Hubby and I will be celebrating Litha on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. We'll get up early (but not early enough to greet the dawn), then we'll spend the entire day walking the path and enjoying the light. Because even if it rains, there's still the light.
I've never really understood why people contemplate darkness on the longest day of the year, and dwell on the light on the longest night of the year. It's like living your life in the future rather than in the now. For me, it makes me feel all out of balance. A couple of years ago, taking some advice from a book, I created an elaborate observance for Winter Solstice that involved a round candle encrusted with gold glitter, invocations of the sun, with music and a meditation asking for the sun to light the dark corners of my life. I was to shine light on things I wanted to change. Which resulted in all sorts of emotions being dredged up and causing me to feel very unsettled and disturbed for the following week. I realised later, what I personally needed was to revel in the quiet darkness, to rest and enjoy the fallow peace of that time of year. And at Summer Solstice, it's my time to revel in light and life. That's how I work, and that's how my spirit works. The prevailing energy is all to me. I don't like worrying with the 'yin yang' of the sabbats, and I don't like this constant New Age/neopagan obsession with using each sabbat as a time to 'reassess' myself and 'set goals'. How about just feeling what's there and loving it? What's wrong with that? And so I pray,
Blaze on me, O Sun,
blaze down.
Burn through me,
quicken me.
Warm me from scalp to soles,
Illuminate me.
Glint and glimmer,
tear my eyes,
pink my skin,
swarm and drone and ripen,
and I will wallow in your warmth,
I will squeeze every drop of your sweet juice,
and drowse on the hillside.
And here is my tarot draw for Litha. I decided the natural deck choice is Sol Invictus--the Invincible Sun. For this draw, I removed the entire suit of Wands and major arcana19 The Sun and used only those cards.
Tell me about the Fire in my life...
Zenith Spread
.......2........
1.............3
1. What has been
2. What is
3. What is coming
In keeping with my need to stay in the now, begin the reading with card 2, then look at past and future.
1. 7 of Wands, Cuchullain
2. 4 of Wands, Agni
3. Quester of Wands, Anansi
 |
| Sol Invictus Tarot |
('Om. Let us meditate on the great God of Fire in the form of blazing flames. May that radiant Agni Deva inspire and illumine our mind and understanding.')
The past is represented by 7 of Wands, Cuchullain, the legendary warrior of Ireland. True again. It has been a tough year, I have been through a lot of stress and changes and many challenges. There were time I felt as if my lifeblood were draining away as many spears were coming to finish me off. But guess what. They didn't. :)
The future, Quester of Wands, is Anansi, the West African spider god. Traditionally the Knight of Wands, this card suggests that my future holds renewed energy and action. It shows enthusiasm and living in the moment--and that is exactly what I want. Dance, spider, dance!
What a great reading, huzzah!
Have a blessed Litha.
Great post Carla! I especially enjoyed the part about 'revelling in the quiet darkness' during winter and 'revelling in light and life' during the summer. No matter what the sabbats represent or how others choose to celebrate them I think it's important to find your own rhythm, and to just go with it. Spring and summer always feel more energetic to me whereas late autumn/winter I feel is time for me to wind down :)
ReplyDeleteLove this spread. It's very on-point with some things I'm working with. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Carla,
ReplyDeleteI really get what you say about being with what is, and I loved your poem!
Great spread, too, and so spot on :)
Kerry
I enjoyed your post, and completely hear you on relaxing into the holidays and not allowing other enthusiasm to dictate our actions. Also, the hindu prayer is so lovely. One of my favorites, too ... particularly when chanted by my spiritual mother. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Carla,
ReplyDeleteI'm not usually a fan of separating out bits of a deck - I think that a water card showing up in a fire position shows something interesting, too. Still, I love how you did it here, and it certainly gave a great reading!
Hope you guys had a lovely time in Pembrokeshire, and that you enjoyed the solstice - I got to see some sun as I started the day in Spain ;D
Cxx
That's a very interesting comment about thinking about light at midwinter and thinking about darkness at midsummer.....
ReplyDeleteIt's a really lovely prayer that you've chosen for this....and now I MUST visit Pembrokeshire!
Ali x
Lovely blog. Living in the 'now' is so important. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDelete