Let the Light In – Summer Solstice Rituals to Slow Down, Soften and Receive

Whether you honour and celebrate the Summer Solstice every year or are tuning into this seasonal milestone for the very first time, this post offers a collection of practices, rituals and mindful ways to pause, connect, and call more abundance into your life. Together, we’ll unlock the sensory richness of the season, deepen your connection to yourself and to nature, and soften into the wisdom this time of year holds.

This is not a checklist of things you have to do. I know how easy it can be to feel overwhelmed by everything we see online. Post after post, ritual after ritual, making us feel like we should be doing twenty things a day just to truly honour the Solstice. But what if one small act, done with presence and intention, was enough? What if simply being with the season, as you are, was the most sacred thing you could offer?

That’s the kind of mindset I recommend as you read this blog post. Let it be gentle. Let it meet you where you are.

And if you don’t do anything on the Solstice itself, please don’t worry. We are still in the golden heart of summer for weeks to come. These rituals and reflections can be returned to again and again, days or even weeks later, as a way to stay in rhythm with the warmth, joy and abundance this season brings.

This post is a blend of personal stories, sensory rituals, creative writing prompts, and simple seasonal practices. Each one is an invitation to reconnect, to remember what matters, and to root yourself in the magic that is already all around you. Choose one, or a few. Let them adapt to your life, your landscape, your pace.

May this Solstice, as the wheel of the year turns once again, remind you of the light both around and within you. This is the longest day, the peak of light, the season of warmth, joy and wild abundance. Let it bless you.

1. Make a Summer Solstice-Infused Magic Oil

A ritual for bottling sunlight, scent and seasonal joy

Have you ever walked outside on a warm June afternoon and felt the air was so rich, so fragrant, you wished you could bottle it? The way honeysuckle lingers thick and sweet in the golden light. The scent of wild roses slowly releasing their petals. The sharp green of freshly cut grass. The uplifting brightness of lemon balm, the cool clarity of mint, or the grounding earthiness of sage and rosemary. Summer is a sensory feast. The heat, the storms, the soft mist that follows, the light shimmering on everything. It is a time of life in full bloom. 

This ritual is my way of capturing the essence of the Solstice and weaving it into something tangible I can return to. A little jar of summer magic, made with plants that are in full bloom and fully coded with sunlight. This is not a medicinal oil or formal herbal remedy. It’s an intuitive, heart-led practice. A way to connect with the land, honour the season and infuse your self-care rituals with a little more nature, intention and enchantment.

You’ll be making a solar-infused oil using plants that grow around you, that are calling to you now. In this way, the oil becomes a reflection of your personal landscape, a sensory record of the summer that is uniquely yours.

What you’ll need:

• A clean glass jar (small to medium in size)

• A carrier oil such as sunflower, olive or sweet almond (what I am using)

• Fresh herbs or flowers that are in season and familiar to you

• A sunny windowsill

• A clear intention for your ritual

How to make it:

1. Go for a slow, intuitive walk.Let your senses guide you. Notice what is growing around you. What are you drawn to through scent, colour or feeling? Perhaps there are rose petals in bloom, wild mint near the hedgerows, or elderflowers just beginning to fade. Only pick what you can confidently identify and take just a little, with care and thanks. Choose a dry day if possible, as moisture can cause the oil to spoil. (Below you will find a list of all the herbs and plant I choose for my ritual oil)

2. Stay mindful of safety and storage.Oil infusions are traditionally made with dried plant material to reduce the risk of mould. If you plan to store your oil for a longer period, drying the plants first is ideal. However, for a short-term, seasonal ritual oil, fresh herbs can be used, provided they are picked on a dry day, fully submerged in oil and not left to infuse for too long. Always do your own research before working with new plants or applying them to the skin.

3. Create a ritual space.Clear your space and set the mood. Light a candle, play soft music, smudge the area or simply take a few deep breaths to become present. Offer thanks to the plants and the land. Speak your intention aloud. What do you wish this oil to hold? What energy or quality would you like it to carry for you?

