Welcome to Alchemag: Summer Solstice Edition
I’ve been uncharacteristically aware of the approaching Solstice this year. Sure, I have also been shaping my practice to reflect the timescales of the natural world, so it makes sense that I’d be attuned, but still! It feels much more intense than anticipated!
It’s also resoundingly obvious that the world seems to be “heating up” - the cadence of life is accelerating, not to mention the increase in temperature (we’re experiencing a record-breaking drought here in Durham). Noticing the solstice approaching, I’ve been experiencing rising anticipation - what happens when we reach the fullest expression of the sun in the year? What is reaching its apex?
With this in mind, I wanted to switch up the schedule and get this out to you all sooner, moving the publishing date so we could get a headstart working with (and preparing for) the solstice itself, while also saving the date-of for the newest edition of the Elemental Exploration series.
Look to that offering for an in-depth exploration of the element of fire and the energies of the summer solstice. That episode (and its companion exercises on the project website) is meant as an invitation to embodiment through practice: the episode interweaves conversation around environment, astrology, and tarot with somatic exercises and meditations. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we’ve enjoyed developing it!
Until then, continue reading for Alchemag’s Summer Solstice issue where we’ll discuss and uplift themes and works that reflect the energy of this brightest time of the year.
Photograph by Luigi Ghirri
THEMES OF THE SUMMER SOLSTICE
Illumination
Revelation
Ascent
Fruition
Celebration
Abundance
Still from Son of the White Mare (see below)
OPENING THOUGHTS
Let’s talk about the sun!
Growing up, the sun felt cozy and accessible: the benign laughing baby in the Teletubbies, the freaky wiggles of the sun on a Sublime t-shirt, a crayon drawing with spiky yellow rays. Additionally, having been immersed in Western Massachusetts and its crunchy culture, I'd long associated the sun with earnest bonfire celebrations where everyone mysteriously brought hummus as their contribution to the potluck.
some solar associations from my youth
In surprising contrast, this year I've begun to see the complexity of the sun and the element of fire. How it confronts us, makes things visible, burns, and dries out. Far from being benign and cheesy, this season has been confrontational and transformative.
The solstice represents the longest day of the year, a time when we reach the apex of brightness and after which the light begins to wane, the days shortening before reaching the darkest point at the Winter Solstice. Here, we experience maximum illumination, heat, and the longest stretch of time in the light. What do we do in brightness? What becomes obvious? What has reached its peak?
We're also halfway through the year 2026, a Wheel of Fortune Year. What have you learned about balance? Navigating change and chaos? How to keep yourself oriented while the world spins?
Here are some themes that have been emerging in my practice and personal life during the approach to the solstice:
Honesty
Commitment to truth
Accepting reality
Listening to and welcoming "no's"
Continuing to be brave
Discomfort in service of growth
New horizons and incoming breakthroughs
Blinding light and the need to acclimate
Like the plants baking in the sun here, I'm not going to lie, I'm feeling a little overexposed and crispy. Heat requires us to use our energy differently, to get savvy about timing and expenditures.
At the same time, the solstice itself marks an exhale. We're leaving the spotlight gradually, and the next stretch of time starts a phase of integration after all the grown and building we've done so far.
Let’s go deeper with a tarot reading…
Chirri & Chirra by Kaya Doi
TAROT READING
When not being poised is a good thing
This year, the Summer Solstice is asking us to notice how much we've been practicing and encouraging bravery. The Knight of Swords, in their headlong rush at life, embodies the courage to approach the world directly in the pursuit of truth.
How have you been asking questions that probe at the unknown? How have you been willing to move towards the truth while not knowing its specific countours?
A "teenager of tarot," the Knight of Swords' way of doing things may not be elegant, but it sure is passionate. Look back to these weeks leading up to the longest day of the year and see how you've been willing to forego certainty (and maybe more than a little dignity) in order to arrive somewhere new.
It's no surprise that this card isn’t exactly a first choice to represent themes of stability, yet on either side of it are two cards that do just that; the Eight of Cups and the Eight of Pentacles give our message unexpected nuance. This chapter, it turns out, has been proving to us that, far from being destabilizing and distracting, our impassioned questing has bolstered both our emotional and practical lives.
This trio of cards also directs us to acknowledge a moment of achievement and balance in the realm of cups and pentacles. While we might not be "done" with our objectives just yet, we've reached an impressive landmark. I'm also sensing that because the Knight of Swords is fast-moving we may not be so aware of just how much we've accomplished. Look for what feels good enough and then experiment with reframing it as a noteworthy success.
I’d also like to point out that the Knight of Swords is rushing towards the Eight of Cups while that card is actually in perfect balance with the Eight of Pentacles. In other words, we may be tempted during this season to return to our solitary emotional journey - preferring the intuitive, dreamy, and subjective - instead of grounding ourselves in the daily work that is actually the next stage. Now is the time to further integrate our emotional experience with our daily life through regular practice and commitment.
In
Continuing to take emotional risks
Moving beyond established narratives
Noticing what healing feels like to you, specifically
Trusting in your ability to communicate in the moment
Letting go of imagined outcomes
Solitude when you need to reconnect with yourself
Staying the course and focusing on the work at hand
Pride in your abilities
Tasks that allow you to focus your entire attention
Flow states
Out
Waiting for the perfect words before saying anything
Poise
Thinking you're helping by holding back your opinions, needs, or knowledge
Unchallenging art, media, etc.
