Midsummer Night Fairy Magick Sun Celebration

June 20 is the Peak of the SUN’s LIGHT, the MASCULINE FIRE in the Northern Hemisphere. The longest night of the year in the North, its a time of celebration. As the sun peaks everything shifts gradually into the DARK feminine FEMININE ENERGY energy begins to grow stronger until December 21st when it peaks then the powers are switched again. This is the balance of everything that exists in the Universe. 

This is the PAGAN Cardinal Cross Quarter day of LITHA. 

As Summer begins in the North here in 2020 we are finally getting out after a 3-month lockdown due to Covid-19. Time to celebrate, Life is green, the living colours of flowers are everywhere and abundant. The air smells sweet, bees are buzzing. We are growing our own food in our gardens or containers. We are soaking up the rays.  The Goddess is symbolically Pregnant with the child she conceived on March 21.  

The Summer Solstice or LITHA begins 2:44 pm PDT/5:44 pm EDT/ 9:44 pm GMT  as the SUN enters CANCER the 0-degree “world point.” It is the beginning of Winter Down Under. Time 

Shakespeare Immortalized Midsummer in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream 

Sir_Joseph_Noel_Paton_-_The_Quarrel_of_Oberon_and_Titania_ 

 

 

Traditional symbols for Midsummer

Weave flower wreaths to wear on the summer solstice,

The Bonfire

Bonfires are lit on hilltops, by holy wells, and at a sacred place, to honour the fullness of the Sun. People danced around and leap through the flames. Traditionally people stayed up all night on Midsummer’s Eve to welcome the sunrise. Coals from the Midsummer fire were scattered on fields to ensure a good harvest, you can scatter them in your garden

Midsummer is one of the most powerful nights for MAGICK,

Especially healing prayers, love magick, energy, protection and purification. It’s a time of gratitude for family and friends. Reflect on the progress of the seeds that you planted in the earth. A great time to get rid of patterns and objects that no longer serve your Higher Self. 

The Fairy Queen and the fairies are said to be out riding on MidSummer Night 

This is the time to strengthen your connection with the Fae or Fairie and otherworldly beings,

Honour the Fairies 

Create a fairie house in your yard or even in your window. Remember that fairies are very mischievous so be careful. Place spirit boundaries around your house, and protect yourself from their pranks while outside. Wear garlands of marigolds, ivy and or St. John’s Wort. White lily petals, rue and oatmeal in your pockets or in baskets help in protection. Bury a Witch Bottle, a glass container filled with sharp objects such as pins, nails and needles, ashes and salt before entrances to your home for protection.

Leave treats for the Fairies. They love sweets of all kinds. Leave offerings outside in the woods a park or your yard or windowsill.  Leave herbs, ribbons, seashells and bowls of milk outside to gift the Faeries.

Bless the animals.

Ancient herders brought a token animal to be blessed to protect their herds. Ask for protection and blessings for pets, livestock and wildlife.

Have a Feast 

Some great summer dishes include seafood, watermelon, berries, lemonade, summer squash, and baked potatoes. 

Renew and clean Your Altar

Litha is a great time to clean, cleanse and re-decorate your altar for the Summer season. Take everything off of your altar, clean it, then cleanse it with dried Cedar, Sage, honeysuckle or other sweet incense or sweetgrass smoke. Add summer yellows to and golds to your altar.

Honour Sun Gods & Goddesses

Honor any solar deities with offerings and prayers Some of the sun gods and goddesses are Ra, Horus, Huitzilopochtli Aztec Sun and War God, Irish Goddess Aine, Celtic Sun God Belenos, Greek Sun God Helios, Roman Apollo, Etain Irish Sun Goddess, Yuyi, Taoist God of the Sun, Macha, Irish Goddess of women, Sunna, Norse Goddess of the Sun and many more. 

