Summer solstice 2023: rituals for the night of San Juan

The celebrations are an unconscious way that we have to make friends with the cycles: parties like the Summer Solstice –the verbena de San Juan in some areas– are a way of celebrate the wheel of life, says Anna Solyom.

In ancient cultures around the world, the summer solstice represents renewal and the beginning of a new life cycle and it has been a special moment of celebration through magic and rituals of gratitude to the abundance of nature and the light of the sun. Flowing with nature and its cycles is key to living with balance and vitality. These summer solstice rituals will help you reconnect with her and her life forces.

When is the summer solstice in 2023

The summer solstice of 2023 takes place on Wednesday June 21 around 5:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time and marks the moment when summer begins in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, the winter solstice occurs on the same day, so autumn is said goodbye to make way for the winter season.

The summer solstice is the time of the year when the day is longest and the night shortest. And it is that, when the summer solstice occurs in the northern hemisphere, the North Pole is more inclined towards the Sun, while the South Pole is at its furthest point from the great star.

Why and how to celebrate the solstice

The sun and the fertile energy are at their peak and the plants are more full of vitality and totally renewed. It’s a day for celebrate a new beginning and thank both the Sun and the Earth: to thank the Sun for its vital force and illumination and Mother Earth for her love, fertility, capacity for renewal, sustenance and abundance.

The Sun and the Earth, together, create a perfect synergy that provides us with everything we need to grow, live and evolve. Through celebrations and rituals, we express gratitude for these gifts.

Symbolism and spiritual meaning

In this vital moment in which the Earth is at its maximum splendorRadiating vitality, strength and abundance, all these energies are available to all beings that inhabit it.

Can feel all these energies flow through you taking a moment of silence and contemplation in nature, because everything that happens in the cosmos is being reflected in you at all levels of your being: in your physical, mental, energetic and spiritual body.

That is why there is something so magical about the summer solstice. is the pinnacle of outgoing and radiantof the expansion of consciousness, of joy, nourishment and renewal. It is a perfect moment to express ourselves with maximum coherence, manifesting and aligning what we want with what we express, so explore new beginnings and possibilities.

When we cannot perceive these wonderful vital forces of nature in us, we have disconnected from it. The rituals of celebration and gratitude to Mother Earth will reconnect us with her and give us a inexhaustible source of energy and vitalityabundance consciousness, more empathy and more happiness.

Traditional rituals related to the solstice

The ancient cultures they honored the cosmic cycles and the fertile energy of nature, because they knew that their survival depended on harmonizing with the seasons and they celebrated the summer solstice with rituals to bring abundant harvests, give thanks for the light and keep evil away.

The Greeks dedicated the solstice to their goddess of the hearth, Hestiaand the Romans to Vesta already June, the goddess of childbirth and fertility. The ancient Egyptians celebrated it by honoring the sun god Ra.

Celts and pagan traditions celebrated the litha nightwhich means “fire”, honoring the Sun through celebrations in which they sang and danced around bonfires to increase the growing season and bring a good harvest in autumn. Then they took purifying baths and they did water cures in fountains, waterfalls and rivers. The element “water” symbolizes rebirth and gives rise to a new beginning.

Rituals for the night of San Juan

Our culture celebrates it with the San Juans night, which originally, in pre-Christian times, was celebrated on June 21. The celebration begins with the collection of flowers and magical herbs to thank the fertile energy of the Earth and ends with dances and jumping over the fire to purify and regenerate the spirit.

These ideas can help you when preparing your rituals for the summer solstice. Take note:

The ideal time for your solstice celebration

The energy of the solstice is present from the 21st to the 24th of June. Find the ideal moment and the ideal environment and company.

Perhaps you want to celebrate the solstice with friends, family or in a circle with more beings, or perhaps you prefer to do a more intimate and reserved ritual. You can also do both on two different nights.

Feel it honestly, creating a space of harmony and well-being and celebrate it as you like, listening to your heart. It is a very transformative moment.

Connect with nature and spend time outdoors

The day of the summer solstice, or the day you intend to celebrate it, connect with nature with your favorite outdoor activity.

Take off your shoes, hug a tree, sow your summer seeds, collect flowers and plants for your macerates and home remedies, make a flower crown, walk on the beach, bathe in a forest or hike in the mountains.

Delight in the beauty that surrounds you and the power of full sun.

greet the sun

Start your day with a sun salutation yoga practice. You can look at the sun during the first seconds of its rise and be thankful for so much vitality, light and life.

