Litha is the fourth of the eight sabbats, mainly celebrated by Wiccans and Neopagans. It is one of the four Celtic fire festivals (solar festivals) relating to the sun’s position in the sky, which are known as the Greater Sabbats.
Litha, which falls exactly six months after Yule, is also known as Midsummer and Summer Solstice. It is the longest day of the year, and the shortest night. The Summer Solstice falls on 21st June in 2022 in the Northern Hemisphere. The word “solstice” translates roughly to “sun stands still”, and refers to the appearance of the sun hanging endlessly in the sky during this time.
Litha is a very significant holiday on the pagan Wheel of the Year, marking the largest of the fire festivals. As soon as the Sun enters the sign of Cancer, the season of Midsummer begins. In Wiccan tradition, the goddess is pregnant at this time, so this season is great for celebrating the mother archetype, fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth. Mother Nature is in full bloom with food, grains, berries, vegetables, flowers, and herbs.
In Wiccan lore, Midwinter to Midsummer is ruled by the Oak King, who represents the powers of light. The dark Holly King governs Midsummer to Midwinter.
A battle ensues between the Oak King and The Holly King at Summer Solstice. The Holly King weakens the power of the Oak King, and as the forces of darkness begin to grow, the Holly King will gain in strength until he reaches his full power at Winter Solstice. The Holly King (the diminishing light) and the Oak King (the waxing light) have a duel on this day to determine who may rule the 2nd half of the year. The Holly King will be the winner and rule until Midwinter. After the 21st of June the days will get shorter again and we are going back to Midwinter. The dark half of the year is upon us.
The Greeks, Romans, Celts, Norse, Aztecs, and Jews all celebrated the Summer Solstice in their own ways with their own gods and goddesses.
It is also considered to be the most auspicious day to commune with the Fae or faerie people, as it was believed that contact was easiest during the “between” times.
Litha is a powerful time for spells, rituals, and deity work. Plants and herbs are at their highest power and potency, so plant magic performed during this time is likely to reap those benefits. The sun is at its greatest point of power as well, lending its energy to solar magic and creating a lovely atmosphere to enjoy all of nature’s wonders.
Litha Correspondences examples:
● Associations: Bonfires, fire (in general), water, oak, and fertility
● Colors: Gold, yellow, orange, red, green, and white
● Symbols: Sun Fire, Discs, sun, bonfire, oak trees, honey, roses, and fae
● Crystals: Fire agate, citrine, carnelian, sunstone, amber, garnet, tigers eye, calcite, emerald, jade, and moss agate
● Trees: Oak and elder
● Herbs: Mugwort, vervain, yarrow, rose, chamomile, thyme, and sage
● Plants: Cinnamon, sunflowers, marigold, honeysuckle, daisy, rose, chamomile, lavender, and St. John’s Wort
● Food and Drink: oranges, lemons and lemonade, cheese, berries, in-season vegetables, honey cakes, mead, wine, and sun tea, honey, berries, cheese, mead, and honey bread
● Deities with the fire element: Andras, Baal-Berith, Balam, Beelzebu, Bune, Caim, Crocell, Forneus, Furcas, Gamygen, Glasya-Labolas (aka Cassimola), Marbas, Murmur, Ronobe, Valefor, and Vassago
● Pagan gods: Father Sun/Sky and Oak King
● Pagan goddess: Mother Earth and Mother Nature
● Pagan and Wiccan Deities: Áine, Horus, Apollo, Cernunnos, Pan, Bast, Fortuna, Helios, Arinna, Juno, Aphrodite, and Vesta
● Incense: Lemon, myrrh, pine, rose, and sandalwood
● Ideas for Magickal workings: Rebirth, transformation, ower, purity, life, balance, protection, love, fire magick, and fae magick
Midsummer Ritual examples:
Prepare A Midsummer Feast
For this friendly meal, you can choose to prepare spicy foods that embody the bold power of the sun, fresh fruits and vegetables from your garden, or savory dishes cooked with herbs picked at the peak of freshness – and even wash them down with a pint of mead.
Host A Summer Bonfire
To honor the power and warmth of the Sun, we create bonfires in its image. This tradition has been practiced by a multitude of cultures around the world during Midsummer for thousands of years.
Hold A Solitary Candle Ritual
A simple candlelight vigil paired with some thoughtful meditation is a great low-key way to honor the sabbat.
Watch The Sunset & Sunrise
As the shortest night of the year, many witches like to watch the sunset at night, then stay up to watch it rise again in the morning.
The Summer Solstice is the most important day of the year at Stonehenge. It's an astronomical event, and it is open access where, unlike the rest of the year, you can walk among the stones.
At Stonehenge on the summer solstice, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone in the north-east part of the horizon and its first rays shine into the heart of Stonehenge.
Burning The Wheel
In this Irish tradition, townsfolk would come together to bring straw from each family home and add it to a pile. The community straw was added to a large wheel placed at the top of a steep hill. At nightfall, the townsfolk would return to watch the men of the village light the wheel on fire and steer it down the hill. During the celebration, the men and boys of the village would hold high their torches (crafted with community straw) to keep the wheel alight as it sped downward.
The flaming wheel in this practice represents the Sun. As it spins wildly down the hill, it gathers oxygen and burns up faster and faster. Their ultimate goal was to plummet the wheel into the Moselle River. If they succeeded, the village would be blessed with an abundant harvest for the year.
