Celebrating the Summer Solstice (Litha)

Litha sea witch ball and mini altar kit

The Summer Solstice marks the official start of summer in the northern hemisphere, and is the longest day of the year. As sea and water witches, we most often focus on the moon and how it affects the tides, but this celebration is all about solar energy - celebrating the sun, welcoming summer and its bounty, and drawing in the light. The seas are teeming with life now - juveniles born in the safety of tidal pools, coves, and mangroves are maturing and beginning to head to open water. Cetaceans, turtles, and fish are moving to their summer feeding grounds where plankton (or, if you're a predator, other fish) are abundant. And of course humans have taken their boats out of winter storage, and coastal areas are filled with brightly coloured boats, sails, fishermen, and people enjoying the summer sun along beaches and strands.

Although Litha is a neo-pagan sabbat, people have celebrated the summer solstice for millennia. In pre-Christian Europe, this day was marked with bonfires and celebrations to encourage the sun to help grow an abundant harvest. In ancient China, the solstice was marked with celebrations of a divine feminine energy known as "yin," and in ancient Egypt, the solstice marked the rise of the Nile, or the inundation.

In the modern world, pagans the world over still welcome the sun's energy and draw it down to help fuel an abundant harvest. The seeds we planted at Imbolc and Ostara are beginning to grow and will bear fruit as the summer goes on. This refers to both actual and metaphoric seeds. Not everyone is a gardener or farmer, but we can still harvest abundance in our mental, emotional, and spiritual lives - and manifest it in our physical lives as well.

So, how do we celebrate you ask? Well...

• Witch Crafting! If you're in Salem and you want to create a craft to honour the sun and welcome positive, joyful, and abundant energies into your home, consider joining us on the solstice for a special Summer Solstice Witch Ball Workshop! We'll be crafting a summer seas witch ball with intentions for an abundant harvest and bringing back the light - and you'll also receive a mini altar kit with a shell, gold spell candle, and a large piece of honey citrine for your summer altar.

• Light a Fire! Bonfires have long been staples of summer solstice rituals and a fire is a perfect way to keep the light shining even after the sun has begun to set. We know that not everyone lives somewhere where a bonfire is feasible or allowed, but if you have an outdoor firepit/chiminea, or even a fire-safe cauldron, you can gather herbs such as basil, calendula, St. John's wort, yarrow, rue, and chamomile, speak your intentions over them, and burn them in your fire. If you do this, please practise good fire safety, adhere to any fire restrictions in your area, and ensure that your fire, even a tiny one in your cauldron, is fully extinguished at the end of your ritual.

• Sunrise and Midday Meditations/Salutations at the Shore! Personally, I like to get to the shore when the sun is rising, get into the water, and practise a modified sunrise salutation on the solstice. Facing east, I connect with the ocean at my own sacred spot, wade out to waist deep waters, and greet the longest day from there. I'll often immerse myself in the summer water after, and I find this to be a beautiful way to wake up and draw in the sun's rising energy. You can also do this at your own sacred spot or beach under the midday sun, when the light is at it's strongest.

• Build Your Summer Altar and Charge Your Tools! We often talk about charging our ritual tools and crystals under the light of the full moon, but not as much when it comes to solar energy. The solstice is the perfect day to build your summer altar, and leave your tools and corresponding crystals out under the midday sun. Crystals to consider on your summer altar include sunstone, honey calcite, citrine, clear quartz, carnelian, and topaz. I also like to use larimar and blue aragonite to channel the energies of the summer seas, as well as their calming and joyful properties - perfect for this solstice. Other items for a sea or water witch's summer altar may include shells - particularly scallop, oyster, mussel, and surf clam (or corresponding summer shells from your own corner of the world), coral, flow or high tide solstice water to gather in the rising energy of summer; or, conversely, ebb tide solstice water to banish dark or negative energies and clear the way for the light. Finish it with gold or yellow spell candles which you can also burn into the night (do not leave unattended), especially if you can't light a fire outside.

• Consider setting up an outdoor altar on your property if you can as well - flowers, a crystal, and some herbs left on a flat rock or tree stump, or somewhere in your garden.

• Make a solstice offering at the shore to ask for abundance and light as the summer goes on. Please ensure that you do not leave anything other than natural elements (e.g., a raw crystal, dried herbs, or a petition on natural paper, written in either pencil or plant-only ink).

Whatever you choose to do on this year's solstice, may you have a blessed one and may the summer seas bring abundance to your shores. We would love to hear what you'll be doing (or did!) at this solstice. Until next time, fair winds and following seas!