MIDSUMMER - LITHA
SUMMER SOLSTICE (JUNE 20 - 23)
This time of the year is marked as the longest day of the year in which Light is triumphant over darkness. It is the time when the Sun (Oak King) embraces the fertile and a lush green Earth (Maiden Goddess) as the Queen of Summer. This can be seen in:
Lady's Bransles (Queen of Summer Queen of Darkness) Chant -
She Sings In Leafy Bowers
She Cuts The Cane And Gathers The Grain
When Fruits Of Fall Surround Her
Her Bones Grow Old In Wintry Cold
She Wraps Her Cloak Around Her
Oh She Will Bring The Buds In The Spring
And Laugh Among The Flowers
In Summer's Heat Her Kisses Are Sweet
The Lord of Light seen as the Oak Kinghas has achhieved the height of his power and vitality, knowing he will eventually weaken and be overcome by the Dark Lord (Holly King) who will take his place. This is seen as the acceptance of the changes of the seasons through the movement and passing of the Sun, as the turning of the "Wheel Of Life". This is seen in the Goddesses as she dances her the magnificent dance of life providing abundance and health as seen in the wonderful harvests and abundant births both human and animals.
Midsummer, as are the Eqinoxes and the Winter Solstice, is considered a lesser Sabbat. Pagans greet and honor the Sun God at his peak in the annual cycle. He is at his mightiest and brightest, being invoked to banish darkness from life.and celebrated to rejoice in the year's bountiful abundance!
The Oak King and the Holly King do battle as from Midwinter the Oak King ruled, but knows he will eventually fall in battle to his brother the Holly King whom as the God of the Waning Year will rule for the next six months. The Oak King has been sacrificed in many forms in the past and seen in each culture, symbollicly sacrificing him as been burned (appropriate), blinded by mistletoe, and eventually sacrificed (human) in being crucified. The Oak King will withdraw to the Corona Borealis, The Celtic Caer Arianrhod, to turn the wheels of the heavens so that the stars will not dip below the earths horizon - waiting for his inevitable re-birth. The Norse God Balder figures prominently in this as he was slain by a branch of mistletoe and burned in a great fire.
The Goddess, sensuous and fertile, greets and makes love to her consort the Sun God. She precides over his death, the enthronement of his dark twin, seen in:
The Sun Return Chant -
Long Night
Dark Of The Sun
Cold Wind The Year Is Done -- Long Night
We Face The Dark
Cold Wind You Fan The Spark -- Sun Light
The Rising Sun
Dark Wind Your Work Is Done -
Oh Sun Return Turning Wheel
Hope Reborn!
Oh Sun Return
Turning Wheel Hope Reborn!
Midsummer is both a fire and water festival where Fire represents the God and water the Goddess. In some areas of Europe Midsummer is incorrectly called Beltane due to "Bonfire Night" having been moved by St. Patrick from Midsummer to St. John's Eve - to deter the pagan celebration of Beltane on May Eve!. "Bealtaine" is Irish for May and Midsummer is a principal fire festival through-out Europe, the Arab States, and Bebers of North Africa. It is a lesser festival and was later to develop in the Celtic countries, as they were less "solar" oriented and influenced.
Fire is used here in many forms. The most common is of rolling a flaming wheel, a powerful solar symbol, down a hill or through main sstreet of a town, imitating the sun's course in the sky. In the It is said as in the Vale of Glamorgan that extinguishing of the firee before reaching bottom of the hill it will be a bad harvest. Whereas the lasting strength of the fire means abundant crops for the year.
Bonfire are jumped for luck as done on Beltane, it is said that the higher the jump the higher that crops at harvest. Childless couples jump the fire to obtain offspring and in young maidens jump in order to attain a husband.
Rituals where women walk nude through fields to ensure a plentiful harvest or run and jump with broomsticks, the height indicating the height of the crops at harvest time. Mistletoe is collected and used as medicine to bring about visions and for healing wounds, an antidote to poison, and curing epilepsy and falling sickness. Mistletoe is also used on this day for protection from fire, lightning, nightmares and to bring luck.
The death that is birth theme is used in many countries. In Aachen a man clad in pea-straw acts so cleverly that the children actually believe he is being burned when he is set on fire. At Jumieges in Normandy a man clad in green is chased by his comades and thrown into the fires. The titular King of Aix, who reigned for a year and is first to dance round the Midsummer bonfires, may have in days of old had the duty of serving as fuel for the fires. In Wolfeck, Austria, on Midsummer day, a boy in green goes from house to house to collect wood for the bonfire. In parts of Barvaria he is led on a rope from house to house. At Moorsheim in Wurtemberg, the fire lasts for 14 days, ending on the second Sunday after Midsummer day.
In times of old on Midsummer the Druids built huge Wicker Men were used for the sacrifice of criminals, animals and others to be burned alive inside the huge frames. Symbollically, small wicker figurines are burned in fires on Midsummer.
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