Grian-stad – the stopping of the sun, or Solstice has now passed, and so I wanted to follow up and share how I spent the time I set aside to observe this cosmic time of alignment.
Leading up to Solstice
As I explored ancestral practices, one of the rituals that spoke to me was visiting and making offerings to the Spirits of natural springs and wells, and the Beings that gather around them.
Last year I discovered that one of the few drinkable mineral water springs on Vancouver Island that are publicly accessible is only a 10-minute drive from my house (Hidden Spring, Goldstream Park). The last hike I took with my dear Great Dane Mr. Carson before he died was to this very spring.
Gathering Offerings
Before going, I wanted to prepare a proper offering, and traditionally, wild flowers make a great offering. So, step one was to get out early in the morning, about 3 days before Grian-stad and go to gather some flowers.
As a friend helpfully reminded me; I wanted to be sure that I was only taking flowers that aren’t harmed by the harvesting. For example – where I am, the western trillium is still blooming, a flower that is fragile and takes years of development before flowering. I’ll never pick a trillium. There are also many orchids and lillies that grow wild in the woods in my area. I keep away from those too.
Good practices I use include:
not picking the first ones I see
asking permission and feeling into whether it’s okay to pick these specific flowers
and heeding if I feel it’s a NO.
Only picking a few from any individual group is a recommended practice, and…
I always leave an offering in exchange.
I carry a bag of medicine – in which is tobacco, cedar, scotch pine, hops, and several other plant medicines and I leave a pinch with blessings when I’m picking. If I forget my medicine bag, and I don’t have a formal offering, I’ll leave a gift of my own body – even just a few hairs – practicing reciprocation, the recognition that any time I want to take something, it’s best that I give something in return.
I went to a local path that my partner Marnie and I walk regularly along some unused railroad tracks. The time approaching midsummer is INCREDIBLE in terms of the abundance of growth. The Earth is just bursting with life, and it took me all of 30 minutes to put together a fantastic bouquet to take to the spring.
Visiting the Spring
A few hours later, after lunch, Marnie and I took offerings (some smoked salmon and the flowers) to the spring. When we arrived, we found that someone else had also recently visited and set up a lovely shrine and offering there, which included a skull, some stones laid out in a beautiful pattern, some feathers and some Palo Santo – whoever you are, thank you!
We made our offerings, and then sat and listened to the music that the water made as it bubbled out of the Earth. It truly does amaze me every time I visit, I mean - here is a place where cold, clear, and clean drinkable water just shoots out of the ground... hundreds of gallons an hour... what an incredible blessing!
We had brought a couple of water jugs to fill and bring some of the beautiful water home, which we did... some of which I planned to use in making “Sun Tea” – another Solstice tradition.
Solstice Day
Sunrise
On the Solstice Day (This year June 20th), we rose early so that we could travel to a nearby East facing beach to watch the sunrise. The early morning was quiet, and the sky was mostly clear with just a band of cloud above the mountains to the East. The sun was partially obscured by the clouds as it rose, but we stayed until it broke above the clouds and sang welcome to it, and made offerings.
Sun Tea I
After breakfast (eggs sunny-side up of course) and a much-needed nap, I put together the ingredients for Sun Tea. My dear friends are regenerative farmers and gardeners, and gave me a bag full of various medicinal herbs, which I combined in a glass jar, and set in the sun at about 11am, so that it could steep in the midday Solstice Sun.
Midday Bathing
As midday approached (“solar noon” - the mid-point between sunrise and sunset was at 1:34pm) I made my way to a secluded spot at a beautiful river near my home, where I was able to make offerings and bathe in the river “au naturel” under the midday Solstice sun – and the river is still quite chilly at this time of year, I can assure you! I dried off just lying in the sun, and by the time I left the river, I was feeling toasty warm and very sunned (I am a ginger after all!).
Sun Tea II
When I got back home, the Sun Tea was ready, so I opened it up, strained out the flowers and herbs, and had a nice glass over ice. It was refreshing after the hike to the river, and included some California poppy petals, which I think contributed to the quality of my second nap of the day.
Sunset
In Gàidhlig we say, “dol fodha na grèine” which means “the going under of the sun”. After dinner, Marnie and I headed out to Cobble Hill to hike the mountain there, as there is a beautiful view West, where we could watch the sunset. After a great hike we arrived in plenty of time to sing and make offerings as the sun sank beneath the distant mountains. After the sun had set, we still had plenty of light to make it back down to the parking lot.
After Solstice
Storytelling
A few days after Grian-stad, I was invited to a Birthday gathering for a dear friend – and I was offered the opportunity to tell a story – an offer I will seldom refuse. I chose to tell the story of Boann and the Daghda, the birth of Angus Òg, and the creation of the River Boyne – the setting of the event was perfect on the banks of the Xwulqw’selu (Koksilah) River for telling a story about the stopping of the sun, the birth of a river, and to put a whole new lens on this ancient ancestral story.
Other Plans
As I mentioned above, the time leading up to Grian-stad is a powerful time of growth in the natural world, and Solstice is traditionally the most potent day to harvest medicinal plants. With the coming of Christianity and calendars, this date has been made static on June 24th, and is associated with the feast day of St. John the Baptist – which again I find odd, as the old idea is to harvest these medicines as the Sun’s power is peaking... ideally before and as close to the actual Solstice as you can – so by the 24th... that energy has already waned significantly...
Ritual Broom
Anyway... another midsummer ritual I had hoped to do this year was making a ritual broom. I didn’t have access to herbs enough to do it this time around. Essentially the idea is to have harvested a stick or staff to use as a handle at Samhain of the previous year, and let it dry over winter. You can use a stick of any size, I’ve made ritual brooms the size of hand-whisks, and full-sized room-brooms – whatever suits your intended purpose – and I recommend re-using the handle year after year.
At midsummer, I’ll harvest medicinal herbs – particularly those with properties of protection, clearing, and purification, and fasten those herbs to the handle as the bristles to make a broom that can be used to clear ritual or ceremonial space, or any space that needs some energetic or clearing out.
I will unbind these bristles as the next Solstice approaches and offer them to the Dragon of Fire as you lay them to rest for the summer, and then renew my broom bristles again at the summer Solstice.
... and now...
Lughnasadh is fast approaching –
Tuesday August 6th, 2024!
I’m fast making plans to honour that day... I’m contemplating having “The Picnic in Plaid”... so, if you’ve enjoyed reading about Solstice, stay tuned, subscribe to the Magnificence blog, and sign up for my newsletter!
Please feel free to share this article with your friends, and to use any or all of what I’ve shared for yourself.
If you have questions or comments, I’d be delighted to hear from you in the comments below, or you can email me at eshu@monarchtrancework.com