Flowers, honey honouring nature and growth

The Midsummer Moon is also known as the HONEYMOON, where this term originated. Mead is made, handfasting ceremonies are performed. Mead is considered to be a magical life-enhancing drink, You can make an altar to honour the Oak tree, with their leaves. Sunflowers are also a great example.  Magical baking and charms are created on this special day. Traditionally this festival spans three days. This year it is June 20-23rd.

Buttermilk Bread 

To bring abundance to your kitchen. Sunflower seeds represent the light half of the year and the poppy seeds represent the dark half of the year.

You will need:

3 cups of white flour, preferably bread flout type.

500 ml of Buttermilk 

I tsp.of bicarbonate of soda

Sunflower and poppy seeds for sprinking

Red ribbon and a sprig of rosemary

Place the flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Sieve in the blended salt and soda and pour in the buttermilk. Mix well with a wooden spoon until the dough feels springy. If it feels too sloppy just add a little more flour. Turn it onto a board and cover with a fine dusting of flour. Pat it with your hands until you have a round shape. Take a sharp knife and score lightly into eight sections, one for each festival. Sprinkle half of the loaf with poppy seeds and the other half with sunflower seeds.

Place onto a greased baking tray and pop your buttermilk bread into a moderate oven for about 20-25 minutes. Keep and eye on it. When the bread is ready it will change colour and it will sound hollow when you tap the bottom. Cool completely on a wire rack. When it is cool, place your sprig of rosemary on top and tie the red ribbon across the middle.

Consecrate the bread by turning the loaf three times saying “From the fields and through the stones, into fire, Midsummer Bread, as the Wheel turns may all be fed. Goddess Bless.”

Take your bread and share it with your family, friends or whoever you would like to bless. Eat it fresh, as soon as it is made if you can. 

Elderflower Champagne

Elderflowers peak at Midsummer. Pick them in the fullness of a sunny day, ideally on Midsummer’s Day. The Elder is sacred to the Mother Goddess and is often called the Witch’s Tree, the Elder Mother, or Queen of the Trees. It is protective, with wonderful healing properties. It aids transformation, change and renewal, this drink will aid in transforming your life. Or drink Elderberry Liqueur.

In Canada, Strongbow makes an elderflower cider. http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/product/strongbow-elderflower-apple-cider/413880#.V2eHm_krLIV 

Ingredients:

8 litres water

1.25 kg sugar

8 large elderflower heads

4 lemons

4 tablespoons mild white wine vinegar

Do use screw-top bottles. Large plastic bottles are good. This is a fizzy drink, if not bottled tightly it can explode! Keep it somewhere safe. Make sure the elderflowers are clean and pick them when the sun is strongest. 

Boil the water and dissolve the sugar into it, organic sugar is best.

When the water cools, add the elderflowers, the juice of two of the lemons and slices of the other two, plus the vinegar.

Cover with a clean cloth and leave for a day.

Strain through a fine sieve or piece of muslin, carefully squeezing the flowers to extract as much flavour as possible.

Store in clean screw-top bottles.

Leave alone for 10 days or so. Drink within a month. Enjoy and give thanks to the Spirit of the Elder.

Honey Cake

A celebration of a sweet life. 

If you can source locally produced honey its the best. Wherever it comes from always thank the precious Bees. 

Ingredients:

225 gram Butter 1 cup
250 gms Honey or 1 cup 
100 gms Dark Muscovado Sugar, 3.5 ounces by weight 
3 Eggs, beaten
300 gms Self-Raising Flour, 1 1/2 cups 

Cut the butter into pieces and heat slowly, adding the honey and the sugar. When fully melted, turn up the heat and boil the mixture for one minute. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Add the beaten eggs to the cooled honey mixture. Sift the flour into a large bowl and beat the liquid honey mixture into it until you have a smooth batter. Pour the mixture into a round lined sponge tin and bake in a preheated oven at 160 C for about 50 mins – or until the cake is well-risen and springs back to the touch. Cool on a rack and glaze with a few tablespoons of warm honey. A nice sweet treat. 

