Summer Solstice

If I am home during the solstices and equinoxes, I usually go out to the Parowan Gap rock art site to photograph the sun setting in the gap.  This year was no exception.  I went out there last night on the 19^th, even though today the 20^th is the official solstice.   Any day within the 5 day window will do.

The weather was really nice, and I was the only one there to celebrate!  For Summer Solstice, I create a small medicine bundle as an offering which is buried somewhere on the east side of the gap.  The bundle contains a sea shell among other ingredients.  The shell represents the water element, which is something we here in the dry southwest can always use more of.  I wrap everything in a small piece of white paper towel, and tie it with white string. 

I then wander around before I find the right spot for the burial.  The area east of the gap is somewhat hilly and grassy with shrubbery and juniper trees.

When I find the right spot, I bless the bundle and bury it with the intent that my blessing and intent be made manifest.  That is what I did. 

Since I am usually out there well before the sun sets, I take the opportunity to walk around a bit.   I spied a nice looking juniper further up the hill and walked up to it.

This is the amazing part.  Upon getting to the juniper and greeting it, I looked down at my feet, and there, sitting on the surface of the dirt looking a bit ragged but not dirty, was a medicine bundle that I must have buried under that tree 2 or 3 years ago!  How did it get unburied?  Dug up by some animal, washed out by the rain, or ejected by that tree?  I was shocked.  So as I picked it up, I thanked the tree, and set out to find it a new burial place.  My sense was that the sacred energy that was in it when originally buried was meant to be reactivated and placed somewhere else.  That tree had used the energy up.  So that is what I did, only this time I placed some rocks on the burial spot to make sure that the bundle would not pop up again.

The sun was getting ready to set soon, so I went back down to the flat area along the road and waited.  Below are photos of the sun setting in the Parowan Gap.  All the while I expressed my gratitude and appreciation for our Father Sun, Inti Tayta and Mother Earth, Pachamama.

While the sun was setting in the west, the almost full moon was rising in the east.  What a magical evening!