Happy and abundant Midsummer to you all! Midsummer, Midzomer, is all about honoring the sun and his generosity during the long summer days.
I am writing this on Monday, June 21st, and from looking out the window you wouldn’t think it is Midsummer as it is raining and chilly outside. Though nature is also, due to the rain, very abundant at the moment, all is in full bloom and growth. It is magnificent!
Late May is the beginning of summer, is the middle of summer. Fruits must ripen and die so they can carry the seed for the next growing season. In the same way the sun has reached its highest point, the sun must die so that it can be reborn at midwinter to be born again. Dying in order to live again. Now that which has flowered is now going to bear fruit. Midsummer is therefore dedicated to the fertility gods.
In some modern Wicca traditions, Litha (much like Yule) is a time when the forces of light and darkness, represented as the Oak King and the Holly King, fight for supremacy. During the Summer Solstice, the Oak King reigns supreme. Yet, within this victory, there is the whisper of darkness to come, as the Holly King will triumph come winter, and so we must cherish the long summer days as much as possible. On Wicca web sites, when it comes to the seasonal festivals, you will read that people refer to Midsummer as “Lida” or “Liða” or “Litha”. This term was noted by the Anglo-Saxon monk and historian Beda who, in the 7th and 8th century lived in England. He called the months of June and July “before Lida” and “after Lida.” The meaning is not clear, and since only Beda mentions this concept, I prefer to use the term “Midsummer (Midzomer)”. And yes I hereby make an effort to adjust my worship and rituals more true and fitting to my homeland, the primal home of our indigenous Frisian, Saxon and Frankish ancestors, instead of borrowing from other local worship such as Celtic, Druidism, and Wicca. I am learning and this is a ‘new’ path for me, so please do correct me when needed, I am willing to learn and grow (deeper roots).
Today, June 21, the night is shortest and the day is longest. On this day, the sun moves into the constellation of Cancer. With us in the northern hemisphere, this is called the beginning of summer, the peak of light or Midsummer. After this day, this turning point, the Sun will very slowly decrease in power and the days will become shorter. Flowers show their splendor before putting all their energy into forming seeds with the help of solar power. What has not yet grown sufficiently will receive an extra push from the sun. The Midsummer Festival celebrates the ripening of the harvest in the fields.
For farmers, Midsummer is the point at which no more preparatory work on the fields is done, but to wait for and protect the harvest and in the coming months it will show whether during preparation (sowing, fertilizing, etc.) the right choices were made. That which has been sown and maintained must now ripen. With Midsummer begins the final phase of everything that was previously planned. Now the results of all the hard work begin to show and fate determines how full the harvest will be. We can look back, and consider what we did right or what we did wrong, and now is the time to ask the gods to make the ripening process favorable. Especially the provision of protection from storms, driving rains, thunderstorms and hail.
Heart and Hearth
Last year I celebrated Midsummer alone as there were no gatherings due to the beer virus restrictions. This year, as fate had it, I joined Dutch heathen group Swesaz in their celebration and honoring of the Sun. Now I have always been a pagan, this is how I was raised by my mother. My father coming from a strict Reformed Congregation family (his grandfather was the town’s pastor) this always caused friction in our small community and family. My mother was seeking (as I am) and never fully committed to a path and was more of a new age pagan, fleeing from one teaching to the next. So I was raised very eclectic and I took on my mother’s pick and choose habit and kept on seeking for a place to call home. And this is making me very restless and ungrounded. And strangely enough I have never considered to look for home right below my feet! I feel more and more the need to grow roots in the earth I live upon. Especially now I can’t cross borders, this has been emphasized in my life, the strong love I have for this land. I see a lot of people around me leaving this country in the hope of finding greener pastures elsewhere, but I strongly feel I need to be here, stay here and connect deeper to myself, my ancestors and my “tribe”.
Heathenry versus Paganism
So here I am a head filled with knowledge about pagan life in other countries, such as Celts, Wicca, Druidism, Asatru and Shamanism, but hardly any knowledge, let alone wisdom about the place where I live or an idea of who my ancestors are. For about two years I have been delving into my family tree, trying to find out where my roots lie and this has made me feel so strong and connected. And on my quest to connect to this land and my hearth I met Dutch Heathens Swesaz, Axnot and Lianne, and they kindly invite people into their home to share their knowledge about Dutch heathenry.
