Litha

In order to discover my newly found pagan roots I really wanted to experience a Pagan celebration. Since Litha (midsummer) took place last Saturday I made a small altar in my house and decorated it with candles, incense and yellow flowers (to symbolize the sun).
I planned to celebrate Litha on my own and just wanted to go to a nice quiet green spot nearby. I read a book about Paganism and felt myself most attracted to solitary eclectic paganism - in other words, solitary paganism where you don't follow a specific path but try to discover what traits from other paths work best for you and combine them.
However, on Saturday night I discovered that Levensdans was organising a group ceremony and celebration. I only knew one person who was going there but I decided to crawl out of my shell and go there anyway! I'm so happy I did! It was absolutely beautiful.

The pictures below were made by Levensdans and I don't want to claim any credit for them! But they might give you a bit of a clue what we did that afternoon.

We started the ceremony with a prayer to Mother Earth. Nearly all pagans believe in a divinity of some kind - be it a goddess, or a goddess and god or pantheism, animism, there are many different varieties. I've never really been comfortable with a God so I am still trying to decide what fits me best. I do like the idea of Mother Earth - the earth like a mother who feeds and nourishes us all.

After a bit of meditating we did a 'hakka', which is a traditional Maori power dance. It really felt good to loosen my hair a bit and just go with the flow! You can see me in the middle wearing my vintage sunflower dress. I wore it because I thought it to be appropriate to wear sun-themed clothing on a Midsummer celebration.

After the Hakka we had a lunch break. Levensdans asked us to bring our own food so I made a  vegan quinoa salad with spinach and orange (orange, for the sun!). I might make it again sometime and post the recipe, I think it turned out really well! The other people brought some delicious food as well.

After lunch we did a meditation session, another hakka and then a drum circle! I think I liked the drum circle best - make music and dance all your sorrows away! I really must have one of those amazing handmade traditional drums. I could feel it resonating through my entire body.

And of course, time to dance!

Afterwards I sat by myself for a while and suddenly couldn't constrain my emotions. Two lovely people offered to do a personal chant for me. We went to a quiet part of the field and it was absolutely beautiful and very relaxing. It almost took me in some kind of trance. I don't have any pictures of it unfortunately. Then finally, I borrowed one of the drums and just went slamming it like crazy and yelling - an awesome way to exclamate the emotions that kept coming up. I have the tendency to hide my negative emotions and don't talk about them because it makes me feel better and deal with them better if I don't; but sometimes it's good to just let them all go!

I have been glowing for days afterwards. It was a pity that I still had a lot of studying to do as I had my last exams this week (which is also why I didn't write this post earlier!).
I really want to thank everyone who was there. The ceremony was magical and I am very inspired and full of ideas to try out regarding my own 'paganism' and I will be cherishing this memory for as long as I can remember it!

Love,

Jopie