I smudged my whole house and played the singing bowls. I had a little spoken piece prepared. I lit candles and burned incense. The Summer Solstice is the defeat of the light. The Holly King wins and the Oak King is defeated. The days will become shorter now, until the Winter Solstice when the light will be victorious again. I believe you call this “Christmas.” For now, the light declines.

I would have preferred to have a whole coven of witches to dance naked around a bonfire, but there were none, the only fire being my candles, the incense and the electrical fire of my computer. It was Litha, Lammas, the Feast of the First Fruits, the beginning of Summer. I spoke words, words of intention and blessing. The Moon was almost full and the energy was everywhere.

I felt the ancestors very close, perhaps because I was tuning myself in their direction, to the spirit world, the world of visions and portents. Sometimes I will dream of the ancestors, but mostly my awareness of them is in the waking world. I will see something that suddenly reminds me of one of them. I may hear the mourning dove, or find an old picture of one of them. The thin spaces grow even thinner and become numinous. For the most part, I just feel them.

My sense of my own power is sharp and clear. For now, I am The Magician with hand upraised drawing the creative fire of heaven down to this Earth. It may all fall apart tomorrow, but today I feel strong and surrounded by love.

It was nourishing to my soul. I slept like a baby.



Syd Weedon
6/21/2024