Please share widely, all writing is copyright of Tara Greene unless otherwise indicated.

HAPPY SUMMER

I will be celebrating making magick and dancing with the fairies,

Get a reading with Tara http://www.taratarot.com

 

 

Solstice Guided Meditation Cancer time.

Cancer Solstice Meditation and intentions

WATER NYMPHS HYMN TO THE RISING MOON 1850  by John George Naish 

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” From Moving Water by Jalaluddin Rumi

The Sun enters Tropical Cancer June 21 @ 3:07 am PDT/ 6:07 am EDT/ 10:07 p.m. GMT. The Sun is at its maximum Northern point of 23+ degrees nd sits on the Tropic of Cancer. It is longest day light of the year in the Northern and the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere where Winter begins Down Under.

Summer begins up North and winter begins down South. To ancient pagans this is Litha and thousands of druids will be gathering to celebrate the Sun King’s peak at Stonehenge in the U.K. Thousands worldwide honor the Sun as we co-create with the Suns turning in its annual dance of the seasons.  In the North, the Masculine growth time peaks now and slowly declines towards the Autumn Equinox. The Feminine half of the year begins to ascend now.

I realize I am “North centric” living in the Northern Hemisphere. To all the Southern Hemi-folks, winter is beginning and the Masculine time of the year of increasing starts its reign.

We are always in this yin/yang balance. Every night half the world is awake and bathed in light and the other half is asleep in the darkness of night. We are more aware of this now than ever before.

The Solstice points are major markers. This is an important turning point to stop and plan your intentions until the Autumn Equinox at least. It’s also a good time to take stock of how the seeds you planted at the Spring Equinox have taken, grown and flourished or not. It may be time for much weeding and fertilizing to get the crop you want.

While the sun is traveling through Cancer we are under the rulership of the Moon, our emotions and FEELINGS. Cancer is the first water sign, symbolized by the crab. In Ancient Egypt it was seen as two turtles. Our bodies are 70% water. Cancer represents the womb, our mothers, and the oceans of the earth from where all life started. Cancer is also the dark void of pure potential, home, emotional security and safety.

Cancer symbolizes the unconscious, the wellspring, the cup, vessel and Holy Grail, the dream world, and our unconscious memories, stored in our cellular consciousness. The emotional realm is a karmic realm, according to Buddhist teachings, and emotions are the glue that draws us back into the physical plane. A Tibetan Buddhist teacher taught that we are all our mothers, literally. We actually felt and experienced every emotion she ever felt her entire life from when she came into existence in her own mothers’ womb as a single egg. There is an emotional string of pearls of wisdom within you with which you can find your way home to source and your own genetic ancestry.

Cancer is the Great Mother symbol in all of her most loving, nourishing and nurturing of aspects.  We are all born of women and come through our mothers as the Moon’s physical body all women are ruled by the Moon specifically. Men also have a feminine side and they too feel the Moon’s subtle pull of psychic, intuitive, subtle and dream energies.  The Solstice coincides with Father’s Day this year. Also symbolizing a rebalancing of the masculine and feminine energies.

TAROT CORRESPONDENCES

If you have a Tarot deck you can pull out the Major Arcana associated with the Moon and Cancer and ask to dialogue with their archetypal wisdom when you do your meditation-see below. 

The Sign of Cancer itself is symbolized by Trump #7 The Chariot. The Moon is symbolized by Trump #2 The High Priestess and also by Trump #18 called The Moon which symbolizes Pisces. Trump # 3, The Empress is also associated as she is usually symbolized by a pregnant woman although she symbolizes Venus

Meditate at the time of the Solstice June 21 @ 3:07 am PDT/ 6:07 am EDT/ 10:07 p.m. GMT

Cancer symbolizes the Mother, I would see this solstice as a conception point to plan out your next three trimesters. The 1^st from June 21 to Autumn Equinox. The second trimester goes from September 21 until Dec 21^st Solstice, and the third ends at Spring 2019’s Equinox when the baby, which is whatever you intend to create will be born healthy and strong.  

