Happy Litha and Summer Solstice

Litha falls on the summer solstice. With the sun at it’s zenith, this is the longest day of the year. It is a celebration of the God and Goddess at the height of their power. They are the king and queen of the fertile lands and together they rule over the fertile, growing earth. Their mature love for each other ensures the success of the ripening crops. It marks the preparatory period before the harvest season at a time when the Holly King Takes over for the Oak King until Yuletide.

The Midsummer Moon is known as the Honey Moon (this is where honeymoon comes from) and was especially associated with Mead, the aphrodisiac wedding drink of the Beltane handfasters(trial marriages). It is seen as a time of passion and dreams when nature is at its most playful and all growing things flourish. It is a time for abundance and beauty, glow worms, fire flies and for the God and Goddess to display their treasures, the spear and the cauldron or blade and chalice.

Although Litha is a summertime festival, bale fires and bonfires are lit, fragrant herbs are cast into the flames to purge disease and heal the sick as the season moves towards a waning sun. This is also considered a time of sadness because it is considered the death of the light half of the year and we begin to spiral into the dark half of the year. Our move towards winter has begun. The word Solstice comes from the latin word sol(sun) and sister(to stand still).  This is because the sun appears rise and fall in the same spots for 3 consecutive days.  Then it starts it’s trek back the other way, depending on which solstice.

The Christian Church made this time St. John’s day, June 24th. Most people think that the church just made up that day to take away from the pagan holiday. Well, yes and no. In ancient Egypt, Horus was identified with the winter solstice (reborn sun) and Osiris was associated with the summer solstice (dying sun). Jesus is identified as Horus and John the Baptist is identified with Osiris. Again we can see that Christianity is ultimately Egyptian. Knowing this piece of occult knowledge should make this verse in the Bible make sense:

John answered and said … You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the christ (the king), but that I am sent before him … He must increase , but I must decrease. (John 3:27-30)

It is right in front of us for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.