Clean and purify your house (and your mind)

This is the ideal time to clean up. Take advantage of it and clean the house and get rid of all things, material and mental, that you will no longer use in the new cycle that begins right now.

Help yourself with purifying plants such as sage or palo santo, or purifying essential oils such as rosemary, lemongrass, tea tree, juniper, lemon, myrtle and myrrh.

cook the rainbow

Cook inspired by what nature now offers, with lots of love and color. Take advantage of all this abundance that nature offers us at this time and incorporates all the colors of the rainbow on your plates through flowers, fruits and vegetables.

Make flower water such as elderberry or roses.

celebrate the sun, earth and summer

The solstice invites us to show our gratitude to the light of the sun, the earth and the summer. Start your summer sostice ritual with this thank you.

You can do it in as many ways as you can think of: singing, dancing, drumming, reciting a poem, writing, meditating, or whatever your heart asks.

Look for a place where fire and water can be present. If you are indoors, it will help to have a candle and a bowl of water.

Don’t miss the fire

The fire element is vital in this ritual. Use the fire to burn and dismiss everything you no longer need: material things and also beliefs, fears and situations that you want to eliminate.

write it down on a piece of paper and then burn it visualizing the closure of that stage.

Project your dreams and set the intention to achieve them

Create an intention with an action to improve your life and bring light, love and abundance into your life and the world. The desires and intentions created between June 20 and 24 are the ones that have the most strength to manifest.

It is also a good time to create a journal with your thoughts, feelings, intentions, thanks.

The moment invites new beginnings.

charge your crystals

The day of the solstice and up to three days after, are the most powerful moments to charge your quartz (white quartz or rose quartz) or other crystals and also to meditate.

Create your sacred space

Create an altar or a mandala with seasonal flowers and fruits, leaves, twigs, acorns, dried pine cones, quartz, candles and other elements of nature. symbolizing the circle of life, the connection with the cosmos, purification and renewal.

Use seasonal flowers and herbs such as calendula, rose, jasmine, chamomile, mugwort, honeysuckle, thyme, yarrow, or St. John’s wort.

Sage removes anger and bad energy. It also offers strength, wisdom and clarity on the path towards your intentions.

Light the candles from the altar or from the mandala. Sit at your altar or in the mandala circle and light a candle for yourself as well, symbolizing your light.

Holy water to close your ritual

A bath in the sea or a bath at home with sea salt is the best way to close the ritual and take away everything released with the purification of fire. The water element will regenerate you and prepare you to start the new cycle.

Ritual for the night of the summer solstice

Here is an example of a specific ritual for the night of the solstice that includes many of the elements previously proposed for your rituals.

What do you need

1 candlepreferably yellow or orange1 bowl and 1 jug with vitalized water in the sun, that is, with water that has been receiving the sun’s rays since it left on the 21st. You can leave it sunny and calm until the 24th.1 glass1 pencil1 paper Purifying herbs or essential oils

How to do the ritual

Create your sacred space and sit comfortably in front of it or in the circle with your friends surrounding the bonfire or the mandala and take your crystals, essential oils, pencil, paper, a candle, a bowl of water, and other items you choose for your ritual. Light your candle.Close your eyes, relax your body and watch your breath.feel the weight of your pelvis rooting in the ground and receiving the fertile energy of the earth. Thank the sun and the earth for so much light, abundance and fertility. Breath deeply. Review your goals: what things do you want to attract into your life, what habits do you want to change, what version of yourself do you want to achieve for the new cycle, what and who should you fire, forgive, etc. open your eyes and write on paper everything you no longer need, that has not served you or that does not make you feel good. It includes habits, fears, memories, thoughts, emotions, situations and relationships. Burn the paper in the bonfire or with the candle along with some of these herbs: Hypericum (Grass of San Juan), sagebrush, lavender, rosemary, rue either yarrow. close your eyes againbreathe and feel the cleanliness and space that has been generated in you to receive the abundance of the earth and the manifestation of your new intentions. Create your intention or change What do you want in your life or in your project? You must specify and feel and visualize that it is already happening at this moment and feel it with joy, gratitude and love. Ask for the qualities and conditions necessary for this change to happen. Take your time. Let the power of the sun and the earth penetrate all your cells. Write in your journal if you need to. Breath deeply. Straighten your legs and stand up very slowly and go bathe in the sea or the river if you are there close or pass water from the bowl over your body as if…