Here it is, the summer solstice, one of the most significant pagan holidays, and I’m just not sure how to celebrate it at all. I’m still kind of stumbling about with regards to how to express my newfound faith. I have been developing a fairly close relationship with my gods, and that has brought a lot to me spiritually, but I still am looking for some kind of practice that will tie my spiritual life together more fully. And I am still convinced that an exclusive devotion to Hellenismos just is not the right answer for me. I have more to say on that than I said in that earlier post, but it is a bit off-topic at the moment, so it will have to wait.
I have an attraction to Druidry, and I have continued to think hard about the Ancient Order of Druids in America, but that path doesn’t seem to have quite clicked yet. Part of that is pure laziness on my part and chaos in my life (annual training with the National Guard, studying for the bar exam), but a lot of it is pure stalling and hesitation or a lack of a clear beginning, a point at which I commit myself and say “okay, I am actually going to do this, starting today. I’m not really sure what is holding me back.
But in any case, I’m sitting here on the longest day of the year, feeling like it should be somehow both festive and spiritually significant, but feeling that it is in fact neither. And I’m not sure what to do about it. I kind of wish I had some like-minded pagans to celebrate and worship with. Actually, that’s one of the reasons I’ve been looking into the ADF: they have a grove (relatively) nearby, with even a group of Hellenic druids who get together to worship separately.
Any ideas?
Sailing to Byzantium 
Kullervo
After coming to my truth about Mormonism, I felt the need for community worship I was scared to lose my “Spiritual” side, afterall we have been told all our lives how horribly dark it would be to lose our faith. I went through this process well over 10 years ago. My spiritual side has continued to grow it is within you I believe that as long as we strive to improve and understand ourselves that “light” gets brighter. I do not belong to any spiritual community and the need to do so has passed, I am completely content in knowing I can go to that “spiritual” place at anytime in anyplace.
Enjoy your comments on the other blog and look forward to reading through the rest of this blog.
I also felt like I should do something spiritually significant for the longest day of the year… however, like you my schedule is rather hectic… I read through some druid books I have acquired to see if there are any particular poems I could recite or rituals to do outside, however, I am vague on the issue as I am still new to all this (although I thought the idea of setting a wheel on fire was strangely alluring). I did read however that this day is full of energy and that because of this some pagans/druids like to wait a few days before celebrating so as not to potentially misuse the enormous amount of energy surrounding this day… I don’t know how common this idea is among pagans however. . .
I was sick all weekend and did nothing much besides a very small backyard fire (small and smoky, since everything is completely soggy) where I burned last year’s mugwort harvest. I even skipped out on my usual Druid grove meeting, which makes me a little sad but there was no way I was going to go stand out in the rain with my health the way it was. So it was a very low-key solstice for me, as well.
I highly recommend getting involved with a group, even if you all aren’t really on the same page in terms of like-mindedness. There’s something about group work that helps with deepening commitment – helps to make it more real, more grounded.
It’s like the difference between making art at home for yourself, never showing anyone, and bringing it out to a public place where other artists can see it. Not everyone’s going to like your art and others will have different way of approaching it, but you can all get together and talk about what you’re doing and learn and grow from that and come to better know your identity as an artist.
Can’t hurt to at least check out the grove – I suspect my experience of ADF would have been very different if I hadn’t been solitary.
Hypatia, to be completely honest I am more than a little bit incredulous about most of what neopagans say about “energy.” At some point in the future I want to write a post on it, but I definitely think that postponing celebration from the solstice because of “energy” is preposterous and completely misses the point.
In the end, we celebrated the solstice by inviting friends over for a feast of wine-soaked lamb, broiled asparagus with goat cheese, roasted baby red potatoes, sweet white corn, and beer. And for dessert we had a lemon merangue pie, which seemed to me to be the perfect sun-symbol. It wasn’t a particularly spiritual or ritualistic celebration, and I was kind of the only pagan involved, but it was a good time had by all.
I would definitely be interested in reading an entry with your perspectives about energy.
By the way, the feast you described sounds perfectly delightful… and way more interesting than anything I did for the solstice. ha.
I too would be interested in hearing your thoughts about what we say about “energy.” I use the word all the time because I don’t know of a better one for the thing I’m trying to describe, it seems to be a common enough usage among the audience I have for that kind of thing, and people seem to know what I’m talking about when I say it. I don’t actually like using it all that much, though – it’s imprecise and possibly misleading, especially if one is equating it in any way with what is normally called energy in the physical scientific sense.
I want to come over to your house for solstice… that sounds like a seriously delicious feast.
Actually, the Hellenics you spoke of don’t necessarily worship separately at the Grove. They are very much a part of Grove festivities, and we welcome many people of all paths.
We’d love to have you stop by sometime if you were interested. Even if it’s just to meet some of the local Hellenics.
As far as ADF goes, they do have a Kin (subgroup) soley for those of a Hellenic path as well. Despite being a druid organization, it does focus mainly on indo-european, with many folks in different paths (as in not just Celtic).
Hope to see you around CedarLight 🙂
Crystal (Senior Druid)