4. Prepare your oil. Place the flowers and herbs gently into the jar and pour the oil over them until everything is completely covered. This is important, as exposure to air may cause spoilage. Seal the jar and place it on a sunny windowsill where it can soak up light for three to five days. Each day, return to it, give it a swirl, and remember your intention.

5. Strain and store.When you feel the oil is ready, strain it carefully through a fine sieve or muslin cloth and pour it into a clean, dry bottle. Label it with the date and ingredients. You can use this oil on your skin after bathing, to anoint candles or yourself, as a perfume especially if you add essential oils, make other homemade self-care products or simply to hold and inhale when you wish to reconnect to the warmth and abundance of summer.
   

What I included in my oil this year:

Each plant carries its own qualities. I chose what was growing around me, trusting my senses and intuition. Here is the blend I created:

• Rose petals: for love, beauty and the sacred feminine

• Lavender: for peace, purification and spiritual connection

• Lady’s Mantle: for feminine wisdom, water energy and protection

• Yarrow: for boundaries, sacred strength and shielding

• Rosemary: for clarity, memory and ancestral support

• Lemon balm: for joy, emotional ease and lightness

• Sage: for wisdom, grounding and sacred cleansing

• Mint: for freshness, solar energy and uplift

• Oregano: for softness, heart healing and comfort

Please remember this is not a substitute for herbal training or medical advice. I am simply sharing my personal practice, I am not a qualified herbalist. Please do your own research. Always take care, research each plant, and trust your own experience.

2. Brew a Sun-Infused Tea

A slow ritual to sip the light of summer

Don’t you love it when you slow down and time seems to soften? When nothing feels rushed, and anticipation becomes more powerful than the thing itself? Imagine that, instead of switching on the kettle and having your tea ready in a matter of minutes, you gave yourself permission to stretch time. To invite the sun to help you steep something slowly, gently, and full of magic. Sun-infused tea is one of my favourite ways to honour the Solstice and the height of summer. It’s a way to step out of the always-on rhythm of modern life and remember that not everything needs to happen at the click of a button. Sometimes, it’s in the quiet spaces between, in the waiting, the setting of intention, and the light soaking into herbs, that the real magic brews.

This ritual calls you to align with nature’s pace. It reminds you that you are part of the season too. As your tea brews in the sun, so does your intention. It’s a quiet, beautiful way to celebrate abundance, warmth, and the slower rhythm that summer invites.

What you’ll need:

• A large glass jar or jug with a lid (or cover with muslin)

• Fresh or dried herbs and flowers (see below for ideas)

• Clean drinking water (spring or filtered if possible)

• A sunny windowsill, balcony or garden table

• A quiet intention or wish for the season
  

How to make it:

1. Choose your herbs. You can work with dried herbs you already have or gather fresh ones from the garden or nearby wild spaces. Always be sure you know what you’re picking. Some favourite summer herbs include lemon balm, mint, chamomile, elderflower, lavender, calendula, rose petals or raspberry leaf. You might also want to add fresh fruit slices like lemon or strawberries. Let yourself choose intuitively. Think in feelings. What do you want to feel when you drink this tea?

2. Bless the water. Fill your jar with cool, clean water and pause. Take a moment to honour the water before you, this living element that holds memory, energy and emotion. You might whisper a few words of gratitude or place your hands around the jar as you set your intention. Speak your hopes for the season into the water.

3. Add the herbs. Place your chosen herbs into the water. A small handful of fresh herbs or a tablespoon of dried herbs per cup of water works well, but there’s no need to be exact. You can leave the herbs loose and strain later, or tie them in a muslin cloth if you prefer. Cover the jar with a lid or cloth to keep insects out.

4. Let the sun do the work. Place your jar somewhere sunny and leave it to infuse for several hours. Morning until late afternoon is perfect. Check in as the day goes on. Notice the change in colour, the way the scent rises, the warmth building in the jar. Let this be a moment of connection to the light. And if you like, use the waiting time to enjoy one of the other rituals in this post while your tea brews under the sun.

