MY LITHA CEREMONY

BLESSED BE BROTHERS!

HERE IS A BELATED POSTING ON the Litha/Summer Solstice ritual I did on December 21st. It was a special evening!

I have to quote my source

"Litha Ritual
of The Summer Solstice
Copyright © 2002 by Moonsongstress" which pointed me in the right direction.

Here is the ritual step by step.

STEP 1 - CHOOSE YOUR DEITIES!

I chose Apollo since summer solstice has everything to do with the cycle of the sun being at it's zenith!
I also chose Hestia , goddess of the hearth and home as she has a lot to do with the element of fire, and Apollo had a crush on her too! ; - >

Minor Deities I chose the Fairy Kind and Queen, Oberon and Titania featured in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights' Dream.

STEP 2 - SHOPPING!

Tools for the Ritual:

Soft yellow and orange altar cloths (you can use crepe paper)
Litha incense - a warm, sun-filled scent such as lavender (Apollo loves it) and Acacia Honey.
Golden God candle - (substituted to yellow for Apollo's sunshine - engraved Apollo's name on it in Greek)
Silver Goddess candle - (substituted to red for Hestia's homefires - engraved Hestia's name on it in Greek)



White altar candle

Quarter candles and corresponding stones ( I did not have corresponding stones but did as follows North (Earth) rose quartz and ivory, East (Air) a knife/sword and inscence, South (Fire) a branch of a tree representing wands and WEST (WATER) a goblet/glass of water.


Matches
Vase of summer flowers and flowering herbs (Had yellow hollyhocks)
Simple feast - biscuits and berries
A piece of newly completed creative work (my writing saved on a memory stick)
Fruit for the gods (apple for Hestia, plums for Apollo - two, one for each of his gay lovers ; ->)
Printed out pictures of each of the dieties (keep them a similar size not to evoke envy)
A yellow candle with a candleholder, a length of rope and bergamot essential oil for the sun spell.
A ramekin of salt to cast a pure circle.

STEP 3: PREPERATION i.e. WORK

- Cleanse and sweep the area and table/ altar.
- Lay out cloths.
-Figure out where is NORTH and set up quarter candles and stones symbolising the elements of the quarters.
- Engrave and place the god candle to the right back of the altar and the goddess candle to the left back. The vase of flowering herbs and summer flowers, the god's picture, and fruit add is placed around the God candle; the essential oils, goddess fruit and goddess pictures around the goddess candles.
- The white spririt and altar candle goes in between the god and goddess candle.
- The yellow candle, holder and bergamot oil are placed to the center at the bottom.
- The creative work is placed at the front of the altar.
- Place the salt items for the simple feast to one side.
- Take a shower or splash your face with water for purification.

STEP 4: THE RITUAL

-Sit quietly and meditate for a while, then ground and centre. I imagine shoot and roots connecting me to the Earth (like in the Avatar!)

-Wait, feel the Sun's kiss on your skin. After about 20 mins to an hour when you are calm you can begin the ritual.

-Circle the altar and cast a circle of purity with the salt. This will protect the altar, your ritual and only allow in good energy and gods you call upon.

-Start by lighting the quarter candles.

Start with North working clockwise.

The gods of the North, gods of Earth, we call on thee
join this ritual, lend us your support, bless these bodies present,
let us lay our foundations in your bounty,
Merry Meet

The gods of the East, gods of Air, we call on thee
join this ritual, lend us your wisdom, bless these minds present,
tell us the forward, let our words and thought be clear
Merry Meet

The gods of the South, gods of Fire, we call on thee
join this ritual, lend us your passion, burn us with your energy,
make us bold and brave to follow our intuition
Merry Meet

"The gods of the West, gods of Water, we call on thee
join this ritual, lend us your love, bless these hearts present,
bind us brothers together with strong imagination
Merry Meet"

- "The circle is cast. Let it be pure and serve us well!


