ATTUNING TO SUMMER SOLSTICE
ANCHORING THE LIGHT
Across centuries and cultures, this turning point has been revered for its light, but also for what that light reveals: fullness, ripeness, the culmination of long, invisible processes. It is a time when the natural world leans into its peak expression. In this threshold we are invited to witness and to give gratitude. To ask what in us is ready to be seen, named, harvested and what still longs for quiet gestation beneath the brightness. As we let the light enter us, it might also touch places that we have kept in the dark - individually and collectively. This is a time to gather strength, to store light in our bones, that we might need for the journeys ahead.
[Find some ritual inspiration and reflections on the bottom of this article]
In this article, I want to explore some of the cultural roots of this seasonal portal and invite us to reflect on our inner landscapes. Are we in sync with the natural world? And if not, how can we gently return to alignment with it?
At the same time, I want to acknowledge the importance of celebrating light and the fullness of life in a moment of profound global destruction: with wars and ecological collapse unfolding around us. There is great power in anchoring light within ourselves, our daily lives, and our relationships. It becomes a kind of inner armour: not to turn away from darkness, but to meet it with strength, clarity, and compassion. The deeper we attune to the rhythms and cycles of the natural world, the more we are moved to protect and defend it. I feel that this connection becomes the foundation of responsibility, reverence, and action. Let us discover what becomes possible when we fully meet this seasonal portal with presence and open ourselves to what it may awaken in us.
The Summer Solstice.
June 21 marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Known as the Summer Solstice, this festivity has been honored across cultures as a time of abundance and celebration. It’s the moment when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky, bathing the Earth in its longest stretch of daylight.
If you're in a place where the Summer Solstice is opening now, can you pause and attune to the aliveness around you? Can you feel the vibrant life force pulsing through the natural world?
Or perhaps you feel overwhelmed by life: drained, heavy, tired, out of sync. While the natural world in the Northern Hemisphere is now in full bloom, inviting us into lightness, vitality, and expansion, our bodies might not always mirror that energy. And that’s okay. If you’re feeling otherwise, let it be a gentle signal: an invitation to slow down, to breathe, and to realign with nature’s rhythm. Give it time. Let's explore together what this can mean and how we can come back into attunement with the natural cycle around and within us.
I see this Summer Solstice as a moment to receive the light and warmth, so we can carry it within us and return to it when the path ahead darkens. May this solstice warm our hearts, steady our spirits, and strengthen our resilience and integrity.
I wonder: have we learned how to hold the light? How to welcome its fullness without needing to chase it endlessly? How to let ourselves expand without burning out? Can we stay rooted while reaching toward the sun?
Light can be just as confronting as darkness. It shows us what has grown and what has not. It reveals what we are ready to see and also that which we would rather keep in the dark - individually and collectively. And maybe that is the medicine.
Moments captured after nature immersions at our Soneiro Sound Training
The light, like the dark, is not only personal. It is collective. Communal. Ecological. It asks us not only to celebrate, but to remember our responsibility: to nourish what is alive, to tend what is sacred, and to protect what sustains us.
If we seek wholeness, we must learn to stand in the light with the same reverence that we sit in the dark.
Cultural and Spiritual Practices
Druidic Altar at Medicine Festival, UK
EUROPEAN TRADITIONS
While the Winter Solstice invited people into stillness, inward reflection, and the quiet return of the light, the Summer Solstice called them outward: into the fields, the forests, and into celebration. Fires were lit, songs were sung, and people danced through the night. Plants gathered during this time, especially those known as "St. John’s herbs" such as yarrow, arnica, mugwort, and elderflower, were believed to carry heightened healing power. Some were held near the solstice fires to absorb their warmth and vitality.
There was also the tradition of jumping through fire, often with a belt of mugwort around the waist. This act marked a crossing, a symbolic leap from one half of the year into the next. It was believed to purify and release what no longer served, clearing the energetic field for what is to come.
ANDEAN COSMOLOGY
I love to enter the solstice portal through the Temazcal. Like this one with María Valdivia, Chilean Medicine Woman.
But while we in the North welcome light at its peak, in the Southern Hemisphere, the same date marks the Winter Solstice: the return to darkness, the call inward. In Andean cosmology, this time is known as Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun. Traditionally celebrated around June 24, Inti Raymi is a time to honor Taita Inti (Father Sun) and to express gratitude for his life-giving force, especially in anticipation of his return after the long dark. In the Andes, this moment is not only astronomical but deeply relational. It is a renewal of the sacred ties between human beings, the land, the ancestors, and the cosmic forces that govern life.
