Midsummer

During the long days of Midsummer, the sun reaches its full height and strength, before beginning its descent into the darkness of winter. This journey of the sun is symbolised by solar heroes such as Samson, whose golden hair is cut and so causes him to lose power and strength, just as the sun weakens during the dark months of winter. In his great work The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P Hall wrote: “The philosophers of Greece and Egypt divided the life of the sun during the year into four parts; therefore they symbolized the Solar Man by four different figures. When He was born in the winter solstice, the Sun God was symbolized as a dependent infant who in some mysterious manner had managed to escape the Powers of Darkness seeking to destroy Him while He was still in the cradle of winter. The sun, being weak at this season of the year, had no golden rays (or locks of hair), but the survival of the light through the darkness of winter was symbolized by one tiny hair which alone adorned the head of the Celestial Child. (As the birth of the sun took place in Capricorn, it was often represented as being suckled by a goat.) At the vernal equinox, the sun had grown to be a beautiful youth. His golden hair hung in ringlets on his shoulders and his light, as Schiller said, extended to all parts of infinity. At the summer solstice, the sun became a strong man, heavily bearded, who, in the prime of maturity, symbolized the fact that Nature at this period of the year is strongest and most fecund. At the autumnal equinox, the sun was pictured as an aged man, shuffling along with a bent back and whitened locks into the oblivion of winter darkness. Thus, twelve months were assigned to the sun as the length of its life. During this period it circled the twelve signs of the zodiac in a magnificent triumphal march. When fall came, it entered, like Samson, into the house of Delilah (Virgo), where its rays were cut off and it lost its strength. In Masonry, the cruel winter months are symbolized by three murderers who sought to destroy the God of Light and Truth.”

Just as the sun enters the dark months of winter, and the time of the wolf, so the temple of Apollo at Delphi was given over to Dionysus while Apollo was away in Hyperborea. This duality is also seen with the Celtic Oak and Holly King. The Oak King is symbolic of the light, while the holly king is symbolic of the dark. “Every year at the Winter and Summer Solstices, these two fight for dominance. In actuality, these brothers are two parts of the same thing, the waxing and waning of the yearly cycles of the Earth. The Holly King rules the waning year, from Midsummer to Yule, and the Oak King rules the waxing year from Yule to Midsummer. The Holly King represents darkness, decay and destruction, however, he also represents inner knowledge and mysteries. The Oak King, on the other hand, represents light, growth and expansion. These two mighty kings fight a symbolic battle to win the Crown of the year, at Yule when the Oak King wins, and at Midsummer when the Holly King wins.” Also seen as the wren and the robin, the robin, with the flush of fire on its breast, in French folk tradition was said to have brought the first fire from heaven.

In Scandinavia, the “people believed that when midsummer came the death of their Sun-God Balder took place, and to light him on his way to the underworld they kindled bright fires of pine branches, and when, six months later at the winter solstice, he regains his life and mounts to greet them, they burn the yule log and hang lights on the fir-trees to illuminate his upward course. Throughout some parts of Norway, especially in the provinces of Bohus and Scania, it is celebrated by the frequent discharge of firearms and by huge bonfires, formerly called Balder’s Balefires (Balder’s Ba˘lar), which are kindled at dusk on hills and eminences and throw a glare of light over the surrounding landscape. The people dance around the fires and leap over or through them. In parts of Norrland on St. John’s Eve the bonfires are lit at the cross-roads. The fuel consists of nine different sorts of wood, and the spectators cast into the flames a kind of toad-stool (Bäran) to counteract the power of the Trolls and other evil spirits, who are believed to be abroad that night; for at that mystic season, the mountains open and from their cavernous depths the uncanny crew pours forth to dance and disport themselves for a time. The peasants believe that should any of the Trolls be in the vicinity they will show themselves; and if an animal, for example, a he or she-goat, happens to be seen near the blazing, crackling pile, the peasants are firmly persuaded that it is no other than the Evil One in person.”

