20, 21, and 22 June

Midsummer Eve/Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice is celebrated between June 20 and June 22-the longest day and shortest night of the year. The festival of Midsummer venerates the potential of the life-sustaining powers of fire and water, forces that were vital to our ancestors’ survival. It was believed that fire would help keep the sun alive and that the blessing of waterwells would continue their flow to nurture the parched earth. Without sun and water, there would be no crops and all would perish.

One of the most popular customs that grew out of the early fertility rites was that of jumping or leaping over Midsummer bonfires. The idea being, the higher one jumped, the higher the crops would grow.

Another symbol that was popularized at this time was the wheel. The turning of the wheel represented the turning or progression of the seasons. Wheels were decorated with brightly colored ribbons and fresh flowers. Lighted candles were placed on them, and then they were set afloat on the lakes and rivers.

Midsummer Eve and Midsummer Night are genuinely thought to be particularly uncanny times. It was reasoned that certain plants were endowed with magickal properties on this night, that, if gathered before sunrise, could be used for protection against all evil spirits and forces.

With the sun at its zenith, Midsummer was, and still is, a time for marriages, family celebrations, and coming-of-age parties.

Symbolically, Midsummer is the time to nurture those goals you made at the beginning of the year as you reflect on the progress you have made toward bringing them into fruition.

The Witches Magick for Monday, June 20, The Summer Solstice – Sun Spell

A simple sun spell can help you capture the power of this most important time in the sun’s journey across our skies. And who doesn’t need a bit of that potent energy in their everyday lives? This simple sun spell harnesses the energy of the sun into an amulet (token) that you can carry with you. Call on it whenever you need a bit of that brightness.

You will need:
A candle and something to light it with— I like to use a red candle because the sun is a fire element, but use any color you have or that speaks to you
A pinch of dried spice— dried chili flakes, cayenne pepper, or black pepper
A daisy (ruled by the element of fire)
A plate or saucer to work from

Gather your spell materials together and go outside into the sunshine. Sit somewhere green and quiet if you can, and hold your candle, spices, and daisy in one hand. Cup your other hand over the top. Concentrate on focusing your energy into what you are holding. Focus on the creation of something that will bring you brightness when you need it.

When you’re ready, light the candle carefully and drop wax onto the plate or saucer to create a pool of wax. Extinguish the candle and, working swiftly, sprinkle the spice onto the molten wax. Place the daisy onto the wax and spice. Carefully mould the still-warm wax into a ball or penny shape, enclosing the spices and daisy within it. You can always drip more wax onto the top to ensure that the spell is fully enclosed.

When the wax has cooled, hold the amulet in one hand and raise your hand to the sun. Close your eyes and imagine the brightness and warmth of the sun’s energy forming a sphere around your amulet, empowering it with its energy.

Say some simple words like:

Power of the sun, charge this spell till it is done.

When you feel that your amulet has absorbed the sun’s power, thank the sun for lending you its strength. When you return home, relight your candle and burn it in thanks for the success of your spell.

Carry this amulet with you and reach for it whenever you need to lend the sun’s power to whatever you are doing. Use it when a spell needs an extra boost, or on a cold gray day that leaves you feeling down, or when a friend is in need of some brightness at a difficult time. This powerful little spell can also be recharged by holding the amulet up to the sun whenever you need a boost. You can use it as a focus in fire spells as well.
 

Hedgewitch Book of Days: Spells, Rituals, and Recipes for the Magical Year
Mandy Mitchell

Midsummer’s Correspondences

The magickal correspondences for Midsummer are simple and natural ones. Colors are gold and green— gold to celebrate the might of the sun and green to symbolize the leaves on the trees, all of nature, and the Faerie realm, which are all at their peak of influence and magickal power. Some eclectic magickal traditions may choose a celestial theme of deep blue and golden suns and stars. I like to think of those celestial decorations as symbols that represent the best influences of the moon, from the zodiac sign of Cancer, and the strength of the sun at the Solstice.

Also, just to keep things interesting, there is a watery theme to Midsummer as well. People did make journeys to sacred wells for cures at Midsummer. Wells, springs, and the life-giving summer rain are just as important to the crops and your own garden as the sunshine, so keep that in mind.

