The Month of Glory
June comes and light blazes across the land. Now is the time of brightness and warmth, when the Sun God stands in all his glory, with long days and short nights. According to the early chronicler Bede, the Anglo Saxons called the month Litha,142 which probably means “light.” Basking in the light of Father Sun, Mother Earth is in the full flush of her maturity, soft and ample; foliage is lush, and the perfume of flowers fills the air. The crops have been planted and are growing nicely. The young animals have been born. The hay fields stand tall, shivering in the summer breeze, ready for haymaking. Winter seems far away. Unsurprisingly, we feel more joyful and want to spend more time in the open air—it is a natural time of celebration.
The name “June” comes from Juno, the Roman goddess of women, marriage, and childbirth, wife of the sky god Zeus. Her name is derived from the Latin name iuvenis (as in juvenile), which was used to indicate a young woman ready for a man and probably refers to the ripening of the crops. This month the sun and earth consummate their union as the seed of fire kindles the earth to swell with fruit so that autumn and harvest can come in turn. In Scots Gaelic, it was An t’Og mhios, the young month, while in the Slavonic languages it was named as the linden month and the rose blossoming month.143
In the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice falls this month. It marks the zenith of the sun, the longest day. The word solstice is derived from Latin and means “sun stands still.” For three days around the winter and summer solstices, the sun appears to rise and set at almost exactly the same place, so it seems to be standing still on the horizon. However, while the date of the solstice varies between June 19–23, the official calendar “Midsummer” is pegged to June 24, which is St. John’s Day in the Christian almanac and to which the earlier Pagan festivities of the solstice were appropriated.
Every ancient religion had its own customs and traditions associated with the summer solstice, and they date back into prehistory. Midsummer was—and still is—an important festival for those who live in the far north. There are many folk customs associated with it, most of which celebrate the light and encourage the power of the sun with sympathetic magic in the form of bonfires, rolling wheels, circle dances, and torchlight processions.
Midsummer fires once blazed all across Europe and North Africa and were believed to have the power to protect the revellers from evil spirits, bad fairies, and wicked witches, as well as ward off the powers of blight, disease, and death. In England every village would have its own fire, while in towns and cities the mayor and corporation actually paid for its construction, and the jollities accompanying it were often very elaborate. Large bonfires were lit after sundown, and this was known as “setting the watch” to ward off evil spirits. Men and women danced around the fires and often jumped through them for good luck, and afterwards a smouldering branch was passed over the backs of farm animals to preserve them from disease. As late as 1900 at least one old farmer in Somerset would pass a burning branch over and under all his horses and cattle.144 The Cornish even passed children over the flames to protect them from sickness in the coming year.
Torches would be lit at the bonfire, and these would be carried inside the milking parlour to keep milk and butter safe from evil magic, then around the fields and growing crops as a protection and blessing. The ashes of the bonfires were scattered in the corn as an aid to fertility.145 Some of these torchlight processions reached lavish proportions. Garland-bedecked bands of people, sometimes called a marching watch, carried cressets (lanterns on poles) as they wandered from one bonfire to another. Often Morris dancers attended them, with players dressed as unicorns, dragons, and hobby horses.
Midsummer was a potent time for magic and divination. The twelfth-century Christian mystic Batholomew Iscanus declared, “He who at the feast of St. John the Baptist does any work of sorcery to seek out the future shall do penance for fifteen days.”146 More recently, young girls would use the magic of the season to divine their future husbands. According to one charm, a girl should circle three times around the church as midnight strikes, saying: “Hemp seed I sow, Hemp seed I hoe/Hoping that my true love will come after me and mow.” Looking over her shoulder, she should see a vision of her lover following her with a scythe.
The raising of the midsummer tree, identical to the maypole, is a custom found in many areas, including Wales, England, and Sweden. It was decorated with ribbons and flowers, and topped by a weathercock with gilded feathers, the cockerel being a bird of the sun.
