 Hello people, I'm Ginny Metherill and I am a fourth generation witch. Today we are diving into the wonderful magical, beautiful time that we call Litha, otherwise you might know it as the summer solstice. And in this video I want to guide you through a bit of the history, the rituals, the spells, the traditions and some activities for you to celebrate this magical time. The first thing we need to know is what is Litha? Litha is an Anglo-Saxon term meaning a month of the mid-summer moon because this is the festival of mid-summer. It is the name that Wiccans have given the mid-summer that forms part of their Wheel of the Year series. And it is where the sun appears to stand still for three days in the northern hemisphere and provides us with the longest day. This year Litha falls on the 21st of June at precisely 3.57pm when the sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Cancer. There is a little bit of confusion between mid-summer and Litha and being are they the same? Well sort of, but no. Mid-summer is the Christian version of the Litha festival which was called mid-summer by our ancient ancestors. But they put their own spin on it. They created St John the Baptist's feast day on the 24th which is the few days after the solstice. They did this likewise with Christmas on the 25th of December after the winter solstice on the 21st. And this is about incorporating their own culture into the indigenous culture that happened in that country at the time and it's a great way to spread your religion. But whether in ancient times you celebrated the Feast of Litha or the Solstice or the Feast of St John the Baptist, what you did do was have a bonfire because this is a sun festival. We are honouring the sun being at its height and therefore we do this with fire. There is scant historical evidence for this of course, apart from traditional folklore and trends. There's a couple of monks in the 1400s who sort of wrote that there was hilltop bonfires in places. But we cannot deny such huge monuments as Stonehenge for example. Several stone circles in the UK are astronomically aligned and Stonehenge is the most famous of them. And this obviously shows that these solstices, the winter and the summer, were held in high regard. As they are today, Litha is one of the high points of the year. We may not know definitively the mid-summer rituals but we do know that bonfires were used and bonfires were always used as purification, fumigation and also as a sacred fire from which you would take the light to light your own hearth in your own home. These bonfires could be made on top of hills, it could have been made in the local village green, it didn't matter, it depended on where was sacred at the time and which particular person or druid was in charge of it. Sometimes the cattle were pushed through the smoke to purify them, sometimes the men and the women would jump over it to purify them. It was a sacred fire amongst the community. And offerings may well have been made in it such as they might have slaughtered a spring lamb which would then be roasted on the fire and eaten by all the people around. This is a feast and it's fun. Traditions associated with mid-summer are varied and many. It is of course a time for the fey and this is a time when you go out and see them, go and sleep underneath an elder tree and that will help you see the fey but ask the elder witch first. If you were to spy on them in their fairy mounds you would see it midnight the doors of the fey households opening and the fairies spilling out. Mid-summer eve was always known as a time for the witches hence why people would hang St John's wort, that yellow flower which is also known as chase devil, they would hang above their doorways to keep those witches away. It is said that trees can talk at mid-summer and the regal oak is the king of the British trees. This is where the fairies hid when Christianity took over the world and it is known that the oak is a portal often to other places and in fact the term druid means we think we're non entirely sure we think oak wisdom. One of the most alluring and enchanting of British myths is that the standing stones around will magically become animated on mid-summer's eve and trundle down the hill to the water to have a drink. There is a lot of apocryphal stories of people saying oh yeah well I fell asleep underneath a stone and I woke up I was underneath the same stone but I was in a different town altogether. So who knows this is one of the times where you should go and look at your stone circles and spend the night there to see if they actually do move. If you pick your roses at mid-summer and give them to your loved ones they are said to last for the next six months as fresh as the day that they were picked. So we might not be able to have a bonfire on lither so what would you do well you use symbols of the sun and fire within your craft the alchemical symbol for the sun is simply a round circle with a spot in the middle of it I think it's something to do with being the centre of the world or the world being the centre of the sun. The other symbol of the sun of course is a picture of the sun and you can use this in your craft to represent the sun anything round will do. Crystals are beloved by the sun and when charged by the sun and used in your rituals they tend to bring optimism, enthusiasm, self-confidence and luck. Carnelians are particularly great sun worshipers as is the beautiful citrine and anything like clear quartz as I have here. These also great sun worshipers. Likewise there are plenty of herbs that you might want to choose from. Sun-ruled herbs tend to be those again in hues of orange, yellow and red and maybe rosy pink as well think of sunflowers or something daisy like. Daisies love the sun like chamomile these are all perfect to use in rituals so you might have a chamomile teapot for example as well as bringing in honey. Honey is such a food of the sun and this is something that you would use to embody that sun's energy in your rituals. So what sort of rituals and spells might you do? Well I love to create mid-summer incense and for this I would use some bay, maybe some sage, a little bit of rosemary, rose petals of course and a little bit of salt. I burn this to purify and cleanse my home. This is using all those sun-loving plants and flowers and this will bring in the sun's energy into your home as well as a little luck and enthusiasm. Secondly I would do a fire altar. You don't have necessarily the room to have a bonfire as I keep saying and I'm not sure that you should light bonfires at mid-summer after our shenanigans a couple of years ago where we burnt down the forest great that was embarrassing. So a fire altar makes a good alternative. Lots and lots of candles bring your symbolism of the sun and you can honour the sun in the comfort of your own home. Should you be having a feast then you can ask your guests to light one of the candles for your altar and place it on there. This is a time for feasting and I always make at this time of year a Devonshire Honey Cake. If you want the recipe for it I did make another video about this actually the Devonshire Honey Cake recipe which I think is part of a previous letter video and I'll put that up here for you should you want it. All I can say is it's absolutely delicious and to die for and I had a struggle photographing this cake before my family pounced in it like a horde of Gannets. And finally other activities that you would do at mid-summer is join a coven. Mid-summer is the time for witches. This is when we would get together, renew our vows and bring in new initiates into the coven. It is a time for purification and feasting and fun and that is literally the best way to celebrate liver. Invite in your friends and family, get them to join your coven, light a couple of candles to place on your altar, eat some Devonshire Honey Cake, purify them with a bit of your mid-summer incense and you're pretty much good to go. How would you celebrate mid-summer? What is your favorite tradition from Lither? I would love to hear about this in the comments below. Please do leave me one. My coven meetings are going from strength to strength. We had a blast last time. Everyone learned such an important skill which was keeping and doing permanent protection for your home. It's so exciting for me to see how they are doing it because I can see their magic far away. It's like remote viewing, something I'm quite good at in fact. Come and join the coven and have a go because it is so much fun. I promise you'll enjoy it. Otherwise please don't forget to like and subscribe because it really helps my channel and ensures that I can carry on making these videos for you and I will see you in a very, very short time.