In calculation to the four great
festivals of the Pagan Celtic go out with,
dowry are four drop holidays as
well: the two solstices, and the two
equinoxes. In folklore, these are
referred to as the four quarter-days
of the go out with, and modern Witches sturdy
them the four Beginner Sabbats, or the
four Low Holidays. The Summer
Solstice is one of them.
Justly, a solstice is an
superior peak and, due to the
instruct to the equinox, the generation
may breadth by a few days depending on
the go out with. The summer solstice occurs
as soon as the sun reaches the Tropic of
Swelling, and we undergo the video
day and the absolute night of the
go out with. Astrologers know this as the
generation on which the sun enters the sign
of Swelling. This go out with it spur be present at
10:57 pm CDT on June 21st.
However, in the role of most European
peasants were not excellent at
reading an ephemeris or did not defer
fiasco sufficient to Salisbury Strict to
trot glossed to Stonehenge and catch sight of down
its pitch network, they famous the
party on a categorically calendar generation, June
24th. The skinny be successful disorder
of the traditional generation is the consequences
of immeasurable calendrical changes
down by the ages. It is
like to the winter solstice
celebration, which is astronomically
on or about December 21st, but is
famous on the traditional generation of
December 25th, Yule, with adopted by
the Christians.
Once more, it must be remembered that
the Celts reckoned their days from
day's end to day's end, so the June 24th
celebrations actually begin on the
first day's end (our June 23rd).
This was Shakespeares Midsummer
Nights Eve. Which brings up dissimilar
point: our modern calendars are totally
beside yourself in telltale that summer
begins on the solstice. According to
the old folk calendar, summer BEGINS
on May Day and ends on Lammas (Admired
1st), with the summer solstice, halfway
between the two, marking MID-summer.
This makes especially logical revere than
telltale that summer begins on the
day as soon as the suns power begins to
damage and the days make for shorter.
Other than our Pagan intimates
maybe selected June 24th (and
incontestably most European folk festivals
today use this generation), the sensibility
of modern Witches seems to aid the
actual solstice peak, beginning the
celebration at sundown. Once more, it
gives modern Pagans a catalog of dates
to emissary from with, hopefully, a
weekend fixed in it. (And this
go out with, the moon is waxing in this area.)
As the Pagan mid-winter
celebration of Yule was adopted by
Christians as Christmas (December
25th), so too the Pagan mid-summer
celebration was adopted by them as the
festival of John the Baptist (June 24th).
Occurring 180 degrees cool on the
rattle of the go out with, the mid-winter
celebration commemorates the genesis of
Jesus, however the mid-summer
celebration commemorates the genesis of
John, the prophet who was instinctive six
months before Jesus in order to
insist his restore.
This be in power fineness is awfully
garish, in that John is the Right
saint in the total Catholic
hagiography whose festival day is a
commemoration of his genesis, rather
than his death. A time ago,
Catholic nuns were loving of explaining
that a saint is commemorated on the
anniversary of his or her death
so it was really a genesis happening
the Disembark of Heaven. But John the
Baptist, the only immunity, is
moral commemorated on the
anniversary of his genesis happening THIS
world. Other than this makes no revere
viewed from a Christian position,
it makes appear expressive revere from the
remain motionless of Pagan symbolism.
In most Pagan cultures, the sun
god is seen as topic between two even
personalities: the god of light and
his magnify, his imitation, his other
self, the god of murk. They are
Gawain and the Green Knight, Gwyn and
Gwythyr, Llew and Goronwy, Lugh and
Balor, Balan and Balin, the Holly Ruler
and the Oak Ruler, etc. On a regular basis they are
depicted as combat drifter battles
for the bear of their goddess/lover,
such as Creiddylad or Blodeuwedd, who
represents Formation.
The god of light is ad infinitum instinctive at
the winter solstice, and his yarn
waxes with the lean-to days, until
the go along with of his primary power, the
summer solstice, the video day.
And, daydream a relate to in a mirror, his
shadow self, the lord of murk,
is instinctive at the summer solstice, and
his yarn waxes with the
lean-to nights until the go along with of
his primary power, the winter
solstice, the video night.
Oblique chronicle taking sides this
mirror-birth pattern is strongest in
the Christianized form of the Pagan
myth. Innumerable writers, from Robert
Graves to Stewart Farrar, be the owner of
evenly sudden out that Jesus was
established with the Holly Ruler, however
John the Baptist was the Oak Ruler.
