Summer Solstice: Rituals + Recipes
“Carry your heart through this world, like a life-giving sun.”
What is the Summer Solstice?
The Summer Solstice marks the seasonal shift from awakening and birthing anew (Spring) to a full on energetic charge of high action and movement (Summer). This time reminds us of our power energy source— the sun, the light, a potent and powerful force of life. Remembering that it is our brith right to live in alignment, pray and know the Earth and her cycles, we share this insight and inspiration with you.
The power of the summer solstice portal reminds us that we can and are here to create our most joyful and radiant lives. It’s an energetic message that everything we long for is accessible to us and what we couldn’t see before is revealed to us now. The resources are available, the most potent moment to see and use the resources is now— when everything has come to full bloom— including you!
It’s also the longest day of the year, meaning the Earth tips on her access to get the closest to the light, to the heat, to the Sun’s magnetic power. It’s a nudge to Fully Live.
We encourage you to connect with the energy of the sun in order to feel your radiance, your gifts, and to say thank you to life through prayers, gratitudes, thoughts and/or deeds.
Summer Rituals + Practices
Speak your gratitudes + prayers. Say them aloud or journal them, light them in a cauldron or sacred fire.
Create, color, paint, draw about living into your hearts truest desires
Dance, move, hike, get those cells activated by movement, warmth, and/or sunlight
Take a contemplative walk in a garden early in the morning, in silence, sink into the aliveness all around
Cook yourself a beautiful meal filled with the abundance of summer produce—food filled with the energy of the Sun (plants + meats)
Gift your light. Show and tell people that they matter and you love them. Wrap a gift in reverence for a loved one that brings you to life
Volunteer. Be of service, do something for someone else (they may or may not need to know)
Ayurvedic Summer Recipes
Alex Holiday, one of our co-founders, is a trained Ayurvedic Health practitioner and prepares suggested meals for the summer season along with blessings to recite for a mindful + seasonally-aligned eating experience.
Before you eat, open your connection to the Divine/Source. Open your heart to those who helped to prepare the food and to prepare your body, mind and consciousness to receive the food. The calm created by this act focuses and prepares the digestive system to receive the food so it can digest it more easily.
Consider speaking this prayer aloud: “Gratitude to the Earth, for growing the food I am about to eat. Gratitude to the sun, who helped it grow and become ripe. Gratitude for the elements that make up this food. Gratitude to the plants and animals that gave their life so that I may live. Bless all of the hands that brought it to this table. May this meal nourish me and give me strength so that I can remember my light and my purpose.”
Cucumber Mint Medicine Water
Photo from eatingwell.com
Ingredients:
1 small cucumber thinly sliced
10-20 whole mint leaves
½ thinly sliced lime
12 cups of water
Instructions:
Rinse cucumber, mint and lime
Combine in a large pitcher and refrigerate for at least 4 hours
Serve at room temp
Chia Pudding
Ingredients:
Photo from Broma Bakery
2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
⅓ cup chia seeds
¼ cup coconut flakes
3 tbsp pistachios
Maple Syrup to taste
¼ tsp cardamom
Handful of fresh or dried rose petals
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients except for rose petals in a large bowl or jar. Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours, until the chia seeds become expanded and soft. Stir before serving. Garnish with rose petals and enjoy!
Pranaful Kitchari, adapted from Meredith Klein
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons ghee (or coconut oil)
1 teaspoons each: cumin seeds and fennel seeds
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1⁄2 cup mung beans, soaked* and drained
3⁄4 cup white basmati rice
4–6 cups water (use less for drier kitchari; more for soupier kitchari)
1-inch piece of kombu seaweed – optional but highly recommended
3⁄4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon salt
Up to 2 cups chopped veggies
Instructions:
Heat ghee in a medium pot over medium-low heat. Add cumin and fennel seeds, and ginger, and sauté for a couple minutes, until fragrant. Stir often to keep ginger from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Stir in the rice and drained mung beans, and cook for 2 minutes.
Add water and raise heat to high. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat back to medium low, and stir in kombu, turmeric, and salt. Cover and cook for 25-35 minutes, until the rice and mung beans are soft. Stir occasionally as needed to prevent sticking.
If using fresh veggies, add the heartier veggies (like cauliflower) at the same time as the kombu and spices. Add lighter veggies (like greens) in the last 10 minutes of cooking.
If using whole mung beans, soak at least 6-8 hours (overnight is best); for split mung beans, 2-3 hours minimum