How to celebrate the Summer Solstice with your Shamanic Drum
The Summer Solstice marks the longest day and the shortest night of the year, a time for honouring the light within and celebrating the fullness of life.
The Summer Solstice often falls on or around the 21st June, and is determined by the point at which the Earth’s poles reach their maximum tilt towards from the Sun. This year, 2023, that point will be at 9:50pm on the 20th June, though many will celebrate the sunrise on the 21st, as is tradition.
For millennia, people have honoured and celebrated the Summer Solstice in these isles. Many stone circles and ancient sites across the UK are aligned with the sunrise on the Summer Solstice. Most notably, at Stonehenge, many still gather to watch the Solstice sunrise, framed by the stones.
Ancient Celts believed that the hot Sun would banish evil spirits from the land, granting great wealth through abundant harvests and fertile land for the coming year. Celebrations vary depending on heritage and tradition, but often bonfires are lit or great feasts are held, accompanied by dancing, or even wheels of fire being sent down a hillside.
The cycles of Sun between the dark and light half of the year also reflect our own inner and outer nature. Just like the Winter Solstice marks that time of going within, the Summer Solstice relates to our outward expression, and bringing our gifts to the fore.
The Summer Solstice also marks the transition from growing to nourishment, where the long days help to mature and ripen the plants and crops that have been growing through the Spring. This works on a personal level too, where our new ideas, visions and plans need their time in the Summer Sun to fully develop, before the harvest can come.
We have been sharing ways that we can work with our Shamanic Drums to connect with the magic and wisdom of the seasons and festivals, and this month, we continue with three ways that we can connect with the Summer Solstice.
In our regular drumming circles, we drum to connect and attune ourselves to the seasonal changes in the land, to remain connected and in tune with the wisdom and medicine each season brings.
You can join us for our regular drum circles. Click here for more information.
How to use our Shamanic Drums to connect with the season:
1. Drum up the Solstice sunrise
Just as our ancestors gathered at sites like Stonehenge, or other sacred places near them to see the sunrise on Summer Solstice morning, one way that you can work with your drum at Summer Solstice is to drum up the sunrise, to honour life in its fullness.
You may be able to travel to somewhere which has a great view of the sunrise, or you may want to stay closer to home this year, perhaps even picking a room in your home with a window facing in that direction. Sit watching the approaching sunrise, and create a sacred space for yourself.
Holding your prayers and intentions in mind, you may wish to start with a very steady drum rhythm, building up as the sun rises, or just let the energy and spirit of the moment guide the rhythm of your drum, to welcome and celebrate this time that has been so important to people of this land for thousands of years.
2. Journey to connect with the Spirit of the Season
The Shamanic Journey is a practice where the rhythm of the Drum guides you into an inner visionary landscape, for guidance and healing. We often journey with an intention or a question, with the hope of meeting a spiritual being in this landscape to give us the answer or guidance that we need.
As this is a time of honouring our inner light and the gifts that we are to bring to the fore, the shamanic journey can be a powerful practice to meet this inner light and receive guidance and direction on ways to let it shine.
Call on the spirit of the season, and journey within, supported by your guides and allies. If you are familiar with the practice of journeying, you can use the sound recording below to help you with your journey. If you would like to learn more about journeying, and how you can develop this practice for guidance and healing, take a look at our Shamanic Journeying online course, with recorded lessons that you can work through in your own time.
3. Drum around your home to clear away the “bad spirits”
Just as is traditionally believed at this time, that the Solstice sun helps to clear away the “bad and evil spirits”, we can use our Shamanic Drum to help cleanse and re-energise our homes.
This is a great thing to do to revitalise your living space, and allows space for new creativity and inspiration, by clearing away the heavy or stagnant energy that inevitably accumulates in our homes.
To do this, move around the house from room to room, drumming a steady rhythm to all the directions, and all the walls. Don’t forget the corners of the rooms, cupboards, and the space down the edge of the sofa - just as these are the places where old newspapers may fall and get forgotten, these are also a place that needs clearing.
You may also want to combine this with other practices of space clearing, such as smudging, and invite the healing, cleansing and protective energies of the plant spirits into your home, too.
We hope you find this guide useful! Please share your experiences celebrating the Solstice with us either in the comment section below or on our social media @HeronDrumsUK.
Want to deepen your understanding of the Shamanic Drum and learn more ways of working with it? Join one of our online courses.