[5/21/02, 1:10 am: this page has now been archived...click here for the Current Page.  Broken links on this archived page have been updated, where possible, on the newly revised page.]

When I was at my most grief-stricken this past March and April over the slaughter of over 3 million healthy animals in the UK (see my pages on Foot & Mouth and Holy Saturday Ikon), I saw a report that England was frantically gouging more and more coal out of her mines in order to burn the huge stacks of poor corpses.  I started to cry and kept saying to myself, over and over, "Even if Arthur himself were to return, it's too late -- the LAND of Britain has been too badly damaged, psychically and otherwise.  Not even Arthur could save her now."

Thoughts of King Arthur led me to thinking about other "Old Ones" -- those sages, heroes and deities who "retire" from the hurly burly after creation, or who go to sleep in caves, lakes, or rings of fire after they've completed their earthly tasks, but always with the implicit promise that if/when things fall apart and enter a state of utter corruption, turmoil and loss of stability, they'll return and help us when summoned.

There are Arthur and Merlin, of course, and the Danes have Holger, who gave them such a promise (a Dane informs me that they actually summoned him during WWII).  India's Prajapti and Brahma "retire" and lose their cults, as do the Titans of Greece and the frog/serpent Ogdoad of Egypt.  But do not all these Old Ones perhaps still hold intact their original cosmic "juice" and power for times of emergency?  Might they not still be waiting in the Mundus Imaginalis (the Imaginal World, the "Other World") for our summons?

I began thinking about gathering information on a large resevoir of cross-cultural deities, even nationalistic "hero-types" like Arthur and
Holger.  I considered using my website to inform my worldwide audience about all the many manifestions of these Old Ones and to suggest that we all summon them now!  By gathering the Old Ones from the four quarters, even the nationalistic ones who, hopefully, would set aside nationalism and unite for the common good of the earth, we might make more of a difference.

My friend and colleague, Dianne Skafte, and I had a long telephone conversation about this one night last April, for both of us had been feeling such despair.  I told her that I felt even the wisest of the deities, like Kuan Yin, were long gone -- leaving temporary "Kuan Yins" in charge while the more experienced ones went elsewhere, weary of the unending anguish and folly of earthlings.  It's the Age of Kali, after all, and the oldest of the Old Ones have "been there, done that" so many, many times already -- so we can hardly blame them for wanting to sit this one out.   "Yet," I said, "if our need is truly great enough, why shouldn't we be able to reach way, way back through time and space, find the 'original' Kuan Yin, remind her who she is and tell her that she really needs to come back now, while there still might be time to shift things away from total diaster?"

Dianne and I got energized by the thought of summoning the Old Ones, which indeed, she suggested, is the expectation assigned by them to us -- i.e., that we'd summon Them when those of us who are "in the field" realize that things are hurtling towards greater and greater danger.

I intended, as a first step, to put out an SOS on my home page, asking visitors from all over the world to send me their lore and legends of sleeping Old Ones.  Then I could compile a comprehensive site based on all that data.

Somehow though, I felt blocked.  One day passed, then two, then three, while I mulled over my plan.  People might misunderstand, I thought, and they might recklessly open up passages to dimensions that should remain closed.  Besides, even if it could all be done correctly, what if the throngs of nationalistic culture-heroes decided to go toe-to-toe with one another, every man for himself and his own people?  Dare we assume that those sleeping heroes have evolved humanely during their long sleep?  What if too many of them are still puers, eternal teenagers, who remain in love with elevating civil wars to the level of cultural epics?

So I held back, weighing the wisdom of summoning unpredictable Invisibles.

Another emotion then began growing until it eclipsed everything else -- it was a profound sense of dismay, shame, disappointment, sorrow.  Are we as a human race still so miserably self-centered and cowardly that we need to keep turning elsewhere for rescue? -- that we need to shout for another messiah, another Merlin, another Kuan Yin, another Arthur, to bail us out of trouble?  If we can't manage things on our own this time, do we even have the right to drive things right up to the brink and then groan and scream for outside help?

Assuming the Old Ones really exist somewhere in the Mundus Imaginalis, what if they too are no longer willing to step in at the last minute?  What if their solution was to seed human consciousness with their presence so that we hold within ourselves their actual presence, hidden deep down alongside all our shadows and fierce emotions?  What if the transcendent realms have emptied themselves, pouring themselves out to flow into our hidden inscendent realms?  If this is so, then there's no one to summon from "out there."  If the Old Ones have indeed seeded humanity's own consciousness with their own powers and wisdom, it's inwardly that we must turn to summon, awaken, and bring forth what is needful now.

