Happy Litha to all

Yesterday was Summer Solstice in the southern hemisphere (which includes us). The Earth's annual journey around the sun has bought us back to the peak of solar strength and the promise that 'this too shall pass' and winter will come again.

Every year we head to water for our Litha celebration; it pays to have water close when playing with fire.
Litha is a celebration of the sun reaching the height of his strength and a realization that everything is cyclic and even the awesome power of the sun waxes and wanes. We decorate the altar and surrounds with sun symbols and imagery. We perform a ritual to say thank you for the light and heat that let us live on this planet, then we party.

Decorating the tree behind the altar (facing North)

The altar is coming together nicely too

I love the twisted branches of this tree.

The Sun Lord's mask.

My partner wearing his Litha crown.

The Sun Lord in a light hearted moment.

The mask after the ritual, hanging in the tree, watching over our revels.

The Sun Lord casting the flaming spear into the water to symbolize his current strength and the shortening of the days from this point onward as the suns strength wanes towards winter.

Feasting from the altar.

The spear is floating in there somewhere

Happy Litha to all. I hope your day was as pleasant as ours.

A holed rock hanging in the tree.

A rock with a hole in it (naturally formed) is called a hagstone. It protects the area it is hung in from negative energy and if you look through it maybe you will see the faerie world.