MIDSUMMER

A Special Summer Solstice Post with Ritual

Jun 20, 2025

Blessed Summer Solstice!

This post is going out on FRIDAY this week, rather than Sunday, when they usually publish, because Friday is the Summer Solstice, June 20th at 10:42 pm EST, when the sun enters cancer, to be precise.

Its nicknames can be confusing, because the solstice is called the “first day of summer” and “midsummer,” its traditional name. To the Celts, it was called Litha. I guess you can determine for yourself which fits your way of thinking. It is the height of the sun’s journey. It is the longest day of the year, and from this day on, every day will be a little bit shorter. So that’s where they get the “mid” part. It’s the mid-point of the sun’s journey, its peak of power.

But it takes the first half of the year for the sun to work up to this point, and as long as it takes the heat of summer to build, it doesn’t immediately start to cool off as the days shorten. Not right away. The warmer temps will continue through July, and we’ll only notice cooling begin in late august, at least where I live.

The Sun

The sun is projective/active energy as opposed to receptive/inert energy. I have always taught the difference using the analogy of an electrical power line. The electricity inside the line is projective. The power line and the entire grid, are receptive. When a power line snaps, the electricity is wild, unconfined and dangerous. Force without form is deadly. On the other hand, the power line without any electricity running through it would be useless. It takes both power itself, and the ability to control and direct that power (checks and balances, if you will) for life to exist, for change to occur, for all of experience. You need both.

Today we focus on the force aspect, the notion of power. The projective energy within us all. It is the life force. It exists apart from the physical body, but the physical body contains it so that it (we) can experience life here in the physical world. Without form, we’d find it difficult to interact in the physical world. In fact, we’d find it tough to differentiate ourselves within it. We’d be a part of it all, the whole kit & caboodle, all melded as one vast consciousness.

In ancient times the sun was equated with the divine. There was little separation between that which was called “God” and the sun itself. At the winter Solstice the sun died and is, the very next morning, reborn. The sun grows stronger like a child would do, through spring, and reaches the peak of adulthood in summer. In fall, the sun matures and we reap the benefits of its lifetime in the form of our harvests. And in winter, the aging sun weakens and fades until, on the Winter Solstice, it dies, and the whole cycle begins again.

You might notice a similar cycle in the Moon, except that it repeats monthly, not annually, and the moon goddess never dies like the sun does. She grows old as the moon wanes, then she rests for a night or two when the moon is dark, and then she emerges young again as the new moon, reaching her peak at the full.

The Symbolism

Think about the sun. What is it? A fiery gas giant, burning and radiating heat and light enough to power our entire solar system. The center of our planetary dance. The hub around which everything else revolves. It makes life possible. It is the source of light. It is pure energy. It is red and orange and yellow and hot and active.

The element of the day is FIRE, in all its forms.
The colors of the day and the season are fiery colors, reds, oranges, yellows, and bright vivid white.
The flowers of the day are dandelions and daisies, they mimic the sun in appearance, and bloom during the summer months.
The energy of the day is projective, outgoing, active.
The mood of the day is triumphant, victorious, supreme, celebratory.
The conditions of the day are abundance, high energy, and determination.
The gemstones of the day are rubies, all red stones, and volcanic stones.
The herbs/foods of the day are the spicy ones. Cinnamon, cloves, garlic, onion, hot peppers, cumin, curry, damiana, allspice, amaranth, thistle, walnut, wormwood, peppermint, St John’s wort, snapdragon, mandrake, marigold, liverwort, and dozens of others are listed as having fire associations in Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs.

The Focus

For me, it’s on power. There are two kinds of power recognized by teachers of the Craft of the Wise, with many breakdowns, of course, but the two main categories of power are power over, and power from within.

Power Over is the use of power to control things outside ourselves. When someone has a lot of this power, they can and often do use it to beat down others, which they perceive as elevating themselves. They aren’t, of course. It’s an illusion. They aren’t getting taller, they’re just flattening everyone and everything around them so they can appear taller and feel taller. But they have gained nothing, and in fact, have done so much harm to others that the blowback is going to be messy. Remember, what we do is returned to us threefold.

Mind the threefold law, ye should,
Three times bad, and three times good.

Power from within is very different, because it’s an individual thing. It doesn’t have anything to do with how much or how little power anyone else has. It’s personal to you. Power from within stems from our steady attention to maintaining a high vibration, and trying to attune and align with all we consider good and pleasant and joyful in our world. Power from within means we are in full control of ourselves and how we react to and relate to the world around us. It means we don’t do things and then claim we couldn’t help ourselves, or that we lost control, or that it was “temporary insanity.”

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Woman
In
Total
Control of 
Herself

See what I did there? The acronym WITCH can stand for Woman in Total Control of Herself. We don’t slip. We don’t “lose it” and cause harm. If and when we give vent to our emotions, we do so in a way that doesn’t harm others. We channel our passionate feelings into positive actions, rather than wasting the energy of a good and just rage on just raging.

And summer is all about ACTION. And with the sun behind us, fueling us, our actions will naturally have better outcomes.

And so my focus on the solstice, and all through summer, really, is on my own inner power, and on giving myself more of it through self-empowerment. I think about ways I tend to give my power away. Like saying, “Sorry” all the time when what I mean is, “excuse me” or “please repeat that.” Like deferring my preferences to those of others all the time. I do that sometimes, but we have to give equal space to our own preferences. That’s kinda what life is about. We experience contrast that helps us define our preferences and then we live them. Many of us stop at defining and get stuck in the contrast and never get around to living.

Summer is all about LIVING. It’s all about LIFE.

Summer represents us when we’re in our prime. This is the prime of our year. There’s no longer a reason to wait for a better time. The time to act is now.