5. Strain and sip slowly. When the infusion feels ready, strain it gently and pour into a favourite cup or bottle. You can enjoy it at room temperature or chill it. Sip slowly, with presence. This tea is more than a drink. It is a moment. A pause. A way to drink in the energy of summer, light and life and growth. You might want to journal, offer a little to the land as a blessing, or simply close your eyes and feel the sun on your skin as you sip.

As always, take care with plant medicine. Make sure anything you use is safe for you, especially if pregnant, breastfeeding or taking medication. Trust your own knowledge and intuition, and when in doubt, research or consult a qualified herbalist.

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3. Write Seasonal Haiku

Capturing the moment in three quiet lines

We’ve already explored ways to bottle the fragrance of summer and sip its light, but there’s another way to honour this season. What if you could try to capture its essence with words? Not through long stories or heavy reflection, but in short, quiet observations. Just as they are. A flicker of something you noticed. A moment that moved you. Something alive in the world around you.

Like the moment the long-awaited storm finally arrives after weeks of dry heat and the leaves turn green again. The way the air feels thick and heavy before the rain, as even the birds pause in the midday haze. The sea rolling in and out with the tide, reclaiming the seashells no one picked up. The hum of bugs at dusk. The sharp scent of earth after the rain has soaked in. The sun dipping behind clouds for just a moment before returning, stronger and more golden than ever. These are the kinds of moments that stir the senses. Writing them down helps us notice more, slow down and soften into the season.

Haiku is one of my favourite writing practices during the warmer months. It connects me deeply to what’s happening outside and helps me pay attention in a world that moves too fast. Whether you write one haiku or a dozen, or simply try this practice for a few days, you may find yourself tuning into more, the earliest bird songs, the changing light, the shift in the air. You begin to feel the season rather than just move through it.

What is a haiku? A haiku is a heartbeat-sized poem that originated in Japan. Traditionally, it contains three short lines with a rhythm of 5–7–5 syllables, but don’t let the counting hold you back. If you’re someone who leans towards perfectionism, you can let that go here. I rarely count. The real art of haiku lies in its simplicity, presence and ability to catch a fleeting image or moment.

Some gentle haiku principles you might enjoy:

• Haikus are often about the world around you rather than your inner feelings

• The third line often introduces a shift, contrast or new image, although any line can do that if it wants to

• They often include a seasonal reference

• Think of each one as a verbal photograph: simple, precise and alive
  

Try writing a few of your own. Let them be playful or still, imperfect or clear. Write one as you sip your sun tea or while your solstice oil rests in the window light. See what wants to be said in three small lines. BTW I am no Haiku expert, just enjoying exploring it. 

Some of my own imperfect summer haikus:

Boats sway on gentle waves

No clouds in sight

Cliffs with buildings high

Sharp, rugged rocks

Lace the coast

Calm turquoise washes over them

Bright orange sun fades

Behind milky clouds

Misty horizon

Heavy summer storm

Brings deep relief to the earth

Birds fall still in thanks

Bright yellow moonlight

Shines across the silent land

Then sunrise returns

Sun high in the sky

Dry, heavy and thick the air

Coolness of the sea

Feel free to search for traditional haiku online for more inspiration, or simply start from what you see outside your own window.

4. Let Summer Speak: Writing from Your Inner Landscape

You can also write in your own voice

If haiku doesn’t feel natural, try another approach. I often write small poems or seasonal fragments to capture the fleeting beauty of summer. Somehow, here in North Devon, it always feels just a little too short, too changeable, too precious to waste. So I write. I journal. I reflect. I explore the past and the present. I let the season teach me something new about what it means to be human.

You know the way summer makes you feel. That soft wave of nostalgia when school breaks up and you're pulled back into the memory of your own childhood, the promise of endless days, the excitement of visiting grandparents, picking wild strawberries by the roadside, never quite finding enough. The joy of staying up late on warm evenings, running barefoot, or being allowed to sit around the garden with the grown-ups long after dark. The way your hair danced in the breeze through an open car window. The feel of forest shade after the heat of the sun. The sound of the sea as it rushes to the shore and pulls away again. All the memories, the small sensations, the feelings we carry from summers past.

