Tea with a Druid 311: Summer Solstice the Druid Way

[Music] e for [Music] [Music] hello hello welcome to T with the Druid number 311 this is flip carom and te with the Druid is brought to you by the order of bar8 and Druids I do apologize for the few minutes delay I actually went into the wrong room um after tea I broadcast I see my Beard's gone all funny um after after the tea I I go and have biscuits with Druids in the Druid Heth which is an area for members of the order and I went into that room instead of this room and um I do apologize that's why I was late lovely to see you and I can see people piling in from North Yorkshire and slow and Somerset and then Liden in the Netherlands Darby Pender Island hartfordshire Nan sterlingshire Illinois Missouri um all over the place um yes Southern Germany Brighton just down the road from us the Appalachian boundary Crouch end Portugal hooray West Yorkshire limmerick uh we've just got back from Ireland had a fantastic time there um so welcome to everybody it's lovely to see you and there's some nice sumers Solstice energy going on we've had a beautiful sunny day here in the UK it's just been fantastic and um what I what I want to to ask you is to tune as everybody arrives um let's just gradually settle and I'm going to ask you a question when you've settled so just when You' settled and we seeing everybody coming from North umberland and Cornwall and Norway and Plymouth um when you've settled just ask yourself how you're feeling and we're going to explore a little bit of this uh in a in a minute but just just how are you feeling right now are you feeling tense or are you feeling relaxed are you feeling calm and open or are you geared up in some way that may be for very conscious and deliberate reasons or or in a way that you don't quite understand or maybe you're feeling something else uh and here the answers are coming in nauseous hopeful trying to be brave coming together tense and anxious a little sad um hopeful discouraged relieved uh apprehensive relaxed and peaceful uh tired a bit unreal calm and bright anxious calm very relaxed pensive overwhelmed energized achy tense peaceful discom ated quite well slightly unsettled tired tired stress good fearful feeling the sun's energy feeling calm coming so fast chilled after an after an afternoon bre break on the beach calm and happy opening to changes sleepy sleepy a bit heavy good very tense and stressed good relaxed with gratitude where about my dad his health is failing feverish thanks covid all right um sorry to hear Zoe about your dad okay well with the whole range of feelings as always of course Eric is feeling at peace whole range of feelings and by just allowing our feelings somehow we can be more present I think and more present to each other so we're coming up towards in the northern hemisphere we coming up towards the summer solstice um it's the 17th of June today and if you're watching the recording you may be even closer to the summer solstice or you may have gone over the other side of the solstice it's a really key point because the Sun reaches Zenith in the southern hemisphere we have the the longest night and then from then the St days start getting shorter which always seems a bit tough because it always feels particularly this year feels like Summer's only just got going and so um it seems a bit of a shame that uh it's at its Zenith in a few days time nevertheless luckily the summer carries on uh but the days do imperceptibly at first but then gradually more perceptibly the days uh get shorter in time for the summer solce um a book's been published uh which I think I've mentioned before but I'll mention it again it's called time for magic and and it's with the the the images uh and artwork of a dear friend Jamie Reed who was a druid he died sadly last year but you'll see look at this opening uh the end papers aren't they beautiful um and um and it's his artwork it's a celebration of his artwork which is very fun and colorful uh as well as very provocative as well but it's also the story about it includes the story of his great Uncle George Watson McGregor Reed who um who founded uh the Ancient Order of Druids the ancient Druid order and out of which obod comes um so and then my contribution to this book has been you see there's there's each each of the festivals is mentioned there's the summer solstice and then my contribution has been to uh Write a brief essay and just a short uh text about each festival and I just had a look at the the the text that I originally wrote and the text that appears in this book is almost entirely different it went through so many edits and changes that I thought it would be interesting to explore this with you and and then let's have a meditation in um in preparation for the solstice Sandy says it's a beautiful book really recommended oh thank you and Jane says the book arrived at the weekend it's a lovely book so um I I've I've I've um put a blog post up about it on my on my website and there's links you can if you just type it in you'll find it there's some lovely reviews coming in um Rene Renee says that the winter solstice is coming in Australia yes exactly the other side of the world is the reverse so um in one of the things that got completely edited out uh uh and I want to check this with you I'm going to ask you if you wouldn't mind just listening to the piece that was edited out and um see whether whether you you sense that that whether you resonate with it or whether you don't and just just be honest and and it's probably a good thing uh that it was edited out because uh it may well not res resonate with everyone um so we've got here um I'll just read you a bit placed in the south in the Druid calendar this Festival is associated with a Noonday sun with the height of our powers in middle age and with the ability to bring