As the Wheel of the year turned toward summer the quickening of the life pace kept me away from writing and posting! Somehow I managed to jump from Ostara straight to Litha… that’s how crazy this spring- beginning of the summer was! But I promise to come back to Beltane…later this summer.
And now it’s Mid-summer, the abundance of daylight and sunshine, representing the highest ascendancy of Sun King. Although in many pantheons, including Baltic, the Sun is female, so it is not easy for me to wrap my head around this. But year Litha and Full moon are happening at the same time – Sun and Moon, female and masculine (or other way around), merging the height of their strength in one day. Pretty special, huh? And now worries who is who!
On actual Summer Solstice and Full moon night, June 20th, I attended ritual by the Avalon Grove Group.
The Altar decorated with sunflowers and strawberries for sweetness of the Áine of the Sun, Brigid and Sól and shells for Nyami Nyami that was invoked together with Áine of the Moon and Máni. Nice company of Celtic and Norse Gods plus Zambezi River God Nyami Nyami. You wouldn’t expect nothing less on such astronomically important day!
Interestingly, Gods were invoked together with the Quarters, that gave us a long charge of Fire and Water, as both those elements were at the height of their power.
The big mirror on the altar – the Moon Mirror – was charged by the Sun and then each participant charged their own mirrors from it. Then Moon Mirror was submerged in Water and so followed individual mirrors. Finally, the Sun Candle, charged in the sunlight, was lit and dipped in Water and each persons candle followed the same. The Sun and The Moon were entwined!
The next day Anna and me went to Summer Solstice Masquerade by Wiccan Family Temple in the Thompkins Square Park, East Village.
“It is a time of fulfillment, a time of festival and of rejoicing, as the Earth Mother receives energy and blooms with the beauty that will become the fruit of the harvest” announced the opening of the ritual. 
Besides the typical ritual candles, Altar had 4 smaller color ones representing triple Goddess: Maiden (white), Mother (red) and Crone (black) and the Sun God (yellow). They were lit one by one as deities were invoked in preparation for the battle between Holly and Oak Kings.
The waxing of the year was accomplished, The Holly King slayed his brother the Oak King! Time for the spell work!
Every participant took a pinch of lavender, mugwort and vervain and burned it in the cauldron removing troubles, problems, pains, sorrows and illnesses from their lives. After purifying themselves everyone took a rune spell form the basket. Mine promised me some great wealth in the form of land or inheritance – looking forward to it!
And now the blast from the past: Litha 2015, same Wiccan Family Temple, same Thompkins Square park, slightly different people and weather. The ritual was delayed for almost an hour after the tropical rain broke down. I remember hiding in the telephone booth waiting for it to stop while on the way to the park.
Afterwards, evening was sunny and bright. Same battle of the Kings and a lot of of familiar faces. For some reason this seems like just yesterday/the other day this summer, like a year passed in the moment!
Blessed Summer Solstice, everyone! May your harvests be abundant this year!
Kenaz Wicca rituals are usually full of beautiful music and singing and this one was no exception! I was really curious to see what random people lunching in the atrium would do when they hear Amanda’s and Jacob’s beautiful voices. But once again was reminded that this is New York, ya’ll – nobody cares! Which in this case is a good thing – the ritual was not interrupted by curios inquiries or snarky remarks ! And, of course, the acoustics in the place like this proved to be amazing:)
We sowed the seeds charged with an our intentions, decorated the eggs, then hunted them in the covered basket and raised the glass of mead and a piece of braided bread to the Gods.
The next ritual that evening was hosted by 
The altar was decorated with onion peel colored eggs by Vuolo family. Plastic egg shells had various seeds in it for fertility and fruition spell and parchment paper to write our intentions.
Wiccan Family Temple rituals very often include the working on your wishes/plans/needs, manifesting them out loud while the circle is open and banishing all the bad stuff in your life. Actually, they try to incorporate that in every Sabbath celebration and very often in Esbats as well. Personally, it makes me more aware of the turning wheel of the year and reminds how to use the specific energies of that time to your benefit. So I listed all my plans on the parchment paper, ate the yolk of the colored egg I picked and buried the white in my garden for extra fruition:)
They also had a bed for God and Goddess to lay in decorated with greens, blossoms and birds and everybody laid an almond seed in it while remembering the areas in their life that need extra fertility. I still have rue growing in my garden since that ritual…
Hail Ostara, risen today