The Way of The Witch Newsletter | June: Celebrating Litha

Celebrating Litha

The Celebration of Litha takes place on the day of the summer solstice each year. This date changes due to the astrological calendar but usually takes place between the 19th and 22nd of June. There is some question as to where the solstice celebrations originated.  We know that ancient monuments such as Stonehenge are oriented to highlight the rising sun on the summer solstice and there has been other evidence as well that people of ancient times celebrated this event.  Gerald Gardener, the founder of modern wicca, believed the solar celebrations may be more recent additions to earth based practice possibly brought over from middle east tradition.

Regardless of where these traditions began, my experience has been that the energetic significance of this day is most certainly worth harnessing!  For me this is a day to celebrate power and potential.  To harness the energy of the sun and also to reach within and harness our own fire energy to infuse and grow our desires into their full potential.

Try lighting a fire on Litha and tossing in symbols of things that you intend to empower in your life.  For example, a red rose to symbolize your romantic relationships, a business card to symbolize your goals at work, a coin to symbolize your financial goals, an apple core to symbolize your health, a handful of sage to symbolize protection, a handful of mugwort to symbolize intuition and psychic abilities, and a sunflower to symbolize your own power, of course!

Sit with your fire or dance clockwise in a circle around it and let the essence of the energy you have created be infused in you, then consciously and purposefully send it out into the night. The entire universal consciousness is now being infused with your positive intentions and can collectively come together and support you by transforming your energetic creations onto the physical plane! Whenever I perform any ritual or intention I end by speaking the words “Always for my highest good and the highest good of all involved, in perfect love, so it is!” Try using these words or a similar phrase of your own and notice how it amplifies the energy of your intentions. You are a powerful and magical being, and when you consciously create, the universe responds!

Happy Litha!