It was the tradition for people to watch the sun go down on St. John’s Eve, then stay awake for the entire length of the short night and watch the sun come up again. In the sixteenth century, John Stow of London described street parties where people set out tables of food and drink that they invited their neighbours to share, made up their quarrels, lit bonfires, and hung their houses with herbs and small lamps.147
In Britain it was the custom to visit holy wells just before sunrise on Midsummer’s Day, when the light would infuse the water with magical and healing powers. The well should be approached from the east and walked round sunwise three times. Offerings such as pins or coins were thrown into the well and its water drunk from a special vessel.148
The magic of June is concerned with light, fire, warmth, and growth, the heat and light of Father Sun bringing Mother Earth to bear fruit.
Early June
June 1: The Goddess of Fertility
In ancient Rome the first day of June marked the birthday of Juno, queen of the gods, and the whole month was sacred to her. She is the guardian of women, so the month was considered the most propitious month for marriage, and in some places it still is. She is a complex goddess with many facets, but she is connected with the idea of vital life force, fertility, and eternal youthfulness. In this aspect she had her counterparts in other pantheons, such as the Greek Hera, the Norse Freya, and the Avestic Anahita.
Mother of Fertility Ritual
Consider the Goddess at this time of year by whatever name you know her. She is the earth beginning to bear, responding to the light of the Sun God at this time of long hours of daylight and greater warmth. In this short ritual, we address her as the vital life force that flows throughout the world and throughout us.
Light a red candle on your altar and say:
Goddess, your vital force flows throughout the world,
Pushing up with every shoot
Each fledgling bird
Each opening flower.
You are the life giver
The woman of power
Who rejuvenates the earth.
Flow through me too
And let me know your touch.
Reflect on this for a while, and let the candle burn itself out.
June 5: Day the Birds Stop Singing
In some early medieval calendars, this is listed as the date the birds stop singing until later in the year. The birds are busy with their parenthood and the woods are full of fledglings, which means their songs change before falling silent this month. The cuckoo’s note falters and the nightingale’s voice becomes harsh.
June 7: The Hearth Goddess
Almost every pantheon contains a Hearth Goddess, including Vesta, Hestia, Brighid, Gabija, and Svasti. The flame of the hearth represented her in every house and stood for the Goddess herself. In Greek myth Hestia was worshipped as the centre, whether the centre of the city, the house, even the centre of the world, the omphalos (“the navel”) at Delphi. As the domestic hearth is the sacred centre of the home, the hearth of the gods is the centre of the cosmos. According to Plato, the twelve Olympian gods, who represent the twelve constellations of the zodiac, circle the House of Heaven, while Hestia remains still at the centre, tending the hearth, which is called “the Everlasting Place.” Her name, according to Plato, means “the essence of things”—a formless essence symbolised by the flame, which flows through everything that has life.
Her Roman equivalent is Vesta, and the Romans celebrated the Vestalia in her honour this week. This was a seven-day celebration for women only, when they walked barefoot to make offerings to the Goddess. Her priestesses, the Vestales, made hard-baked cakes, using water carried in consecrated jugs from a holy spring and sacred salt. These were cut into slices and offered to the Goddess. After the festival, the temple was cleaned and the refuse thrown into the Tiber River.149
Celebration of the Hearth Goddess
Since the Hearth Goddess represents the purity of fire and the security and prosperity of the home, safeguarding the wellbeing and security of the inhabitants as well as its wealth and supplies, I think it is important to honour her even during the summer months. I never forget that she is the essence of life and the hearth keeper of the gods. Though there is no fire in the hearth in summer, I keep a candle burning on the mantelpiece (you could do this on your altar if you don’t have a hearth) and make regular offerings.
Today I will put flowers on the hearth and make an offering of incense to the Hearth Goddess.
Mid-June
In my garden pond, the tadpoles are acquiring their legs but still have their tails. This will be absorbed into the body, and by the end of June the young frogs will be ready to leave the pond.
My vegetable plot is yielding plenty of salad vegetables and soft fruits now, and I’m having to water the greenhouse copiously. This is my busiest time of year in the herb garden, when most of my herbs are at their best. As well as using fresh herbs for cooking, I am industriously collecting and drying leaves and flowers, as well as preparing tinctures, oils, vinegars, and salves. Mother Earth is in full bearing, and the Sun God pours his energy into the plants so that this is the time when they are filled with power. This is why the Sun God in every mythology is the patron of healing. This is the most potent time of year to collect many herbs for magical purposes too, and I will be trying to lay in a good enough supply of herbs to last the year.