Heathen (Heiden) is a Germanic word, so if you’re talking about Heathenry then you’re talking about the Germanic folk beliefs. A heathen is someone who inhabited the uncultivated lands, de heide (heath). There opposite you had the city people who were already Christians and Heathens were the people who still adhered to the Germanic folk religion.
Swesaz uses the original explanation for the word “heathen”. Literally it means the “inhabitant of the heath”. However, the old word “heath” had a broader meaning than the present one of a purple flowering heathland. Namely, it meant “uncultivated land for common use”, which included forest, meadow and heath. It is obvious to explain the word heathen in the same way as the Latin word paganus: “The infidel (i.e. non-Christian) who lives in the countryside.”
It is noteworthy that this definition gives the word heathen and pagan a negative connotation. Indeed, the heathen and pagan is one who lives not in the city but on uncultivated or uncultivated land, and by extension is himself underdeveloped.
There are paganists, such as shamanists and Wicca followers (modern witches) who use rituals grafted onto Celtic rites which in turn are very similar to those of Germanic tribes, so there is overlap. I hope to learn much more about this as for me this was and somewhat still is, confusing.
Fate and community
More and more am I understanding the importance of continuing and living our own traditions and feeling called to deepen my connection and worship.
And as fate would have it, only a few days before Midsummer, I read a call by Swesaz on their Facebook page that one of their members could not be present for Midsummer, normally there are 9, now there were 8, while everything else is 9, for example, the group is to make a bundle of 9 sacred Midsummer herbs and the fire is built from the holiest 9 species of trees. So a call for the 9th person was made and I applied. And how special as the ninth person for the Midsummer celebration were 3 women. It was already known that this 9th “person” had been assigned the Yew, the world tree and then it happened that 3 women signed up, almost simultaneously, to be the 9th. You probably know about the 3 women, the 3 norns, who live at the Yggdrassil, the Yew, that is. So it was decided that the 3 applications coincided with the tree determined by fate and I was one of them.
Midsummer is a community celebration. The communal celebration of the summer solstice festival by all villagers, strengthened the bonds between them. In a community where the social safety net was good noaberschap (neighborly duty), a good bond with all neighbors is of vital importance. As we can read in the sagas expulsion from the sibbe equals death. And as with Joel, the
summer solstice was the moment when the veil of the of the Beyond was lifted a little and making contact with the deceased ancestors became possible.
Today I am sharing the adventures of last weekend, but I will not discuss detail as what happens in the circle stays in the circle. As I am learning about the old ways, I am sharing my path here as I feel it is important to keep these traditions alive and to help other people understand. Also I feel there is so much to find about for instance the Norse Viking ways and Celtic traditions, but very little about life in The Netherlands, especially in English. Also this helps me learn and integrate to keep a sort of online journal (this blog) to track my steps and insights.
Rituals and ceremony
So on Saturday morning we all arrived at Swesaz homebase, the home of Axnot and Lianne, with our offerings and sacred wood to burn in the fire tonight. We gathered with tea, coffee and cake and Axnot shared about today’s celebration. After the welcome and introduction we walked to a field where we prepared for the cultic play.
Some people frown upon the word ‘rituals’ while our daily lives are filled with them. Rituals and ceremony bring the sacred into the ordinary life as performing ceremonies creates a bridge between the material world we live in and the world of the unseen, the divine, the creator. Often rituals find their origin in shamanism, of which still living remnant traditions can be found in Siberia. And in other indigenous peoples around the world, who are much closer to nature than the Western city dwellers. Contact with the higher powers does not always have to go through a strongly organized religion. Everything shows that paganism is essentially a spiritual nature belief, in which contact with the ancestors is important. When you just go through the motions of life, without living with rituals you become unhealthy, ungrounded as ritual gives meaning to life and ensures life doesn’t pass you by. Rituals freeze time and create sacred space, shielded from the profane world in which one can hold a communal experience, and exchange with the gods and deceased ancestors. The ceremony or ritual is lifted above the everyday and becomes our very own building block to the Divine Order. The purpose of the rite is to bring about the Divine Order and the prevention of disorder or chaos, the enemy of all life.
