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Summer solstice rituals: midsummer fires, part 1
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At least since the Neolithic days of old, on Midsummer’s Eve, as the sun descended into the night of the longest day, drums were sounded and great bonfires were lit -
"Weeds to the fire, flax to the field!
May all ill luck depart!"
Midsummer bonfires were set ablaze in celebration and commemoration of the sun’s yearly descent. For both protection and good fortune, handfuls of herbs, flowers, mushrooms, and wood were amongst the myriad kindling tossed into the ritual flames. Mugwort and vervain were symbolically burned to eradicate pain and reduce bad luck to ashes. The smoke from the flames warded off trolls, witches, and evil spirits that secretly roamed the lands. Gazing into bundles of larkspur was believed to encourage clear vision. In later times, wheels of fire were rolled down hillsides in a symbolic reenactment of the sun's descent. There was fasting in the morning and feasting in the evening. In his book The Golden Bough, James Frazer reveals "that in the darkness and stillness of the night the moving groups, lit up by the flickering glow of the flames, presented an impressive spectacle."
Ritual and ceremonial settings such as these constellate an atmosphere of readiness in the psyche. As a corollary, think about how we ready ourselves for a challenging task: 1… 2 …
The tension of waiting for 3 is palpable. That tension is the energy we are harnessing when we engage in ritual.
Ritual has always been a means for the transformation of the psychic energy. Carl Jung compared this transformation of energy to that of a steam engine, which converts heat into the pressure of steam and then into the energy of motion - an instinctual process in the psyche that he called canalization. This canalization was something that humans did (and still do in dreams) naturally, like beavers who make dams or birds who build their nests at certain times of year. As days after midsummer got shorter and the nights longer, human beings who lived in close connection with the land had to prepare for the shifts these changes brought about. Today, however, instead of calling for good crops and riddance of the weeds, we can look at what we want to change in our psychic landscapes.
Coming up: Summer solstice rituals: midsummer fires and summer solstice, part 2
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