            Old-style May Day celebrations included the march of a white-clad virgin, representing day and the bloom of summer (another incarnation of the goddess queen), accompanied by another female clad entirely in black, representing night and the dearth of winter.  Fairs, mummer’s plays, milk and the rejuvenating waters of the new season were all celebrated in lore and superstition at this time of year.  And fire, always fire, as the power of the sun increased and the wheel of the year turned toward the solstice of June.

Celebrating Saint Sara la Kali (May 25^th)

In May, the Roma (Gypsies) everywhere, but particularly in Europe, celebrate their patron saint, Sara la Kali (or “Sara the Black”) with exceptional and genuine devotion, making pilgrimages to the saint’s famous French shrine. 

Although never canonized, Sara has been venerated by the Roma at least since medieval times as the Gypsy woman who drew the three “Marys of the Sea” (Saintes Maries de la Mer, thought to be Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary the mother of St. James and St. John, and Mary Magdalene) to safety from the waves after they had fled Palestine in the wake of Christ’s crucifixion.  She is called “la Kali” because legend speaks of her origins on the coast of Egypt, where her skin was bronzed by the sun.

Each May, on her feast day, the statue of the saint is carried from its cave-like shrine in a great procession and held aloft to the gathering of pious Roma pilgrims.  The statue is then carried to the spot on the French shore where the Roma believe the legendary meeting with the Three Marys took place.  The statue is gingerly placed in the crashing surf where it is anointed and blessings are bestowed upon it before it is safely returned to its home.  The solemnities are followed by great fanfare and celebrations among the Roma, often lasting for days. 

For generations only the Roma were allowed to enter the shrine of St. Sara, making her the most personal of intercessors for a people generally bereft of advocates.  Recently, however, the Roma-only rules were suspended and Gadje have been allowed access to the enclave of the Black Saint of the Gypsies.

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