This then is my hope for us as we journey through this summer season of 2001, a time in which we live with corrupt leaders, power shortages, climate changes, disease, starvation, tensions of war and terrorism.  Let's act as if we've been seeded with ancient wisdom, deep down, out of sight.  Let's awaken these seeds of the Old Ones this summer and begin to behave as a wise species at last.  Let's regain our sense of wonder (see my Summer Solstice thoughts from a year ago) and reach out to one another with shimmering new ideas, stories, choices, options.  It's time.

Warmly,

Kathleen

Here you'll find information on an annual Native American-sponsored summer solstice day for World Peace and Prayer:

"...I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation, humblely ask that the spirit of great Nations help us to heal our sacred Mother Earth (Unci Maka). I call upon other Spiritual Leaders and Ancient Storytellers to work together on this urgent effort!"

The site looks at global celebrations [also see below], children's activities, and many other excellent related issues.  (Note: some pages are linked specifically to summer solstice, but many are not -- they're valid year round.)

[Added 26 May 2000]: This page offers an impressive array of annual global peace conferences and celebrations running from May to December.  Many include links to their own websites or e-mail contacts.

This site is on "Aboriginal Star Knowledge: Native American Astronomy."  It's an engrossing site on stars, time, solstices, equinoxes, Medicine Wheels, and a wide range of rich indigenous lore related to the heavens.

[Added 22 June 2001]: For the pure science of this summer solstice event, see this engaging little page with charts and text explaining how summer actually gives us less, but longer, sunlight, which is why it's so much warmer than in winter when we get more, but shorter, sunlight.

[Added 26 May 2000]: Written for the Clark Foundation, this is "Solstices Are Milestones of Civilization" by Von Del Chamberlain.  It is a powerfully written, wise and passionate plea for integrating modern science & ethics into ancient lore instead of trying to regress:

...From earliest times until now people have struggled to understand natural realities, such as the causes of the solstices. They found interpretations that satisfied their needs, and they used their understanding for improvement of their lives. Differing cultures came into contact and shared their interpretations.  Such toil and dialogue eventually led to science, an intellectual endeavor committed to free sharing of knowledge for all who might be interested. Such knowledge is power, which, when coupled with wisdom, can expand horizons beyond what is possible in any other way....

...The people at Stonehenge, those who built and used the Big Horn Medicine Wheel, and the Anasazi at Chaco Canyon, all experienced religious, political and ecological problems. So do we, in context with desires to find and explore new frontiers. The problems and solutions are never easy. Responsible and compassionate uses of knowledge, coupled with retention of solid ethical values, is vital to growth toward our human potentials.

What does all this have to do with the coming of the solstice each year?  Annual repetitions are milestones of desired changes. Each time we arrive at this point to enjoy the increased illumination from the Sun, human history on planet Earth has yielded one more year of experience and discovery. We can still look out from the center of Stonehenge to see the Sun rise over the heelstone as it did thousands of years ago, but looking around in all other directions yields knowledge that revises and refines what we treasured before.  The traditions of earlier solstices belonged to the people of those generations, and solstice by solstice they transformed to become the ethos we claim as ours, here and now. We should honor and respect mores of past solstices, while we apply products of knowledge for the benefit of all mankind and the other creatures we share Mother Earth with....

Siberian Summer
(Courtesy of Tradestone International)

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7280/midsumr.html

[Added 12 June 2001]: This is Mike Nichols' page on Midsummer.  I happen to love his work (which appears on most of my seasonal pages) -- both his common sense and his wide-ranging knowledge and wit are appealing:

...since most European peasants were not accomplished at reading an ephemeris or did not live close enough to Salisbury Plain to trot over to Stonehenge and sight down its main avenue, they celebrated the event on a fixed calendar date, June 24th. The slight forward displacement of the traditional date is the result of multitudinous calendrical changes down through the ages. It is analogous to the winter solstice celebration, which is astronomically on or about December 21st, but is celebrated on the traditional date of December 25th, Yule, later adopted by the Christians.
       Again, it must be remembered that the Celts reckoned their days from sundown to sundown, so the June 24th festivities actually begin on the previous sundown (our June 23rd). This was Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Eve. Which brings up another point: our modern calendars are quite misguided in suggesting that 'summer begins' on the solstice. According to the old folk calendar, summer begins on May Day and ends on Lammas (August 1st), with the summer solstice, midway between the two, marking mid-summer. This makes more logical sense than suggesting that summer begins on the day when the sun's power begins to wane and the days grow shorter....

