The Longest Day

Just finished one of the most wonderful Summer Solstice rituals of my life, led by my v. creative circle sister, K. I want to say that I practice the kind of magic that I long dreamed of practicing with the kind of women with whom I long dreamed that I'd do magic. I say that because there were years and years when, a solitary in a rural community, all I could do was long for that and there were years and years when every Pagan group that I contacted was, somehow, just not right for me. And if that's true for you, right now, my Solstice wish for you is for you to find a circle of women even half as magically-committed to the Earth, as kind, as smart, as accomplished, as creative, as gorgeous, and as kick-ass as the women in my circle. So mote it be.

Here's my absolute, all-time favorite Summer Solstice poem, from, of course, Mary Oliver.

Little Summer Poem Touching the Subject of Faith

Every summer
I listen and look
under the sun's brass and even
into the moonlight, but I can't hear

anything, I can't see anything --
not the pale roots digging down, nor the green stalks muscling up,
nor the leaves
deepening their damp pleats,

nor the tassels making,
nor the shucks, nor the cobs.
And still,
every day,

the leafy fields
grow taller and thicker --
green gowns lofting up in the night,
showered with silk.

And so, every summer,
I fail as a witness, seeing nothing --
I am deaf too
to the tick of the leaves,

the tapping of downwardness from the banyan feet --
all of it
happening
beyond any seeable proof, or hearable hum.

And, therefore, let the immeasurable come.
Let the unknowable touch the buckle of my spine.
Let the wind turn in the trees,
and the mystery hidden in the dirt

swing through the air.
How could I look at anything in this world
and tremble, and grip my hands over my heart?
What should I fear?

One morning
in the leafy green ocean
the honeycomb of the corn's beautiful body
is sure to be there.

From West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems, by Mary Oliver. Published by Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. Copyright 1997 by Mary Oliver.

Blessed Summer Solstice to you.