The longest day of the year is here! This event goes by a few different names, such as the Summer Solstice, Litha, and Midsommar. It takes place every year on June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere and December 21 in the Southern Hemisphere.
The sun is at its full strength and potency at this time, which makes it a powerful time to bring projects to fruition and worship the blessings, healing, nurturing, and strength the sun brings us.
The sun is a powerful star that has a dramatic impact on our planet. It provides light, life, and nourishment to every living thing. It can change our mood, it helps our food grow, and it creates beauty year round. When the sun is hidden by clouds we miss it, and our mood can be severely affected.
Here are some ways you can celebrate the Summer Solstice this year.
1. Make a Gratitude List
Write down all of the things you’re grateful for in your life right now. You can start small, and even include certain people, pets, situations, or experience you’ve learned from. The idea is to celebrate the fullness of life, the things that make life worth living.
The Summer Solstice relates to The Sun card in tarot, which is all about basking the sun’s glory, noticing the good going on in your life, and opening up to success, recognition, and happiness. This can be difficult for some if they’re focusing too much on what isn’t going right. Just for now, focus on what is going right. Thank the Universe or your higher power for these things, and spend a moment looking at the list. Notice how you feel, and focus on the elements that make you feel warm inside. Spend a little time in that feeling.
Gratitude is powerful and can raise your vibration. This is something you can come back to any time of the year, and the Summer Solstice is a great time to practice.
2. Use Herbs or Essential Oils
According to The Hearth Witch’s Compendium: Magical and Natural Living for Every Day by Anna Franklin, the herbs relating to Litha are:
Alexanders, Angelica, Apples, Ash, Bay, Calendula, Chamomile, Celandine, Daisy, Dill, Dog Rose, Elder, Elecampane, Fennel, Fern, Feverfew, Fir, Frankincense, Heather, Honeysuckle, Lavender, Marjoram, Mint, Mistletoe, Oak, St. John’s Wort, Strawberry, Sunflower, Sweet Cicely, Violet, Yarrow
You can use these to create a sugar scrub, add them to epsom salts for a bath, use them in spell work, or use them in food (see below). You can also use whatever is in season around you, whether that’s food or flowers.
3. Have a Dinner Party
Everyone loves food, and the Summer Solstice is a great time to get together and celebrate the Earth’s bounty. While the harvest festivals are still to come later in the year, this is a perfect time to enjoy fresh fruit and the seasonal, local food around you.
You can throw a potluck and ask people to bring their favorite dish, or make foods that you enjoy. If you want to stick with the theme of the Summer Solstice, you can make dishes that resemble the sun. This includes round foods, yellow dishes, or adding peppers, which are often meant to represent the heat of the sun. For more food ideas, check out the Kajora Lovely Summer Solstice Pinterest board.
4. Charge Your Crystals in the Sun
Since the sun is at its highest and strongest point, this is a powerful time to charge your crystals with the sun’s energy. You can set an intention when you set them outside, such as giving them the healing and nurturing aspects of the sun, or anything else that you want your crystals to contain. If you can, leave them outside around noon, when the sun is at its highest point.
5. Do Protection Work
This is a great time to do work to create protection for yourself and your loved ones. The sun’s strength will begin waning after this point, but you can harness its energy and potency to create protection through the months to come.
This can be done with spell work, charging your protective crystals, making a protection crystal grid, or even creating protection salt to place in front of the doorways and windows of your home.
6. Connect With Nature
Spending time in your favorite natural setting can always have its own grounding and recharging abilities, but it can be particularly potent at this time. Since the Summer Solstice is taking place during a waning moon this year, you can set intentions for what you want to release and for the sun’s energy to help you heal. You can also spend some time sitting in the direct sunlight (even if it’s just a couple minutes) and imagine the sun’s warmth wrapping around you like a nurturing, healing blanket that will provide you with anything you need, and that you can take with you when you leave.
7. Have a Bonfire
Bonfires have been staples of pagan traditions, and can be used to ask for cleansing or protection. You can gather together with friends or family as a simple get together, or use the fire’s energy for magic and spells. If you feel guided to, you can stare into the fire for a bit to meditate and connect to the Summer Solstice’s fire energy.
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