6/14 (Sat):

 In the ancient Khemitian calendar, the month of Mesore begins. Mesore is sacred to Heru-Khuiti, the Gemini-like composite neter who combines the solar qualities of Hor (Horus) and the lunar qualities of Djehuti (Thoth) into one figure who represents all dualities. Mesore begins the critically important time of calculation and preparation for the annual Nile flood, and each year a week of mystery rites is enacted, leading to the major time marker of the Summer Solstice. Among the main ceremonies:

6/15 All the neters of sea, earth and sky gather in heaven to reaffirm their union with Ma'at, neter of Truth. (Mesore, day 2)

6/16 Festival of Het-Hor/Aset (Hathor/Isis) as mystic way-shower, embodied in the star Sothis (Sirius). It is now 40 days, or 4 decans (10-day "weeks") until July 26, when the heliacal rising of Sirius in the east just before dawn heralds the coming of the flood. (Mesore 3)

6/18 Day of emergence of Min, the love neter, the most beloved emanation of Amun the Creator. Min's headdress of tall double plumes and large erect phallus proclaim his prowess as the principle of male generative energy. (Mesore 5).

6/20 Amid all this season's festivals of male potency and female fertility, today's rite of the of Anup (Anubis) is most mysterious. On this day Anup, the Opener of the Way who conducts souls to the Duat, or land of the dead, goes to visit every necropolis in Khemt. His day in this cycle is one of the Khemitian calendar's most emphatic reminders of the presence of death even amid the late Spring surge of new life, and is in some ways a counterpart to the middle European Mother Night, on 12/20. (Mesore 7)

6/21 Wadjet ceremony, honoring the protective cobra neter whose power as destroyer of evil makes her so important to the nation's life that she appears in the uraeus serpent on pharaoh's crown and other regalia. Her placement at this point in Mesore marks the 35 days of purification before the next flood season.

6/16 (Mon):

 One of the heartiest of all literary anniversaries, for it was on June 16, 1904 that Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom went in search of each other, and of Molly Bloom, in James Joyce's Ulysses. The day has been called Bloomsday ever since the novel was published in 1922; and it celebrates, among other things, the love and general fidelity that bound James and Nora Joyce in a marriage lasting 37 years, until his death in 1941.

The Sikh community commemorates on this day the fifth of the Sikh gurus, and the first to be martyred: Guru Arjan Dev, who was executed at the order of the Grand Mughal Jahangir for preaching against corrupt institutions of power and wealth.

6/18 (Wed), 7:32am HT; 5:32pm UT:

Full Moon in Sagittarius opposite Sun in Gemini. This Full Moon is usually favorable for domestic activities sacred to Juno, and for the setting up of a home -- another reason why marriages occur so often in the Gemini month of late May through June 20. This Full Moon is an excellent marriage date for couples who accept their love union as a challenge of love and adventure at a time of powerful and complex celestial dynamics. For more on this, see Astral Notes for Summer, 2008.

Tibetan Buddhists celebrate at this Full Moon their feast of Saga Dawa Duchen, the great annual spring festival commemorating the birth, enlightenment and parinirvana of the Buddha.

In the Wiccan calendar, this is the Strong Sun Moon, when the days begin to grow longest and nature's vitality is at its peak.

6/20 - 23 (4 days):

Among the Lakota and other Native Americans of the plains, the four days before, during and after the Summer Solstice are the annual time of the Sun Dance, a festival of fasting and healing ceremonies affirming the manifestation of Takuskanskan the Creator in all things.

The Summer Solstice occurs, very unusually, at the exact stroke of midnight on June 21 in Greenwich. The Solstice is one of the four major festivals of the solar year, when the Sun reaches the quarter points on the zodiac wheel. It now reaches the cardinal ("hinge") point of 90°, as the Sun enters the sign of Cancer, the Crab. For the next month, the side-to-side moves of the Crab are favored in all things. This is more a time to organize what has been gained, and plan what comes next, than it is either to start new enterprises or dissolve old ones that don't work. The Crab lives where it can jump sideways into an ocean wave when threats appear. Those who have the grace, humility and aquatic skill to do this are favored now. The sideways motion of the Crab is also that of the Farmer, who works sideways in rows to preserve productive order.

 Among the countless Summer Solstice celebrations and ceremonies: The Sonnenwende ("Sun's turning") of the Norse calendar, so named because at this point in the year, the Sun reaches its farthest northern sunset point on the horizon, and must now begin moving south, and bringing with it the hotter, more rapid movement of Summer, and everything else that the South implies. The season of husbandry begins now in bonfires that mark this day as the one when the Sun's light stays longest in the Sky.

 In northern Russia, especially in St. Petersburg, this day begins the White Nights, which last for the next ten days. In this and other fire festivals that can get more raucous than most, fireworks and all, many people love the days of the Long Light because this is the best time to burn the chaff and the worry of the year gone by, and get ready to work the field under the waxing Sun, and care for children. 

In the Celtic calendar, this day is called Litha, and honors the Water Goddess. Many European peoples also honor the Green Man, leafy symbol of nature's resurgence, counterpart to the Egyptian Osiris. (Photo -- with the author as the Green Man -- courtesy Charles Priest of Da Kine Rags).

The Inti Rayni, the Inca festival of the Sun, is celebrated on June 20 and 21.

Taoist festival honoring the Heavenly Emperor Shang-Ti and celebrating the active presence of the Tao in all things. This is the time when the masculine Yang force is at its peak, and initiates the season of fire, south and Summer.

In some Native American calendars, this day begins the Month of the Flicker. Hunting is easier than it usually is.

In many ancient calendars, this is one of the year's best times for honoring Wise Women. In the Greco-Roman calendar, this was the Day of All Heras (Roman counterpart Juno, for whom this month is named), when people gather to listen to women who have achieved spiritual Union with the Great Goddess. In ancient Britain this was the Day of Cerridwen, celebrating all Wise Women.

Finally, another round of the Tzolkin, the sacred calendar of the Maya, begins to turn on this day. June 21 begins the Uinal of Duality, sacred to the creator couple Ometeotl and Omecinatl, the most exalted deities in the Aztec/Mayan cosmos. The period that now begins is the thirteenth and last of the 20-day Uinals in the current Tzolkin cycle (7 Imix, Tzolkin 241), and marks the point at which the cycle dissolves in a duality from which the next uinal will be born in Fire. The symbolic bird for this uinal is the Parrot, the principle that of Completion.

Copyright 2008 Dan Furst. All Rights Reserved.