June 2025

June 2025

The Strawberry Moon

June 11, 2025, the Strawberry Moon, because this is the time when strawberries ripen.

Celebration

 June 21, Litha. Celebrate the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, the peak of the sun’s power.  Serve honey cakes or cookies, fresh peaches and cream, lemonade or chamomile tea, celebrate the sun with a backyard barbeque or day at the beach. FYI, you can buy honey cakes, or honey cake mix, or make your own. I also discovered that many different cultures have their versions of honey cakes (thanks, Google), such as Jewish, French, Korean, Brazilian, South African, Algerian, or Tennessee with bourbon. If you have a fave, leave a comment. I guess in a time where honey was the most available natural sweetener many people worked with it. You could have an international honey cake celebration. Here’s a recipe for a multilayered Russian honey cake. The website goes into more background about honey cake in general. And here’s a link to an entire collection of Litha recipes.

Altar

Consider setting up an outdoor altar, though really you could do that any time of year. If you have nosey neighbors, you can make it subtle. Charge some sun water on  your Litha altar and make enough to last all year. Turns out sun water is a whole (non-Pagan) thing, too.

Spirit Guide

Solar animals symbolize sunlight and fire. Think of rams, dragons, lions, eagles, dragons, and phoenix. You can find some good examples of solar themed animal symbols here.Your spirit guide might be some other symbol of the sun or fire.

Ritual

Here’s an idea for a sunrise Litha ritual – Put yellow crystals and sunflowers (or any yellow flowers in bloom) on your altar. This would be a good time to include symbols of the God, a green man, horns, whatever speaks to you. After Litha, the days will get shorter until the winter solstice. The modern sun symbol is a circle with a dot in the middle – ☉. You can use this symbol at any time, but especially on the Litha altar. FYI, at the time of the Salem witch trials this symbol was also known as a demon trap. Ritual: There are so many fun ways to honor the sun and male deity for Litha. This site – https://eclecticwitchcraft.com/5-simple-litha-ritual-ideas/ – has some creative ideas I like and includes more rituals you can use throughout the summer. The equinoxes (Mabon and Ostara) are all about balance. Litha is about sunlight and Yule is about moonlight. The sun is powerful at Litha. Honor the strength of the God in your ritual.

Craft

Make calendula salve. I love this stuff and it works! It provides quick soothing and  healing of rashes, sunburn (in case you enjoy too much Solstice sun), irritations, or insect bites. You can charge your salve with the power of Summer Solstice sun, too. Of course, if you’re short on time, you can buy calendula cream or gel where homeopathic remedies are sold. If you prefer to make your own, here are instructions for making calendula salve. This site includes recipes for other salves as well.