Have a notebook, device, candles and whatever symbolizes mothering on hand. A food offering of milk of any type should be set up. Moon cakes, an Asian specialty or moon shaped cookies would work too. Create a moon alter and place mirrors, water, flowers, dolphin or whale images, mermaids, and see below for other tools. Sea shells and sand dollars. There are two parts to this solstice ritual, one is in water, the other is with your moon alter.

Practical tools: Use these to amplify the resonance in your ritual.

Color: Silvery blue, silver or white. Use this for candles and to wear.

BODY PARTS: rules the stomach, breasts, uterus and digestion.

Metal is silver. Wear your finest silver, get out the silver candlesticks.

Gemstones: pearls, moonstones and emeralds traditionally. Chalcedony, carnelian, onyx and white=blue chrysoprase.

Power stone: sodalite. Talisman stone: sapphire.

Modern gems: chrysoprase, fire opals, super seven, topaz, amber.

Herbs: Eucalyptus and fenugreek

Essential oils: rose, lily

FLOWERS: white roses, water and all lilies, morning glories,

Herbs: Tarragon, verbena, saxifrage. Milk thistle, dandelion.

Angels: Gabriel, Hebrew letter Gimel, {a camel} Rules the first heaven Shamayim, means water.

Egyptian name: Hathor

Greek Goddess: Selene, Diana,

All mother Goddesses: Mary, Ceres, Demeter, and Artemis, Selene,

Fixed Stars of Constellation Cancer: Sirius, The Beehive,

Animals:  all marine creatures: dolphins, whales, seals, fish, carbs and animals with shells, turtles and snails.

Foods: mother’s milk, all milks, watery fruits and vegetables, white veggies:

Plants: all water plants, lotus.

Spirit: Undines 

SOLSTICE WATER MEDITATION

Water is the prime element of Cancer. Take a ritual bath , anytime, day or night. It’s time to return to the womb and rebirth oneself. Make sure the water is close to body temperature. Put essential oils of rose, eucalyptus or lavender in the bath. If your mother wore a specific perfume you may want to spritz that around.  Put white foaming bubble bath to symbolize the sea and rose petals. If you have a heartbeat drumming track then put that on in the background.

Immerse yourself in the bath. Dunk your head under the water.  Close your eyes and sink into your own uterine memories of being inside your mother’s womb. Remember the feeling of absolute security, safety, peace, the darkness, with the sound of your mother’s heartbeat. Not everyone has had safe comfortable experiences in the womb. If you had a difficult connection with your mother in utero or in your life or were adopted or feel rejected, you need to call upon the symbol and archetypal energy of the Great Mother at this time to hold you, to nurture you and to bring you feelings of safety and security for being loved and complete simply for existing. Her love is unconditional. The Great Mother can be Mary in the Christian Tradition, or Ceres, Gaia, the Earth Herself, your own mother or allow a Mother figure to come to you. She offers the ultimate and only true place of emotional “homeland security “and peace, in the arms of the Great Mother on a spiritual level.

Allow yourself to feel. This is what Cancer is: emotions. Rock yourself gently, hear the heartbeat of the Great Mother as your own heartbeat. Let that heartbeat envelope you.

Sink into the feeling of safety. From this place of feeling safe and whole. Ask yourself what do you need to nurture now? What will nourish you? A relationship? A skill? What do you need to create, give your heart to? A person, a job, an idea? Allow the feelings and sensation to guide you. If you aren’t a visual person, sense it in your stomach. Rub your breasts. Love your tummy whatever shape it is in and your breasts. Adore your womb whether you have had children or not. Men have a spirit womb as do women who have had hysterectomies. Get out slowly thanking the water spirits and the Great Mother and the Moon for being with you.  Dry off and reflect.