To get into the mood, you can put on our song “INTI” - celebrating the sun and its relationship with the moon, Kilia.
In this way, the solstice reminds us of our place in the great turning of the Earth. The solstice does not ask for grand rituals. A moment of presence, a hand placed on the soil, or the gathering of a single flower in awareness can be already a meaningful gesture. The invitation is simply this: to be in relationship: with light, with shadow, with what is ending and what is beginning and in deep gratitude to the natural world around us and within us.
For me, the summer solstice is a portal of ATTUNEment.
How to attune back to the natural cycles?
Seeing The Bigger Picture
Wherever you are right now, did you spend some time there in winter as well? When the days were short and the nights long. Think back to that moment near the Winter Solstice. Look around you, see that tree in front in bloom now. Do you remember it during winter times? Do you remember how it looked back then?
When we just take a moment, to not take nature's transformation for granted but actually observe it with childlike wonder, wow it's quite something. What a transformation it is to come from that darkness into this light. Nature holds these moments: inward and outward, emptiness and fullness, dark and light: in such balance.
Recognizing Our Inner Seasons
The funny thing about it is that we are obviously not existing outside of nature. We are equally representing nature like that tree. These cycles are passing through us equally as they do through the meadows, forest and trees. A main difference is that many times we are working against them. Conciously or unconciously. And it takes some deeper inquiry to look at this mechanism in oneself and start to de-construct it.
In witnessing this natural cycle, we are reminded that both growth and rest are necessary. Growth and de-growth. True balance comes not from constant expansion, but from honoring decline as well- which is inherently opposed to late stage capitalist narratives. The Summer Solstice lifts us into the heights, just as the Winter Solstice draws us into the depths. There is a season for everything, and each carries its own medicine. Tuning into the natural world invites us to follow her subtle, silent ways of guiding us through life.
Ways to Work with the Summer Solstice
Whether you are honoring the light at its peak or the sun's quiet return, small gestures and rituals can really move something in the invisible worlds. Here are a few impulses to guide your practice:
Questions for Reflection
Write or speak into these questions, enter a conversation with them:
What has changed, deepened, transformed since the winter solstice (21st of December)? And what since the Spring Equinox (21st of March)?
How do I relate to the natural world around me?
What in me feels full, ripe, or ready to come forward ?
What needs to be released to cross into the next half of the year with clarity?
What is asking to be nourished now: in myself, my community, the world?
To whom should I express my gratitude for having supported me over the past months?
How can I align more deeply with what truly sustains me and gives me life?
Clearing and Re-Attuning
In reference to what I mentioned above, I would love to inspire you to gently set aside all electronic devices, prepare a small picnic, and make your way to a local forest, lake, meadow, or even just a group of trees. This is not meant to be another task on your to-do list. It is an invitation to simply receive.
You can go with a friend or a family member, but it is just as powerful to do this alone. Find a spot that feels right. Lie down on the earth. Imagine how she absorbs any stagnant or heavy energy and recycles it. You might feel a sense of renewal or clarity in after some time. But give it time. Sink deeper and deeper.
When you are ready, eat something slowly, draw, paint, or create a small nature altar. Allow yourself to feel the living world around you. I recommend spending at least two hours in this space. Let time fade. No phone, no communication with the outside world.
This can be a simple yet profound way to attune yourself once again to the natural world within and without. Especially when you feel overwhelmed, at dis-ease or disconnected.
Connect with a Solstice Plant Friend :)
Choose one herb or plant that is abundant at this time: such as yarrow, linden blossom, or elderflower. Spend time with it. Smell it, taste it, sit beside it. Open a conversation with it. See what emerges. Stay curious. And close with gratitude.
An Offering to the Earth
Preparing a bit collective Offering to the Earth at Medicine Festival, UK 2023
Make a small, intentional offering to the land where you are. This could be a handful of herbs, a piece of fruit, seeds, beans, liquids, words whispered into the soil. Offer something from the heart, not in a transactional way but to deepen your relationship with this moment. Please remember, an offering to the earth is not made to ask for things. It really serves as a gesture to give thanks. For everything that we are constantly receiving from the earth. It is important to engage in a gesture of gratitude and re-learn our relationship with it. Not every ritual is to ask for things.
Movement and Stillness
Dance, sing, move your body.
or lie in stillness and let the Earth hold you. The solstice honors both extremes: celebration and silence, presence and pause.
You need some tunes to move? Here is my Dance in The Invisible Playlist.