Pentecost and the Summer Solstice June 13, 2021 – 11 a.m.

Summer Solstice

First, what is a solstice?

A solstice happens twice a year, in midwinter and midsummer. These are days in which the sun is at its furthest and closest from the earth, making the winter solstice the shortest day and the longest night of the year, and summer solstice the longest day and the shortest night.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, this is the Summer Solstice. When the summer solstice happens in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted about 23.4° toward the Sun. The winter solstice happens for us when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which is located at 23.5° south of the equator and runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil, and northern South Africa. For those who live in the southern hemisphere, our Summer Solstice is their Winter Solstice.

The Solstices have been marked as momentous occasions by many cultures from the beginning of civilization.

Some Beliefs About the Summer Solstice:

• Some folklore tells that evil spirits would appear on the summer solstice, so to keep them away, people would wear protective garlands of herbs and flowers.

o One of these these plants was once known as ‘chase devil.’ We call it St. John’s Wort, because of its association with St. John’s Day, a Christian holy day celebrating the birth of John the Baptist. This day falls on June 24, and is associated with the solstice.

• There is a tradition that the ashes from a Midsummer bonfire can protect from misfortune.

• Another is that these ashes will increase the harvest if you spread them across the garden.

Some ways Summer Solstice has been celebrated include:

In Ancient Times:

• Some ancient Greek calendars, marked the summer solstice as the start of the New Year.

• The summer solstice also marked the one-month countdown to the opening of the Olympic games.

• Cronus, the god of agriculture, was also held around the solstice in a festival called Kronia.

• Like Saturnalia in Rome, which happens around the Winter Solstice, Kronia, turned the stations of slaves and masters around. Slaves participated as equals, and were even served by their masters.

• Around the summer solstice, ancient Romans celebrated a festival to honor Vesta, called Vestalia. During Vestalia, married women were allowed to enter the temple of Vesta and leave offerings to the goddess in exchange for blessings for their families. The rest of the year, only the Vestal Virgins, maiden priestesses who tended the city’s sacred flames, were allowed in the temple.

• The ancient Chinese associated the summer solstice with “yin,” the feminine force. Celebrations celebrated Earth, femininity, and the “yin” force.

• Pre-Christian Northern and Central European peoples, including Germanic, Celtic and Slavic groups celebrated Midsummer with bonfires. The idea was that bonfires would help increase the sun’s energy to allow for a longer growing season. This way there would be a good autumn harvest.

o Bonfires also were also believed to help banish demons and evil spirits and lead young women to their future husbands. Summer solstice was believed to be the most powerful magical time.

• For the Vikings, Midsummer was an important time. This is when they would meet at what they called a “thing.” At this time, they would discuss legal matters and resolve.

• Some ancient Native American tribes took part in solstice rituals. Some of these are still practiced today.

o Some scholars believe that Wyoming’s Bighorn Medicine Wheel, an arrangement of stones built several hundred years ago by Plains Indians that aligns with the summer solstice sunrise and sunset, was the site of that culture’s annual sun dance.

Today:

• In Northern Europe Midsummer celebrations include bonfires, girls wear flowers in their hair, and homes are decorated with flowers and greenery

• In some parts of Scandinavia, Maypoles are erected and people dance around them at Midsummer instead of May Day. Neopagans, Wiccans and New Agers around the world hold summer solstice celebrations

• Thousands of people gather at Stonehenge to commemorate the longest day of the year with a festival. Many of these are modern day Druids. This event is being streamed live through Facebook. You can join in online even without having a Facebook account.

• Many people across the US will awaken before dawn on the day of the solstice to “sing up the sun,” sit in silence as the light changes, meditate, or even do yoga. The do this in groups or alone, according to their preferences.

Pentecost

• Pentecost is celebrated on the 50th day from Easter Sunday.

• Pentecost is a celebration of the day the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and other followers of Jesus.

• They were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, which was a Jewish holiday, that takes place the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, between May 15 and June 14. 

• It marks the wheat harvest in the Land of Israel and, according to the Jewish Sages, it also commemorates the anniversary of the giving of the Torah by God to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai.

• Since its date depends on the date of Easter, Pentecost is a "moveable feast".

• In Eastern Christianity, Pentecost can also refer to the entire fifty days of Easter through Pentecost Sunday. 

• Pentecost is one of the Great feasts in the Eastern Orthodox Church

• In the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church it is called a Solemnity.

• Pentecost is a Festival in the Lutheran Churches.

• It is a Principal Feast for the Anglicans.

