May the smoke bless us and the fire light joy in our hearts
take time to enjoy the moment, smell the roses and be rewarded for your efforts. The days are warming and lots of sunlight means the whole of nature is busy outside maximising the moment and so should you.
when the rising Sunna soaks the Downs in gold,
then you ken the gates are open
and thats a vision for the mind to hold.
I was at a concert, an amateur choir and orchestra with professional leads, performed a Ralph Vaughan Williams programme. Serendipitously it covered the Druidic elements of earth, Towards the Unknown Region, air, The Lark Ascending, and finally the sea with a Sea Symphony. Instead of railing that it meant I would be too tired for an early Solstice dawn I realised that Druidry is about being in the here and now. I was in an architecturally and acoustically fascinating late Victorian Arts and Crafts church listening to a Surrey composer with a Sussex choir and an orchestra from Kent. Gewessi is about the spirit of place and nothing can be more related to the spirit of south east England than that mix.
Prefaced to Vaughan Williams' score of The Lark Ascending is this poem from George Meredith...
He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound.
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake,
For singing till his heaven fills,
'Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley in his golden cup,
And he with win which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes.
'Till lost on his aerial rings
in light, and then the fancy sings.
Hear the Skylark here which is the sound of summer across the South Downs and from my garden. If Yule is about hearth and family then I think Litha is about getting out and enjoying arts and culture be it a festival, concert or any event that means you appreciate the long days.
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