The Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is being celebrated again this week. Also known as ‘estival solstice’ or midsummer, it occurs on 20 or 21 June, when one of the Earth’s poles is at its maximum tilt towards the Sun – an axial tilt of 23.44 degrees.
This time of year is marked by many cultures, especially in Europe, by festivals and rituals – many with themes of religion or fertility. One of the best-known solstice ‘ceremonies’ happens at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England.
The famous Russian mystic, Helena Petrona Blavatsky, speaks of the almost universal presence of these megaliths on our planet in a chapter in Volume II of her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, entitled GIANTS, CIVILIZATIONS, AND SUBMERGED CONTINENTS TRACED IN HISTORY (beginning on p742)
“The modern archaeologist, though speculating ad infinitum upon the dolmens and their builders, knows, in fact, nothing of them or their origin.
“Yet, these weird, and often colossal monuments of unhewn stones — which consist generally of four or seven gigantic blocks placed together — are strewn over Asia, Europe, America, and Africa, in groups or rows.
“Stones of enormous size are found placed horizontally and variously upon two, three, four, and as in Poitou, upon six and seven blocks. People name them “devil’s altars” druidic stones, and giant tombs. The stones of Carnac in the Morbihan, Brittany — nearly a mile in length and numbering 11,000 ranged in eleven rows — are twin sisters of those at Stonehenge.
“The Conical menhir of Loch-Maria-ker in Morbihan, measures twenty yards in length and nearly two yards across. The Menhir of Champ Dolent (near St. Malo) rises thirty feet above the ground, and is fifteen feet in depth below. Such dolmens and prehistoric monuments are met with in almost every latitude.
“They are found in the Mediterranean basin; in Denmark (among the local tumuli from twenty-seven to thirty-five feet in height) ; in Shetland, and in Sweden, where they are called ganggriften (or tombs with corridors) ; in Germany, where they are known as the giant tombs (Hünengr.ben); in Spain (see the dolmen of Antiguera near Malaga), and Africa; in Palestine and Algeria; in Sardinia (see the Nuraghi and Sepolture dei giganti, or tombs of giants); in Malabar, in India, where they are called the tombs of the Daityas (giants) and of the R.kshasas, the mendemons of Lanka; in Russia and Siberia, where they are known as the Koorgan; in Peru and Bolivia, where they are termed the chulpas or burial places, etc., etc., etc. There is no country from which they are absent.
“Yet one is told authoritatively that the Mounds, and the Mound or Dolmen Builders, are all “Pelasgic” in Europe, antecedent to the Incas, in America, yet of “not extremely distant times.” They are built by “no raceof Dolmen Builders,” which never existed (opinion of De Mortillet, Bastian, and Westropp) save in the earlier archaeological fancy.
“Finally Virchow’s opinion of the giant tombs of Germany is now accepted as an axiom : — “ The tombs alone are gigantic, and not thebones they contain” — says that German biologist; and archaeology has but to bow and submit to the decision. †
“That no gigantic skeletons have been hitherto found in the “tombs” is yet no reason to say there never were the remains of giants in them. Cremation was universal till a comparatively recent period — some 80, or 100,000 years ago. The real giants, moreover, were nearly all drowned with Atlantis.” (SD II, 752-53)
Astrologer Lian Brooks offers the following ‘spiritual’ take on this time of the year.
June’s Strawberry Moon, the sixth full moon of 2024, is right around the corner. The Strawberry Moon represents a time of flux and change, with many believing the forces of the moon’s cycle to influence our moods, emotions and feelings. The Strawberry Moon is often a very positive time, with this year’s falling in the cardinal earth sign of Capricorn, highlighting success, recognition and legacy.
June 2024’s Strawberry Moon is special in that it’s the first of two Capricorn moons this year, with its Capricorn energy making it an ideal time to focus on succeeding in your career and work towards making your aspirations a reality.
What’s more, because this year’s Strawberry Moon falls the day after summer solstice, we’ll see a “Moon Illusion” in which the moon will appear larger than usual.
According to NASA, the name derives from from Native American tribes such as Algonquin, Ojibwe, Lakota and Dakota, who referred to it as the Strawberry Moon because it signified a time for gathering ripening strawberries and other fruits.
Alternative names for the Strawberry Moon include the Honey Moon, the Celtic name of Rose Moon and Anglo-Saxon name of Mead Moon, stemming from the fact that this was the time for mowing the meads (meadows).
According to the BBC, the sixth full moon of the year will be visible from the day after the summer solstice on Friday June 21, though will be most clear in the sky on Saturday June 22 at 11:05pm BST.
Edinburgh is set to be the best place in the UK to moon gaze due to good visibility distances and minimal cloud cover, with Newcastle offering similarly strong conditions.
Colyn Boyce is a former radio journalist, from Canada. From 1981 until 2018, he was Publicist for the English Section of the Theosophical Society – and for many years he was assistant editor of the house magazine, ‘Insight‘, which he typeset and illustrated. He is a National Lecturer for the TS in England and has spoken in person throughout the UK, Canada and the USA and via ‘zoom’ to Ukraine, for the European School of Theosophy and the Philippines Section of the Society.
Hermes Risen 