In Glastonbury we always celebrate the festival of Summer Solstice
Solstice is the moment that the sun reaches the highest point in the sky in this case in the Northern Hemisphere (between 20 and 23 June) and the opposite is happening in the Southern hemisphere. The Solstice day is the longest day and the shortest night. On Midsummer’s Night (as we call the night going into the Solstice) some of us will spend the night on the Tor, the ancient sacred hill, drumming and chanting. On the Solstice day, this year celebrated on June 21, we have all kinds of community celebrations to tune into this special moment: in the Chalice Well we meditate together, in the Goddess Hall you can attend a ceremony with the priestesses of Avalon and in town there will be all kinds of happenings with music and dance.
Sun’s Power
We celebrate the sun’s power on the longest day of the year; the sun gives us life and will be at its peak giving us a time of heightened energy for abundance, success and manifestation. I can see the fertility in the land here: the trees are full of leaves, the flowers are in bloom, the grain is growing strong, the earth is full of potential and light. We feel the power of the sun, we bask in its glory and we hold out our arms to it in gratitude of life. This is the time for manifestation – to use the energy of the sun to create what your heart desires. Do not be shy, ask and you will receive! Do not be afraid to ask for big things – we all have the power of manifestation and the sun’s energy will only enhance this. 
In the old days this moment was celebrated with fires on the hills – to encourage the fertility of the land and to ask for success and good luck. Many of the stone circles were in dedication to the sun, created in the circular shape of the sun. In the Celtic Wheel of the year which follows the cycle of the earth, this is also the moment where the days will start getting shorter and we begin to go in the direction of summers end. So there is a bit of a contradiction here: on one hand we are on the height of the sun’s power but on the other we are slowly saying goodbye to the sunlight.
Connection to Nature
We are all connected to nature, we are nature beings and the cycle of the earth does not only happen outside of us, but also inside of us. When we ignore the changes of nature’s cycle, our soul will cry out because it is nature that nourishes us energetically. A walk in a forest is always magically beneficial for our health and our state of mind, everybody knows this. Tuning in to nature helps to keep us balanced, especially when we are living in an unnatural society that keeps distracting us from our true selves and where the focus is more on money, ambition and power.
Heart Chakra
Here in Glastonbury the focus is more on the heart connection and the magical energy that you can experience here, is something which I cannot explain but something one only can experience or feel for themselves. Glastonbury is connected to the legends of Avalon – a place of magic. It is also known as the Heart Chakra of the world: which for me personally translates into a coming home to myself. It is a feeling many spiritual pilgrims describe when they get here. I feel that we live more in sync with nature and our own natural being: we flow with the cycle of Mother Earth.
So if you have been feeling stressed lately, trapped in life generally but not the life you would like, then please look up to the sun and reach out to call in its power. Ask for joy and love in your life, to ease it and make it better, because that is the way it should naturally be and you are entitled to it.
I have included a poem about Coming Home which I dedicate to all of you beautiful earth beings.
Blessings, Manon
Coming home to me
I would like to come home to me, to that place where I feel free
Free of commitments, free of worldly worries, free of fear to be not good enough
I would like to come home to me, to that feeling of belonging
That tells me that I am part of something
That brings me peace and fills me up with that one thing my soul needs
Love
I would like love to bring me home, to hold me tight and to never let go
Never, so I can dance, sing and speak like nobody is watching
Laugh out loud when I feel like it and cry if I need to
I would like to come home to me, and simply become
The person that I was meant to be when I left my mother’s womb filled with
Love
I would like to come home
(Manon Tromp – Australia, 24-12-2017)
www.manontromp.com