We decided I should lead a walk and some kind of ritualistic gesture for the summer solstice on the day before Midsommer. The movements and positions of the sun have long interested me, so this felt fitting.
With Anna Viola's help I mapped a walk to the sea shore where we could mark out the location of sunrise and sunset on the rocks (35 deg sunrise, 325 deg sunset), sit within the span of the sun, with big sky views and have a small ceremony to acknowledge the suns's life-giving energy.
We arrived at the rocky shores just in time to build our high noon fire, feel the sun's rays, and appreciate the magnitued of this longest day (19 hours of sunlight). The sun was at its zenith, 54 deg altitude (on winter solstice it is at 7 deg in this location).
The fire to the sun at high noon is an ancient pagan ritual. I asked everyone to write out a wish for the good that the sun might do in the world that we have --one frought with human excesses, conflict , and environmental degradation. We fed our wishes to the fire.
Then as one last toast to the sun we ate sections of oranges and arranged the rinds to mirror the sun. The stone in the middle was our stand-in for one of our group who was unwell and unable to join us.