The 2^nd part of the Meditation

Create your moon alter and make it beautiful. Wear white or silver. If you can be out in nature near a body of water, a lake, the ocean, a river or pond that is great If not sit by your prepared alter. Breathe into your belly and breast and uterus. Meditate and ask for images, feelings and sensations to come up. Call upon the High Priestess as she is the Archetypal go-between between the unconscious and conscious realms.

The Moon rules our dreams. You will need to keep a dream journal. Do intend to work with your dreams over the moon’s cycle every night.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

CANCER rules the stomach. And cancer’s love to cook and to eat. Cancer is also sentimental. Prepare something your mother used to cook for you that you love perhaps. It can be simple, jello?  It is also Father’s Day this year and Cancer is all about family and nurturing so have a big or small family gathering. If you have no family, cook for your friends or strangers. Do something special for a children’s organization or devote some time to helping out in a hospital, food bank or helping take care of older women or men.

Dr. Masaru Emoto taught that water is affected by our emotions. The oceans are very polluted from Fukushima and plastic and other pollutants. Thousands of seals, whales, and fish are dying en masse in the Pacific. Visualize healing energy to the oceans, the lakes, especially the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada, and all waterways. Droughts and water shortages not just in California but in many parts of the world will become more severe. Conserve water during this Cancer month especially. Be conscious of how we are 70% water. We take it for granted. It is the water of Life itself. Honor it and your own feelings and intuition.

PLEASE SHARE WIDELY

All writing is copyright of Tara Greene

Get a 3 month forecast reading from Tara http://www.taratarot.com 

Litha Midsummer Night celebration recipes

June 20 is the Peak of the MASCULINE FIRE in the Northern Hemisphere. And at the longest night of the year in the North everything shifts as the DARKNESS and the FEMININE begins to grow stronger until December 21st when the powers are switched again. This is the balance of everything that exists in the Universe. 

As Summer begins in the North we are repleat with gardens, strawberries, roses, greenery everywhere and heat. The Goddess is symbolically Pregnant with the child she conceived March 21.  Venus is also in Cancer at this Solstice and the Moon will oppose Venus @ 11:51 a.m PDT/2:51 pm EDT, 6:51 pm GMT. 

FLOWER WREATHS are huge on summer solstice,

Traditional symbols for Midsummer

The Bonfire

Bonfires are lit on tops of hills, by holy wells, and at a sacred place, to honor the fullness of the Sun. People danced around and leap through the flames. Traditionally people stayed up all night on Midsummer’s Eve to welcome the sunrise. Coals from the Midsummer fire were scattered on fields to ensure a good harvest you can scatter them in your garden

Flowers, honey honoring nature and growth

The Midsummer Moon is also known as the HONEY MOON, where this term originated. Mead is made, handfasting ceremonies are performed. Mead is considered to be a magical life enhancing drink,

You can make an alter to  honor the Oak tree, with their leaves. Sunflowers are also a great example. 

Magical baking and charms are created on this special day. Traditionally this festival spans three days.This year it is June 20-23rd.

Buttermilk Bread 

To bring abundance to your kitchen. Sunflower seeds represent the light half of the year and the poppy seeds represent the dark half of the year.

You will need:

3 cups of  white flour, preferably bread flout type.

500 ml of Buttermilk 

I tsp.of bicarbonate of soda

Sunflower and poppy seeds for sprinking

Red ribbon and a sprig of rosemary

Place the flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Sieve in the blended salt and soda and pour in the buttermilk. Mix well with a wooden spoon until the dough feels springy. If it feels too sloppy just add a little more flour. Turn it onto a board and cover with a fine dusting of flour. Pat it with your hands until you have a round shape. Take a sharp knife and score lightly into eight sections, one for each festival. Sprinkle half of the loaf with poppy seeds and the other half with sunflower seeds.

