It’s officially the first day of Summer as well as a full moon. We celebrate Litha, the Summer Solstice.
The kids and I colored pretty Sunflower pictures because I didn’t have any means to the real flowers. I’ve been trying to grow Sunflowers, but they haven’t sprouted at all. It’s fine though because coloring allowed us time together, allowing us stress relief and bond our energies.
This evening we set out the pictures to help with our ceremony’s energy. We laid out our crystals to provide strength. We wrote down our wishes and each of us read them before placing them in the flames “blessed be”. After we finished we had smores over the flame which represented Sun/Fire in celebration of Summer and how the Sun provides for us and everything. Once we were through adoring the blaze, we headed inside for the night. Leaving our crystals outside to cleanse in the Full Moon.
We thank our mother earth and we are grateful for the sun and it’s entirety. We are trying to grow our own garden. It is our first garden at our house. I failed my first couple seedlings last month. I redid them and they are successful so far. My husband and I are currently in the process of building my garden space for the plants and I hope they grow plentiful. So far we have 4 sprouting corn, 6 cucumber and 2 watermelon. We also need to move our tomato plants because they are not getting enough Sun where they are. Next year I want to have a lot more in our garden, so this year is full of trial and error and first attempts.
Madhouse - Life inside the Stones 
We too have some of these traditions and I’ve always wondered where they came from. I asked my mom why we celebrate Summer Solstice, her response, “It’s what my Mom did”. My mother is and was a god fearing Christian. I’m something not yet definable and I have no idea what my kids spiritual beliefs are as yet. But every year…. we build a fire, cook things on sticks and talk about what we plan to do this summer. My mom’s mom did it , my mom did it and we do it. It’s so comforting to see shared rituals rooted in humanity that keep us connected when society might tell us we should be apart. Happy Summer Solstice!
LikeLike
Thanks and to you as well! I was not raised Christian but my parents were, though they changed their beliefs over my childhood, God was never in my childhood. My parents taught us of the Law of Attraction and that we are the creators of our own universe. As a child I mixed that with my desire to be a “witch” like in the movies, though not to such extent. So as an adult I’ve always just mixed my belief in the law of attraction with our love of the earth and we kind of lean more into a Pagan lifesryle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember learning about transcendentalism in high school and it impacted me in a big way. I had been sitting alone in the woods talking to God since I could remember, because to me, that’s where he/she/it was. Here’s the kicker though. My English teacher went on maternity leave right before we were to study Emerson and Thoreau. She was a Minister’s wife and I was the only person in the class, I kid you not, that wasn’t a member of the First Baptist church. She would not have dared to go into any great detail about the spiritual aspects of the literature. Our textbooks barely touched on the subject of these men’s beliefs and it certainly didn’t mention Kant. So, I can’t imagine the universe conceived and birthed a child just so young and open minded substitute teacher, Miss Archer,would be there in time to teach me about these men. She went into great detail about the movement, how it came about and how it impacted the lives and works of these great writers, including Kant. That would not have happened otherwise. It was a gift and it felt like it was just for me.
LikeLike