The druidic dryad is less concerned with the antics of a bubblehead squatter than with the general trivialization of the Midsummer Solstice Festival.
All you are looking for is an excuse for prancing around in the buff. But you have overlooked the festival's deeper meaning, the real reason and justification for such prancing. Let me therefore remind you:
MIDSUMMER SOLSTICE (21st June) ALBAN HERUIN - This is the time of greatest light, but also it heralds a return in the power of darkness. The druids' name for this solstice was Alban Heruin (literally the light of the shore).
At this time, the sun enters Cancer (the sign of the mother), I need not draw your attention to the powerfully profound sexual symbolism here. Cancer (the crab) is a creature that epitomizes the shore - the shore is where the sea meets the land, and the crab crosses the gap existing in both realms. Cancer is the first sign in a triad of signs ruled by Leo, (Fixed Fire), the sign of fatherhood and the 'ever-child'. So the element governing this festival is fire.
The wedding, (or consummation of it), of the god and goddess is said to occur at this time, (when the light of the sun enters the mother).
If you are ever lucky enough to get into Stonehenge at dawn on this sacred day, you can actually see the sun-god penetrate the Earth Mother as his fertilising semen (the suns rays) fill her womb (the inner sanctum), the cauldron or horseshoe shaped receptacle for the light. This, as you will no doubt concede, is a very fulfilling experience for the gods - and for us, the worshippers alike. After all, his rays fertilise the earth and cause growth on this planet - and by sympathetic magic, at the zenith of his power, his illumination encourages us as children of the goddess (still in potential within her womb) to emulate his brilliance when we return to the mundane world beyond the sacred bluestones.
The summer solstice is the symbolic 'orgasm' of the year, it is when the gods consummate their pacts to each other and to us. As the god's orgasm ends, he suffers 'le petit mort'. This little death of the god and his bounteous semen are the sun god's own sacrifice to us and the goddess. The twin aspects of the god struggle once more for dominance, the 'holly' aspect is victorious in the long run, light is defeated and will slowly fade from this point onwards.
In the marriage of the gods, as in many other marriages, you could say it all goes downhill after the honeymoon. To extract some more symbolism, this little death, is the god losing his erection or 'shining glory'. Please note: further sexual revelry of human worshippers often occurs at this time - and the offspring of such union rites are born nine months later at the spring equinox, the festival of self realisation and the god's awakening.
This whole scenario illustrates the ancient concept of the god-king of the old year being sacrificed only to return to the people as his own offspring in the incarnated form of the god of the new. As the embryo of the future year develops, the old year (the light) weakens. From midsummer onwards, the sun is not as young as he used to be. In fact he represents a dying or sacrificed god.
insular.demon.co.uk
Furthermore, if "the element governing this festival is fire" (see above), then where is your bonfire?!
More on that anon...
jbe
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