• Many Christian denominations provide a special liturgy for this holy celebration, including the United Methodist Church

• Pentecost is also called "White Sunday" or "Whitsunday" or "Whitsun", especially in the United Kingdom.

• Traditionally the next day, Whit Monday, was also a public holiday. In 1971 it was set by statute on the last Monday in May

• The Monday after Pentecost is a legal holiday in many European countries.

The meaning of Pentecost for Christians

For Christians, Pentecost is the Birthday of the Church. It is celebrated as the day the first Christians -  that is, the Apostles of Jesus, others who followed Jesus, and those who began to follow them after the death of Jesus, first began to share the gospel openly with the general population in Jerusalem.

Could Summer Solstice and Pentecost be associated with one another? Things to think about and discuss:

Time of year – While the solstice happens at a very specific meteorological date and time associated with the location of the sun in relation to earth, Pentecost is based on a lunar calendar, related to Easter, which comes on the first Sunday after the full moon that happened on or right after Spring Equinox. Spring Equinox falls on another specific meteorological date and time associated with the location of the sun in relation to earth – that is, when the sun is directly over the equator. When you think about it, the day of Pentecost is dependent upon both the sun and the moon in determining it.

Holy light – The solstice is about the light of the sun illuminating the day and the lives of the people. It is a day of hope and the fruition of the gestation and rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice, the rebirth and re-emergence of flora and fauna in the spring, and re-animation of humanity after the winter. Summer solstice is the culmination of all that has been going on in the dark night of the Wheel of the Year. Pentecost is about the Son illuminating the lives of the people. It is a day of hope and the fruition of the gestation and birth of the Son at Christmas and the rebirth of humanity after the dark night of the soul. Both the summer solstice and Pentecost represent the fullness of faith in the re-emergence of Light that is to be celebrated and honored.

Glory of the Lord - In the books of the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible (aka “Old Testament), they refer to “the Glory of the Lord.” I’m working off the top of my head, so I will relate specifically to the book of Amos, which we discussed in my Hebrew Bible class with Dr. James Sanders. The way I remember what I learned is that Amos would speak to a large group of Hebrew people early in the morning. He would position himself in such a way that the sun would rise behind him, with the first rays of sunlight appearing as he brought his point to a crescendo. This sudden illumination of the people in the light of the sun was referred to as “the Glory of the Lord.” As I pondered Pentecost and the story of the Holy Spirit descending from heaven in flames of light, I thought of the time I was at the Phoenix Public Library on the day of the summer solstice. The top floor of the library is designed to have a specific effect at the exact time of solar noon on the day of the solstice. A writer for the local public radio station, KJZZ describes the effect perfectly: “On the first day of summer, at solar noon, the roof appeared to float above the library's Great Reading Room while sunlight illuminated the tops of the support columns through circular skylights. After the sun passed overhead, shadows climbed the east wall like a reverse waterfall.” It is not hard for me to imagine a similar effect occurring while the Apostles and their friends gathered in a room in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Weeks. Obviously, this does not account for the part of the story where they begin to speak in the tongues of those who came to Jerusalem from foreign countries. There are other logical explanations of this, but I won’t take away the idea that a “miracle” may have actually happened. Many cultural solstice practices include stories of magical events.

Holy Spirit vs evil spirits – Just as the light of the sun is believed to chase away the evil spirits that emerge at the solstice (as they are wont to do at any liminal time in the Wheel of the Year), so the Holy Spirit is understood to chase evil spirits from the lives of believers and cleanse them of the bad things they have done.

These are my thoughts. What do you think? Do you have other ways to think about this?

Resurrection as a Concept in Religious Traditions - April 11, 2021

This is the outline for the meeting of Brigid in the Desert UAIC that took place on Sunday, April 11. Please note that:

I am not an expert in the doctrine of resurrection in belief systems.

The intent is to elicit conversation around the idea of resurrection; what do various people understand, believe, and know

Everything here is a simplification of the various actual beliefs, as it is impossible to go into great depth in the time we have together.

This covers just a very small bit of the variation of belief around the world and over time

CHRISTIANITY

·         Jesus died when crucified, was dead and in his tomb (or, sometimes, that he descended to hell and ‘saved’ the souls of those who died in the great flood), bodily rose again on the third day, walked among his followers and others, then visibly ascended to heaven. (Some Christians believe he spiritually rose again rather than bodily or physically).

·         Some believe that at the end of days after a great judgement by God, all who have been ‘saved’ will be bodily resurrected from the dead to live in eternity with God.

·         Some believe that there is a spiritual resurrection soon after death, immediately into a new life either in heaven or hell.

