The Sun Will Stand Still at 11:32 PM Tomorrow Night

 

Tomorrow night at precisely 11:32 p.m., the earth will reach the maximum tilt of its northern hemisphere toward the sun and will appear to stand still for a micro-second (solstice means "sun stands still") before beginning its tilt back south toward our winter. Solstice because ancient man thought the sun revolved around us, rather than vice versa.

As earth rotates around the sun, it's always tilted on its axis at a 23.5-degree angle. Because of this tilt, the latitudes of 23.5 degrees north (called the Tropic of Cancer) and 23.5 degrees south (called the Tropic of Capricorn) become important for the summer and the winter solstices. The tilt gives us our seasons, our meteorological changes, our summer gardens. If Earth had no tilt and was just straight up and down, there would never be a winter or a summer.

If you're a Druid, or other observant pagan, it's the holiest moment of the year. Many, many early cultures began calendar keeping after observing both the summer and the winter solstices. The winter solstice got highjacked centuries ago for Christmas, which is why pagans still hold tight to the summer solstice. At Stonehenge, they'll be solemnizing a religious ceremony in robes and crowns of flowers. (It'll be 4:32 pm GMT at Stonehenge when the sun actually stands still, since Stonehenge is five hours ahead of us. The modern Stonehenge Druids are mostly into sunrise observances on June 21st rather than the exact moment the tilting earth stops its tilt and begins its trip back).

My bucket list includes being at Stonehenge at sunrise on June 21st. Just once. Then we can go have tea.

Summer Solstice 2019

Summer Solstice, at Stonehenge

The Summer Solstice strikes tomorrow morning at 11:54 a.m.

It's your moment for placating whichever gods/goddesses you acknowledge.

The earth goddesses here are Ceres and Flora, with a host of local deities of river, rock, and rise. We also acknowledge the sky gods, who've been such a problem lately. What is your problem, guys?

11:54 would be, for ancient peoples, that moment when the sun appeared to stand still, because they didn't understand the tilt of the earth on its axis and that when it reaches the max extent of its northward tilt (at 11:54 a.m. tomorrow, for one example), it begins to tilt back toward the south.

Ain't science wonderful?

2018 Summer Solstice

The sun stood still at 6:07 EDT this morning. Hope you were paying proper reverence to the goddesses of earth and garden.

Photo of the worshippers at Stonehenge this morning. Photo Ben Birchall

Prophecy: Sun Will Stand Still on Monday

Monday, June 20, 6:34 P.M. (EDT)

The 2016 North American summer solstice happens .... That’s the very moment when, essentially, the sun stands still at its northernmost point as seen from Earth. Its zenith doesn’t yearn north or south, but waits patiently at the Tropic of Cancer before switching directions and heading south again.

Make whatever sacrifices, offerings, tributes to whatever gods of earth or sky at 6:34 on Monday, and I shall do the same.

Are You Ready For the Summer Solstice?

Photo by Lonnie Webster

At precisely 12:39 p.m. this coming Sunday, June 21, the sun will appear to stand still directly over the Tropic of Cancer. The summer solstice, one of the high holy days for the ancient Druids and for gardeners everywhere.

I explain this every year, but it's important to repeat it: sol-stice literally means "sun standing still." It's the precise moment at which the northward tilt of the earth on its axis reaches its maximum and begins its slow tilt back toward the south.

The planet earth rotates around the sun, always tilted on its axis at a 23.5-degree angle. Because of this tilt, the latitudes of 23.5 degrees north (called the Tropic of Cancer) and 23.5 degrees south (called the Tropic of Capricorn) become important for the summer and the winter solstices. The tilt gives us our seasons, our meteorological changes, our summer gardens. If Earth had no tilt and was just straight up and down, there would never be a winter or a summer. 

We're wobbling through space, O my brethren, and the ancient Druids held their collective breath on the solstice to keep the wobble orderly.