all of our gifts to bear on our lives as the year reaches its Zenith you might well think of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream when Titania the fairy queen and her elves dance ringlets to the whistling wind Shakespeare sweetened these creatures who were far more Sinister in earlier accounts and whether you believe in nice or nasty fairies or none at all there's no denying the days leading up to midsummer's Eve can feel strange nice but nasty sometimes too you know that tension that builds just before you reach your goal you're on the last lap you've almost finished the book the song the Picture the whatever and it is n fun it's hard work and you are powering away it was fun conceiving the project it was hell starting it then you got into your stride and the energy built but now you're about to Climax and it's fun in some ways because you know you'll make it but it's easy to get stressed now Angry even that's one way of understanding what's happening all around us as we reach the summer solstice nature is straining to give birth winter Sol is an imul with a conceiving bit spring equinox and belan the planting the energy building bid and now the dance between Sun and the Earth is about to reach its high point at the solstice it may not feel like summer has peaked because it'll get hotter after late June because it takes months for the ocean and the Earth to heat up but astronomically it is summer Zenith which means the cosmic dance the love making has got as intense as it ever will and this is why you might have noticed a certain tension in the air around this time people get Snappy it feels like something's got to break time for summer storms and the lightning that brings relief this is the time of Soul Invictus Helios the uncon son of Syria and Rome of aten Rah sullus Apollo and every sun goddess or God that has ever Shone upon the Earth it's the time of Triumph when the storm breaks your effort is paid off you've told everyone in the way to f off and it's done it's time to celebrate Victory and success and to let your light shine now none of that appears in the book it was all edited out does does that sense funny enough this year I haven't felt it so that's why I'm thinking probably it's a good thing it was edited out I um I don't resonate with it says Sky guy perhaps because I'm past middle-aged um uh let's let's just see should have been left in good um beautifully written I feel like swearing too LOL uh I can relate to this comment be beautiful um feeling the tension me mentioned it's it's kind of funny because many solstices I've felt this tension and I've talked to other people and theyve felt this too but this year I haven't felt it it's just one of those things uh Abigail says love it completely resonates with me it does with me as we are hosting our first big Druid event this weekend um it resonates with me because all the foliage and thickness of the makes the forest and other environments feel more esoterical mystical and tense it should not have been edited I do feel the tension and totally get what what you're saying dris Moon says sometimes it's all too much too full too burgeoning too much to do a bit of a panic and I start to yearn for the end of it yearn to see the brown of falling leaves Nam says absolutely there tension waiting for the victory dance k says this resonates strongly okay okay well um well explains a lot says Dorothy I didn't check in with my feelings I'm cranky yeah so feels like the truth said Phyllis oh well that's lovely to hear um and and not everybody agrees but but um philosophical Phoenix said I love that I never thought of middle age as a strong place to be um and Asia says something interesting very spoton for me the light here in Sweden is so intense and summer solstice always felt loud to me that's an interesting comment and in Sweden there are lovely Solstice um festivities I've I've we had a Dre camp in Sweden and uh celebrated the summer solstice there once and it was just lovely um yeah so well there we go um well thank you thank you everybody um it's it's good you can read I've put the whole there was more that was edited out um and I've I've I've put it in my blog post um so it's up on my blog uh if you're interested in reading it um and zel is saying I definitely feel an edge as we approach the solstice and also before a full moon uh John King says living in the north I always find the long days exhausting and can get Snappy um right okay yeah so there you go well well well thank you um so so if you wanted to read the rest um you you'll find it in the blog um interesting and isn't it funny how our feelings can change and for whatever reason i' I've I've just come back from three weeks in Ireland a lovely having a wonderful time so I'm very relaxed and I've come back from a holiday so maybe that's why I'm not feeling the tension so should we drop into a meditation let's just allow ourselves to prepare and the thing the thing about I think the summer storm image is a helpful one here isn't it it's like this feeling of um a summer storm brewing you know and it might might feel uncomfortable but we know it's going to break and the rain's going to come and and and the Earth will be grateful and and there's all this burgeoning going on as as someone said and it almost feels um like it's too much so so that's that's interesting and particularly if you're you're on a hot place of course that's going to be um oh and Trix is saying um I see it with many of my clients strange times yeah okay great uh so let's let's drop into a meditation and if you're feeling tense or however you're feeling you you don't have to put these feelings aside you can just bring them with you you can be with them and just to the degree that you feel comfortable you might like to close your eyes and just gently feel yourself in front