I collect mint (Mentha spp.) for tea and for ritual cleansing, oregano for spells of love and friendship and to add to skin-care products, St. John’s wort to make macerated oil and tincture, fennel (Foeniculum vulgare syn. Anethum foeniculum) to honour the Sun God and for protection, and dill (Anethum graveolens syn. Peucedanum graveolens) for upset stomach and protection spells.
Elderflowers, sacred to the Mother of the Elves, are gleaming white in the hedgerows, and I make sure to collect and dry a good supply of these to use for fevers and hay fever as well as skin lotions, elderflower cordial, and elderflower champagne.
This is a very hit and miss old recipe: sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. If there is no sign of the natural yeast working after a day or two, try adding a little champagne yeast.
1½ pounds sugar
1 lemon
4 pints elderflower heads
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 gallon cold water
2 campden tablets
Warm a pint of the water and dissolve the sugar in it. Allow it to cool. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and chop the rind roughly. Place the flowers in a bowl and add the vinegar, pour on the rest of the water, sugar, and lemon rind, and add the Campden tablets. Steep for 4 days. Strain the infusion well so that all trace of matter is excluded and bottle in screw-top bottles. The elderflower champagne will be ready to drink in 7 days.
June 11: Haysel
This is the date when haysel (haymaking) traditionally begins, which is on the feast of St. Barnabas, who is often pictured carrying a hay rake:
Barnaby bright, Barnaby bright
Light all day and light all night.
On his day it was customary to deck churches and houses with Barnaby garlands of roses, sweet woodruff, and pink ragged robin. Another tradition rhyme about this is as follows:
When Barnabas smiles both night and day
Poor ragged robin blooms in the hay
At St. Barnabas, the scythe in the meadow.
June 13: Feast of the Thunder God
Water becomes very important at the height of the summer when the growing crops need irrigating. According to an old saying, A dry May and a dripping June/Brings all things in tune.150 However, the hot weather often brings thunderstorms, and this is the season the thunder god was honoured and sometimes placated. He has had many names, and the oak was usually sacred to him since lightning was often believed to strike the oak more than any other tree. In Greece he was called Zeus, and it was said that thunderstorms raged more frequently around his sacred oak grove at Dodona than anywhere else in Europe. The oak was also sacred to Thor, the Norse thunder god whose famous hammer caused thunder; during the conversion of the Germans, St. Boniface felled an oak in which Thor was believed to reside. Oaks also figured in many representations of Taranis, the British thunder god. The Finnish god of thunder was Ukko (“oak”). In Russia the oak god was called Perun, “thunderbolt.” The Lithuanian god of the oak was Perkaunas or Perunu (“thunder”); if lightning struck a tree, a rock, or a man, they were believed to hold some of his sacred fire. In Latvia, even today, oak wreaths are worn by men named Janis (John) at Midsummer. Small oak branches with leaves are attached to cars in Latvia during the festivity.
Thunder God Ritual
Have ready a bowl of water and a twig of oak in leaf. Using the oak twig, sprinkle some of the water on the earth. Light a red candle. Say:
Thunderer: your roar causes the sky and earth to tremble
You spark the fire of lightning
Your light rends the clouds
I honour you and offer you praise.
Be gentle with us
Send us rain in time of need
To nourish the earth
Blessed be.
Put out the candle to signify the end of the rite.
Late June
We enter the zodiac sign of Cancer the Crab, a small constellation and the faintest in the entire zodiac; if you live in a light-polluted city, you probably won’t be able to see it at all. In Greek mythology Cancer was identified with the crab that appeared while Herakles fought the many-headed Hydra (represented by the constellation Hydra). It bit him on the foot, and Herakles stamped on it and killed it before turning back to his task. The goddess Hera placed the crab among the stars but made the stars really faint in token of the fact it had failed to distract the hero.
