It’s the summer solstice today, the first day of summer, and the longest day of the year (for those of us living in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere). The actual solstice is the moment the Earth’s tilt faces directly toward or away from the Sun.

I used to really dig the idea that the druids, or whoever it was that built Stonehenge, did it in such a way that certain shadows hit certain places on specific times of the year. I also liked books that used the changing of the seasons as magical days where mysteries were revealed or secret doors could be opened.

I once went into a church on top of Mt. Taber in Israel that when the solstice sun’s light hit the stained glass, it would paint a gorgeous image of Jesus’s transfiguration across the chapel floor matching up with the mosaic tiling. Of course I wasn’t there to actually see it, but the stain glass itself was nice and it sounded interesting all the same.

There are a lot of superstitions around the solstice, but maybe if you feel something special in the air tonight, perhaps it’s the cosmos trying to communicate with you, perhaps there is some mysterious force that you are on the verge of channeling, or perhaps you’ve just gotten too much sun.

Yay for summer! It’s all down hill from here.