If you want to try something different for Midsummer, you could play up the beach/ water/ summer theme. I have seen a “magickal mermaid” ocean theme successfully used for Midsummer. It was hauntingly different, ethereal, and gorgeous— think of lots of starfish and sand dollars cleverly arranged on an altar, with iridescent seashells and blue beach glass scattered around the base of off-white candles and crystal-clear bowls of water. Again, these could be links to the zodiac sign of Cancer the crab. However, a beach-inspired Midsummer celebration sounds enchanting, doesn’t it? If you live along the ocean or coast, I imagine that this would be gorgeous Midsummer altar décor and a distinctive theme for any ritual performed on a shore, beach, or in your own back yard.

Animals and insects that are traditionally linked to Midsummer festivals are creatures such as honeybees, eagles, hawks, goldfinches (a favored faerie bird), butterflies, dragonflies— oh, and don’t forget those lightning bugs!

Lightning bugs, or fireflies, have long been associated with the fae and the elemental kingdom. On soft nights in June the lightning bugs are out in force, putting on quite the show for children— and for any magickally minded, young-at-heart adults who care to watch.

Seasons of Witchery: Celebrating the Sabbats with the Garden Witch
Ellen Dugan

The Pagan Way to Celebrate the Summer Solstice

Just as they’ve done for centuries, witches today celebrate the Summer Solstice with feasting, music, dancing, and thanksgiving. Remember to share your bounty with the animals and birds, too, and to return something to Mother Earth as a sign of gratitude.

Midsummer is also a good time to collect herbs, flowers, and other plants to use in magick spells. Some say that if you wish to become invisible, you must wear an amulet that includes seeds from forest ferns gathered on Midsummer’s eve. Spells for success and abundance are best done on the Summer Solstice.

The Everything Wicca and Witchcraft Book: Rituals, spells, and sacred objects for everyday magick (Everything®)
Skye Alexander

The Significance Of the Summer Solstice

In early agrarian cultures, Midsummer marked a period of plenty when food was abundant and life was easy. Our ancestors celebrated this joyful holiday with feasting and revelry. At this point, however, the sun has reached its pinnacle and begins its descent once again. Celtic pagan mythology depicts this as the end of the Oak King’s reign as he is overthrown by the Holly King, who presides over the waning part of the year.

Folklore says that at Midsummer earth spirits abound—Shakespeare’s delightful play A Midsummer Night’s Dream was inspired by this belief. Apparently, life on every level rejoices in the fullness of the season. If you wish, you can commune with the elementals and faeries at this time.
 

Source

The Everything Wicca and Witchcraft Book: Rituals, spells, and sacred objects for everyday magick (Everything®)
Skye Alexander

Midsummer

Midsummer, or the longest day of the year, is celebrated on June 21. During this period, the first fruits begin to appear on the trees. Life is easy and good, there is food, and the cold weather is disappearing. The days are warm and long. In myths, this is the time in which the goddess is impregnated by the god, her belly swells, and new life is created in her vicinity. In agrarian societies, this is the time between sowing and reaping – the time in which Mother Earth “swells.”

The accessories used in the rituals include pink roses, oak leaves, and various symbols connected with the sun. The dominant colors are red and green. This is a good festival for personal spells, as well as for those that are done for the sake of society and the universe as a whole.

This time is suitable for festivals. Witches and wizards celebrate with feasts of fruit and vegetables. Even though it is the longest day of the year, it carries with it the awareness that from now on, the days will get shorter, and the winter will ultimately arrive. This is the time of the goddess as a mother, and she is at the peak of her glory.
 

Source

Day-by-Day Wicca: A complete guide to Wicca from Beliefs and Rituals to Magic and Witchcraft
Tabatha Jennings

Midsummer
Summer Solstice
June 20 – 23

Midsummer or Litha, is a celebration of light. This is a solar/ fire festival that marks the astrological day of the summer solstice, which occurs on or around June 21, when the sun enters the sign of Cancer, the crab. Cancer is the only astrological sign that is associated with the moon. If you combine that lunar influence with the ultimate strength of the sun, you have quite the magickal wallop.

The day of the summer solstice has the longest daylight hours and the shortest nighttime hours of the year. As the sun reaches its highest position in the sky, we are at the climax of the sun’s power. This is the greatest day of the sun’s magick, even though it is bittersweet— for as soon as the day after the summer solstice, the sun’s power gradually begins to decline, with nighttime hours slowly and inexorably increasing. After today, we are in the dark half of the Wheel of the Year, which may seem confusing, but truly the daylight hours are decreasing now, and the sun will start to reach its zenith at a lower point in the sky from now until December and the winter solstice.

