Nine Days of Light: Celtic Solar Ritual
Friday the 13th to the Summer Solstice
A Chairde, Friends,
As we approach the summer solstice, the peak of the season of Bealtaine, it is a potent time to tend to our solar consciousness—our relationship with the sun, our earth star that guides our lives at this juncture. This is what we will focus on for this month’s creative ritual.
The sun is often presented as a masculine energy, while the moon is feminine. In Irish tradition, however, it’s more fluid. The sun, ‘grian’, is a feminine noun. In our mythic tradition, two deities that shine as the sun are the goddess Áine, who has a sister or aspect of herself called ‘Grian’, meaning sun. Áine herself means brightness, lustre, glow, radiance, splendour, brilliance, wit, or glory in Old Irish.
There is also the god Lugh, the shining one who defeats his grandfather Balor of the Evil Eye, the latter representing the more dangerous, scorching aspects of the sun. Too much striving for solar, always-on energy—without the milky luminescence and shadows of the moon—is a recipe for getting burned. Lugh is thought to mean ‘bind by oath’ or ‘light’.
Today, I share with you a nine-day ritual to harness the energy of the summer solstice. Nine was a powerful number for our ancestors representing thrice the sacred triple. An ideal time to do this ritual is nine days before the summer solstice so the auspicious day of Friday, 13th.
If you are in the southern hemisphere, you can still do the same ritual to honour the winter solstice.
Nine Days of Light Ritual
What you will need:
Candle and lighter/matches
Journal and pen
Mythic ancestor profiles for Áine and Lugh
Preparation: In preparation for this ritual, revisit your mythic ancestor profiles on Áine and Lugh. Feel into what expressions of this goddess and god feel most alive for you in your life right now. What compels you about their stories?