·         Some believe that there is a spiritual resurrection and all go to heaven.

·         Some believe that there is a spiritual resurrection and all become part of God.

·         Some believe in some form of reincarnation

JUDAISM

·         During the Messianic age the dead will be brought back to life in their bodies as the Temple is rebuilt in Israel.

·         This belief is related to but distinct from the belief in the immortality of the soul

·         Some teachings say that all the resurrected dead will be brought back to Israel

·         There is a teaching that all who are not in Israel will be rolled through underground tunnels, which is spiritually painful. This is apparently why some people want to be buried in Israel.

·         At least two sources say that the righteous will be resurrected wearing the clothing they died in

·         Jewish mysticism includes a belief in reincarnation if the soul has not completed their mission on earth and that at resurrection, pieces of the soul will inhabit the bodies of all the earthly lives. This further goes on to say that the part of the soul that completed the mission in life will inhabit that body

·         This is not to be on this earth, but on another plane of existence

·         For some the belief in the resurrection is metaphor, for some it is literal

ISLAM

·         When life on earth comes to an end, all people who ever lived will be raised from the dead and judged by God

·         All souls will be “paid in full” for their deeds

·         This is a quote from one of the sources I read, a website called Al-Islam: “When the deceased are buried their souls will accompany their physical body to the grave. The soul will then be questioned therein by two angels concerning their lifetime actions, deeds, and faith. The soul will then remain buried alongside the body. Although the body will perish, the soul will remain living until the time of one's resurrection on the Day of Judgment.”

HINDUISM

·         After death, souls are reincarnated into new bodies

·         Bodies are temporary, limiting, and a source of suffering, though they are believed to be aspects of God.

·         The soul, or self, is eternal. The goal of the soul is to be liberated from the cycle of rebirth by practicing spirituality, austerity, and righteousness.

·         When the soul has achieved liberation, they are no longer born into new bodies, but become part of Brahman, living in bliss.

·         God returns to earth many times, in a physical mortal form to either destroy evil or uphold dharma. When finished, God simply returns to the other realm.

·         There are some instances of bodily resurrection from the dead in Hindu scripture as well.

o   Lord Shiva resurrected Ganesha after beheading him, giving him the elephant head

o   Lord Shiva resurrected Daksha after killing him, giving him a goat’s head

o   Brahma resurrected himself, after sacrificing his own body in a ritual at the time of creation

o   Hindu scriptures suggest a lost science of reviving the dead with mystic healing practices

o   A quote from a site called hinduwebsite: “Lastly, we believe that gods have an inseparable connection with humans. Each time we wake up from deep sleep or we take rebirth in the mortal world, not only our souls but also the gods of heaven are resurrected in our microcosms or bodies.”

NATIVE AMERICAN TRADITIONS

·         There is no one traditional belief among Native Americans, because the each tribe has – or had – depending upon their circumstances, their own belief system

·         Today, many Native Americans are some variety of Christian and may or may not have beliefs that combine their handed down tradition with what they are taught in church, which may differ depending upon denomination

·         Some Native traditions believe the souls of the dead go to a spirit world, and can still sometimes communicate with the living through dreams or through medicine people

·         Other tribes believe in a land of the dead, sometimes ruled by a god of death or other supernatural being.

·         In some tribes dead people are believed to become stars or part of the earth unless they are disturbed and turned into ghosts by grave robbing or other unnatural acts

·         In other tribes, there is a belief in reincarnation

·         Among Native nations in Massachusetts there was a belief that after death, the soul would go on a journey to the southwest. Eventually, the soul would arrive at a village where it would be welcomed by the ancestors.

·         In Rhode Island, the Narragansett believed that at the time of death, the soul would leave the body and join the souls of relatives and friends in the world of the dead, somewhere to the southwest.

BUDDHISM

·         Each Buddhist sect has its own belief about death, though there are general overlapping concepts

·         When a person dies, they are reincarnated, with the goal of achieving enlightenment and ending the cycle of rebirth

·         Some Buddhists believe, as do Hindus, that you can be reincarnated into the body of an animal

·         What a person does in their lifetime determines what happens to them in their next life

·         In general, resurrection in the terms of a person rising from the dead into the same body or existence is not a concept in Buddhism, but I read about two instances when something similar was said to happen

o   It is said that one Bodhidarma was seen three years after he had died, walking on the road carrying one shoe. Bodhidarma told the person who saw him not to mention it, but when the man arrived at the monestary, he told those he saw that he had encountered Bodhidarma on the road. They told him this was impossible, because Bodhidarma was dead and buried. They went to the grave, dug up the coffin, and found it empty except for one shoe.

o   Another was Puhua (or, Fuke in Japanese), who predicted his death for three days until nobody believed him anymore. He then walked by himself to his coffin and got in, asking someone to nail the coffin shut. When the town folk heard about it, they opened the coffin, only to find it empty. At that point, they heard Puhua’s ritual bell ringing in the sky.

