June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calenders. It was named after Juno, the Roman mother goddess, wife of Jupiter, analogous to Greek Hera. While Summer doesn’t officially start until June 21st on the Summer solstice, the weather is already fully hot and humid. Here, we’ve had rain for weeks, and when it’s not raining, it’s ridiculously humid. We also are beginning the hurricane/tropical storm season, so there are frequent thunderstorms. Everything is so green and lush and full, it’s tough to be angry about it.
June 21st is the Summer solstice, or Litha to Pagans. It’s a time when we celebrate the summer, the fae, and the sweetness of abundance that’s surrounding us right now. It’s not a harvest festival, but we are surrounded by lovely summer fruits and vegetables right now, including vine-ripened tomatoes, avocados, berries, cherries, melons, and even herbs like fresh basil. Here in Georgia, the hydrangeas, gardenias, and magnolias are blooming. The honeysuckle is still around a little, too, and the air smells divine in the warm evening air. I’m seeing a lot of hawks everywhere too, and toads after a good, soaking rain. We’re even seeing an occasional firefly.
Lunations:
New moon in Gemini, June 13th at 3:43pm
Full moon in Capricorn, June 28th at 12:52am
Astronomy:
June 18- Neptune goes retrograde at 3:44pm in Pisces
June 26- Mars goes retrograde at 4:41pm in Aquarius
Celtic Tree Month:
Hawthorn (May 13th- June 9th); Matters of the heart, love, empowering relationships, fertility, union of male and female (Beltane), intimacy, passion, triple goddess, purification, cleanses the heart of negativity, under protection of faerie realm, guards wells and springs, happiness.
Oak (June 10- July 7): Solar magick, health, success, prosperity, blessings, bravery, endurance, strength, deep emotions, love, nurturing our family, mediating conflict, healing wounds, sovereignty, rulership, power, strength and endurance, justice and nobility, honesty, male fertility.
Holidays (mundane):
June 17- Father’s Day
Holidays (Pagan):
June 7- June 15: Vestalia- dedicated to Roman goddess Vesta. Women made offerings at her temples and at their hearths at home.
June 8: World Ocean Day
June 13: Old European feast of the Triple Goddess- marks turning of Goddess from Maiden into Mother.
June 14- June 15: Skirophorion Noumenia- Greek festival honoring all gods and goddesses.
June 16- June 17: Feast of Greek Athena, as protector and defender.
June 17- June 18: Feast of Greek Aphrodite and Hermes- balance of feminine and masculine.
June 21: Old Slavic Kupala- festival honoring marriage of Goddess Morana/Lada and God Jarilo/Lado. Celebrated by ritual bathing, celebration, and sexual revelry.
Themes for the month: Growth, greenery, nature spirits, the fae, weddings, honey and honeymoons, mead, bees, trees, nature, celebrating the sun at it’s most powerful point in the year.
General activities for the month: Camping, hiking, enjoying the sun, swimming, cooking outdoors, weeding, contacting the spirits of nature, gathering honey, making mead, sweating.
Herbs I’m using: Tea (drinking it iced- need the caffeine for this season of growth and tending!), sage (doing some radical purification and smudging every single night), frankincense (helping me quiet my mind and achieve a meditative state).
Stones I’m using: Dendritic agate (for growth and abundance), fire agate (for energy and passion), garnet (an energizing stone for January babies, I keep seeing it in my meditations).
Goddess of the Month: Hestia/Vesta- I’m thinking a lot about home and hearth and what that means to me. I want to create home wherever I am, and wherever my husband and cats are, even if it doesn’t look like home to ordinary people.
3 card reading:
First, we have The Hermit. So it looks like June is going to be a month for us to really go within. We have some things we need to work out on a spiritual level, and hiding from ourselves isn’t really going to help us right now. So don’t be afraid to take some solitary time for yourself this month, because it’s needed.
Next, we see The Devil reversed. So while we’re going within, we need to resist temptations. No hiding from the truth behind alcohol, drugs, excessive shopping, we’re really thinking about what’s important. So focus on the spiritual, not the material, it’s also needed right now.
Finally, we have the Two of Swords. We’re going to feel like we’re in a deadlock of some sort. We’re going to feel like no matter what we do, we can’t get ahead or win a battle that we’ve been fighting for some time. That’s OK, and that’s part of the spiritual lesson. Is this a battle that really needs to be won anyways? Is the end result worth the struggle? Really examine what you’ve been fighting, and see if it might be better to just flow with what is.
Our special guidance card is The Sage reversed. This card warns us against trying to create artificial boundaries and dualities, and trying to use knowledge or facts to prove a point. Sometimes using the things we learn as weapons take us much farther from wisdom when we should be open to learning new things and perhaps thinking differently. So, like the 2 of Swords suggests, we may be tempted to argue our point when it would probably be more beneficial to be quiet and listen.
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Summer Sun
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.
Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy’s inmost nook.
Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.
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My personal tides: I’m still all about change here. I’ve been cleaning/clearing/purging my house and really deciding what’s important enough to keep. I’m all about making lists of what I really need and want to take in a move, and then comparing all the extra junk against that list to see how much it really matters. I’ve been here 14 years, and it really is time to shake things up.
My personal goals: Sell/donate/throw away stuff I don’t need. Reorganize what I do decide to keep. FINALLY go through all my books, and take the ones I don’t want to McKay’s. Finish the eBook I’ve been working on, and start getting ready for tarot stuff at Dragon*Con. Get outside and hike sometime this month.