Because of the importance of sun worship, and its widespread influence upon our ancestors, great festivals and ceremonies were held in honour of the solar deities, and which have come down in modified form to us today, our folk traditions echoing back to the ancient solar festivals. All over Europe, fires were lit at Midsummer. Believed to give strength to the sun, chains of fire would illuminate the land from the high hilltops, from Ireland to Austria, blazing wheels of fire were sent rolling down the hillsides, a flash of fire in the gathering dark. It was customary in Würzburg, Germany, in the sixteenth century, for the bishop’s followers to throw burning discs of wood into the air from a nearby mountain. The discs were discharged using flexible rods, and in their flight through the darkness they presented the appearance of fiery dragons. In Western Germany, “every house delivered a sheaf of straw on top of the Stromberg, where the men and lads assembled towards evening, whilst the women and girls gathered about the fountain. A huge wheel was then bound round with straw; a stout pole was passed through the middle of the wheel, and then the persons who were to guide it laid hold on the ends of the pole, while any leftover straw was made into small torches. With a signal from the Mayor the wheel was kindled with a torch and rapidly set in motion. All around those gathered cheered, cried and held their flaming torches aloft as the burning wheel of fire began its descent down the hill and on towards the river. If the flames were extinguished by the river and not before, it was held to be prophetic of a good vintage, and the people of Conz had a right to levy a fuder of white wine upon the surrounding vineyards. Whilst the wheel passed by the female spectators, they would break out into cries of joy, the men on the hilltops reply and the people from the neighbouring villages who have assembled on the banks of the river mingle their voices in the general jubilee.”

Omens of fire and fertility was also seen in many parts of Bavaria, where the people judged the height to which the flax would grow in the year by the height to which the flames of the bonfire rose; or that it would grow as high as the young people leapt over the fire. Some folklorists have compared the midsummer fires, and those specifically of St John’s Eve, to the Vedic legend of Indra’s fight with the midsummer demons. "In this legend," says Keary, "the demon Vritra possessed himself of the sun wheel and the treasures of heaven, seized the women, kept them prisoners in his cavern, and laid a curse on the waters until Indra released the captives and took off the curse." The significance of the ceremony lies in the details that enter into it, the key to which is found in the following passage from a Vedic hymn: "With thee conjoined, O Indu (Soma), did Indra straightway pull down with force the wheel of the sun that stood upon the mighty mountain top, and the source of all life was hidden from the great scather." The German custom is therefore seen to be nothing, but a dramatic portrayal of the great elemental battle as depicted in the sacred books of the ancient Hindus. The wheel of fire on the hilltop represents the sun resting on the crest of the cloud mountain. Both the wheel and the sun descend from their positions of prominence and are extinguished, the wheel by the waters of the stream at the base of the hill, the sun by the sea of clouds.

In remote times, from the green hills of Ireland, to Norway, and the shores of the Mediterranean, the glow of the fires illuminated the land. While many householders also used to put out the fire on the domestic heart and rekindled it using a brand taken from the midsummer bonfire. In Serbia on Midsummer Eve herdsmen lit torches of birch bark and marched round the sheepfolds and cattle-stalls; they then climbed the hills and allowed the torches to burn out. In Brittany, the custom of the midsummer bonfires was kept up well into the 20th century, and when the flames died down, the whole assembly knelt round about the bonfire and an old man prayed aloud. They then rose and marched three times around the fire, until the third turn when they all stopped, picked up a pebble and threw it on the burning pile. In Brittany and Berry it is believed that a girl who dances around nine midsummer bonfires will marry within the year.

The custom of kindling bonfires on Midsummer Day or Midsummer Eve was also once widely spread among the “Mohammedan peoples of North Africa, particularly in Morocco and Algeria; where it was common both to the Berbers and to many of the Arabs or Arabic-speaking tribes. In these countries, Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth of June, Old Style) is called l’ánsa˘ra. The fires were lit in the courtyards, at crossroads, in the fields, and sometimes on the threshing-floors. Plants which in burning give out thick smoke and an aromatic smell were much sought after for fuel on these occasions; among the plants used for the purpose are giant-fennel, thyme, rue, chervil-seed, camomile, geranium, and penny-royal. People expose themselves, and especially their children, to the smoke, and drive it towards the orchards and the crops. They also they leapt across the fires, and in some places, everybody repeated the leap seven times. They also took burning brands from the fires and carried them through the houses to fumigate them. They passed things through the fire, and brought the sick into contact with it, while they uttered prayers for their recovery. The ashes of the bonfires were also reputed to possess beneficial properties; hence in some places, people rubbed their hair or their bodies with them. In some places, they thought that by leaping over the fires they rid themselves of all misfortune and that childless couples thereby obtain offspring. Berbers of the Rif province, in Northern Morocco, made great use of fires at midsummer for the good of themselves, their cattle, and their fruit-trees. They jumped over the bonfires in the belief that this would preserve them in good health, and they lit fires under fruit-trees to keep the fruit from falling untimely. They also rubbed a paste of the ashes on their hair to prevent the hair from falling out. In all these Moroccan customs, we are told, the beneficial effect is attributed wholly to the smoke, which is supposed to be endued with a magical quality that removes misfortune from men, animals, fruit trees and crops.