The sabbat of Midsummer is a potent and magickal date. This is a great time for fire magick, bonfires, garden witchery, herbal and green magicks, and the best night of the year to commune with the elemental kingdom and the faeries.

This is a time of celebration in nature: everything is green and growing. Nature is celebrating her achievement!

Fire festivals and fireworks are complementary; it all goes with that theme of fire magick for summer. At this time of year, your spellworking themes may include asking for the blessing and assistance of the faeries or working green magick with the garden. Prosperity, health, and abundance spells are appropriate at this point in time as well, since the light is at its peak and all of nature is at its most lush, vibrant, and green.

If you like to work with the more traditional fire theme of this sabbat, consider building a small ritual fire in your outdoor fire pit or chiminea. Bonfires on Midsummer have been lit by people from all over the world, from many magickal customs, for centuries. The bonfires were classically lit at sundown on Midsummer’s Eve. So set up your fire and get ready to go! If you like, you can toss a few herbs or oak leaves into the flames as an offering to the Old Gods.

If you are unable to safely have an outdoor fire, then light several bright yellow candles and group them together inside of a cauldron, and enjoy the effect that several flickering flames make inside of that cauldron. Another idea that I started with my coven years ago was to pass out sparklers; after our rituals are complete, we light up the sparklers and dance around the gardens with the lightning bugs. When the sparklers are finished, we drop them into a bucket of water. Celebrate the summer solstice and put your own personal spin on things!
 

Source

Seasons of Witchery: Celebrating the Sabbats with the Garden Witch
Ellen Dugan

The Witches Correspondences for June 20, Litha

Purpose Rededication to the Lord and Lady, beginning of the harvest, honoring the Sun God,honoring the pregnant Goddess

Dynamics/Meaning Crowning of the Sun God, death of the Oak King, assumption of the Holly King,end the ordeal of the Green Man

Tools, Symbols & Decorations

The sun, oak, birch & fir branches, sun flowers, lilies, red/maize/yellow or gold flower, love amulets, seashells, summer fruits & flowers, feather/flower door wreath, sun wheel, fire, circles of stone, sun dials and swords/blades, bird feathers, Witches’ ladder.

Colors Blue, green, gold, yellow and red.

Customs Bonfires, processions, all night vigil, singing, feasting, celebrating with others, cutting divining rods, dowsing rods & wands, herb gathering, handfastings, weddings, Druidic gathering of mistletoe in oak groves, need fires, leaping between two fires, mistletoe (without berries, use as a protection amulet), women walking naked through gardens to ensure continued fertility, enjoying the seasonal fruits & vegetables, honor the Mother’s fullness, richness and abundance, put garlands of St. John’s Wort placed over doors/ windows & a sprig in the car for protection.

Goddesses Mother Earth, Mother Nature, Venus, Aphrodite, Yemaya, Astarte, Freya, Hathor, Ishtar, all Goddesses of love, passion, beauty and the Sea, and Pregnant, lusty Goddesses, Green Forest Mother; Great One of the Stars, Goddess of the Wells

Gods Father Sun/Sky, Oak King, Holly King, Arthur, Gods at peak power and strength.

Animals/Mythical Beings Wren, robin, horses, cattle, satyrs, faeries, firebird, dragon, thunderbird

Gemstones Lapis lazuli, diamond, tiger’s eye, all green gemstones, especially emerald and jade

Herbs Anise, mugwort, chamomile, rose, wild rose, oak blossoms, lily, cinquefoil, lavender, fennel, elder, mistletoe, hemp, thyme, larkspur, nettle, wisteria, vervain ( verbena), St. John’s wort, heartsease, rue, fern, wormwood, pine, heather, yarrow,oak & holly trees

Incense/Oil Heliotrope, saffron, orange, frankincense & myrrh, wisteria, cinnamon, mint, rose, lemon, lavender, sandalwood, pine

Rituals/Magicks Nature spirit/fey communion, planet healing, divination, love & protection magicks. The battle between Oak King, God of the waxing year & Holly King, God of the waning year (can be a ritual play), or act out scenes from the Bard’s (an incarnation of Merlin)“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, rededication of faith, rites of inspiration.

Foods Honey, fresh vegetables, lemons, oranges, summer fruits, summer squash, pumpernickel bread, ale, carrot drinks, mead.