Happy Summer Solstice!

The Summer Solstice is supposed to the day that summer begins. Of course, from an astronomical perspective is doesn’t. Yet the day has been celebrated for millennia.

In some Slavic countries it is known as St. John’s Night, and all over Northern Europe there have been traditional holidays to mark the day. I well remember the old times when Druid priests celebrated the day at Stonehenge on Salisbury plain: it was a sight to behold. That was in the days before English Heritage and the National Trust had to try and control the site to prevent damage by thousands of Midsummer’s Eve visitors, some of whom did not respect the ancient stone circle. Within the last couple of months I have seen reports of a site in Northern Brazil called Calcoene, which is being called the Amazon Stonehenge, for it too seems to be a solar observatory.

From a purely objective scientific perspective, the day is just like any other except that it is usually the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

So is all this discussion about a Summer Solstice just magical thinking? No more than some kind of recapitulation of the Purple Meme of psychosocial development? Not necessarily. I often spoken of my admiration for the evolving work of the writer and philosopher Ken Wilber. Nobody agrees with everything that he says, and neither would he want us to: he is creating a map and a story to help us find our place in the world. But there is one thing about which I am certain he is correct: A complete understanding of our world and of our place in it means acknowledging the subjective and mythical aspects of our lives. Is it wise to dismiss ancient ceremonies that move millions of people? Can we afford to ignore the deep cycles, currents and rhythms that propel us and the whole of our society and planet? If we do, it means ignoring a fundamentally important part of all of us.

If you have just one single minute today, sit quietly and see if you can feel anything in the atmosphere around you. Then carry on with your day. But promise yourself that you will do the same thing again, in seven days from now, and I would be surprised if you fail to notice a difference. Try it and seefor yourself: many have been amazed by the difference. Most of the time we just do not notice such things.

“It has been said that a complete understanding of the Law of Cycles would bring man to a high degree of initiation. This Law of Periodicity underlies all the processes of nature and its study would lead a man out of the world of objective effects into that of subjective causes.”
–Alice A. Bailey (English Writer, Spiritual Teacher and Founder of the Arcane School, 1880-1949)

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