Since "old" Midsummer's Eve of June 23rd is also the eve of the Feast of John the Baptist, here is Nichols on St. John's Eve:

...St. John himself was often seen as a rather Pagan figure. He was, after all, called 'the Oak King'. His connection to the wilderness (from whence 'the voice cried out') was often emphasized by the rustic nature of his shrines.  Many statues show him as a horned figure.... Obviously, this kind of John the Baptist is more properly a Jack in the Green! Also obvious is that behind the medieval conception of St. John lies a distant, shadowy Pagan
deity, perhaps the archetypal Wild Man of the Wood, whose face stares down at us through the foliate masks that adorn so much church architecture....

(Note:  Nichols takes issue with the usual assertion that the Holly King defeats his dark rival, the Oak King, at midwinter, and that the Oak King in turn kills the Holly King at midsummer.  Nichols does this is a further essay, linked near the bottom of his Midsummer page: he argues that the conquests and deaths belong to the equinoxes, not to the solstices.  I found it well argued and convincing.)

Siberian Summer
(Courtesy of Russian Sunbirds)

[Added 12 & 16 June 2001]: This is a fine page on worldwide summer solstice traditions from the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Celebrations covered include: Alban Heflin, Alben Heruin, All-couples day, Feast of Epona, Feast of St. John the Baptist, Feill-Sheathain, Gathering Day, Johannistag, Litha, Midsummer, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, and Vestalia.  Cultures and traditions belonging to the above celebrations include ancient Celts, Chinese, Gauls, Germans, Slavs, Romans, Swedes, Christians, Native Americans (including solstice wheels), neo-pagans, and the pre-historic peoples who built astronomical stone structures.  In addition to interesting text (footnoted), there is a useful list of websources at the end.

[Added 26 May 2000]: This is "Light and Dark Meet Again at Midsummer" by C. Austin for the Celtic Connection.  It is a brief, but lyrical essay on the season.  Here is a small passage from the conclusion:

...The wheel is turning, oh so quickly it seems. Live this moment while we have it. Pause and listen for the song of the birds of summer, breath the fragrance of a beautiful flower or take a moonlit walk.  Soon the shadows of the coming season will turn us inward once more.

[12 June 2001 update:]  The above essay is no longer at this link -- Austin has written a new one instead.  It too is fine.

From Frances Donovan at about.com comes this sensible little essay on Litha, or Summer Solstice.

Here you'll find well chosen Litha, or Summer Solstice, links from Frances Donovan (see above) on myth, lore, history, and rituals (also a surprisingly evocative Flamewolf poem).

Gathered by Weather Doctor, Keith C. Heidorn, this is a wonderful collection of quotes, "The Elders Speak: About Summer," ranging from Jane Austen to Thoreau to Ray Bradbury.

Harvesting Wheat
(Courtesy of Tradestone International)

[Added 26 May 2000]: This is an interesting paper, "Old Russian Summer Solstice Mythology," by Dr. Eileen M. Starr.  As part of EarthWatch, Dr. Starr visited a rural area in southwest Russia in 1997 for her folkloric research.  Despite her hopes for rich data for a planetarium exhibit in the US, she found no starlore, and nothing about the sun nor moon.  What she found instead were scattered remnants of summer solstice lore, which she details in this paper.  She also briefly discusses why a larger body of cosmological lore has vanished in this region of Russia.

Waterfall Woman
(see below for a closeup)
Courtesy of Tradestone International

[Added 26 May 2000]: From "Sacred Serpent" comes this beautiful essay on summer solstice in Baltic lands, "RASA: The Summer Solstice," from Ramuva/Lithuania (translated by Audrius Dundzila, Ph.D. and first published in "romuva/usa", Issue #4, 1991).  Here's an excerpt:

At the end of June, at the time of the solstice, when nights are longest and nature blossoms and grows, the Balts celebrate the festival of Rasa (dew). Many written sources document the celebration of the Summer Solstice....T. Narbutas wrote: "The name Rasa probably reflects the belief that water, like dew, is born from the depths: the seas, the earth, etc." In ancient traditions dew principally revealed life. The amount of dew on the morning of the feast foretold the size of that year's harvest. Before the sunrise on Solstice morning, dew possesses exceptional healing powers....

...S. Daukantas wrote: "Before the feast everybody went to the holy rivers and lakes, where they washed and bathed, hoping to stay young.  Whoever did everything they could suddenly discovered themselves to be immensely wise and possessing the power to see evil people, charlatans and witches. No other holiday was as joyous, because--as according to the pasakos (folk tales) and rumors--the sun dances across the sky!"....