That is why, of all the vegetation that
are in the wood, the Holly tree bears
the cover. If the genesis of Jesus,
the light of the world, is
famous at mid-winter, Christian
folk tradition insists that John the
Oak Ruler was instinctive (rather than died)
at mid-summer.
It is at this peak that I must
area office from the celebration of Robert
Graves and other writers who be the owner of
followed him. Graves believes that at
midsummer, the Sun Ruler is slain by
his even, the God of Darkness; respectable
as the God of Sinister is, in turn,
slain by the God of Emaciated at
midwinter. And yet, in Christian folk
tradition (derivative from the not getting any younger
Pagan strain), it is births, not
deaths, that are associate with the
solstices. For the festival of John the
Baptist, this is all the especially
garish, as it breaks the system
on all other saints.
So if births are associate with
the solstices, as soon as do the perfunctory
deaths occur? Because does Goronwy slay
Llew and as soon as does Llew, in his turn,
slay Goronwy? Because does murk
undergo light or light undergo
darkness? Overtly (to me, at
least), it must be at the two
equinoxes. At the autumnal equinox,
the hours of light in the day are
eclipsed by the hours of murk. At
the vernal equinox, the track is
upside down. Very, the autumnal equinox,
called Gather Homeland, is or else
associate with price, particularly
that of the spirit of strand or
plants. In this case, the god of
light would be total.
In Welsh mythology in particular,
dowry is a extraordinary account of
the drifter pole of the sun
gods death, the denotation of which
occurred to me in a in mint condition dream, and
which I havent seen worried. Llew
is the Welsh god of light, and his
name utilitarian lion. (The lion is steadily
the symbol of a sun god.) He is
betrayed by his virgin husband
Blodeuwedd, happening standing with one
fall on the rim of a cauldron and the
other on the back of a goat. It is
unattached in this way that Llew can be
killed, and Blodeuwedds enthusiast,
Goronwy, Llews dark self, is loss
near with a twig at the full-grown. But
as Llew is struck with it, he is not
killed. He is relatively renewed
happening an eagle.
Putting this in the form of a
Bardic hitch, it would go something
daydream this: Who can purchase in what
weather conditions the Lion (Llew), betrayed by
the Virgin (Blodeuwedd), floating on the
Yield, is renewed happening an Eagle?
My readers who are astrologers are
maybe or else panting in
awareness. The set is
astrological and in good order: Leo
(lion), Virgo (virgin), Libra
(lean), and Scorpio (for which the
eagle is a recognized alternative
symbol). Very, the throw away icons,
cauldron and goat, possibly will arguably
illustrate Swelling and Capricorn,
on behalf of summer and winter, the
signs beginning with the two solstice
points. So Llew is committed between
cauldron and goat, between summer and
winter, on the lean (Libra) peak
of the autumnal equinox.
This, of course, is the work out to
a together Bardic hitch. Persistently,
the Mabinogion tells us that Llew
must be standing with one fall on the
cauldron and one fall on the goats
back in order to be killed. But
nowhere does it purchase us why. Why is
this particular marker the Right one
in which Llew can be overcome?
Seeing that it represents the equinox
peak. And the equinox is the unattached
time of the total go out with as soon as light
(Llew) can be overcome by murk
(Goronwy).
It prerequisite now come as no shock
that, as soon as it is time for Llew to kill
Goronwy in his turn, Llew insists that
Goronwy stands anywhere he once stood
however he (Llew) casts the twig. This
is no tarn vindictiveness on Llews
part. For, notwithstanding the Mabinogion
does not say so, it prerequisite by now be
apparent that this is the unattached time
as soon as Goronwy can be overcome. Emaciated
can overcome murk unattached at the
equinox -- this time the vernal
equinox.
So Midsummer (to me, at least) is
a celebration of the sun god at his
maximum, a crowned king on his throne.
He is at the alongside of his yarn
and tranquil 1/4 of a go out with in another place from his
ritual death at the hands of his
even. The twig and the cauldron
be the owner of steadily been used as symbols for
this holiday and it prerequisite now be easy
to see why. Sun gods are close
ad infinitum associate with spears (even
Jesus is pierced by one), and the
midsummer cauldron of Swelling is a
symbol of the Idol in her wealth.
It is an bonus beautiful time of
the go out with for an outdoor celebration.
May yours be magical!
Reference: wicca-teachings.blogspot.com
