Soltice Ceremony

We went to a Soltice Party the other night and it was great to see how many people showed up for it. There were lots of activities, including horse sledding and skiing. Then we lit cattail and mullein torches, which were dipped in deer fat, and formed a big circle. We then went on a walk to honor a tree with the torches. The walk was a bit far so most of the mullein torches had gone out by then but it was nice anyway.

Although it was nice to attend the ceremony I can't help but think that in our society the attempt to create ceremony is generally weak; we meekly hint at the importance of ritual, propose that it might be nice to think of rituals as important and formative, and shyly try to implement then. From what I've learned from Native people, the power of rituals and myths comes from taking them seriously, suspending our critical mind and just accept what is being said and happening as true.

I've been thinking of creating/recalling meaningful ceremonies for years and things are slowly starting to crystallize in my mind. I'm inspired right now to take more active steps in facilitating ceremonies in a community setting, telling good myths and doing rituals representative of the cycle of the seasons.