The summer solstice is said to occur when the sun enters the first point of Cancer the Crab, though because of the precession of the equinoxes, the sun is actually in the sign of Taurus when the summer solstice occurs. However, the mythology is based on the system extant in classical times, when, on its annual journey around the zodiac, the sun spent forty days wandering in the mysterious realm of darkness that is Cancer. The Egyptians associated the constellation with Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the dead, viewing it as a gateway to the netherworld. In Babylon it also had magical connections with the dead and ghosts, and to the Chinese it is a lunar mansion called “Ghosts” and has links with the dead and the afterlife. The constellation of Cancer was known to the Chaldean and Platonist philosophers as the Gate of Men, though which they believed that the souls of people came down from heaven and were incarnated at the summer solstice, as opposed to Capricorn, which was the Gate of the Gods, where departed souls returned to the heavens at the winter solstice and though which the Sun God was reborn.151
The Summer Solstice
It has been raining on and off for most of the day, and it still is as we arrive at the site of our Midsummer vigil. The willow-fringed lake is hazy and the oak trees dripping. We set up beneath the ancient linden, and the perfume of its blossoms fills the air. Then, as we are about to begin, the sky clears and a rainbow forms over the lake, a full bow arched across the sky. We stare at it in wonder. It hangs for a long time. Our ritual begins with the words “open wide the ancient gateway,” and here the gateway is in the sky before us over the lake and our ritual site, inviting us in. As we reach the lake, the rainbow fades. We have passed the gateway and entered the liminal place and time. We speak the sacred words, watch the sun go down, and begin our vigil through the night, feasting and telling stories around the fire, watching the stars through the short hours of darkness. Venus, the morning star, rises, and the birds begin, one by one, to sing, heralding the dawn.
As the sun rises over the horizon, Dave plays a swan bone flute, gilded in gold, a gift of the lake itself a year and a day ago, a year and a day in the making. A gleam of light shimmers along its edge as it is played only once, at that moment, then Dave smashes it and returns the pieces to the lake, an offering to the gods. Swan veils of mist swirl across the surface of the water, gathering and dispersing, running in from both sides to a single point, where they rise, forming the shape of a white figure, the Lady of the Lake herself come to give us her blessing before the strengthening sun burns off the mist and bathes us in a golden dawn.
Summer Solstice Ritual
This ritual is performed at the rising of the sun on the day of the solstice. A glass vessel full of water is placed on the ground, a sprig of rosemary beside it. Sit and wait until the sun starts to rise, then say:
This is the time of greatest light. The powers of winter are far away, the powers of darkness a story for children. We celebrate in this time of brightness. We honour the Lord of the Sun and the Lady of the Earth, whose marriage causes the grain to grow, the vine to ripen, the herbs to become imbued with power. Without their gifts, we would not be.
Mother Earth, you are life, you are abundance
You produce everything in nature
You produced me, your child
You are first in all things, you surround me
You are beneath my feet.
You give me the food I eat, the water I drink
From you comes all I see, all that breathes.
Father Sun, you are the bright and shining light
You are the eye of the sky
You see right through to the limits of the darkness
You behold everything; even into the realm of chaos
Your blessings fall upon the earth and cause the crops to grow.
Wait for the sun to rise and illuminate the vessel and charge the water with solstice power.
Take the glass vessel and say:
As I drink, I embrace the light within me.
Drink and say:
Let the light grow within me.
Take the sprig of rosemary, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it over yourself. Say:
I give thanks to the Great Goddess of the earth. Mother, grant us your blessings. Grant us full orchards and fields of ripening grain. Be with us in our lives, as you once were to those of old. Grant us your love and blessings. Let blessing be!
O Lord of the Sun, great eye of the heavens! Grant your light and your blessing to this land; protect us from the powers of blight and darkness. Be with us in our lives as you once were to those of old. Grant us your wisdom and your blessings. Let blessing be!
Let this ritual end with love and blessings. Blessed be.
June 23: Midsummer Eve/St. John’s Eve
While the solstice date varies, Midsummer’s Eve is fixed on the calendar as June 23, pegging a moveable feast to a fixed date, and the folk customs of the solstice moved with it.