The King’s Bird
At Midsummer, the sun seems to stand still at its highest point. This is an exciting moment. This is because the sun will not always remain at its highest point. After summer must come autumn, in which fruits ripen. Then must come winter, in which everything dies, to be reborn in spring. With the clubbing of the king’s bird, the sun is encouraged to enter its dying phase. The days become shorter again and the sun moves lower in the sky. The cycle of the seasons, and thus of life, must continue.
The seasonal rituals are the cyclical inspired rituals. These rituals are therefore performed in a circular shape. The circle can be seen both as a symbol for the Sun and of the Earth. The Sun is the life-giver to Mother Earth. In The Delusion of Gylfi, it is stated that the Earth has four dwarfs that support her Austri, Vestri, Nordri and Sudri. In this “circle on the ground” we find a tree or a fire. By erecting a
tree or a fire in the center of the circle, the contact with the Divine world can can be established. The symbol of the cosmic or world tree was known to the North Germans as the Yggdrasil and to the Saxons as the Irminzuil (Irminsûl = great column). Looking at the seasonal celebrations, it is striking that in the first half of the year, up to and including the Midsummer the tree is central, after that the fire takes a more important place. The reason behind this is that the tree is the symbol for fertility (phallus shape).
At the time of day the sun reachers it’s peak, we walked outside to a field to create a sacred space within which the cultic play took place. The origins of this play comes from Kallemooi and this is the northernmost Mayflower festival, it was once moved to Pentecost. During Kallemooi, a live rooster is stolen from someone’s yard and, with enough food and drink is hoisted up a pole in a basket for three days. The rooster stands for the growing power in nature.
Then the “king’s bird”, the rooster is placed atop the Midsummer stake to be clubbed down. Today we use a wooden rooster, so no worries, no animals have been harmed in this cultic play. The rooster is the symbol for the sun, and at noon on midsummer reached its highest point and what “is done above must must also be done down here”, the rooster as a symbol of the sun, must die in order to be born anew. .
Before taking turns in trying to throw the cock down, Axnot tells the story of the Shining or Radiant Balder. The radiant god Balder is killed by Höder in the peak of his life. The god of light is killed by that of darkness.T here was a specific time and place known to the Æsir where they would fall – at the fated event of Ragnarök – and they knew its occurrence was inevitable. Baldr’s death is the first sign that Ragnarök is on the horizon, thus the death of the purest god is not only heartbreaking, but terrifying. The Balder myth is the divine primal model for the Midsummer celebration. The myth connects us to the gods, and gives reality to the rituals of our Midsummer celebration.
As to bludgeoning a king’s bird with a club, I am not a natural and need many more Midsummers to practice. In other words I throw like a girl, I didn’t even come close to hitting it, though this is not saying anything about the other girls, or rather women, in the group as they threw very well and the winner was also a woman, making her the Oak Queen and she was crowned with oak leaves.
As a conclusion to the ritual, a toast of Mede(Mead) takes place to seal the ritual. In the process, the drinking horn goes back around the circle to the right.
We then had a lovely picknick lunch and were merry.
During the festivities I lost the Rune necklace Lianne had made for me at Samhain, it was the Rune Fehu,“Every beginning has within it the seeds of its own end.” I feel this is a sign the beginning has begun (if you know what I mean), and it is time for the next phase.
Lianne gave me another necklace, a wooden hand-made spiral, which feels very suiting and I am ever so grateful and honored to wear it.
Magical herb bundles
After lunch we walked the fields to find the 9 sacred Summer herbs for the Kruidenwis (herb bundle) to be burned in the fire tonight. A Kruidenwis is a bunch of native herbs gathered together which are then used as offerings to the gods.
Us 3 representatives of the norns were to look for Mugwort (Bijvoet). which proved to be more tricky than expected as Mugwort is usually quite easy to find. Mugwort is one of my go to herbs and one of it’s magical properties is that it is a visionary herb. Mugwort amplifies psychic vision and may induce prophetic dreams as Mugwort encourages wisdom and observation. When paired with a divinatory method of your choice, Mugwort is an excellent helper for confronting difficult truths. I use Mugwort a lot in my practice. The other herbs for the wis were gathered by the other people in the group; Camomile, Clover, St John’s Worth, Cheesewood, Veronica, Dogwort and Lady’s mantle.
