Midsummer/Litha

Midsummer has the longest day of the year.  The old Roman name for this time of year was Litha.  The sun is at its highest point in the sky, with the God strong and virile.  The fertility of the Goddess is at its peak.  She is pregnant with the young god and pregnant with the harvest.  Here, then, is a balance of fire and water.  Here, also, is the turning point where we are about to enter the waning of the year which, eventually, will lead to winter.

~From ‘Wicca For One’ by Raymond Buckland

 

 

A Personal Ritual for Midsummer

By

Maria Kay Simms

 

Midsummer is the beginning of Cancer, the sign of the zodiac most closely associated with home and motherhood.  The sun is at the height of power and charged with energy and vitality.  This is a perfect time to make and decorate a Sun Wheel to adorn and protect your home and family, and to charge the health and vitality of all within.  The traditional Sun Wheel design combines the solar cross with a circle.  The solar cross is a vertical line of spirit descending and intersecting a horizontal line representing the realm of matter.

 

Materials to prepare before you begin:

A Sun Wheel design is best made at least partially with natural materials, though bright yellow or gold ribbon streamers are a good addition.  You might also gather symbols of the elements that could be attached – a holey stone or one that can be tied and held in place for Earth, a feather for Air, a seashell for Water, perhaps a crystal point for fire.   A wreath of vines or flexible stems is a good base for the circle.  Find some sturdy but flexible vine or long and flexible stems or thin branches outdoors if you can.  If you take this from a life plant, be sure to thank the plant and give it a bit of water or fertilizer as a gift in return.  If you are in a city where vines may not be so easily available outdoors, it should be ease to obtain a wreath of dried grapevine at a craft store.  You will also need at least two fairly straight sticks to make the cross within the circle.  Bright yellow or orange flowers contribute color, either fresh or dried.  Obtain some protective plants, such as St. John’s wort or mistletoe to add.  Though most things will stay by being poked into the base wreath, you’ll need some twine or florists wire to hold the vines into a circle and attach the cross, and also perhaps to secure some of the other materials

Set out your materials on a work table that can also be your altar, along with a bowl of water, salt, censer and incense and a gold or yellow candle for the Sun, and a green or silver candle for Mother Earth.  Bless the salt and water and combine them to make the elixir that is the womb of the Mother.  Bless the incense and set it to burning Carry the salt water in a circle around your work area, sprinkling it to cleanse the space of all energies that do not contribute to your purpose.  Then carry the incense around the circle, charging the space with energy.  Now, at your working altar, lightly sprinkle all your materials, cleansing them, and then pass the censer in a circle above the table three times to charge them.

 

Light the Sun candle in invocation…

 

“Oh, Midsummer Sun so hot and bright,

Charge my work with golden light

For all within my home to see

For beauty, health, security.

<span style="font-f

amily: Palatino Linotype”>Come, be with me in this rite!

 

Light the Mother Earth candle in invocation…

 

Mother of the fertile Earth

Guide my hands and help be birth

My Sun Wheel bright with energy

For Hearth and home and family.

Be with me in this rite!

 

Make your sun Wheel.  When you are finished, hold it above the Sun candle and circle it three times.  Then above the Mother Earth candle, circling three times, then three times above them both, as you chant this charm…

 

By earth and water, air and fire

Hearken onto my desire

My home be charged by magick charm

Safe, protected from all harm