Summer Solstice

Last night, I drove out to the Parowan Gap sacred site to view the Solstice setting sun and do a small ceremony.  I had already done my bowl burning on the 18^th.  The window of opportunity for both solstices is about 5 days, so there is plenty of time to honor those occasions. 

I got out to the site early so that I could find a good place for my ceremony.  First, I parked at the small parking lot and walked west through the gap where I took the photo above.  The sun was still fairly high in the sky, but casting shadows on a lot of the rock art there.  Here are a few of the photos I took as I walked back through the gap towards the east. There is fabulous rock art on both sides of the road.

Surprisingly, I heard a Native American flute being played by someone in the gap.  Wonderful!  When I came out of the gap on the east side, the flute player was then standing on a hill, still playing his magical music. 

The land east of the gap is fairly flat and surrounded by rolling hills.

I walked about one half mile down the road to a nice hilly area where I had done ceremony before.  I had already prepared a small medicine bundle consisting of sage wrapped in red ribbon.  After digging a hole, I energized the bundle with my intent, asking the power of our sun, Inti Tayta, to help manifest the intent.  Then the bundle got buried.  Last year at the same time, I did a similar ceremony on that hill.  Both times, part of my intent was to bring some rain to our dry and parched area.  It worked last year, and unbeknownst to me when I did my ceremony last night, we have some rain in the forecast here for the next 3 days! 

About this time, cars began to drive up and park all over the flat area.  A party was forming!  Unfortunately, a row of cars parked right in front of the gap, so they are in most of my photos.  I kept my focus on the energy coming from the setting sun, repeating my intent. Here is the progression of the photos as the sun set. 

 

Here is a close up of the sunset with the cars in front.

The evening sky was crystal clear this year.  Last year, there was a bit of haze in the air, so those photos had a definite orange tint to them.  The sun was also easier to see as it set last year. 

It was almost 9 PM when the sun went down, but still light out as I started heading home. No one else seemed to be in a hurry to leave.  What a delightful evening!