Now is the time to collect and bless an herbal wisp. The herbs are at their most powerful at Midsummer, so you get the magical and protective power of the sun and nature in your home. Therefore the herbal exchange has the power to protect your home and hearth against negative external influences for one year.
Home-made with love
After the wildcrafting we returned home for more lovely home-baked cake and another interesting talk by Axnot. After this we prepared the beds for tonight so we didn’t have to do is in the middle of the night after returning home.
We enjoyed a very tasty and ‘gezellig’ home-cooked meal together (thank you so much Lianne!) and after gathered our things to bring to the fire.
We walked for over an hour, through beautiful rich nature, leaving behind the ordinary world, through the fields and woods to the beach along the river where we would build our sacred fire.
In nature, it feels as if all the plants and trees are standing upright with arms wide and fingers spread out to enjoy as much as possible of the sun and of the summer rains, resulting in a sea of flowers and thick bushes This is exactly what this season is all about. It was so joyful to walk together through this splendor, especially as some women in the group joined in beautiful song.
Bonfire and lighting show
As we prepared and started making sacred space we could feel the tide turning. The winds were gathering and it was growing dark quickly. The energy was tangible and awe inspiring as it was building and building.
The fire has to be ignited in a special way, by the friction of two pieces of wood which generates heat that is used to ignite dried moss or grass; the so-called “nôd-fyr”, “noodvuur” or “emergency fire”. Back in the days when there was a contagious disease or a natural disaster, all the fires in all the houses were extinguished and new fires, the emergency fires, had to be lit. By lighting the Midsummer Eve fire with emergency fire one performs an act of salvation with the fire has an extra cathartic effect.
The fire altar was made and the basked with our offerings was placed on it, then in turn we placed our sacred woods into the fire.
My offering was a white blooming plant, which I freed from its pot, my intention with this is the color white for purity, life force, and sacredness. The flowers represent growth and abundance, the opening up and turning to the sun for life and vitality. The releasing of the pot is to break free from all that is keeping me small and confined and that keep me from finding and growing my roots and connecting to the land, my ancestors and others. I hereby release this block in the sacred fire and wish to ignite the fire within me.
And all our offerings were accepted! And after we passed around the horn with Mead and jumped over the fire, and right there and then Donar began his consenting light show. All around us, and very close, lightning flashed and thunder roared. Soon it began to blow and rain very hard. The fire, however, was so well fed that it did not go out! After half an hour of partying in the rain (well I hid underneath some trees most of the time, I know not very wise in lighting, but I was cold and wet and needed shelter from the wind). We were drenched to the bone, purified (my boots are still drying two days later). Even though I was cold, I was in awe of the force of nature and felt the energy in my entire body. Is this the fire and passion I requested through my offering and the cold I was experiencing pointing out I need to warm myself from the inside out? I am always feeling cold and have to learn to feed my passion and rekindle my inner fire. Get ready to rumble I guess. I love thunder and lightning, it makes me feel alive. The energy coursing through my veins.
Lianne and Axnot shared how they have strongly reconnected to Donar since last Joel and their offering in the fire was dedicated to Donar. So yes this spectacle was for them, an answer to their offering and confirmation of their connection.
As the weather wouldn’t clear for a long time and walking back in lightning may be dangerous (and it was very dark), we decided we’d better continue our celebration inside. So instead of walking back, a few sober heroines returned to fetch some cars to drive us all back to a warm home and hearth.
Time to be merry and more celebration! We stayed up late talking and drinking. It felt like an old-fashioned sleep-over party. People went to bed at dawn and somewhere in the night I fell asleep on the mattress in the living room and I slept like a log. We woke up quite early and chatted on about our experience. A few hours later the rest of the house awoke and we had a lovely and hearty breakfast together. Then it was time to say our goodbyes and return home.
I want to thank the group for their hospitality in accepting us three new women in their midst. I felt right at home and enjoyed myself immensely. And a special thanks to Axnot and Lianne for opening their home and hearts to share their faith and wisdom. Such beautiful people, I feel grateful to have met you all.
And gratitude to Donar for showing his strength and inspiring awe in me. Hail.
I hope you celebrated Midsummer with as much joy and connection.
P.S. Woon je in Nederland of België en wil je meedoen aan de komende Swesaz Heidense Huiskameravonden, je kan je nu aanmelden via https://www.facebook.com/swesaz
