Open to the Spirit
Today’s word: Solstice
1) This week we just enjoyed the Summer Solstice, as did people around the world. During the summer solstice the sun reaches its highest point in the sky and gives us the longest day of the year. From the beginning of time the sun has prompted religious experiences. In many traditions, prayers begin at sunrise. In most creation stories, the sun is the first act of creation. Sunrise ceremonies of some sort or another take place around the world. In England, when the sun’s first light breaks through the darkness it hits the monument of Stonehenge directly in the center, lighting up each pillar like a magical horseshoe. Locally, a spiritual group has built a similar Rock formation in Stanstead.
A few days ago we were driving along the highway after supper and noticed a large number of cars had pulled over up ahead. I looked around to see if there was construction, or an accident. There was neither, just a beautiful sunset that lit up the sky. We drove a little further, found a safe spot, and pulled over too. The colours were amazing, and it was well worth the few moments it took before we arrived home for the night. There is something universal about that experience. It speaks to people of every faith and nationality. May we all be reminded as well to celebrate the nourishing light of the sun within each of us.
2
) “Sol” for sun, “stice” for still. Solstice is that point in earth’s cycle when to the ancients watching the skies, the sun paused in its journey across the heavens before reversing its path. Twice each year, in June we have the summer solstice, in December the winter solstice; in the southern hemispheres, these are reversed.
Our ancestors by long observance - and keen spiritual intuition - perceived that certain patterns govern the cycles of light and dark, warm and cold, growing and resting, and they learned to mark this recurring order to cosmic events with celebration. Both winter and summer solstices ere key points around the wheel of the year, as were the spring and autumn equinoxes, and the cross-quarter days that give us the Samhain and Beltane. From them we inherit this circular marking of time and the division of a year divided into four seasons, as a way of participating in powers that are beyond us.
These cosmic events were universally understood as holy or hallowed times, when the veil between the spirit and physical worlds grew thin, inspiring wonder, appreciation and awe. For many of us today they inspire deep reflection on our interdependence with all of nature. As a religious educator for a large congregation back in the 1980s, I first discovered the solstices and the pagan year when a colleague and I were charged with designing seasonal worship. We drew from sacred traditions in cultures throughout the world, many dating back thousands of years. Ever since celebrating the solstices has been central to my own spiritual path. If ever we were to design a religion to transcend our diverse cultural histories, I believe a return to this ancient earth-based precursor of modern religions could unite humanity in spirit, deepen our common connection with all of nature, restore wholeness in a time of global change.
Neo-pagan teacher and earth activist Starhawk, author of The Spiral Dance, writes: “The Solstice reminds us that change is the order of nature. Light gives way to darkness; in darkness is the seed of light.” It’s the yin-yang principle of darkness in the heart of light (summer), and light in darkness (winter). Now in high summer already we are moving toward the opposite. Knowing this warmth will gradually but surely shift to cold helps me appreciate even the hottest most humid days. My hope is that these pivotal points in the turning year helps ground our spirits in awareness of the deep connection we share with the forces of nature and the universe from which our own human nature has evolved.
3
) Like the air we breathe and the water we drink, we often take sunlight for granted, that is until we don’t. Seasonal affective disorder, due to lack of sunlight is now a documented illness. The summer solstice, the day of the most sunlight, as well as the winter solstice, day of the least sunlight, have long been celebrated as important yearly occurrences. In Christian circles the Festival of John the Baptist is celebrated in many cultures just after the summer solstice and Christmas just after the winter solstice, both dates probably chosen to supplant important ceremonial dates of older cultures, such as the Druids. Indeed the need to celebrate the summer days of longest sunlight as well as the gradual return of more sunlight in the dead of winter date back to prehistoric times. What is it about going for a walk on a sunny day that perks up our spirits? We can feel as if we are carrying the worries of the world on our backs but we take a walk outside and right away we breathe better. Our spirits rise. Hope wells up. In our technology addicted world we like to think we make rational decisions based on accumulated data, trends and projections, but the positive effects of sunlight , just like the positive effects of being in love, are much better experienced than documented and proven. We all have access to it. Go outside.in the sunlight. Feel the difference in your body. Appreciate the goodness of life. Take a deep breath. Trust the wonderful sensation. This is one of the gifts of being human. How fortunate we are!
4
) Among the many pleasures of summer, of picnics, of sleeping late, travelling, and spending time with family, I also enjoy lying down in big empty fields. Not every field is the same of course. It’s the big empty fields away from the city, surrounded by trees, possibly with a campsite nearby that I like best. It’s in these places that I can look up at the sky and see the stars with a beauty and a mystery that still surprises me to this day. Of course I know that the stars are there when I leave my house in the city at night, but it’s both the lights around me, and also the business of my life that means that I don’t look up as often as I should. These fields, these stars, are a reminder to keep myself connected with the natural world, with the sky, the earth, the forests, and the cycles of the seasons around me. It’s a way of ensuring that the entirety of the natural world in some way can be a part of my ever-changing inner world.
This is of course the season for another important recognition of our connection with nature, the summer solstice. On this day, officially at least, summer begins. With summer, we look forward with hope to a time of relaxation and reconnecting. The solstice may be something hidden, written on our calendars or announced in the paper, but which might pass us by like any other day. Yet in so many ways, it can serve as a reminder that no matter where we find ourselves, no matter how much our world is keeping us busy or controlling us, the sun, the moon, the earth are where the real power lies. Of course so many faith and cultural traditions have celebrated the solstice with prayers, music, dance and other rituals, and many of us still do.
For me, I keep it simple. I make sure during this time, if nothing else, to just step outside. With the same strength and power that I receive from the Mystery of Life by looking at the stars on a dark summer night, simply stepping outside during the solstice and acknowledging the mysterious power beyond me, in the cycles of the cosmos, gives me a very real sense of hope. No matter what happens in our strange world, earth and sun still move on their paths, charting their way forward as they have since the beginning of time.
One word, four voices - now it’s your turn to reflect: How many ways can you think of to celebrate a Summer Solstice?
Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Waterville & North Hatley pastoral charge; Rabbi Boris Dolin leads the Dorshei-emet community in Montreal; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco, Unitarian Universalist is retired from ministry with Uuestrie and now resides in St. Andrews by-the-sea NB, but keeps one foot in the Townships by continuing with this column.