Summer Solstice 2020

As I crawled into bed last night it was just about 9pm and yet the sun was still shining in through my blinds making sleep a bit elusive. Summer Solstice is just about here! This pinnacle of the light, the longest day and shortest night. This marks the first day of Summer and also the descent of the sun as we begin to make our slow journey back toward the darkness.
This is a day of fire! With the sun high in the sky we are called outdoors to celebrate this moment. 
The crops we planted in the early spring are beginning to fruit and often we are starting to see the first glimmers of harvest. My zucchini and squash are growing wildly into being and our plum tree is laden with fruit, it’s branches dipping earthbound as the plums turn from green to deep deep purple. The heat of the sun has turned the hillsides golden and the baby birds are everywhere. 
Summer Solstice is a holy day  full of movement and transformation. 
This year it falls on the 20th of June (Saturday) and is followed by a new moon in Cancer on Sunday the 21st. I understand a solar eclipse will be happening on the new moon as well. Although we will not be able to see it from North America I can guarantee some of the energy of this will be felt. 
Solar eclipses turn my attention to the questions “What power/skill/gift am I hiding from the world? What action have I been trying to avoid or not take?” With the new moon hanging in Cancer these questions will likely filter through some deep emotion as I explore the answers. 
So even as the Sun reaches its height and we call in Summer and all the play it evokes, we are also gifted the opportunity to look inside ourselves and burst forth with the growth we may not even know has been happening within! If you have a hard time answering these questions, I invite you to use tarot, oracle or runes and ask these questions as you pull a card or rune then reflect on the answer you find there.
There are many ways to celebrate the Summer Solstice. Here are a few to help inspire you!

1. Greet the morning and say Goodnight to the sun. I am a morning person so getting up before the sun and welcoming the day is something I do almost everyday anyway, but on Summer and Winter Solstice I love to get outside and say hello as the Sun emerges. Some years this is cozied up with a cup of tea in hand and other years I roll out my yoga mat and welcome the day with some movement (sun salutations anyone?). Do what feels right to you as you craft this experience to fit your own relationship with the morning and the Solstice. 
   

Where I live in Northern California there is a troop of Morris dancers that often dance the sun down out at the coast on the Solstice. I have been most fortunate to witness their dances on more than one occasion. I love the idea of dancing the sun to bed! Light a fire or (even a candle in a cauldron), and dance, drum, rattle and move as the sun sets on the longest day. 

1. Make Summer Solstice cookies! I found this recipe and….yum!
   
2. Make some sun tea to go with your cookies. It’s simple! Add tea bags to a gallon jar of water and set out in the sun. To make this even more magical you can write an intention on a piece of paper and set it under the jar to infuse your intention into the tea along with the energy of the sun! 
   
3. Practice some Fire Divination! This exercise goes well with many a celebration (but I resonate most with it at both Solstices and Beltane and Samhain). Using a fire or a candle soften your gaze and stare into the flame. Allow your mind to wander and discover what comes to you. Be sure to make a note in your journal or book of shadows. 
   
4. Release! What have you been hanging onto that you are ready to let go of? We are always moving through the cycles of holding and releasing, but what better time to really let go than when the sun is at its highest point and the moon is a day away from being new?! This year perhaps you write down what you want to release and burn it in the fire then awaken the next day adn set your new moon intention for the lunar cycle.  Using the energy of the solar system and cosmos gives so much more power to your intentions!