Summer Solstice, falling this year on 21 June, is a significant date in the Pagan calendar. It symbolises the triumph of light over darkness and marks a day when the Sun is at its most powerful. It is also the time when the Goddess is heavy with child and the Sun God at his most potent.
In Neolithic times, the tribal ancestors of Britain would meet at Stonehenge, that iconic prehistoric monument that commands Wiltshire’s Salisbury Plain. Winter Solstice was the more significant of the two solstices for tribal societies, as it marked the return of the Sun, reminding them that winter would come to an end and it would soon be time to plant crops. However, Summer Solstice was also significant and it is probable that rituals and feasting would have taken place at Stonehenge at this time. The monument was specifically erected so that the Sun rose through the centre of the stones, just behind the heel stone, on Winter Solstice. This effect has been lost in the modern world as one half of the trilithon has fallen at some point in the monument’s history.
