Sunday is summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, and winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. It is also Father’s Day. We celebrate all fathers (and some mothers who are also fathers) on this longest day of light for the year. We celebrate the masculine (radiating outward) aspects within all of us, the “fathering” of newborns, and all men (fathers) who have, in ways great and small, impacted our lives.

At summer solstice the Sun in Cancer rests quietly for three days at the Tropic of Cancer before turning southward again. Since winter solstice, the light grew stronger each day. When summer solstice begins, inaugurating the three months of summer, paradoxically there is less and less light each day.

Summer solstice is also called Litha—Celtic for the month of June. Uriel, the summer Archangel, living and teaching in fields and meadows, protects the Earth.

The Sun’s golden power is celebrated at solstice. In early times there were bonfires at midnight to reflect the solstice as the longest day of light for the year. The crops are growing, the Earth is warm, and the animal kingdom (humanity is both animal and spirit) spends many hours in nature under the long day’s warming Sun. Summer is the exact opposite of the cold darkness of Yule.

Ancient people celebrated the Sun god at summer solstice. Their names (representing the disk, rays and power of the Sun): Amaterasu (Shinto); Ra and Aten (Egypt); Apollo (Greek); Lugh (like Mercury, Celtic). The feminine (heart) aspect of the Sun was revered through Hestia or Vesta (flames, Greek); Juno (Roman, June is named for her); Minerva (Celtic, goddess of Wisdom); Sunna (Norse, goddess of the Sun).

The solstice unfolds under a Sun/Saturn transit (Saturn is Father Time). We may feel very serious, aware of the passing of time. Monday, Jupiter trines Uranus in the early morning. We harmoniously expand into the new world. The forerunners (New Group of World Servers) “imagine” this world first. Then everyone “sees” it.