Litha

Summer Solstice - June 19th to 23rd

Animals: Bees, Butterflies, Robins Snakes, and Wrens.
Colors: Blue, Green, Orange, Red, and Yellow.
Deities: All Father Gods, Mother Goddesses, Pregnant Goddesses, and Sun deities. Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Astarte, Athena, Dana, Dagda, Freya, Gwydion, Hathor, Helios, Ishtar, Isis, Juno, Kali, Llew, Oak/Holly King, Prometheus, Ra, Sol, Thor, Venus, and Zeus.
Foods: Garden Fresh Fruits and Vegetables are made into a variety of dishes and eaten by Pagan's who choose to celebrate this day, Honey Sweetened Cakes, and Mead.
Flowers: Carnation, Chamomile, Daisy, Honeysuckle, Ivy, Lavender, Lily, Rose, St. Johns’ Wort, and Sunflower.
Herbs: Basil, Elder, Fern, Lavender, Mint, Mugwort, Parsley, Vervain, Wild Thyme, and Yarrow.
Incense: Lemon, Myrrh, Pine, Rose, Dragon’s Blood, Lavender, and Wisteria.
Special Activities: An Ideal time to reaffirm your Vows to the Lord and Lady or Your Dedication to following the old traditions and Bonfires.
Spell-workings: Divination, Fire, Moon Bowl Charm, Protection, and Relationships.
Stones: All Green Stones especially Emerald and Jade, Amber, Diamond, Lapis, and Tiger’s Eye.
Symbolism: A battle Between Light and Dark, Celebrate the Growing of Crops, Celebrating the Sun, Spending as much time as you can Outdoors, and Take Heart in knowing that the Seeds we planted in the Spring are now in full bloom.
Symbols: Blades, God’s Eye, Oak Tree, The Sun, The Sun Wheel, and Sunflowers.
Trees: Beech, Elder, Holly, Laurel, Linden, and Oak.

Litha, Summer Solstice, or Midsummer is a celebration of the Goddess and God at the height of their power. They are the King and Queen of the fertile lands, and together they rule over the fertile, growing Earth. Their mature love for each other ensures the success of the ripening crops. The Goddess heavy with pregnancy mirroring the heavily laden fields, orchards, and gardens. The God is the living representation of the summer sun, the Sun King who nurtures and protects the Earth Goddess.

The Sun God of Litha is also the Oak King, God of the light half of the year. The Oak King is also at the height of His power, but a new challenge to his authority, the Holly King, God of the dark half of the year, is born on Summer Solstice. Though Litha marks the zenith of the Sun and the day of the longest light, it is also a day of sadness. From this day forward the Oak King/Sun King will begin to falter and weaken, for with birth comes death, the birth of the Holly King brings the death of the light half of the year and we begin to spiral into the darkness. We have begun to move towards winter.

The power of the Sun at Solstice is protective, healing, empowering, revitalizing, and inspiring. It adds a powerful charge to all spells, crystals, and herbs. Divination on this night is traditional.

Although the name Litha is not well attested, it may come from Saxon tradition -- the opposite of Yule. On this longest day of the year, light and life are abundant. At mid-summer, the Sun God has reached the moment of his greatest strength. Seated on his greenwood throne, he is also lord of the forests, and his face is seen in church architecture peering from countless foliate masks.