NEOPAGANISM

·         Neopaganism is influenced by Eastern traditions, 19^th Century Occultism (which was highly influenced by Eastern traditions, contemporary ideas about what ancient tribal traditions might have been (i.e., Celtic, Norse, Hellenic, and other pre-Christian beliefs), and, in spite of the denial of many, Christianity and Judaism.

·         Look at old “mythologies” to find the stories that resonate with them

·         Some neopagans profess to believe in the actual existence of the gods/goddesses as polytheists

·         Wiccans in general have been dualists who believe in a god and goddess; some see this as two separate entities, others as two sides of one deity and all gods and goddesses as aspects of that duality

·         Some Wiccans and pagans see the deities as Jungian archetypes representing the subconscious of humanity

·         Stories of “dying and rising gods” that reflect a connection to nature and the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth throughout the “wheel of the year”

·         Some of the gods and goddesses who have either been said to have died and come back to life in some way or whose stories have them going to the underworld and returning to the land of the living, who are honored by various Wiccan/Pagan groups and solitary practitioners are:

o   Persephone

o   Dionysus

o   Osiris

o   Dumuzi/Tammuz

o   Innana/Ishtar

·         Christopagans practice and believe in a syncretized religion that takes into account both paganism and Christianity as legitimate perspectives; these practitioners are likely to see the resurrection of Jesus as metaphor for enlightenment, or finding new life in an awakened spirituality

ANCIENT GREEKS

·         There are many tales about how Dionysus (God of the vine) died and was resurrected into a new body, often by complicated means

·         Adonis spent time in the underworld and returned to the living

·         Asclepius, son of Apollo, was said to be a skilled physician. In one account, he raised some people from the dead. Because of this, Hades accused him of stealing his subjects and complained to Zeus, who then became afraid Asclepius would teach this ability to others, so he killed him. Later, Apollo got Zeus to bring his son back to life, and he was given a place on Mount Olympus.

·         Hercules, killed in a fire, was said to have been resurrected and ascended to heaven.

·         Persephone was kidnapped by Hades and taken to the underworld. Her mother Demeter grieved for her so much the world’s vegetation died. Zeus sent Hermes, his messenger, to the underworld to make Hades let Persephone return to the earth. However, since she had eaten one pomegranate seed in the underworld, she was bound to stay there. A bargain was struck, and Persephone was allowed to spend a third of the year in the underworld and the other two-thirds with her mother in the world. Whether or not this is an actual death is debated.

·         These are just a few examples, of course.

ANCIENT NORSE

·         Because the ancient Norse traditions were oral traditions, most of what we think we know was written by Christians. However, there is some knowledge beyond these writings due to archaeological finds with runic writings in burials, etc.

·          The best resurrection tale in Norse tradition is that of Odin. He is a good example of a death and resurrection. Following the direction of the three wise women known as the Norns, he plucked out an eye, allowed himself to be be pierced by a spear, and spent nine days hanging upside down on Yggdrasil, the World Tree. After nine days, he returned to life, bringing with him the gift of the runes and poetry.

·         There is evidence that the tribal Norse peoples may have believed in reincarnation

·         They believed that a person’s soul consisted of 4 parts, which created the whole person

o   Hamr – one's physical appearance which, however, would and could change. The hamr could be manipulated for shape-shifting, for example, or could change color after death.

o   Hugr – one's personality or character which continued on after death.

o   Fylgja – one's totem or familiar spirit which was unique to an individual and mirrored their hugr; a shy person might have a deer as their fylgja while a warrior would have a wolf.

o   Hamingja – one's inherent success in life, seen as a quality (or protective spirit) which was both caused by a person's hugr and formed it; one's hamingja would be passed down through a family, for good or ill.

·         All parts of the soul except the Fylgja were believed to continue in some way after death, including possibly haunting the living. The Hamingja stayed with the family.

·         There was no judgment involved in where a person’s soul would go after death; a soul just went wherever it went, which could be:

o   Valhalla (the only possible variant from the “judgment” idea, since this was the place where warriors and those who died a sacrificial death (including women))

o   Folkvangr

o   Hel

o   The Realm of Rán

o   The Burial Mound