Returning to Europe we find out that on Midsummer Eve the people would go up to a high place, sometimes a mountain top on the high Pyrenees, for example, a “Mountain of Noon” where the Sun was believed to touch the high peak as she passed over the sky, or more usually, a convenient peak near the village. There they kept a typical night vigil culminating in sunrise, everyone present hoping to see the Sun dance above the hilltops. She was hailed with ceremonial songs and greetings. “In Lithuania, it is supposed that, on St John’s Day, the Sun, a female being, goes forth from her chamber in a car drawn by three horses – golden, silver and diamond – to meet her spouse the Moon, and on her way, she dances and emits fiery sparks.” “St. John’s Eve” or midsummer Eve, was the scene of great festivities and a typical Sun-Vigil, of a kind, almost universally associated with the feminine sun." A time of great magic, from love spells to divination, sorceresses and fairies were believed to roam about on Midsummer's Eve, while great bonfires were lit to lend strength to the sun. In Cornwall, England, if “on midsummer-eve, a young woman takes off the shift which she has been wearing, and, having washed it, turns its wrong side out, and hangs it in silence over the back of a chair, near the fire, she will see, about midnight, her future husband, who deliberately turns the garment….or if a young lady will, on midsummer-eve, walk backwards into the garden and gather a rose, she has the means of knowing who is to be her husband. The rose must be cautiously sewn up in a paper bag, and put aside in a dark drawer, there to remain until Christmas-day.” In the “Slavic countries, young men would leap over the bonfire to show their courage, and maidens would make garlands of nine sacred herbs. These would be cast into the river to ask the blessings of Kupaya, the Water Mother. If a youth was fortunate enough to catch hold of one of these floral wreaths, he could claim the maiden as his own.”

“On the morning of Summer Solstice people woke up early and gathered together outside to see the first sun rays. Everyone wanted to see sun dancing and the way she shone in all various colours bringing warmth to the earth. We can find depictions of these festivities from Latvian songs: ‘ The sun dancing on the silver hill has silver shoes on her feet.’” Once the Sun was up, every one hastened to the nearest holy spring, fountain or stream to bathe, for immediately these waters had been “touched by the Midsummer Sun and infused with her fire ‘their usual virtues of fecundity and healing were infinitely multiplied.’ Bathing in the morning dew was also very popular – strip off and roll around in a flowery meadow. Again, we find that mystical combination of fire and water which so fascinated the Indo-Europeans. The resemblance to the Baltic practice does not stop there, for the ritual baths which conferred general health and good luck upon all were specifically imagined to heal skin-diseases.” Further, it deserves to be remarked that in Sweden St. John’s Eve is a festival of water as well as of fire; for certain holy springs are then supposed to be endowed with wonderful medicinal virtues, and many sick people resort to them for the healing of their infirmities.