The essay offers rich Baltic lore.  Some of it could be adapted if you wish to create a ritual to greet this joyous season of the "dancing sun" in your own personal way.

[Added 26 May 2000]: From "Slavic Pagan Holidays" comes a page that looks at Slavic summer solstice customs -- here, as with the Balts, there is a strong focus on water:

Kupalo [summer solstice] comes from the verb kupati which means "to bathe" and mass baths were taken on the morning of this holiday. On this holiday, the sun supposedly bathed by dipping into the waters at the horizon. This imbued all water with his power and therefore, those who bathed on this day would absorb some of that power....

Waterfall Woman
(Closeup -- see above for full version)
Courtesy of Tradestone International

[Added 28 May 2000]: Still in keeping with the water theme is this lively and informative page from Lady Bridget.  She discusses several wonderful ways of using the element of water in your summer solstice rituals.  For example:

...Since the Sun at Litha is entering Cancer, a water sign, this holiday is one of the best ones for gathering your magickal water which will be used on your altar and in your spells for the coming year. We usually go to the [Florida] beach at Litha, and gather salt-water. We bring offerings of flowers and nuts, and 3 pennies or 3 dimes for prosperity and throw these into the waves before we take our water. We honor Aphrodite and Yameya as the Goddesses of the Sea by taking some jewelry as an offering....

If you don't live near the sea, another excellent source of magickal water, is rain water from a thunderstorm, and there are plenty that occur at this time of year. The more electrical energy the storm puts out, the more energized the water is, so the fiercer the better! Collect in a glass jar, or porcelain, avoid metal containers. Store on a shelf, and don't leave the jar on the ground, or the energy will ground. We only use our water for 6 months, after that we return the water to the source, and collect fresh....

Lady Bridget looks at the role of John the Baptist, whose feastday was supposed to replace summer solstice, just as his cousin's was meant to supplant winter solstice.  She also discusses herbs, mead, and honeymoons.

[Added 12 June 2001]: This is my own page on water.  In three years of gathering and grokking links from all over the world, I've found many that have become personal favorites.  For simple, stunning significance, however, none can match the work of Japanese researcher, Masaru Emoto, and his book, The Message from Water.  I now own the book and am awed every time I explore it.  The first four links on my water page look at Emoto's work.   Trust me -- you'll be amazed and moved.  Don't miss this one.

Summer Feast in Sunny Fields
(Courtesy of Russian Sunbirds)

[Added 26 May 2000]: Again from "Sacred Serpent" comes "The Baltic Sun Goddess - Saule" (first published in Sacred Serpent: Journal of Baltic Tradition, Issue #2, 1994).  The rich essay begins with:

The Great Goddess, Saule, (pronounced SOW-lay) whose name  means the sun itself, is queen of heaven and Earth and matriarch of the cosmos. She is a beloved and popular deity of the Lithuanians and Latvians, as many old hymns and prayers attest. Her main feasts occur at the summer solstice (Rasa or Kupolines), winter solstice (Kaledos) and the equinoxes....

...On summer solstice morning, Balts anxiously awaited the sunrise, in order not to miss even Her first blessed rays. Everyone wanted to see how the sun danced, how it ascended and then descended for a moment, and how it finally shone in various colours. In Latvian songs about such feasts we find the refrain: "The sun, dancing on the silver hill, has silver shoes on Her feet"....

[Added 26 May 2000]: "Celebrating Midsummer" is from Waverly Fitzgerald's School of the Seasons.  If you follow my seasonal pages, you'll already be familiar with Waverly's work.  She writes beautifully and has a keen eye and ear for great lore.  I love her folkloric weavings.  This page is no exception.  Here's a passage from the very beginning of her page:

...As the name midsummer indicates, this is considered the height of the summer. Yet there is an undertone of darkness in the light. While we celebrate the power of the sun, we also note its decline. From now on the hours of sunlight will decrease....

 ...Flowers and May Day wreaths are tossed into the fire. They burn and die just as the heat of the summer consumes the spring and brings us closer to the decline of autumn and the death of vegetation in winter. As we begin the decline, it's important to remember that the wheel of the year is a circle. The spring will come again. The sun will triumph over the darkness again. Thus, the circle is an important symbol. Wreaths are hung on doors. People gaze at the fire through wreaths and wear necklaces of golden flowers.

Before the calendar was changed in the 18th century, Midsummer fell on 4th of July.  When you celebrate Fourth of July, think of all those brilliant fireworks and blazing Catherine wheels as devotions in honor of the sun....