Hiding your passions
Second-guessing your progress and intuition
Slacking off, seeing the absence of work as rest
Forgetting to make room for daydreaming, rest, and exploration
Choosing to go it alone instead of bringing insights into connections
INTEGRATING GESTURE
A Moment of Pause
When the sun reaches its highest point in the sky during the summer solstice it appers to stand still before reversing direction and moving south. In honor of this pause, I wanted to share a practice that would soften the immensity of the solstice with a moment of rest and integration. While it would be very cool to do this during the moment of the solstice itself, you can do this practice at any time in the week leading up to or after.
Solar Meditation
Find a spot outside in the sunlight where you can be undisturbed. Take a moment to compose yourself, look around your environment, and settle into your body and its sensations. Close your eyes and envision all that has been growing and changing in your life. Feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. Settle into your breath and simply rest for a full ten minutes with no expectation. This is all about absorbing and integrating solar energy and the transformations of the solstice in your body and spirit. Rest and let go and feel the sun’s influence without interpretation.
Hello!
You’re reading Alchemag, a newsletter devoted to the mysterious intersections of spirituality, environment, culture, and art. Here, we collect points of interest and create constellations of inspiration around key points in the year: the equinoxes and solstices. Come explore with us!
POEM
Sunflower
by Frank Steele
You’re expected to see
only the top, where sky
scrambles bloom, and not
the spindly leg, hairy, fending off
tall, green darkness beneath.
Like every flower, she has a little
theory, and what she thinks
is up. I imagine the long
climb out of the dark
beyond morning glories, day lilies, four o’clocks
up there to the dream she keeps
lifting, where it’s noon all day.
ANTIDOTE TO ANGST
Appreciating Mastery
I found myself being drawn to videos of people absolutely crushing it as a way to snap myself out of the malaise that this hot mess time period puts me in. Nothing like someone sending out sparks when they do what they do with utter and complete command and exuberant satisfaction. Two examples to the right: the Brazilian guitar legend Rosinha de Valença and American singer Maria McKee’s pristine performance of the soaring power ballad, “Show Me Heaven.”
FILM REC.
Psychedelic Mythology in Son of the White Mare
If you, like me, enjoy kalidescopic and trippy animation, then this is a film for you! Following a Hungarian folk tale about three brothers traveling to the underworld, The Son of the White Mare is a treat of swirling color, fantastical imagery, and exhilarating movement.
PERSONS OF INTEREST
Carolyn Forche
Reading her memoir What You Have Heard Is True, I was reminded of how illumination reveals truth and the truth demands action. A poet witnessing the war in El Salvador, Forche uses her art to create poems that capture realities we’d instinctively turn away from and, in doing so, sparks an awareness and desire for justice in the reader. When we talk about the sun’s light revealing the world, it’s often in the positive, but this poet uplifts how uncomfortable truths are just as important.
Source: Orangutan Foundation
CREATURELY CONNECTION
Nightly Nest Building
When I sat down with my kid earlier this month, I was anticipating another mind-numbing (sorry!) co-watch of his usual PBS show. Instead, we landed on a doc about Orangutans that featured this delightful fact: Orangutans build a nest to sleep in every night. New night, new nest! Which had me thinking about what it would be like to adopt a similar relationship with home, rest, and comfort. What if we approached home and the space to rest not as something static to return to, but as something to create anew wherever we might find ourselves?
BOOK REC.
The Colony
by Annika Norlin
Focusing on a community of misfits in Sweden, this novel has a solar theme in that it shows how the fiery allure of a charismatic leader can lead to unexpected ends. What happens when we seek warmth in others while ceding our agency and personal responsibility? I loved this astutely observed book and the way it illuminates how groups can create a logic of their own.
VISUAL DELIGHT
Le Merle
So many solar bodies! Source: NASA
PERSONAL PRACTICE
Correspondences & Inspiration
▶ Themes: abundance, vitality, fullness, celebration, radiance, fruition, generosity, joy
▶ Direction: south, high noon, the sun at its zenith
▶ Element: fire
▶ Symbols: sun wheel, bonfire, oak, solar cross, wreath, crown, sunflower
▶ Colors: gold, yellow, orange, crimson, emerald green, bright blue
▶ Food: berries, stone fruit, fresh herbs, honey
▶ Stones: sunstone, carnelian, citrine, tiger's eye, amber, pyrite
▶ Plants: sunflower, oak, St. John's wort, rose, lavender, mugwort, chamomile
▶ Animals: bee, butterfly, horse, falcon, dragonfly
▶ Gestures: lighting bonfires, dancing, gathering flowers, feasting outdoors, sunbathing, offering gratitude, swimming, watching the sunset
UNTIL NEXT TIME!
Thank you for reading this issue of Alchemag! It’s a joy to have you here. We remain dedicated to preserving an aura of mystery and integrity - no social media or sponsorships! - so If you enjoyed this email, please forward it to a friend and spread the magic or consider supporting the work below ✨