In Bulgarian mythology, “the Sun (a male deity), along with his twin, the Moon (a female deity), were created when the sky and earth merged. Both light sources played prominent roles in the beliefs of the Thracians, but on the summer solstice, or Midsummer’s Day, people worshipped the Sun. While it rose that day, they believed the Sun bathed in the sea, rested a while, then shook itself, covering the land with dew. Refreshed, the Sun continued its exhaustive, upward journey to the highest point in the sky. Joyful at having reached the height of summer, the Sun danced, turning three times before descending, marking the transition toward winter. People today continue the tradition of watching the sunrise and dance. In times past, and perhaps even today, people believed that any water the sun’s rays touched along its way to the top of the sky acquired healing powers. People bathed in it or rolled in dew to ensure their good health. Acquiring health was not the only important aspect of the day. Thracian kings performed immortality rites on the solstice at a place they considered the gateway to the afterlife. The ceremony included a ritual bath, after which the king passed through a stone arch (the womb of the Great Goddess) as the Sun penetrated it. The ceremony symbolized the marriage between Sun and Earth (a female deity), which brought about the king’s conception and re-birth.” Magic has long been associated with St John’s Eve, which finds its roots in pagan midsummer. A time like Beltane and Samhain in Celtic tradition, all over Europe it was believed that the world between this world and the otherworld was thinner at this time. Tales are told of silver-eyed fairies who dance beside moonlit lakes, playing sweet music to entice people to come away with them. Some men key vigil beside bonfires, while others slept at sacred places until sunrise, but all were wary not to be spirited away by the fairies. In Wales this night is Gwyl Ifan, where a trunk of a birch tree is decorated and raised amid great merriment.

Throughout Northern Europe herbs were collected, from Mallow and Fennel, Rosemary to Elderflower and bracken to St John’s Wort, all manner of herbs were thought to have their medicinal properties enhanced if harvested on this night. Used since ancient times for nervous exhaustion and insomnia, it was best gathered at dusk and placed over doors and windows to protect evils spirits. It was also left outside in a bowl overnight, and where in the morning people washed their faces with the dew. Interestingly dew has been collected for thousands of years, as for many it symbolises the “Universal Spirit in a condensed form and an alchemical elixir of life that appears out of the vastness of the calm, clear, night sky to offer nourishment and regenerative power. Influenced as it is by the moon and certain planetary configurations.” Herbs play a significant role at this time, for example, many would place flowers under the pillow the night of the solstice, and dream of the one they are meant to be with. Sânziana is a yellow flower that grows in the summer meadows and the girls used to wear crowns made of these flowers at the village dance. Afterwards, they would let the crowns float on the river and the boys would pick them down-stream and that's how they know who their sweetheart is. In the towns about Würzburg in Germany, the bonfires used to be kindled in the market-places, and the young people who jumped over them wore garlands of flowers, especially of mugwort and vervain, and carried sprigs of larkspur in their hands.

Green herbs called "livelong" were plucked by the children and hung up on Midsummer Eve. If a plant was found to be still green on Hallowe'en, the one who had hung it up would prosper for the year, but if it had turned yellow or had died, the child would also die. In Lithuania, it is said that ferns only bloom at midnight on St John’s Eve, and whoever is lucky enough to find such a blossom will gain special powers: to understand the languages of birds and animals, to be able to foretell the future, to know where treasures are buried and many others. Young and old alike go out on this night to look for fern blossoms. For the young, this is a rare opportunity to romp around in the fields and woods at night. Many marriages result from encounters on this night. "The two great days for gathering the fabulous fern seed, which is popularly supposed to bloom like gold or fire on Midsummer Eve, are Midsummer Eve and Christmas, that is, the two solstices. We are led to regard the fiery aspect of the fern seed as primary, and its golden aspect as secondary and derivative. Fern seed would seem to be an emanation of the sun's fire at the two turning-points of its course, the summer and winter solstice. This view is confirmed by a German story, in which a hunter is said to have procured fern seed by shooting at the sun on Midsummer Day at noon. Three drops of blood fell down, which he caught in a white cloth, and these blood drops were the fern seed. Here the blood is the blood of the sun from which the fern seed is thus directly derived. Thus it may be taken as certain that the fern seed is golden because it is believed to be an emanation of the sun's golden fire.

