Puck & Midsummer’s Eve 2016

Puck & Midsummer’s Eve 2016 June 23, 2016

So we decided to do something different for Summer Solstice this year.  Given the recent violence in Florida, Serpent’s Song decided to meet on Midsummer’s Eve to commemorate and send healing to the dislocated spirits of the people that died in the Pulse massacre.  Violent, abrupt death can cause the recently deceased to wander.  The shock of being killed and the intense grief of loved ones can overwhelm a restless spirit, and it feels like the entire state has been shrouded in a heavy veil.  Midsummer’s Eve is a time when the boundaries between different dimensions become permeable, and this night the gates to the realms of Faerie are open.  Also, my recent experiments with the Fae have led me to conclude that they are intimately connected to the Ancestors, or at least mine happen to be. We conferred and decided ask the aid of the Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, to come and help those wandering souls find their way home.

"Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing" by William Blake.  From WikiMedia
“Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing” by William Blake. From WikiMedia

The Puck is generally considered a prankster, mischievous, who has remarkable powers of shapeshifting. He can be of great aid to folks when feeling beneficial, and a cunning trickster when feeling less benevolent.  He is of the Fae, one of the Older Ones, various forms and other fairies being attributed to him.  The word Puck is entymologically connected to several other names of fairies in folklore, Welsh pwcca, Icelandic puki.  As Robin Goodfellow, this energy is domesticated as well as rustic, and some speculate that the concept of Robin Hood, the merry rogue of Sherwood Forest, is a related concept of the subversive wanderer.  We thought this would be a good energy to enlist at this time, or at least ask for guidance for those murdered souls who had gathered simply to meet, laugh, and have a good time. Their lives cut short, each story forever silenced. The idea was to entreat Puck to assist in transitioning those lost and wandering to their chosen home (we call it Summerland), and to honor them along with the Fae with offerings and a pledge of service.  A trade for a trade, it is good to set up specific expectations and assurances when working with these energies.  Not all of the Fae are light and sweet, and the stronger ones appreciate some type of exchange.

photograoh courtesy of Sonja Sadovsky
Offerings

We blessed some banana bread and milk with flowers, as the Fae are fond of sweets and enjoy these offerings.  We offered them to the Henge in my backyard, a wild spot covered in native flowers, and this was the call that came out:

We gather here, on Midsummer’s Eve.

Faery gates open to those who See.

We call upon the Oldest Thing,

By Tooth, and Claw, by Gossamer Wing.

Hail to thee, O Puck!

Meet us where the Bee doth suck.

Lend your aid, stretch out thine hand.

Help guide our Dead to Summerland.

photography by Sonja Sadovsky
Midsummer Eve Altar-Summer Solstice 2016

We call upon the oldest Fae,

To aid us on the Longest Day.

From steamy swamp, to bone-white sand,

Our restless Dead wander the land.

Aid their passage, give relief,

To those bound here, by blood and grief.

We honor you beneath Waxing Moon,

Your revelry a Sacred Boon.

We offer up our Joy and Song,

The night is short, the Day is long.

We pledge to live, to laugh, to love! By Earth below, and Sky Above!

We praise our ally who guides them home, knowing they are not alone.

O Puck, Goodfellow to those that See, with music and laughter set them free!

 

So concluded our Summer Solstice for 2016.  This rite took on a life of its own, and several strange things have happened since then.  For now, I just want to offer this up for those who need some of this energy.  We also promised Puck that we would share this with others, to remind people that even death does not stop joy and love.  We will remember, and keep dancing. Blessed be.

 

 

 


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