The summer solstice is almost here. June 21st. This day marks a tipping point. It’s the longest day, shortest night of the year. It’s a powerful time of year where you get to decide what you’d like to keep bringing into the light, and what you’d like to give away to the darkness.
Summer is my favorite time of year. I love the heat, the long days, warm nights. I love feeling grass between my toes and dirt under my fingernails. I love bathing in lakes and soaking up sunlight. I especially love summers in Minnesota.
Coming out of one of the coldest winters on record, this summer the sun feels extra sweet. I find myself turning my face towards the sky on hot days, letting all the sun’s kissing rain in through my eyelids. I can’t drink her in fast enough. I can’t get the green out of my head. The trees seem somehow louder this year. They feel like women in hiding who have hemmed their skirts a little higher in a proud protest. Each flower looks to me like a newborn baby. I crouch down as if seeing a creature for the first time ever. I touch it’s soft head, it wiggles with joy as if it’s just discovered it’s own legs.
The energy of summer is rich. It is full of life in a way that begs indulgence. It wants you to slurp up every last drop. Summer Solstice has always felt like a tipping point. It’s subtle. Here in Minnesota, summer has only just begun. But this day marks the point when the days begin to shorten. Longer night ever so slowly creep in bit by bit at a pace no one notices until October.
It’s a time of soft remembrance. What light moves in you? What do you leave out on the windowsill for morning sun to kiss? What do you want seen? Heard? Forgiven? Loved? How can you bring more light to what is joyfully awake in you?
And what will you purposely forget to give attention this season? What will you rightfully ease back from so that other things may bloom? What momentum or business can you let fall back until winter? What can you give to the darkness in order to enjoy this season of light? What feels most natural and easy? Do that.
My favorite way to invite in light and give to the dark is through intention or ceremony. Ceremony can be a profoundly powerful exercise. For me, it brings me out of my head, and into my heart.
A ceremony you might try this Solstice is of a medicine circle. This is a beautiful way to open up to the natural forces of nature and align with what you’d like to welcome in, and what you’d like to release. It’s a great way to start reading the signs of Spirit around you. It allows your ego to move out of the way in order for Spirit to move in. We don’t always know what the best thing for us is. We don’t always know what will truly make us happy. A medicine circle helps you open to the great mystery of life and joy in welcoming that mystery in.
So here’s how you do it: Go outside (of course!). You’ll want to create this circle in the physical realm. You need to make a circle on the earth. You can make it with sticks, rocks, whatever. Just make sure it’s somewhat heavy so that it won’t blow away. Ideally, you’re leaving it out on the ground for at least a few days. You can make it in your yard, someone else’s yard, a park, wherever. Again, it’s nice to create it somewhere that it can stay put for a few days without disturbance, but you do what you can with what you have.
Once you’ve created the circle (or while you are creating it), you’ll want to somehow open that circle up to the forces larger than you. You want to connect this circle to Spirit. Personally, I call in any and all guides interested in my highest good. I also open to the directions by calling in the energies of each direction:
South: the child, passion, healing, shedding old skins like a snake
West: women, emotions, facing fears/darkness, real transformation
North: the elders, trust, opening to guidance
East: men, the mind, new beginnings, having a higher vision of your life
Earth: your connection to all things, the ground below
Sky: your connection to the sun, moon, stars, galaxies, the infinite
It doesn’t matter so much how you do this piece, as long as you are connecting the circle to the unseen realm and to your own connection to Spirit.
After that, you get to play. The energy in the center of the circle is sacred. It is supercharged. It’s like a microcosm for your life. Whatever you put in the center of this circle will be transformed, healed, uplifted, burned up, manifested, etc. So now you get to put stuff in! Think of a situation, feeling, person, etc in your life that you’d like to see changed somehow. Maybe you’d like more clarity on your career path. Choose an object (a piece of wood, a piece of food, a flower, anything) to represent this situation or wish. You can infuse that object with your intention or just with the energy of that situation. Just your intention is enough. Then place the object in the circle to see what happens.
I like to leave my medicine circles open and working for at least a few days. You can keep adding objects each day. Visit it each day or even a few times a day to see how things have shifted. Has anything disappeared? Is there anything new in the circle that you didn’t put there? Read the signs. This is the fun part and open to interpretation.
Have fun! And I would love to hear how your medicine circle journey goes if you give it a shot. I’ll be creating one and leaving it open for the full weekend over the Solstice. I hope you’ll join me! If you’d like extra guidance on opening to the directions, the sacred or reading the signs that pop up, consider booking a session with me to see how you can make the most of this powerful season.
Best Wishes for a Joyful Solstice,
Nicole
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