Midsummer Eve was believed to be one of the great fairy festivals152 when fairies are abroad, moving amongst humankind, frolicking around the Midsummer bonfires and playing all sorts of tricks, ranging from stealing human brides and performing innocent pranks to inflicting horrible curses and even death.153 In the Shetlands the mysterious selkies come ashore. They normally look like gray seals, but on this night they shed their skins to become human and dance on the shoreline. If they are disturbed, they will grab their skins and run back to the sea, though if a man can steal and hide the skin, he can force a selkie maid to marry him—if she ever finds her skin, she will put it on and be off back to the sea. In Russia the green-haired Rusalka fairies walk the land at Midsummer, and where they tread flowers appear, and their movement through the grain causes it to grow. The mischievous Robin Goodfellow or Puck is about in English woodlands, playing tricks on unwary travellers and leading them from their paths. Certainly we had a strange experience in the coven one solstice when we turned away from the circle and couldn’t find our way back, even though it was only a few yards away and we knew the woods intimately. Eventually, after walking just a few paces, we found ourselves at the other side of the woods, at least a mile away, so I do believe it happens!
According to fairy lore, if you want to see fairies, then you will need the aid of certain magical herbs such as thyme. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon tells Puck “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows/Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows” because at midnight on Midsummer’s night, the King of the Fairies dances with his followers on wild thyme beds. It was an ingredient of many magical potions, dating from around 1600, which allowed the user to see fairies. One simple charm was to make a brew of wild thyme tops gathered near the side of a fairy hill plus grass from a fairy throne. It was also an ingredient of the fairy ointment that was applied to the eyes of newborn fairy babies to enable them to see the invisible. Like other fairy flowers, wild thyme is unlucky if brought indoors. It is one of the best herbs used to attract and work with the fairies and is utilised in offerings and spells.
Midsummer’s Eve Fairy Ritual
Prepare a garland of lavender flowers, rosemary, violets, and thyme sprigs, all of which you must pick yourself. Go to a fairy-haunted place at dawn, taking with you a bottle of homemade wine, a cup, some cakes that you have made yourself, and a garland of flowers.
Put on the garland. Say:
Spirits of this place, I call to you.
Spirits of this place, I honour you.
Attend me now and witness my intentions.
Pour some of the wine into the cup. Pour a few drops on the ground, saying:
Spirits of this place, I make this offering to you.
Drink some of the wine.
Take the cakes and crumble one onto the ground, saying:
Spirits of this place, I make this offering to you.
Eat one of the cakes. Say:
Spirits of this place, draw near and listen to my words. I come to honour you,
to pledge to you that I shall honour the sacred earth on which we both live;
I shall not pollute or harm it. I shall honour the wild places and hold sacred
the creatures of the earth, my brothers and sisters of fur and fin, of leaf and bark.
I shall hold sacred the cycles of the seasons and be part of the dance of the earth.
Like you, spirits of this place, I shall be brave and compassionate, humble
and honourable, taking no more than I need and treading softly on the earth.
I shall be wild; I shall be free. Test my words, and if you find them truthful, spoken from my heart, then accept me as your friend. If you find them false, then treat me accordingly.
Sit quietly for a while and listen to the world around you. You may see evidence of spirit presence or hear voices in the trees or whispering in the wind.
When you are ready to leave, get up and leave the rest of the cakes, pour the wine onto the ground, and say:
Spirits of this place, you have listened to my words and weighed my intentions.
I go now, but I shall hold you in my heart. Spirits of this place, hail and farewell.
It is important to build up a relationship with the place that you work and the spirits that inhabit it over a period of time. It would be foolish to descend on a spot and demand its energies; it takes a long time for the spirits to get to know you and trust you. It is beneficial to carry out most of your magical work in the same place. Over the years it will become more and more powerful, and you will gain the trust of its spirits.
June 24: Midsummer’s Day/St. John’s Day
The date for celebrating the moveable summer solstice became fixed on the day of St. John the Baptist, thus enabling the Catholic Church to associate many of the ancient summer solstice customs with his worship. The solstice fires became the fires of St. John, whom Jesus called “a bright and shining light.” The early Christians had a deliberate policy of transforming Pagan celebrations into church occasions. Some of the representations of John are rather strange for a Christian saint. He is often depicted with horns, furry legs, and cloven hooves, like a satyr or woodwose. His shrines too are often of a rustic nature, ostensibly because John was fond of wandering in the wilderness. It is possible that John not only took over a Pagan Midsummer festival for his feast day, but also the attributes and shrines of an earlier green god. Other Midsummer symbols accumulated around St. John, and he was made the patron of shepherds and beekeepers.
