The Longest Day of the Year
A ritual.
I know it’s been a minute since I’ve sent out a newsletter—I’ve been dealing with some intense life stuff. I’m writing about it, but it’s not quite ready to put out in the world. Maybe next week.
Instead, in honor of tomorrow’s longest day of the year (here in the northern hemisphere at least), I’ll give you…
A ritual for the summer solstice.
In the light of the day:
Stand barefoot in the grass. Feel the sun warm your skin.
Reflect on the past six months.
How have you grown since the winter solstice? Acknowledge your accomplishments. Thank yourself for showing up.
What are you holding on to that no longer serves you? Prepare to let it go.
Gather some sticks and grasses and fashion them into a small humanoid effigy—a wicker man.
Under the setting sun:
Light an oakwood fire. Toss in a few sprigs of mugwort and lavender.
Hold your wicker man. Infuse it with the energy of everything you need to release. Really concentrate on this part. Gather up all of this old, stagnant energy. Push it out of your body and into the body of the wicker man. Get every last bit.
Throw the wicker man into the fire. As it burns, imagine all the things you’ve released floating in smoke up into the sky.
Put out the fire.
If you’re in the mood to freak yourself out, do the above while listening to these guys, then watch a solstice double feature of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man and Ari Aster’s Midsommar before going to sleep.
Let me know how the ritual goes and post some pics of your wicker men in the comments if you like.
Happy solstice.
Until next time,
Tara