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reetings from Australia.
Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.
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The time so tranquil is and still Concerning
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The summer solstice is regarded as occurring in Cancer (the Crab), which the Egyptians called the scarab
– a beetle of the family Lamellicornes, the head of the insect kingdom, and sacred to the Egyptians as the symbol of Eternal Life. It is evident that the constellation of the Crab is represented by this peculiar creature because the sun, after passing through this house, proceeds to walk backwards, or descend the zodiacal arc. Cancer is the symbol of generation, for it is the house of the Moon, the great Mother of all things and the patroness of the life forces of Nature.
Manly P Hall; The
Secret Teachings of All Ages, 'The
Zodiac and Its Signs'
From bright'ning fields of ether fair
disclosed,
Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes.
Thomson; The
Seasons (Summer)
How beautiful is
Summer! the trees are heavy with fruit and foliage; the sun is bright
and cheering in the morning; the shade of broad and leafy boughs is
refreshing at noon; and the calm breezes of the evening whisper gently
through the leaves, which reflect the liquid light of the moon when
she is seen.
Sylvan Sketches
The principle of all things is water; all comes from
water, and to water all returns.
Thales of Miletus, who died on June 21, 546 BCE
It is difficult to know thyself, it is easy to advise
others.
Thales of Miletus
[Thales] first went to Egypt and thence
introduced this study [geometry] into Greece. He discovered
many propositions himself, and instructed his successors in the principles
underlying many others, his method of attacking problems had greater
generality in some cases and was more in the nature of simple inspection
and observation in other cases.
Proclus,
the last major Greek philosopher, who lived around 450 CE
I
love my country more than my soul.
Last words of Niccolo
Machiavelli,
Italian political theorist who died on June 21, 1527
I exist. It's sweet, so sweet, so slow.
Jean-Paul Sartre, existential philosopher, born on June 21, 1905
Hell is other
people.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Death is a
continuation of my life without me.
Jean-Paul Sartre
June 21
is
the 172nd
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (173rd
in leap years), with 193
days remaining. June
21 is the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, thus the day of the
year with the longest hours of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere, and the
shortest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Calendar converter Almanacs,
calendars, time, dedicated weeks, etc
Almanac screensavers
On this day
Dictionary
I
recommend
IMDB
days
IMDB years
Wikipedia days
Wiki decades
Wiki centuries
Timelines
Conversions
Calendrica
Lunabar
Birthday calculator
When 'Source'
links on this page move address or die, I might allow them to stay here, but the
Wayback Machine might help you
locate the original.
Happy solstice!
The wheel
of the year has rolled a little further through the seasons and now we
find ourselves at one of the four main stations of the year, Summer Solstice (Northern Hemisphere) and Winter Solstice (Southern Hemisphere).
The four main
stations ('grand sabbats' in
the Neopagan
tradition) are the two equinoxes and two solstices. Halfway between each
of these are the other significant days, sometimes known as the 'lesser
sabbats', together making this list:
Eight Stations of the Year (Sabbats) in the Book of Days
Spring Equinox/Ostara May Day/Beltaine Summer Solstice/Litha Lammas/Lughnasadh
Autumn Equinox/Mabon Halloween/Samhain Winter Solstice/Yule Brigid/Candlemas/Imbolc
Helpful external links
Summer: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, and Links for Gardeners
Wheel of the Year at Mything Links Wheel of the Year at Wikipedia
School of the Seasons Calendars at Wikipedia Almanacs, calendars, time
What
are the solstices?
The solstices are the longest and shortest days of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, Summer Solstice (June 21 or 22) occurs when the sun is farthest north. In the Northern Hemisphere, Winter Solstice (round about December 22) occurs when the sun is farthest south. In the Southern Hemisphere, the winter and summer solstices are reversed, so my family, friends and I are enjoying Winter Solstice, or Yule, as it is known in the Celtic tradition. Meanwhile our northern friends are enjoying Litha.
Is June 21 (Summer
Solstice, Northern) 'Midsummer's Day'?
No. Traditionally, Midsummer
is June 24, St John the Baptist's Day, although it also refers to the
week or so round about the Summer Solstice (June 21). Another name for the
solstice of summer is 'aestival'.
Summer Solstice (Northern Hemisphere)
At Stonehenge,
the Heelstone
marks the rising midsummer sun as seen from the centre of the circle.
Day of All Heras
Nigel
Pennick, The
Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA,
1992, p. 81
A solstice
and equinox calendar, Fajada Butte, New Mexico, USA
Sacrifices
of the Incas
In the city of Cuzco: on Winter
and Summer solstices, sacrifices of children were made in olden days.
Incas bathed in a sacred waterfall that was on one of 41 ceques or magical, invisible lines radiating out from the Temple of
the Sun.
Solstice Project
Make
a sundial for your ceiling
Check
out the article,
'How to make a sundial
for your ceiling'.
Summer or Winter Solstices are great days to begin your 'spotdial'. All it takes
is a small birdcage mirror worth a buck or two. When you have a working
spotdial on your ceiling, why not send me a pic or two and we can share it
with the Almaniacs.
Hump Day, Tasmania
A colloquial term in Australia's southernmost and thus coldest
state, for the shortest day of the year when the days now begin growing
longer. Although the days will grow colder for some weeks ("as the days
lengthen, the cold strengthens"), the 'Taswegians' know that
they're over the 'hump' of Winter, which means a lot at that
latitude with its very short Winter days.
Sun
enters Cancer, 4th sign of the Zodiac
