A Ceremony for Summer Solstice

Everyday Rituals & Celebrations

Invited recently to create a ceremony for our upcoming summer *solstice gathering (*on Sunday, June 21 at 12:39 pm EDT this year), I realized this was an opportunity to engage differently with the energies of solstice.

It feels as though authentic change is beginning to happen now that we are embodying more of whom we choose to be, liberated from those aspects of our lives that no longer serve who we are, and who we are becoming. Perhaps it’s happening so intensely as a cultural imperative, or a natural evolution of the species, but we are certainly learning to embody more of our potential, and as we surrender to the process, we are learning new tools for navigating this new emerging collective landscape. Because the energies of late feel very different, I would like to engage with them differently too. So rather than participate in a solstice ceremony, I was curious to know if we could merge more profoundly with solstice itself.

Solstice is a celebration of light, of manifestation, of potential, of taking form, of dreams made manifest – life in full radiant flush. What better time then to explore working with the energies of manifestation, and focus on ‘being’ the best possible version of ‘our’ self?

One evening a new guest arrived. Like a manifestation of Sariswati, the Hindu goddess of wisdom, she sat there in the kitchen, radiant and smiling, handing me organic dark chocolate bark she’d brought with her. We spoke about manifesting, and working with the present energies. The big question for her was how to merge with, and become, ‘love’; to be in the world experiencing and manifesting unconditional ecstatic love. That is the question, the answer to it is the answer to all questions.

The goddess and I considered whether it’s possible to exist in such a state of radiant inhale, ever-expanding in light and love. The fact that we can imagine it means it is within the realm of possibility; our greatest creative tool is our imagination. We were describing nirvana, christ or krishna consciousness – the bliss that all cultures and human hearts seek. So we then considered the barriers to unconditional love, which are many and mostly related to our culture’s fears. We discussed how, as a species, we are inching towards that state of divine consciousness, in which anything that is not love can be transformed. Could we attain this state without being in love? To address this question, I shared a lesson learned on a dating site years ago. I was engaged in a delicious back and forth dialogue with someone who lived far away, and was feeling the ‘possibility of love’ to such a degree that I radiated love. People knew something was going on because I was “glowing”. I never did meet the person, but I had manifested the feeling of being in love all on my own. I was stunned by the discovery that it is not necessary for someone outside of me to make me feel that radiant glow. My culture had me believe that love required someone else loving me back, but in fact the rapture was, and is, within me: it is within each breath, and I can access it at will. But of course having that ‘aha’ moment did not mean that my life was then committed to feeling blissful 24/7. However it is important information for my imagination to have so that it can bust up all those beliefs that make me forget “I AM LOVE”.

So in light of that lovely late-night kitchen conversation, I think the difference this solstice will offer is this: when we invite the energies into the circle we will also invite them into our bodies, and to weave amongst us. For example, once we have called in the east and invited that essence into our physical form, we can then speak through the east, saying: “I AM the east. I am new beginnings, I am the forgiveness that holds no judgment, that looks fresh upon each moment. I am the energetic embodiment of an unlimited number of subatomic particles with which to create my day. I am the force of the universe that cycles and spirals, that inhabits change, that moves between the worlds embodying love in all its forms. I am the new day. I am all things. I am no thing. I am eternal. I am new. I am eternally New. I am the new dawn. I am the east. Welcome east. Thank you for your inspiration and fuel.”

Continuing, we will next call in the south, and each direction after that. But rather than just invite them to our ceremony, we will breathe them in, so they are no longer separate, but manifest within each of us. By consciously grounding the potential surrounding us, we can more easily become the best we can be, moving through the solstice and embodying ‘bliss’ during each of the days ahead.

I think we have an opportunity to change how we operate in the world. There is a profound difference between respecting and knowing, as well as a profound shift toward embodying the understanding of our imagination. To be the change we seek, we have to channel it, become it, end our separation from it, and live from our hearts as an embodiment of that changed energy. If we want to live in a loving world, we can choose to embody love, and discipline ourselves to allow nothing else. Have fun with that!

Email Kim at: spirit@algonquintea.com