7 Things I Did To Ring In The Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice my star child! Yesterday, was Indigenous Peoples Day and the longest day of the year!

I love that Indigenous Peoples Day is the same day as the solstice. I think that's intentional.

I've never done a solstice ritual. In the fall I supported a client launch for someone who held a ritual and it seemed very popular. When I was reminded it was the solstice I had an itch to take advantage of it.

I looked it up a little bit but more or less winged it.

I know the summer solstice is all about happiness, fire, energy and action so I grabbed a couple of great tools that felt right for summer and made my own ritual.

It was fairly similar to my moon rituals with a couple of added twists. I also use a similar structure when I'm doing just a regular day ritual. I'm working on doing them more consistently. I love how I feel and I love taking that time for myself.

Now, I am not an expert at solstice rituals, let's be real... I'm not an expert at moon ones either I just do what feels right to me. That's the key. Do what feels right for you. 

Every time I learn new things I might add or change parts but I took what I knew and very briefly looked things up and just ran with it. You'll feel in your gut if something feels good or not.

8 Things I Did To Ring In The Summer Solstice:

1. Made myself some Lavender tea 

Even if it's hot I like to have something warm to drink during my rituals. I like to feel the warmness make its way down my throat, passed my chest and into my belly. I always try to drink it slowly so I can feel every sip.

When I looked up "summer solstice rituals" I found a list of herbs that go well with the rituals and lavender was one of them. I knew I had some lavender tea from the lavender farm Sacred Mountain on Saltspring Island and thought it was perfect. 

In moon rituals, I'll often have ceremonial kakao but the lavender felt like a nice and light addition to the summertime energy.

2. Lit a candle, saged & cleansed with palo santo

Google told me that often Summer Solstice rituals involved fire, like having a bonfire. Now I didn't have the space or ability to have a bonfire but I thought a nice little candle flame would work just fine.

I grabbed my new candle from my favourite local and organic candle vendor Wick & Wave called SummerTime (how appropriate) and she had even put a special crystal in it for me carnelian. Carnelian is a great stone to help with courage. Many think it helps timid speakers become bold. Hello! That's me.

I also included citrine, which encompasses the power of the sun. It's a very happy and uplifting crystal that magnifies the power of meditation and helps increase your motivation to reach your goals. As well as, amazonite, which helps you with self-acceptance and trusting your intuition.

Of course, I also had to do some energy clearing and cleansing with sage and palo santo.

3. Summer Solstice Meditation

A non-negotiable in my rituals is the inclusion of a meditation. I always need to take a moment to become focused and really tune into myself, my mind and my soul. I used the Insight Timer App to find a beautiful uplifting summer solstice meditation. I try to keep them fairly quick, around 10 minutes.

I use the meditation just to get me ready for the ritual and then I'll select a sound bath to play while I complete the rest of the ritual. Yesterday, I chose a throat chakra one.

4. Card Pull

Yesterday, I chose to use my Angels and Ancestors Oracle Cards deck by Kyle Gray. This card deck has been a favourite of mine lately. It makes me feel so connected to myself and seen.

I always do a card pull of some kind during my rituals. During moon ones, I'll often do a spread of three (two of one deck and one of another) with Surrender Cards for each. Yesterday I just chose one. I let myself be intuitively guided to what I needed. When you do your ritual feel into what feels right. You might be quite a few cards or you might just need one. Allow it to play out how it's meant to.

5. Journal exercise

I Googled "summer solstice journal prompts" and was led to the website The Seasonal Soul. She included many examples and I got a sense of what themes go along with the summer solstice and summer vibes.  I took some creative liberties and felt into what I thought I needed to write about... which often the pen takes over and you end up writing about completely different things or even indirectly answering the prompt.

I use the prompt "How am I going to light my inner fire?" Then I let the pen run wild.

6. I walked barefoot in the grass

My favourite grounding practice! I turned on an instrumental version of Here Comes The Sun and I stood and walked in the grass outside my building. During that time I just let myself think about everything I had to be grateful for. All the amazing things that have happened to me this year, despite it being a touch year I still have so much to be grateful for. I also thought about all the things I wanted to accomplish.

Then I took a nice deep breath and allowed myself to breathe in the beautiful solstice air!

7. Danced to a summertime song

Once the song finished I went back upstairs (if I had a backyard or was in a park I might have done this there). I turned on the song Summertime by Rascal Flats, something upbeat, happy and excited about summer and danced around in the kitchen.

I love dancing like no one is watching as a way to move energy through my body. It was an excellent way to finish off a beautiful ritual.

Take what you want from my ritual, change what you like, add what you like and make it your own.

I love performing these rituals as a way of spending intimate time with myself, getting to know myself and healing from childhood trauma, mental illness and an eating disorder history. I spent a lot of years distancing myself from myself and it's been fun getting to know myself again.

Wishing you a happy summer season!

There are a lot of great habits you can add to your day to help your wellness. To get organized so these don't become overwhelming grab a FREE copy of my How To Create Your Own Wellness Plan resource to figure it out what and how to create a wellness plan that works for you and your life.