The longest day of the year…bonfires, chanting, singing, dancing, gathering to witness the first rays of the morning sun, feasting and merrymaking. Throw in a bit of divination and magic, and you have a summer solstice.
“Sumer Is Icumen In” (also called the Summer Canon and the Cuckoo Song) is a medieval English round song of the mid-13th century. This rota is the oldest known musical composition featuring six-part polyphony, recorded here by The Hilliard Ensemble.
Sing, cuccu, nu. Sing, cuccu. Sing, cuccu. Sing, cuccu, nu. Sumer is i-cumin in— Lhude sing, cuccu! Groweth sed and bloweth med And springth the wude nu. Sing, cuccu! Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calve cu, Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth— Murie sing, cuccu! Cuccu, cuccu, Wel singes thu, cuccu. Ne swik thu naver nu! For Pagans, Summer Solstice was a time to honor the sun’s power, celebrate the abundance of nature and connect with the divine forces of the natural world. A few years ago, I had the good fortune of visiting prehistoric Stonehenge, perched on the wide Salisbury plain in Wiltshire, England. See post Wonder of Wonder.
At the summer solstice, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone, its rays channeled into the center of the stone circle. The builders of this place had a sophisticated understanding of astronomy. The Heel Stone marks the point where the sun rises on the longest day of the year. As I sat facing the circle, I was overwhelmed with a sense that I was a part of the long history of mankind. And I, like all the rest, am just passing through.
Trees and tree worship feature heavily in both ancient and modern solstice festivities. (See previous substack Talk to the Trees ). In the medieval poem Sweeney Astray (Buile Suibne), mad king Sweeney is cursed and turned into a bird. I spent a year with Seamus Heaney’s translation of Sweeney, setting the story to music, including his praise of all the trees of Ireland, from his perch in a yew tree. For a listen, go to my previous post on old Sweeney.
The oak is at the center. The Celtic word for oak is duir, which means doorway. The oak, as King of the Forest, is seen as a doorway to the mystical realm.
The beech tree is seen as the Queen of the Forest and consort to the oak king. To the druids, it symbolised wisdom and was the sacred wood of the summer solstice. In folklore, it is said that if you write a wish on a beech twig, then bury it, your wish will come true as the twig decays.
Hazel trees are believed to have magical properties and to protect against evil spirits; the shimmering leaves of the aspen were believed to carry messages from this world to the afterlife. Wearing a crown of aspen leaves allowed the wearer to travel to the underworld and back.
Life was simpler 5000 years ago - a matter of survival, search for food, wonder at the mysteries of the sun, the moon and the stars. Modern life, with the miracles of electricity, telephones, education, and now the internet and all its wonders - all of it increasing our knowledge on the one hand, but robbing us of the mystical magic, astonishment and wonder at the solar system, our earth, and everthing in between.
The solstice reminds us of the miraculous nature of our lives here on planet earth. Take a walk in the woods, light a fire on the beach, join hands and dance a circle dance to celebrate at day’s end, say a prayer to all the gods in heaven for kindness in the world and peace on earth.
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I didn't realize this was the inspiration for Ezra Pound's "Ancient Music"!
CUCCU!!!!!!!! (There, I did it!)
Happy solstice. I had never heard the tune before, so this was a treat.