A writer of the first half of the sixteenth century informs us that in almost every village and town of Germany public bonfires were kindled on the Eve of St. John, and young and old, of both sexes, gathered about them and passed the time in dancing and singing. People on this occasion wore chaplets of mugwort and vervain, and they looked at the fire through bunches of larkspur which they held in their hands, believing that this would preserve their eyes in a healthy state throughout the year. As each departed, he threw the mugwort and vervain into the fire, saying, “May all my ill-luck depart and be burnt up with these.” To the “Basque, the herbs and flowers were sacred to the sun - fennel, lime, chamomile, houseleek and others – were woven into wreaths for the Midsummer festival, exactly as among the Baltic peoples. Houses were decorated with them – a practice through to protect against fire and lighting. In particular stemless thistle with its impressive sunburst form, was Eguski’s own flower, the Flower of the Sun, and its petals were used in various solar rites. It had a lesser connection with her sister the Moon, but this had virtually no ritual importance, as Ilargi’s symbol was the wax candle, the death-light. The lintel of the main door in the trad Basque house is decorated with sacred symbols, particularly the tree of life, monstrance, sun-wheel, “shepherd’s rose” six petals within a circle. Sun-thistle, crescent moon, la Croix Basque, stylised flowers, or rosettes, and hearts and other trad designs.” “The fairies are very desirous to abduct handsome cows and carry them off to time fairy palace under the earth; and if a farmer happens to find one of his stock ailing or diseased, the belief is that the fairies have carried off the real good animal, and sent an old wizened witch to take time form of the farmer's cow. It is, therefore, to neutralize the fairy spells that the cattle are driven through the fire on St. John's Eve; and other devices are employed--a bunch of primroses is very effective tied on the tail, or a hot coal run down the cow's back to singe the hair.” In some places they “crowned or girded themselves with mugwort while the midsummer fire was burning, for this is supposed to be a protection against ghosts, witches, and sickness; in particular, a wreath of mugwort is a sure preventive of sore eyes. Sometimes the girls look at the bonfires through garlands of wildflowers, praying the fire to strengthen their eyes and eyelids. She who does this thrice will have no sore eyes all that year. In some parts of Bohemia, they used to drive the cows through the midsummer fire to guard them against witchcraft.”

In ancient Scythia, a grotto serpent, or snake goddess and mistress of the land was said to live near the Black Sea, while in “Northern Spain, flying fairy serpents were regarded as guardians of treasure. The Xanas or “dianas” keep treasures under pools in the “serpent caves” of the Asturias. These beautiful snake-women were sometimes called moras encantadas ("enchanted Moors") though the name is believed to come from the Celtic mahra or mahr, meaning spirit. It resembles mairbh, a Gaelic word for the dead. The Portuguese mouras encantadas live in caverns or funeral mounds. They are only visible on Midsummer night, when they spin or weave with golden thread, or comb their hair, or layout figs in the dew. If a human is lucky enough to pick up this fruit, it changes into gold. The mouras reward midwives who attend their births with similar gifts, tile or coal that turns to gold. In other stories, gifts that seem to be gold turn out to be coal.”

In “ancient Egypt, the night before the summer solstice, Sirius was observed as it reappeared above the horizon after spending 70 days ‘under’ the earth in the Duat, or Underworld. During this period, Anubis, the constellation of the dog, was believed to embalm the star Sirius, hence throughout Egyptian history, human mummies were subject to the same period of preparation mimicking this stellar event. Then Sirius was reborn just before the sunrise.” The summer solstice also corresponded with the rise of the Nile River, and the “Ancient Egyptians connected it to Cancer the crab, which they called the scarab--a beetle of the family Lamellicornes, the head of the insect kingdom, and sacred to the Egyptians as the symbol of Eternal Life. The constellation of the Crab is represented by this peculiar creature because the sun, after passing through this house, proceeds to walk backwards or descend the zodiacal arc. Cancer is the symbol of generation, for it is the house of the Moon, the great Mother of all things and the patroness of the life forces of Nature.” In North America, many tribes took part in solstice rituals. The Sioux “performed a ceremonial sun dance around a tree while wearing symbolic colours.”

A time of new beginnings, to the Ancient Greeks the summer solstice marked the start of their New Year and also the one-month countdown to the opening of the Olympic Games. While in Northwestern Europe, it is believed that Druidic initiations once took place only at the two solstices and the two equinoxes. I will end this piece with a beautiful traditional folk greeting from the Pyrenees:

“Sun, glorious little Sun,

Give us victory!

To you courage, and,

To us, life and health!”

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope that you are well and that you are enjoying these midsummer days, or midwinter days if you are in the southern hemisphere!

xxx

Sources:

Sun Lore of All Ages, by William Tyler Olcott, [1914]

Popular Romances of the West Country collected and edited by Robert Hunt [1904]

The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer [1922]

Serpent and the Mound. SuppressedHistories.Net by Max Dashu

Light, Love, Rituals: Bulgarian Mythology and Folklore by Ronesa Aveela

Eclipse of the Sun by Janet MacCrickard

The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P Hall