- Light the goddess candle

"Gentle Hestia, we call on thee.
Goddess of the hearth and home, modesty and calm
let your fire burn, and spread into our hearts,
bless us this ritual, we welcome you here."

" We also welcome Titania, Fairy Queen, may you reign tonight and bless the earth"

-Light the god candle

"Dear Apollo, we call on thee.
God of light, your powers are at its peak,
come and find us, let your beauty enrich us.
protect this ritual, we praise you here."

" We also welcome Oberon, Fairy King, may you reign tonight and bless the earth"

- Light the spirit candle.

- Wait, feel the Sun's kiss on your skin. Say:

"Light, oh golden light
I feel your coming and know your going.
The time of your great shining is here
And in the fire of my spirit I nurture your flame.
I lie long and rest under the kisses of your rays
And know the fulfilment of
Fertility brought to fruition.
With the Earth I recline in joyful bounty and rejoice
To feel your light on my skin as she does.
Now to the life of all I offer all the life I have,
One to the other given and received
In a constant cycle of the wheel
Whose turning never ceases."

Wait, feel the Sun's kiss on your skin. Say:

"I come before you now in this time of your great fertility and bring my newly completed work as a symbol of my own. This work of my hand and mind is created in love and joy as your creatures are by you. I offer its beauty and completeness to you as a gift of life to life. May my fertile creativity be as constant as your own."

Wait, feel the Sun's kiss on your skin.

Sun Spell:

Taking the yellow candle, fix it into its holder and place them both before you on the altar.
Taking the bergamot oil, pour a little onto the tip of the middle finger of your projective hand.
With the oil, anoint the candle from the top to the middle and from the bottom to the middle. The whole of the candle should be anointed with no areas being missed or done twice.
Excess oil may be used to anoint your breastbone with a symbol that has meaning to you.

- Bless and charge the candle with golden sun energy. This may be done by first holding your hands above it and visualising a shining sphere of white light passing into it to drive out any negativity. When all the negativity is gone visualise a shining sphere of yellow sunlight streaming into the candle bringing with it the life-giving rays of sun energy. Fill the candle to the brim with the light of the sun. Say: Behold, I bless and purify this candle, charging it to be an agent of the light that lights life.

- Lift the candle high into the air and then replace it on the altar. Say:

"I fill this place with the life-giving rays of the Sun. As this candle burns all darkness of spirit is banished The cleansing heat of the sun chases it out and away."

- Light the candle.
- Visualise the cleansing heat of yellow sunlight filling the whole of your space.
Warmth and creativity are filling the air and the scent of summer flowers wafts through bringing life and the spacious of peace in its wake.
Explore the feelings this evokes in you.

Tie a knot around the candle to bind the spell. Say:

"I bind this spell by power of the three, May it harm none and bring good to me."

After the ritual is ended the lit candle should be placed in a central part of your home and allowed to burn down without being extinguished.

Proceed with the simple feast to ground yourself.

The End of the Ritual:

Address the Hestia with thanks, love and dedication. Say:

"May I listen for and hear you,
May I look for and see you,
May I reach for and touch you,
May I wait for and find you.
Blessed Be"

- Blow out Hestia's candle.

- Repeat the same for Apollo.

- Thank the spirits and blow out the white center candle.
- Then bid farewell to the quarters
"Gods of the North, Gods of Earth,
we thank the for thee presence
and send thee on they way.
Blessed Be" etc.

Open the circle. The circle is open but never broken.

The ritual is ended.

BLESSED BE!

What is Litha?

Merry Meet Brothers,

Litha (MidSummer/ Summer Solstice) is coming up on Dec 21st for the Southern Hemisphere and I thought I'd post an introduction on Litha. I got this write up from http://twopagans.com/holiday/Litha.html, I will put in my own bits & pieces in between. I hope you enjoy, especially the beautiful narration of the love Apollo had for Hyacinth, his boy lover.