So whatever we’ve been putting off, let’s dive right into it. The energy of the cosmos is behind us, giving any effort a delightful boost.

How to observe the Solstice

You can do a full on summer solstice ritual, if you like. You can join with a group or invite friends. You can do a formal ritual or do something more subtle; a garden party, a day at the beach, a backyard barbecue, a day hiking or just basking. All of these are ways to embrace the energy of the solstice. The key is to spend the time outdoors, in the beautiful sun so you can match its energy. Try to attune and align yourself with its energy. Shine. Beam. Show off. Light the space around you.

I love to try to capture some of the solstice energy, too, to retrieve throughout the year, so I’ll mix up some Sun Water (recipe below) and leave it outside to absorb the sun’s energy. Since the moment of the solstice is in the evening after sunset where I live, I’l leave the water out during all day on the 20th, and maybe the 21st too, to absorb the sun’s energy.

RITUAL BELOW

Sun Water as part of a Solstice Ritual

Fill a clean, sterilized glass bottle with pure spring water. No chlorine or fluoride or anything else.

Add three drops or three pinches of three different herbs associated with the sun to invoke the power of three times three.

I’ll be using cinnamon, sandalwood, and rosemary, to invoke the power of three times three, and because they are three of my favorites. I have them in essential oils, so that will be handy. Then I think I’ll add a few peony petals from the white one that just bloomed out back. Perfect solstice timing.

The full list I use for sun associated herbs is: Acacia, angelica, ash, bay, benzoin, bromeliad, carnation, cashew, cedar, celandine, centaury, chamomile, chicory, chrysanthemum, cinnamon, citron, copal, eyebright, frankincense, ginseng, goldenseal, hazel, heliotrope, juniper, lime, lovage, marigold, mastic, mistletoe, oak, olive, orange, palm, peony, pineapple, rice, rosemary, rowan, rue, saffron, St. John’s wort, sandalwood, sesame, sunflower, tangerine, tea, tormentil, walnut, witch hazel.

Once you have the ingredients, make your sun water in the following way, or you can create your own method. This is the one I’ll be using, and it can be added to the middle of a full summer solstice ritual.

Rite

Assemble all ingredients:

Water in sterile glass jar with lid
3 Chosen herbs or oils
Peony or blackberry blossom petals (any white flower blooming at the solstice)
Sea salt

Decorate the outdoor Altar, something like a boulder or a log, with living plants, candles in glass (due to breezes,) and everything in the orange, yellow and red colors of the sun.

Cast the circle. Honor and welcome the energies of the four directions. Invoke the deities of the sun, by name if you wish, or be more general, like “God and Goddess of the sun, or the Force and the Form of the sun.”

Invoke all the energy of the sun, and then stand, open-armed, face up, allowing it to beam down on you. Absorb its energy and feel what it means to you, feel your inner being mirroring the sun’s energy, both absorbing and reflecting it.

*There should not be sun block at this point. After 20 minutes put on sleeves and a hat.

When you’ve basked enough, allow your gratitude for all the sun brings us, life itself, really, and all the abundant plants, and trees, and the warmth we need to live, and a boundless energy supply there for the taking. Feel gratitude and appreciate all of it. What a blessing the sun is.

Next, go ahead and make your Sun Water.

Hold the water up to the sun, so that it shines through the glass, permeating the water.

“Infuse with light, dispel the night, empow’r with might, and energy bright.”

Set the water down.

Now hold up the salt in its dish.

“Anchor sure, Gaia pure.”

Using your fingers, put three pinches of salt into the water, OR if you have an athame, put in three blade dips. You can’t get much more than a pinch on the tip of a blade.

Raise the athame to the sun, so that the blade pierces it, and say, “As the Rod is to the God…” (or “force”)
Raise the water to the sun, and say, “So the chalice is the the Goddess…” (or “form”)
Flip the blade, point down, and slowly lower it into the water, all the way, and say, “And together they are one.”
Remove the blade, and wipe it carefully on a nearby cloth, towel, or your blouse.
Raise each item you plan to add to the brew, and capture the sun’s energy in it, the power of fire, the fullness of summer, the prime of health, the peak of life, the thrill of summer, the thrill of acting in harmony with the things you desire, the exquisite knowledge that you can and ARE shaping your experience with the glory of this rite.

Align with the sun yourself as you add each herb or oil, three pinches or three drops of each. You likely researched ahead of time to know what properties they bring into the mix, and you probably know which of those made you choose them So call on the sun’s energy to heighten and enhance those specific properties.
I’ll add rosemary for its mental sharpness, purification powers, and love; sandalwood for feminine energy, the moon, wishes, love, and spirituality; cinnamon for success, power, psychic energy, and passionate love. The peony petals make it impossible for any negativity to enter, and are protective. The blackberry petals add both healing and money energy to the mix, along with, you guessed it, love. (You can’t get too much love.)

I’ll probably write a rhyming verse for each herb.
Rosemary to sharpen my wit,
From Sandalwood wishes will flit,
In Cinnamon power abides,
Blackberry adds big money vibes
And peony is the white flower
With sunlight’s most positive power
After all ingredients are added, used the athame or your hand to stir it all together in a clockwise motion.

This is my sun-water brew,
To aid in my magic that’s true,
And add the sun’s positive might
To magic I cast for the light!
So mote it be!
Complete any work or meditation you have planned, then give thanks and farewell to all the energies you’ve invoked in the reverse order you called them, take up the circle. Afterward ground yourself with a solid snack, like a cake, cookie, cracker, or bread. Something grainy.
Leave the sun-water to charge in the bright light of the sun on the day before or day after the solstice (since it falls at night.) Store it in a sunny window, all year long.