Rituals for Love and Renewal at the Solstice

Midsummer newsletter

In a recent post for paid subscribers I wrote about the Irish sun goddess Aine and how, as a folkloric figure, she was honoured in Midsummer agricultural rites up to the nineteenth century, as well as perceived as a goddess/fairy queen of love and abundance. If you have a witchy or ritual practice, or just fancy trying some folk practices to fit in with the season, here are a few simple rituals inspired by the stories and mythology of Aine, and this time of year, that you might like to try.

Invoking Aine’s Blessing for your Garden

Aine’s traditional Midsummer rite seems to have involved bonfires and carrying lighted straw torches around her hill, asking her to bless the land with her fertility and create an abundant harvest. While modern life means that most of us have less need for such communal agricultural practices, there are adjacent needs we can adapt this rite for. If you have a garden (or you could even do this inside for your house plants) you could carry around a candle, either alone or as a family, while calling on Aine or the spirit of the land to bless your plants with fresh growth and abundance. This is a particularly nice ritual if you have an allotment, fruit trees or a herb garden etc. Afterwards, leave fresh produce or flowers on your altar as an offering to her. You might like to actually build a temporary outside altar for her in your garden or allotment.

Spell Jar for Abundance

A modern alternative to asking for fertility of the land as our ancestors would have, is to create a charm for abundance in your personal life. Spell jars are a simple and easy way to create charms, and they can be placed in your home, garden or on your altar, reminding you to feel gratitude and to invite abundance into your life every time you see it.

You will need

• A small glass jar. If you struggle with lids, small test-tube size ones that can be stopped with a cork are available from many pagan supplies shops.

• Herbs associated with abundance - I recommend basil, cinnamon, ginger and/or mint.

• Small yellow stones or crystals such as citrine

• A small piece of folded paper with the word abundance written in gold pen and tied with gold or yellow thread

• (Optional) Any gold colored charms that seem appropriate - a four leaf clover is always a good one!

• A pound coin

Add your ingredients to your jar while chanting something like

Abundant brightness of the Midsummer sun

Bring me prosperity and abundance

As I seal this jar, it is well done

If you want to read more about Aine herself, you can update to paid for my ongoing four part series of posts on her (published June, September and November) which will form a kind of mini-course, coming with two guided audio meditations, audio story retellings and journalling prompts.

What I've Been Up To

I featured on two podcasts this month, talking about sacred wells and British goddesses; Witch Wednesday and That Pennsylvania Witch. I have another lined up next month, and a Lammas article on Mabon being published in Pagan Dawn magazine. I’m also working on a feature article on Modron to be published in Watkins magazine. Because of my health issues I’m slowly getting to grips with assistive software and speech-to-text. I can’t write as much as I would like at the minute as I’m waiting on shoulder surgery so work on ‘Airmid’ (my next Pagan Portals book) is going very slowly. So I’m going to use the time to start recording audio meditations/journeys and my own versions of Celtic and Roma/Traveller folktales for paid subscribers.

On that note, please if you are able to, consider becoming a paid subscriber as it will really enable me to keep this blog going. I’m currently unable to work due to disability and am fighting poverty. Paid subscribers get extra content including audio meditations and deep dive posts and, once there are enough people interested, I'll be doing live ritual Zooms around the Wheel of the Year. Also, as I’m a trained spiritual director (and previously worked for many years as a psychotherapist) Founding Members - Wheel Spinners- get quarterly Spiritual Companionship sessions with me.

What I’m Reading This Sabbat and Book Club News

I'm starting the Book Club this season with Robert MacFarlane’s new book ‘Is a River Alive’? This is for both free and paid subscribers but with slightly different perks. I'll be starting a free chat on the book and I'll post my review of it at the end of July as a free post. Paid subscribers, if interested, will be invited to a live Zoom where we can discuss the book and suggest and vote on future books. So far I've decided on the books starting on Lughnasadh and Autumn Equinox; The Lost Folk by Lally Macbeth and How to Kill a Witch by Claire Mitchell, respectively. I'm also eyeing up Ordinary Mysticism by Miribai Starr.

I’m also reading this month some new fiction books that I'm really excited about; The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (grimdark fantasy) Vianne by Joanne Harris (witchy) and For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn (romantasy) as well as digging further into Tolkien by reading The Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin. As you can tell I love fantasy fiction so any recommendations welcome!

Thank you for reading, and Happy Midsummer! I'd love to know how you're celebrating this year, so let me know in the comments…