Pachamama entreats us to
restore her clean waters,
allow the singing of the birds
to bring peace to her skies,
renew cosmic harmonies
on our sacred land.

excerpt © Marcia Starck 2012

Summer Solstice

Midsummer dreams beguile us after the longest day, entice us to expand, flourish, bring all we are meant to be out into the sun. This is the season of love made manifest.

Prehistoric monuments the world over align with sunrise at the Solstice, ushering in this time of flourishing. Plants, animals and the young of all species gambol in the light and warmth. Like flowers, our petals, too, unfurl as we dance, sing, celebrate the fullness of our creative lives, encourage others to seek theirs. We work to make our dreams of social justice and freedom for all beings manifest through thoughtful, sustained planning and action.

This is the peak of the solar year, the apex of growth, flowering and fruiting. After this beacon point, light begins imperceptibly to diminish and slowly give way to longer dark. We will need to give thought to those approaching days. But for now, joy is fiercely tiger-striped, as we taste and savor all our abundant blessings.

Sherri Rose-Walker © Mother Tongue Ink 2017

Gaia Woolf-Nightingall (Ithaca, NY) is an unusual artist, a priestess of the reclaiming feri tradition, weaver of love for the Goddess and one who walks between the worlds.

Marcia Starck (Santa Fe, NM) Astrologer, poet, peace activist, and ceremonialist. Her poetry and other books on astrology, healing, the shadow side, and women's rituals available from Earth Medicine Books include: Medical Astrology—Healing for the 21st Century, The Dark God, and Women's Medicine Ways.

Sherri Rose-Walker (Pacifica, CA) is a poet and artist living on the coast of Northern California. She hosts monthly poetry series, and seeks always to deepen connection to the Divine Feminine.