A Different Approach to Celebrating the Summer Solstice

Icarus and his father, inventor Daedalus, made a great escape from imprisonment through crafted wings. However, freedom is met with tragedy as Icarus does not heed his father’s warning not to fly too close to the sun. Icarus’s wings, held together with wax, melted, and he fell to his death. (Greek mythology)

What drew him to the sun despite warning? Perhaps the same allure of the bright, magnetic, and fiery we experience today. Icarus’s fate can be interpreted in different ways, but on the eve of the summer solstice, I would like to offer the following perspective—pause, and approach the wonders of the sun and fire with reverence and respect.

As we near the summer solstice, midsummer, I am reminded of the cultures before ours that had reverence and respect for the sun’s life-sustaining energy. Without the sun, we would not exist. This truth was not lost on these cultures that lived close to the earth’s rhythms.  

With artificial light, foods produced by others, and central heating, it is easy to take the sun for granted. This is where pausing on the summer solstice can be a practice of gratitude and celebration; a connection to the cyclical rhythm of the earth and our connection with this rhythm. Pausing this time of year also brings balance to our bodies. Perhaps had Icarus paused, the outcome would have been different.

In Chinese medicine, the sun is connected with Yang, masculine energy. We need this energy to create and move things forward. But if this yang energy, which is heightened with the solstice, gets out of balance, our mind/body system can run too hot. This can result in inflammation, tempers flaring, increased blood pressure, and insomnia. With an increase in the sun’s presence, we are invited to pause and rest for a moment, which brings balance so we don’t have internal wildfires.

Pausing is an act of reverence and respect.

There is wisdom in slowing down, taking a vacation, or grilling out and relaxing in the backyard in the summer months. Rest brings balance to the heat (sun, fire). Pausing and resting are equated with yin energy, which is feminine. Yin takes Yang’s strength and forward movement and softens it to fluidly create. Watching a fire demonstrates this beautifully—the fire is a source of heat but also dances, changes form, does not have edges, and has a fluidity about her—qualities of yin energy.

There is a lot of yang energy right now; you might feel it within yourself. With the arrival of the summer solstice, I invite you to pause and celebrate the longest day of the year and the gifts of the sun. This is good medicine—an act of reverence and respect for yourself and this passage in the great wheel of life.