In the Middle Ages, Christian mythographers declared that St. John was born at the summer solstice at the time of the weakening sun, announcing his own power would wane with the birth of Christ at the winter solstice, the time of the strengthening sun,154 associating them with the oak and holly respectively, perhaps drawing on earlier myth and folklore. The evergreen holly persists through the winter death-time and so was identified with Christ, the white flower emblematic of his purity, the prickles his crown of thorns, and the red berries the drops of his shed blood: “of all the trees that are in the woods, the holly bears the crown,” in the words of the old carol.155
The Midsummer Wand
The most propitious time in the year to make a magic wand is at Midsummer, and whether you count this as the solstice or the calendar day is up to you, but for magical use, you should cut your own wand from living wood. Go out before dawn on Midsummer Day and seek your chosen tree as the sun rises. The wood should be virgin—that is, of one year’s growth only—and the wand should be cut from the tree at a single stroke. It should measure from elbow to fingertip. If you wish to, you can smooth and polish the wand with glass-paper, but do not varnish it. Make a small hollow in the end that you will hold in your hand and insert a piece of cotton thread with a drop of your own blood into it before sealing it with wax.
June 29: St. Peter and St. Paul’s Day
In many places the solstice/Midsummer festivities begun on St. John’s Eve went on until St. Peter and St. Paul’s Day.
A French proverb states that if it rains today, it will rain for thirty more days. Alexander Carmichael in the Carmina Gadelica recorded this Scottish fishermens’ saying:
Wind from the west, fish and bread;
Wind from the north, cold and flaying;
Wind from the east, snow on the hills;
Wind from the south, fruit on the trees.
Between Midsummer and this day, many rush-bearing customs take place in England, when rushes or new-mown hay (this is the hay-making season) are brought in to be laid on the floors of churches.
June 30: Rose Day
June is the month of roses, when they are at their most abundant. Armenians celebrate Rose Day seven weeks after Pentecost. Originally this was a summer festival of the goddess Anahid, who was offered roses and doves. Roses are sacred to many gods and goddesses of love, including Isis, Aphrodite, Venus, Eros, Cupid, Inanna, and Ishtar.
Like other flowers with rayed petals, they are an emblem of the sun. Like the sun, which dies each night and is reborn each day at sunrise, the rose is an emblem of renewal, resurrection, and eternal life, which is why the Celts, Egyptians, and Romans used them as funeral offerings.156 I collect them to make rose vinegar, rose water, and oils and infusions to add to skin creams. Some petals I dry for tea or adding to incense.
Today, to honour the Goddess, I decorate my altar with roses.
142. Kightly, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore.
143. Nilsson, Primitive Time-Reckoning.
144. Tongue, Somerset Folklore.
145. This has a scientific basis: wood ash provides a high potash feed for plants.
146. Mediaeval Handbooks of Penance, ed. J. T. McNeill & H. M. Garner (New York, 1938).
147. A Survey of London, ed. C. L. Kingsford (Oxford, 1908).
148. McNeill, The Silver Bough.
149. Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1998).
150. Blackburn and Holford-Strevens, Oxford Companion to the Year.
151. White, Babylonian Star-Lore.
152. According to the folklore, good fairies start to come out around the vernal equinox, are very animated by Beltane, and at the peak of their activities by Midsummer. By Halloween, most of the good fairies have disappeared from sight and the bad fairies, such as goblins, rule the winter period.
153. W. B. Yeats (ed.), Folk and Fairy Tales of the Irish Peasantry (London, W. Scott, 1888).
154. Walter, Christianity.
155. Williamson, The Oak King, the Holly King, and the Unicorn.
156. Green, Gods of the Celts; Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, The Ultimate Guide to Roses (London: Macmillan, 2004); and Laurie Brink and Deborah Green, Commemorating the Dead: Texts and Artifacts in Context; Studies of Roman, Jewish and Christian Burials (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2008).