The Wreath
(Courtesy of Tradestone International)

[Added 26 May 2000]: Here Waverly continues with a page on summer solstice wreath-making, an activity she does poorly, which is why her details are so great.

...Until I saw a copy of Elizabeth Jane Lloyd's The Enchanted Circle, I did not think I had the ability to create a wreath. All my attempts were pitiful things, limp and disheveled with bits and pieces sticking out here and there. Looking at the photographs of the gorgeous wreaths Lloyd created I was inspired. Reading her directions on how to create a wreath, I recognized that it was a craft, like baking, which is best done when following directions. Although I know people who can bake a cake from scratch without a recipe, I am not one of them....

I, alas, also have a dreadful time with sensate instructions, and so I'm not likely to make a wreath just yet.  But one day.......yes, I'll try one.  I appreciate, by the way, Waverly's insight into how ritual symbols tend to bridge seasonal dyads:

...Candles are prominent on Christmas and Candlemas.  Eggs show up on Easter and on May Day. Maypoles are danced around on May Day and Summer Solstice....

Like Maypoles, wreaths too, as she points out, figure in May Day as well as Summer Solstice celebrations.

[Added 26 May 2000]: This page, again from Waverly Fitzgerald, looks at how summer "begins" in many parts of the world.  Summer's beginning, as you might guess, is rarely related to a calendar date, which makes for a fascinating little essay......the theme continues in the link directly below ---

[Added 26 May 2000]: -- this fun page collects worldwide insights from people who write to Waverly and comment on how summer begins for them.

[Added 26 May 2000]:From the Celtic Connection comes Herne's page on Litha, or Celtic Summer Solstice. Herne give a good overview and also lists the feast's special foods, herbs and flowers, incense, gem, wood, and activities.

[Added 26 May 2000]: Again from the Celtic Connection comes a Litha ritual by Akasha -- it is a moving, powerful tribute to both Goddess and God at this time of the sun's height.  The ritual works for solitaries as well as groups.

[Added 26 May 2000]: This is a much more elaborate, dramatic ritual from Yasmine Galenorn.  If you have at least 15 people and a strong sense of ritual theatre, this is a great celebration.

[Added 26 May 2000]: Regardless of your path, whether in daily life or ritual-space, this little page on "Grounding & Centering" from Robin Wood (of tarot fame) is highly recommended.  In addition to a simple but crucial exercise, there is a remarkable image of a human body shimmering with 7 glowing chakras (I use it as a screen saver to remind me to stay grounded among all the pixels <smile>).

July 7th Tanabata ("Star") Festival
[see directly below]

[Added 26 May 2000]: Going to the other side of the world, this is an enthusiastic page (with many clickable photos) of Japanese summer feasts and celebrations in June, July and August.  Here is one of the most famous:

...On July 7 th Japan observes another of the seasonal events that originally came from China, way back in the 8th century. It is based on the legend of two stars ---Weaver Star (Vega) and Cowherd (Altair) --- who are supposed to have been lovers and could only meet on the seventh night of the seventh month, though on opposite banks of the River of Heaven (Milky Way). On this day people decorate bamboo branches with ornaments and long strips of colored papers on which they write their  wishes and romantic aspiration....

Current Summer Page

Archived Summer 2000 Page

Archived Summer 1999 Page

August harvest celebration: Lammas or Lughnasa

Autumn Equinox

Wheel of the Year

European Earth-Based Ways

Note: my complete Site Map and e-mail address will be found on my Home page.

<BGSOUND SRC="sumer.mid" LOOP=infinite>

Music: "Sumer is icumen in," courtesy of Curtis Clark of the Renaissance Internet Band.

Lyrics to this music (c. 1250 A.D.):
Sumer is a-coming in,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
Groweth seed and bloweth mead [i.e., meadow]
And springeth wood anew.
Sing, cuckoo!
Sing, cuckoo! Sing, cuckoo!Sing, cuckoo!

Text and layout © 1999-2002 Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.

Summer 2000 page begun 21 May 2000;
revisions & new links & art added 26-28 May 2000.
Published 28-29 May 2000.
Updates: 2 June 2000; 18 August 2000.
Summer 2001 page designed 19 April 2001;
Wrote new essay, checked all links,  changed some images, added new links,
& finally published the page: 12 June 2001
(Note: last year's is now safely archived).
Latest updates: 13 June 2001(revisions to essay); 16 June 2001; 20 June 2001; 22 & 23 June 2001.
This page archived 5/21/02, 1:10am.

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