The Spiritual Significance of Summer Solstice
The Meaning of Summer Solstice
The Summer Solstice is a time to reflect on your personal growth and the meaning of the season of light and expansion. This is the moment of our year when there is the most light available to us. In terms of consciousness, it is when we are the most present to ourselves and who we know ourselves to be — the Sun represents the light of all life and consciousness. Seeds are planted in the Earth as well as the seeds of our souls. It’s a time of renewal and abundance, a time of love and expansion, as the summer sun unfolds the leaves on the trees, so can our hearts open to receive the light of source to illuminate that which is within each of us.
When is Summer Solstice This Year?
Summer Solstice 2024 in the Northern Hemisphere will be on Thursday, June 20, at 4:51pm Eastern Standard Time, or 10:51pm Central European Time.
The Solstice signifies the time when the Earth is at the fullness of her strength, fertility, and abundance, so we too can celebrate our strength in joining together, pollinating our spiritual consciousness through sharing, and offering gratitude for the bounty that which we experience daily.
It marks that moment when the sun reaches the point when it is positioned farthest north — 23.5 degrees from the celestial equator. This point on the Earth is known as the Tropic of Cancer. The word solstice literally means "sun standing still." It is derived from the Latin words Sol + systere, meaning “Sun” + “standing still.”
For the previous six months, the sun has appeared to migrate on a northerly course in the sky. At the moment of the solstice, that motion stops and then the sun will begin to move south. A motion that will continue for six months until the sun drops to its lowest point below the equator and then stop — another solstice point — marking the beginning of winter.
The Summer Solstice is the longest day and the shortest night of the year. Following this Solstice, the days get shorter, the nights longer.
Symbolism of Summer Solstice
Fire is used symbolically throughout summer solstice celebrations in praise of the sun, to ask for blessings of good fortune for our personal harvests and to illuminate the teachings of darkness. The spiral is also a symbol associated with the Solstices. Ancient dances would follow the Sun’s movement like a spiral, people joined hands weaving through the streets, winding into a decreasing spiral into the middle then unwinding back out again. The Sun moving from contraction at the center of the spiral at winter solstice to expansion at Summer Solstice and back again. Festivals of the North still continue to dance and sing, holding hands in formation of a spiral.
Creating a ceremony or celebration is a way for us to acknowledge the life force energy within us and give back to Creation some of the energy and blessings that we are always receiving. The Earth constantly provides for all of us with her incredible bounty, and the Sun’s warmth provides the light necessary for all living beings to thrive and prosper.
Many traditions from time immemorial have Solstices celebrations — Ancient Egypt, the Aztecs of Mexico, Chinese, Chumash Indians of California, and Indigenous Europeans (just to mention a few). Northern european civilizations have for centuries celebrated summer solstice, often called Midsummer, or St. John’s Day. The Chinese mark the day by honoring Li, the Chinese Goddess of Light. Throughout history, with so much light being showered upon the Earth on this day, it’s been known as one of the most powerful days of the year for spiritual growth and healing.
To this day, revellers still gather at Stonehenge to see the sun rise. The Heel Stone and Slaughter Stone, set outside the main circle, align with the rising sun. Many of the ancient traditions continue — bonfires are still lit to honor the Sun at its height of power and to ask the Sun to return again after the winter darkness.
In North America, many Native American communities hold ritual dances to honor the sun. The Sioux are known to hold one of the most spectacular rituals — The Sun Dance. Usually performed during the June solstice, preparations for the Sun Dance include cutting and raising a tree that would be considered a tangible bridge, connecting the Sky realm and Earth. They setting up traditional dwellings in a circle to represent the cosmos. Participants abstain from food and drink during the dance itself. Their bodies are decorated in the symbolic colors of red (sun), blue (sky), yellow (lightning), white (light), and black (night).
Summer is a time to engage more deeply in our connection to Earth; and cultivate and strengthen our connection to the divine energies all around us. In living with gratitude and understanding that reciprocity and respect for all that is given to us is, is the way to live as if all life is ceremony. In using only what we need, and doing what we can to live in balance and harmony with the cycles of the planet, we strengthen and nourish the bond we consummated a birth with the great parent who sustains us all.
As we observe the blossoming of life all around us, we can receive the energy of vitality and experience awe for the generosity of the Earth, who provides for us everything that we need.
Five Beautiful Rituals to Celebrate Summer Solstice:
1) As our ancestors did, celebrate by gathering of plants and healing herbs, its long been believed that they are at their most potent on the Summer Solstice. Five common Celtic sacred plants associated with Midsummer are St. John’s Wort, Vervain, Yarrow, Fern, and Mugwort.
2) Gather with others to create a circle or spiral. Exchange songs, stories, and poems with others. Dance, drum, sing and celebrate.
3) Create a Sun Wheel or mandala (a symbol of the circle of life and connectedness) made from flowers or things found in nature.
4) Keep a sacred fire burning. You can create a big fire like a bonfire to celebrate with friends, but even a small fire, in the form of a candle or Altar of Light can be just as potent.
5) Make a Prayer Stick or Prayer Tree and place specific prayers for those who need healing on it. Make a prayer for the return to peace where there is no peace, for vibrancy and good health in areas of the world where there is now poverty and scarcity.
Do any or all of the above with an intention for something that you will do to improve life – bring light and love into this world in your own creative way and begin to carry it out.
Wishing you peace and light this Summer Solstice!
Are you ready to go deep and discover your unique and meaningful place in the world?
As our planet stands upon a precipice of enormous change and transformation, each one of us has a choice to make. How will we participate in the great turning of our times? Learn more about the spiritual significance of seasons, lunar influences, and powerful energy medicine techniques to harness and transform your life in the Wisdom of the Four Directions 5 month Mentorship Program.
Wisdom of the Four Directions Apprenticeship 2024 Beginning After Summer Solstice
“As the Sun spirals its longest Dance
Cleanse Us
As nature shows bounty and fertility
Bless Us
Let all things live with loving intent
And to fulfill their truest destiny”
These are pictures taken on my trip to Stonehenge, we were blessed with the most glorious weather, and truly had a profound experience of connecting with the ancestors and the spirit of the stones.
Experience the profound spiritual meaning of Winter Solstice on Explore Deeply. The energy of winter is that of going within. It's the fruitful darkness and silence out of which our soul's yearnings and new inspirations can eventually emerge. Awaken your purpose with insightful reflections and transformative wisdom.