Place onto a greased baking tray and pop your buttermilk bread into a moderate oven for about 20-25 minutes. Keep and eye on it. When the bread is ready it will change colour and it will sound hollow when you tap the bottom. Cool completely on a wire rack. When it is cool, place your sprig of rosemary on top and tie the red ribbon across the middle.

Consecrate the bread by turning the loaf three times saying “From the fields and through the stones, into fire, Midsummer Bread, as the Wheel turns may all be fed. Goddess Bless.”

Take your bread and share it with your family, friends or whoever you would like to bless.  Eat it fresh, as soon as it is made if you can. 
Elderflower Champagne

Elderflowers peak at Midsummer. Pick them in the fullness of a sunny day, ideally on Midsummer’s Day. The Elder is sacred to the Mother Goddess and is often called the Witch’s Tree, the Elder Mother, or Queen of the Trees. It is protective with wonderful healing properties. It aids transformation, change and renewal,this drink will aid in transforming your life.

In Canada Strongbow makes an elderflower cider. http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/product/strongbow-elderflower-apple-cider/413880#.V2eHm_krLIV 

Ingredients:

8 litres water

1.25 kg sugar

8 large elderflower heads

4 lemons

4 tablespoons mild white wine vinegar

Do use screw top bottles. Large plastic bottles are good. This is a fizzy drink, if not bottled tightly it can explode! Keep it somewhere safe. Make sure the elderflowers are clean and pick them when the sun is strongest. 

Boil the water and dissolve the sugar into it , organic sugar is best.

When the water cools, add the elderflowers,the  juice of two of the lemons and slices of the other two, plus the vinegar.

Cover with a clean cloth and leave for a day.

Strain through a fine sieve or piece of muslin, carefully squeezing the flowers to extract as much flavour as possible.

Store in clean screw top bottles.

Leave alone for 10 days or so. Drink within a month. Enjoy and give thanks to the Spirit of the Elder.
Honey Cake

A celebration of a sweet life. 

If you can source locally produced honey its the best. Wherever it comes from always thank the precious Bees. 

Ingredients:

225 gram Butter 1 cup
250 gms Honey or 1 cup 
100 gms Dark Muscovado Sugar, 3.5 ounces by weight 
3 Eggs, beaten
300 gms Self-Raising Flour, 1 1/2 cups 

Cut the butter into pieces and heat slowly, adding the honey and the sugar. When fully melted, turn up the heart and boil the mixture for one minute. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Add the beaten eggs to the cooled honey mixture. Sift the flour into a large bowl and beat the liquid honey mixture into it until you have a smooth batter. Pour the mixture into a round lined sponge tin and bake in a preheated oven at 160 C for about 50 mins – or until the cake is well-risen and springs back to the touch. Cool on a rack and glaze with a few tablespoons of warm honey. A nice sweet treat. 

FULL Moon Bowl Charm

A full moon charm to enhance your natural radiance to celebrate the beauty of Midsummer.

You will need: A glass or china bowl, a glass or china jug and a small white candle. Remember the candle needs to burn away completely so choose a small one.

Put water into your jug- rainwater is best, but fresh water from the tap is fine. Take the jug of water, the bowl and the small white candle outside and place them on the ground. Light the candle in a suitable holder and place it at the top of the bowl – at the midnight/noon point of a clock face. Pour the water into the centre of the bowl and say:

“Renewing water shining bright

Weave your charm in my bowl of Light”

Place your Moon Bowl in the moonlight so the light of the full moon is reflected in the water and leave the candle to burn down.

When this is complete take your bowl and dip your hands into the water and as you gently splash the moon water onto your face say

“By Full Moon charm,

By Full Moon light,

May inner beauty shine through tonight.

Brightest Blessings of the Goddess shine through me.”

When you have finished, return the water to the Earth. I always pour it on my favourite Holly Tree.

Charm from Counter Enchantress from website https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/litha

PLease share widely, all writing is copyright of Tara Greene unless otherwise indicated.

Get a reading with Tara http://www.taratarot.com