History of Litha (MidSummer)

Also known as Summer Solstice, Litha, Alban Hefin, Sun Blessing, Gathering Day, Feill-Sheathain, Whit Sunday, Whitsuntide, Vestalia, Thing-tide, St. John's Day

In addition to the four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year, there are four lesser holidays as well: the two solstices, and the two equinoxes. In folklore, these are referred to as the four 'quarter-days' of the year, and modern Witches call them the four 'Lesser Sabbats', or the four 'Low Holidays'. The Summer Solstice is one of them.

Litha is usually celebrated on June 21st (Northern Hemisphere) or December 21st (in the South for us Cape Townians). According to the old folklore calendar, Summer begins on Beltane (October 31st) and ends on Lughnassadh (February 2nd), with the Summer Solstice midway between the two, marking MID-Summer. This makes more logical sense than suggesting that Summer begins on the day when the Sun's power begins to wane and the days grow shorter. The most common other names for this holiday are the Summer Solstice or Midsummer, and it celebrates the arrival of Summer, when the hours of daylight are longest. The Sun is now at the highest point before beginning its slide into darkness.

Humanity has been celebrating Litha and the triumph of light since ancient times. On the Wheel of the Year Litha lies directly across from Yule, the shortest day of the calendar year, that cold and dark winter turning when days begin to lengthen and humanity looks wistfully toward warmth, sunlight and growing things. Although Litha and Yule are low holidays or lesser sabats in the ancient parlance, they are celebrated with more revel and merriment than any other day on the wheel except perhaps Samhain (my own favourite). The joyous rituals of Litha celebrate the verdant Earth in high summer, abundance, fertility, and all the riches of Nature in full bloom. This is a madcap time of strong magic and empowerment, traditionally the time for handfasting or weddings and for communication with the spirits of Nature. At Litha, the veils between the worlds are thin; the portals between "the fields we know" and the worlds beyond stand open. This is an excellent time for rites of divination. So bring out the tarot cards, read those tea leaves and show me your palms!

In literature Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream comes to mind. It is a time when Fairies come out and may be seen at midnight in the forests and in fields, spreading magic and delight! But us human fairies do that the whole year long! ; - >

Those who celebrated Litha did so wearing garlands or crowns of flowers, and of course, their millinery always included the yellow blossoms of St. John's Wort. The Litha rites of the ancients were boisterous communal festivities with morris dancing, singing, storytelling, pageantry and feasting taking place by the village bonfire and torch lit processions through the villages after dark. People believed that the Litha fires possessed great power, and that prosperity and protection for oneself and one's clan could be earned merely by jumping over the Litha bonfire. It was also common for courting couples joined hands and jump over the embers of the Litha fire three times to ensure a long and happy marriage, financial prosperity and many children. Even the charred embers from the Litha bonfire possessed protective powers - they were charms against injury and bad weather in harvest time, and embers were commonly placed around fields of grain and orchards to protect the crops and ensure an abundant reaping. Other Litha customs included carrying an ember of the Litha fire home and placing it on one's hearth and decking one's home with birch, fennel, St. John's Wort, orpin, and white lilies for blessing and protection.

The Litha Sabbat is a time to celebrate both work and leisure & childlike play. It is a time to celebrate the ending of the waxing year and the beginning of the waning year, in preparation for the harvest to come. Midsummer is a time to absorb the Sun's warming rays and it is another fertility Sabbat, not only for humans, but also for crops and animals. Wiccans consider the Goddess to be heavy with pregnancy from the mating at Beltane - honor is given to Her.
The Sun God Apollo is celebrated as the Sun is at its peak in the sky and we celebrate His approaching fatherhood - honor is also given to Him. The faeries abound at this time and it is customary to leave offerings - such as food or herbs - for them in the evening.


Although Litha may seem at first glance to be a masculine observance and one which focuses on Lugh, the day is also dedicated to the Goddess, and Her flowers are the white blossoms of the elder.

Blessed Be

Huge Green Phoenix