This is a series of articles dedicated to earth based spiritual practices, aimed for people that are healers, or are working with high frequency energies to reconnect was the earth, nature, and thus grounding themselves to the cycles that mother earth goes through the year, hoping these practices can assist them in balancing out the sometimes taxing high vibrational work they’re engaged with, with the calm energies of nature observance.

In the Neopagan spiritual circles, the holiday based on the Wheel of the Year called Litha is observed on the Summer Solstice around the 21st and 22nd of June each year.

The Summer Solstice, also known in the Neopagan circles as Litha, is the time of the year where the day is at its longest and the night at its shortest. It’s a time of acknowledging the power of light by honoring the Sun’s power at its maximum potency.

Litha sits right across the Winter Solstice on the Wheel of the Year. Where at the Winter Solstice we celebrate the light and its most tender and vulnerable state, at Litha we celebrate the power of light and the Sun’s power at its fullest expression. This can be experienced through a feeling of expansiveness, cheerfulness and even a sense of overwhelm for people that are sensitive or empaths.

In this article we are going to explore ways to honor this day to nurture our soul, by engaging in meaningful practices that will ground the general theme of the holiday that of light at its brightest state, signifying our own ability to reach our fullest potential.

So, let’s begin.

Three Core Themes Behind the Summer Solstice Celebrations

Awakening the Senses

Engaging our senses during Litha, by witnessing the Sun at its early hours, is the best way for us to attune to the idea of spiritual potency through the light and its fullest manifestation.

Here, light and its significance in our lives, is not just a mental concept, but a living entity, which beckons us to become receptive to the life force permeating nature at this time of year, through our outer and inner senses.

Embodying the Sun’s Abundance

Litha also represents the idea of abundance that can be found everywhere and can be witnessed either in the outer world, but also in our inner worlds as well. Light, being at the pinnacle of its strength, reflects the ideas of growth, fruition and most importantly the potential for true joy.

This is also the time to reflect on the solar ideas, that of consciousness, identity, and vitality. It’s a time of creativity, and the expression of our uniqueness, by noticing the colors, and the beauty of the natural world around us not as mere manifestations of matter but an energy that connects us with the essence of the Sun that brings us all the aforementioned gifts.

Balancing Light and Shadow Within

Even if the Summer Solstice represents light in its full force, it is also the turning point where the Sun begins its descending journey towards the dark months that will follow the end of summer.

This is a reminder for us to contemplate on the reality that there’s a rhythm in the universe where things coming to their peak are then turning towards their dissolution.

This is not something for us to be afraid of but rather to embrace that anything manifested either in the outer or the inner world, cannot stay the same, thus it needs to give its place to the new when it’s role for existing in the first place has come to pass.

5 Soulful Ways to Celebrate Litha and the Summer Solstice

What follows are 5 practices that I like to engage in during Litha. They are simple ways to honor the day, and (if you like) to deepen your own spiritual connection with the themes of the day.

1. Rise With the Sun and Welcome Its Healing Light

One simple and profound way to honor Litha is to wake up just before dawn and greet the Sun as it rises, during the longest day of the year.

This is a very sacred way to acknowledge the importance of light in our lives, and how it is connected to the natural rhythms that are regulated by the power of the Sun.

One simple and profound way to honor Litha is to wake up just before dawn and greet the Sun as it rises, during the longest day of the year.

I also like to prepare something called Solar Water. This is a special water that contains the high vibrations of the Sun’s light.

You can prepare it by adding fresh water to a transparent container that you will expose to the Sun all throughout the day.

You can then store it in your refrigerator and take some sips during the day from time to time in order for you to benefit from this high vibrational water which will push out any heavy energies and toxins out of your system.

2. Offer Back to Nature with Intention and Gratitude

Litha is the best time to offer back to nature as a gesture of gratitude for the abundance it provides us.

This can be done in many ways, like placing offerings that can be consisted of leftovers of the day’s feast in areas where animals can reach it. Of course, pay attention to what you will leave out in the wild, being mindful about what will be good to be left outside and what not to.

Litha is the best time to offer back to nature as a gesture of gratitude for the abundance it provides us.

If you have a garden, you can also create compost out of the leftovers from the day’s feast, which is the most direct way to offer back to nature by nourishing the earth.

3. Celebrate the Sun’s Abundance Through Sensory Rituals

Litha is the day where you can notice nature wearing its best. Everywhere you turn, you can experience bright colors, fragrances, and textures inviting you in indulging yourself mindfully with the season’s gifts.

Another way to approach this sensory “overload” is by creating a fruit platter that honors the Sun, where you can place fruits like oranges, peaches, or mangoes. You can arrange them either in a spiral pattern or in a way that you will resemble sunbeams.

Litha is the day where you can notice nature wearing its best.

Engaging my senses in this way helps me to ground the powerful high vibrational energies of the day, since I’m sensitive and empath and these types of strong vibrations can sometimes be overwhelming.

4. Craft and Adorn Yourself with Solar Symbols

Since this is an earth-based celebration, what is more appropriate than creating things using your hands thus helping you to move out of your mind and into your body, which is part of our mother earth.

During the Summer Solstice I like to create Sun catchers, which are small contraptions made of strings and reflective items such as small crystals, or reflective beats, that I can hang at a place that is exposed to the Sun thus scattering its light all over the room where I will place it energizing it with positive energy.

Since this is an earth-based celebration, what is more appropriate than creating things using your hands thus helping you to move out of your mind and into your body, which is part of our mother earth.

I also like to create flower crowns, from flowers that are bright yellow or orange, symbolizing the warmth and life-giving energy of the Sun. Wearing it helps you feel the beauty, the abundance, and fullness that is spread out in the fields, forests, and even your own garden or pots on your balcony.

5. Let the Fire Cleanse What You’re Ready to Release

Litha by also representing the idea that the Sun is at its turning point in turning towards experiencing its light slowly diminishing, it is a good time for us to let go anything that is holding us back, especially goals that we set up at the Winter Solstice and that we weren’t able to fulfill.

You can do a very simple ritual by writing in a piece of paper everything that you want to let go and then with intention, after lighting up the paper, place it in a fireproof vessel like a small cauldron made from cast iron and watch the paper burn to ashes as you release anything that does not serve you anymore.

Conclusion

Litha, or the Summer Solstice, is this time of the year where we witness (all of us living in the northern hemisphere) the abundance of life, and the strength of life force energy that permeates everything.

Honoring this day can either serve you in that tuning yourself with the theme of light at its strongest, or it can assist you in realizing your own inner radiance and potential to live your life and its fullest.

In whatever form you wish to celebrate and honor this day, is not the issue here, but understanding its significance, and how the idea that the life-giving Sun being and its strongest, and nature being adorned in its finest, can inspire us to bring all of this fullness into our own lives.

Till next time, take care.