THE SPIRAL DANCE

It is the Summer Solstice.  The longest day of the year, the shortest night.  I have never entered into the spirit of festivity surrounding this seasonal celebration in the way I have the Winter Solstice.  Summer is always so full and busy, bursting with life and activity, visits from family, work in the garden - yet this day is the high point.  From here on, the light diminishes, the darkness gains on us, imperceptibly at first, until it culminates in the shortest day, longest night, in December.  It's a lovely rhythm, really, the turning of a wheel, over and over again. 

Sometimes I think one reason we have let the earth get into such a mess is that as industrial society took hold, we moved further and further from contact with Nature and her rhythms and revolutions.  How many of us keep track of the phases of the moon, the constellations visible in different seasons, the timing of the tides, the amount of rainfall in a given time?  Perhaps farmers and fisherpeople still keep in touch with these cycles.  The rest of us are just trying to rush from urban setting to urban setting, in the confines of our cars.  Using my bike as transportation is helping me get out of this to some degree, gardening is also a way of moving closer to natural cycles of growth and ripening.

Once upon a time this was a day of great festivity, it's the fabled "midsummer" of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Magical things can happen!  It was celebrated with bonfires, dancing, feasting.  It is a time for marriages and pledging of troths - this full moon is called the "honey moon," and from this comes the post-wedding tradition called by the same name.  With the advent of Christianity this day became the feast of St. John the Baptist, and the bonfires were incorporated.

I think we have lost a lot in losing touch with these ancient days that brought together so many elements, celebrating the fact that our lives, too, are part of Nature and her cycles.  To learn more lovely lore about Midsummer's Day, the Summer Solstice, go to The School of the Seasons.  This BBC site also has loads of interesting information.  Sadly, on this the longest day, I am so tired I'm thinking of going to bed soon after I eat dinner.  But perhaps next year I'll get into the spirit of things, harken back to my Celtic roots, and arrange a bonfire on the beach, add my energy to the sun's energy, and hope we can return to a life in synch with Nature.