of the screen the walls around you the floor beneath you and the ceiling above you and taking a slow deep breath hold your breath for a moment then breathe out fully and deeply and on the out breath it's always easier to let go of stuff that you don't want to hold on to so if there's any tension or any feelings you don't want to hold on to you can just do that let's do it one more time breathing in in holding for a moment and then breathing out fully and deeply and then one more time and as you breathe out it's as if you can feel the walls the floor and the ceiling just shimmering a little bit bed and starting to melt away and you'll sense of the screen in front of you just melts away too as you find yourself either coming into or already being in the sacred grove this clearing in the forest beloved of The Druids it's a warm summers's day approaching the midsummer approaching the summer solstice the ground ground is dry and you're either sitting on the ground or on a log or stone and just allow yourself to tune in to the Earth and notice how you can sense the humidity in the earth it's almost like you've got your own inbuilt humid humidity sensor and the Earth might feel dry beneath you it might feel moist but just travel in your awareness into the Earth and notice how your awareness can expand so that you're sensing the soil the melal network the roots of the trees all the creatures in the soil the little worms and bugs all this life and the moisture and the roots of the trees and you allow the energy of this Earth to rise up into you and as you breathe in you feel the energy of the Earth rising into your being and as you breathe out you feel yourself relaxing into your body and your presence on the earth just allow yourself to let go and relax and just feel gravity just feel yourself close to the Earth enjoying that closeness and breathing in the Earth's energy too and you sense the roots of the trees you sense the moisture traveling up through the roots of the trees up the trunks you sense the presence of the trees now around you of our brothers and sisters the trees and as they breathe out through their leaves you breathe in with gratitude for their gifts and you become aware of the sky above you you breathe in the energy of the sky the energy of the sky meets the energy of the earth within the center of your being and now using the magic of the imagination you imagine that it's becoming Twilight and Dark the stars are coming out as the sky gets darker and darker and you sense an invitation to watch the summer solstice Sunrise the Dawn and if you feel that desire you follow your companions who you seen now leaving the circle and walking along a path through the forest and if it feels right for you you join your companions sensing their companionship and their guidance as you walk along the forest path in the night until the trees start to thin out and you find yourself coming to a high point looking out over the landscape and you see that everybody's starting to sit down to face the coming Dawn you sit down to and you really soak in the gradual brightening of the sky and pinks and gold before the sun rises the birds are singing now and the sky and the sun breaks over the horizon and the first Rays go straight to your heart and you sense your whole Aura your energy field filled with light and with warmth may this summer solstice Dawn bring energy and healing to me may this summer solstice Dawn Mark the beginning of a wonderful new phase in my life an increasing sense of peace and of Happiness a maturing of my soul and of my work in the world may There Be Peace On Earth may all beings be blessed May the light of the sumers soltice Dawn bring illumination and Clarity into the hearts and minds of all may the right choices be made the right decisions be made may all lives be blessed May the land be blessed and you sense the energy of the Sun as the Sun starts to rise in the sky you feel how the light blesses the land you see the forests and the lakes the sea in the distance the mountains all being caressed by the sun blessed by the Light of the Sun and sensing this blessing within you too you turn and gradually follow the procession as it works its way back through the forest and into the sacred grove you find your place in the circle and standing with your fellow companions in the circle you take to the hand to the left and right of you and say those words that we say in Druid rituals we swear by peace and love to stand Heart to Heart and Hand in Hand Mark o spirit and hear us now confirming this our sacred vow you squeeze the hand to the right and left of you and you allow yourself to sit down in the circle appreciating the community around you the community not only of Companions and fellow participants in the circle but the community of the animals the birds the trees the Earth and the sky and then gradually you start to become aware of yourself and your body and as you do this your awareness of the sacred grove begins to gently fade as you become aware of the walls around you the ceiling beneath you and the the ceiling above you and the floor beneath you the screen in front of you you taking a big deep breath and being sensing yourself fully present here and now you stretch your fingers and toes and when you feel ready you open your eyes so thank you very much um and uh lovely that you were able to participate uh in this circle um if you do have access to the Druid Heth um I'll I'll pop in there now and we can have a have a chat um otherwise many many blessings much love have a lovely lovely Solstice and um I will see you on the other side of the solstice in the next half of the Year okay bye everybody

Channel: Philip Carr-Gomm

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Length: 28min 14sec (1694 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 18 2024