Midsummer Night's Scheme

Tomorrow night at precisely 1:04 a.m., the sun will appear to stand still for an instant as it reaches its highest excursion point above the equator, otherwise known as the summer solstice. It's actually the earth, of course,  that has tilted its northern hemisphere as far as it will go toward the sun and will begin at 1:04 to tilt the other way. ("Solstice" translates as "sun standing still.")

If you're a Druid, or other enlightened pagan, it's the holiest moment of the year. Many, many early cultures began calendar keeping after observing both the summer and the winter solstices. The winter solstice got highjacked centuries ago for Christmas, which is why pagans still hold tight to the summer solstice. At Stonehenge, they'll be having a par-tay.

Shakespeare wrote Midsummer Night's Dream to celebrate the appearance of fairies in the woodland landscape on the solstice, when some men can also become asses and everybody falls in and out of love, willy-nilly.

Herbs have stronger healing powers on the solstice, and magic spells have greater range and effectiveness.

If you love the earth and gardens and the eternal turn of the seasons, you'll know where to be tomorrow night at 1:04 a.m.

Solstice at 1:16 EDT Today

As we write, the moment sacred to all Druids world-wide is an hour and a half away, the "standing still of the sun."

The moment at which the sun reaches its zenith at the Tropic of Cancer. Every day after today will be shorter in the Northern Hemisphere for the next six months. Today, the sun will never set at the North Pole.

It would be appropriate to bow to an oak this afternoon. Wear a wreath of Leucothoe on your head. Crush some strong-smelling herb in your hands and release the aroma to the wind. Pour oil and wine on a stone.

Solstice

We get our Northern Hemisphere winter and summer from the wobbling of the earth on its axis, the tilting of the earth's halves toward and away from the sun. The moments when the tilt shifts back the opposite direction have always carried heavy significance for the human race. The exact measurement of those moments is why Stonehenge was built. It's why the celebration of Jesus' birth got placed on the old Roman calendar at the Winter Solstice.

The Northern Hemisphere reached its maximum tilt toward the sun this morning at 7:28 a.m. At 7:29 it had begun to tilt back toward what will ultimately give us (dare we say it?) ... winter.

I was in my garden at 7:28 to feel the earth move.

Now I'm going to go plant a tree.

Time Stands Still Saturday Night

We had it marked on our calendar all year, but an e-mailed article from a friend reminded us this morning, and our pulse quickened involuntarily. The Summer Solstice arrives very very late Saturday night, actually at precisely 1:45 a.m. Sunday morning. That’s the precise moment that the Northern Hemisphere’s tilt toward the sun reaches its maximum stretch, seems to shudder from the tension in its deepest machinery like a diver on a bungee. The Solstice ushers in the longest day of continuous sunlight on June 21st but also begins the earth’s grinding tilt back toward our winter.

It was evidently a High Holy Day among the Druids, but the Incas, the Aztecs, the Chinese, and many other cultures noted the appearance of the sun on this day every year, that it seemed to stand still (“solstice” literally means “sun standing still”). Maybe it was the solstice when Joshua got his freak on: “Sun, stand thou still,” sez he, and according to Joshua 10, the sun obeyed.

But Joshua wanted more daylight so he could slaughter more Amorites. The sun stands still for us modern Druids for wholly benign sustenance ... so that we can knit lettuce, weave beets and onions, sew together our great cloaks of corn and beans and squash, hem ourselves up with potatoes.

We’ll be awake at 1:45 a.m. Sunday morning and in our garden, performing by the light of the fireflies the rites of thankfulness for the generosity of the good earth. (And, yes, this is how rumors of devil worship get started.)

Sun Stands Still Today

Today is the summer solstice. At precisely 7:59 p.m. EDT this evening, the tilt of the earth on its axis, which brings the northern hemisphere closest to the sun, will reach its maximum declination, and for that one second the sun will appear to stand still (which is what "solstice" means in Latin).

Our longest day of the year.

Tomorrow will be several seconds shorter, as the northern hemisphere tilts back away from the sun and cranks us inevitably back into winter.

This morning at Stonehenge there was a great gathering to welcome the rising sun, and by setting sun today a midsummer night's dream will have infected neo-Druids everywhere.