Make Floral Wreaths Or Crowns
Another age-old tradition is making wreaths using flowers that are local to your area.
Work With The Fae
During the solstice, the veil between worlds is incredibly thin. The fae tend to cross over during this time to participate in the battle between the Holly and Oak kings, so they are out in numbers.
The faerie folk are also drawn to sweet-smelling flowers, honey and nectar, and other elements most readily available at this time of year. It’s for this reason that many pagans and witches who work with the fae like to do so on this holiday. You can reach out to them by building fairy gardens or leaving offerings. However, as reflected in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, mischievous faerie folk can cause all sorts of havoc and confusion during a Midsummer celebration, so it is important to treat them politely and with respect.
Enjoy The Summer Sun
Honor the Sun and the Earth by spending time outdoors. Soak in the warmth, enjoy some meditation while sunbathing, or take a hike.
Go Swimming Or Enjoy The Water
While honoring goddesses of fertility, we acknowledge the realm of water, which is a shared domain to many of them. Some people go to sacred wells.
Harvest Herbs
It is believed that the Druids gathered sacred herbs on this day. Herbs are at their freshest during this time, so take some time off this weekend to do some harvesting, pickling, or baking. You can then use the herbs in your spells and recipes, or share them with friends and neighbors.
Harness The Sun’s Power With Solar Magic
With the sun at its very brightest during the summer solstice and the veil incredibly thin, we are presented with the perfect opportunity to perform solar magic or harness the sun’s energy at its peak. It is a great time to make sun water, use sunflowers or dandelions in your spells, or make offerings to sun-related deities.
Decorate An Altar For Litha
During Midsummer, we honor gods and goddesses of the sun and those that represent fertility, so feel free to make a special place on your altar for Sol, Ra, Juno, or your favorite deity. You can create statues, art, or poetry to honor these entities. Altar decoration examples include sun wheels, flowers, statues of fertility gods or sun-related deities.
Bake a Sunwheel cake
One way of making the Summer Solstice in your own home is to bake round cakes covered in yellow icing. These traditionally represent the Sunwheel—a symbol used to represent the Sun in many ancient cultures—and should be eaten before breakfast. Ideally, you should get up before dawn and sit on a hilltop to watch the sunrise, while eating the cakes, as the Sun’s golden disc rises above the horizon.
Take any sponge or fairy cake recipe, but add safron for yellow color in the cake, or to color the icing, and add some honey to taste. Garnish the mix with sunflower seeds to add Midsummer ambiance. Once your Sunwheel cake is baked, prepare a flask of mead—a traditional honey liquor—to wash down a slice at sunrise.
Other Festivals and Celebrations
In Florence, Italy, fanciful parades are held during Midsummer, but this celebration was once far more lavish. Traditionally, Florencians would host elaborate plays. They would still hold parades, of course, but the night would end with an extravagant fireworks display.
In some communities, bonfires would be lit to ward off dragons from attacking villagers and poisoning their rivers and wells.
In ancient Rome, Vestalia would be held in June around the time of the summer solstice to pay tribute to the goddess Vesta (or Hestia, to the Greeks). The celebration lasted from June 7th to 15th and allowed female worshipers of the goddess to make offerings at her temple. Families would light a hearthfire in Vesta’s honor and dedicate prayer and songs to the goddess to invite her warmth and blessings into the home.
As with Stonehenge, the Summer Solstice is also celebrated in other regions. In Egypt, the setting sun on the Summer Solstice hits a point exactly in the center between the two largest of the Great Pyramids. At the Osireion Temple at Abydos, believed for centuries to be the burial place of the god Osiris, the sun shines through a gap in the nearby Libyan hills and strikes the temple walls on the day of Midsummer.
WHAT WE CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THIS FESTIVAL DAY
Litha / Midsummer / Summer Solstice is a day to celebrate nature. It is a celebration of the sun, fire, and the bounty of the land. Solar energies are at their apex, and the power of nature is at its height. In Wiccan lore, it’s the time when the solar god’s power is at its greatest.
Although not a harvest festival like the three sabbats that follow it, the Summer Solstice still focuses on fertility, abundance, prosperity, success, and good fortune, which are topics we can focus on in our meditation.
As with nature, this is the time for activity and forward movement. We can set out our plan of action and get it into motion. We can use the power of the energy around us to help be more motivated to achieve the things we set out to do.
For Theistic Satanists, one activity is to simply sit outdoors in daylight and breathe and commune with Satan’s energy throughout nature. In particular, consider how His energy in nature transforms or nurtures our fire within.
Another activity is to meditate on the sun chakra while holding a fire agate or citrine close to this chakra.
Notes and Sources
While there are numerous sources of information about Midsumer on the Internet, there is a wide range of comments on some correspondences, such as crystals and main Pagan and Wiccan Deities to honor at this time.
Somewhat different than the previous sabbat, Litha is almost solely focused on sun, energy, and nature. By comparison, Beltane included some focus on nude orgiastic sex, phallic symbols (the Maypole), and witchcraft (e.g., Walpurgisnacht), with greater focus by Satanists.
The main source used here was Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials: Midsummer. This was supplemented by Internet sources (including pictures). Some comments were taken directly from these sources, without notation of their individual sources or quotation marks.
Comments