Midsummer Solstice Once Again

Our ancient ancestors knew this fact well and yet they also realised that without fair chance or good luck, life could be poor, intolerable or ultimately disastrous. 

The Roman Goddess of Fate and Luck was known as Fortuna, hence the other name for chance, i.e. fortune. This deity was often associated with a ship’s rudder, sphere, cornucopia or wheel. Fortuna humbles even the most regal members in society. Prodigious emperors would often show images of her in their private chambers to remind them of her power over destiny. Without her blessings they realised that all their efforts would amount to nothing. So great an adoration did Fortuna amass that the Romans built eight separate Temples to honour her in their city. 

Fortuna’s Temple at Antium in Latium was very popular with the Italians.  Adherents would send abundant quantities of gifts and offerings from all over the country, in the hope of attracting the Goddess’s goodwill. Fortuna had a feast day soon after the Midsummer Solstice in June when slaves too would be welcomed into the festivities, for the Goddess could even smile kindly on the most subjugated folk in the melting pot of the class structure. Who does not even now in modern times, protest or celebrate over one’s good luck or calamity in life? 

Midsummer Eve Fires were ignited high on hill tops. The relationship with solar permanence is of course self-explanatory. 

It is by no twist of fate that the early Church decided to hold the feast day of St. John the Baptist at Midsummer. Our earliest forefathers needed rain as well as sun to achieve satisfactory crops and countless old customs give us a strong clue to this fact. 

One old tradition involved a huge straw bound wheel being ignited then rolled down a hillside into a river. This event was mystically representative of the Sun’s vigour intermingling with the element of water to produce good growth in vegetation etc. 

New Age gurus, with their sanitised, white light, metaphysical notions may come and go along with the flow of life, yet the wonderful fluctuating cycles of nature remain unchanging.

The Church, ever willing to exploit our old native traditions for its own ends, naturally saw this unique Pagan festival as an excellent occasion to adapt into one of its own; hence the ‘water’ associations with a ‘baptising’ saint. 

A great deal of our ancient Pagan heritage has been insidiously commandeered in this fashion; initially by the iron fist of monotheistic theocracy and by plastic pretenders liking the Pagan style. Nevertheless, more and more people are now rediscovering the old organic truths once again.

The ancient wholesome spirituality of the planet was always there for the taking, yet mankind’s desire of power corrupted it into something it never was throughout the ages. 

Pat Regan ©