Maybe now summer means something different. Strawberries and cream while watching Wimbledon. Camping with your children. Long drives. The discomfort of heat. A cool glass of something fizzy in the garden at the end of a long day. Watching the sky change colour with someone you love. Let it be whatever it is for you now.

You might use a simple summer writing prompt like:

If I could jar up summer

What would I place inside?

A scent, a sound, a word, a sunset. Where would I keep it?

What would I do when I opened it again?

The Colours of Summer

If summer were a colour palette, what would it hold?

What do those colours remind me of?

What might they be reflecting in me right now?

I looked for summer and found it in...

Finish the sentence. See where it leads.

Let it bring a memory back to life.

Forgotten Summer

My sweet summer memory I almost forgot...

Let it resurface. Take me there. What was the light like? Who was there?

What feeling still lingers in my body from that time?

You might simply make a list of words. Describe what you see. Write down one image and follow it. No perfection. No filtering. Just play, explore and express.

Let the page take you somewhere unexpected, into memory, imagination, desire or quiet insight.

You might begin with bullet points, a memory, a sentence, or a mess of words spilling from your pen. You might fall into a poem, a vivid scene, or a half-formed idea that surprises you. There are no rules. Just begin. Begin with what shimmers.

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5. Create a Summer Altar

A small corner of summer in your home. A space that holds the scent, the colour, the warmth of the season. You might gather a few wildflowers from a walk, a stone that caught your eye, a dried citrus slice, or a bright yellow candle that reminds you of the midday sun. Some altars might be golden, others more earthy.

You could follow the colour of the sun, or simply place what feels connected to your land and landscape. You might wish to include all four elements: a bowl of water, a small feather or incense for air, a candle for fire, a flower, crystal or handful of soil for earth.

This altar becomes an invitation to slow down, reflect and return to your intention throughout the season.

6. Connect to the Sun 

For me, it’s all about sunset. I’ve never been the type to rise for the dawn this early during the Summer, but I love the quiet unfolding of the evening sky. Last year, on the Solstice, I sat with a group of girlfriends on the beach. We watched the sun dip low until it disappeared.

What struck me most was how the colours kept changing. Just when I thought I had seen it all, another hue arrived. Purple turned to peach, gold to blue. I kept taking photos, trying to capture the moment, but none of them held it quite right.

The real magic was in being there, witnessing it. The air turned cool, and the stillness deepened. You can do this wherever you are. Watch the sun set and notice the rhythm of the day. Reflect on the turning of the earth, the seasons, the changes within you. And if it feels right, ask the sun: where would you like to support me with your fire right now?

7. Create a Nature Mandala

On my walk to the sea, I began collecting. A smooth pebble from the path. A sprig of lavender growing wild on the verge. Fallen petals, a feather, a piece of seaweed tangled with shell. I brought a candle and a single stick of incense from home. When I arrived at the beach, I found a quiet spot and began to create. A simple circle in the sand, each object placed with care. With every item I added, I whispered something I was grateful for from the first half of the year. When the mandala felt complete, I lit the candle and made a wish. Not just for myself, but for the whole world.

You can make your own mandala wherever you are, on the earth, in your garden, even on a windowsill. Let each item hold a memory or intention. Let the process itself become a prayer.

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8. Food as Meditation

There’s something so deeply sensual and grounding about preparing summer food. Juicy red beef tomatoes, bright yellow and orange cherry ones bursting with sweetness. Sliced and salted, finished with basil and olive oil. Freshly made pesto. Wild mint and lemon balm brewed into tea. Hibiscus iced tea with a wedge of lime. Black tea chilled in a jug with mashed peaches at the bottom. Salads with roasted peppers, crunchy sprouts, edible flowers and soft herbs.

I love creating summery drinks and simple plates that celebrate what’s in season. Eating like this reminds me how generous the earth is. You could invite others for a shared meal, a little solstice feast, or simply eat alone with presence, phone away, tuning into the tastes and textures. Let it be a moment of gratitude. A sensory meditation in every bite.

9. Rest and Recharge, Like a Crystal

I know how tempting it is. The sun is out, the energy is high, and suddenly I want to do everything. Forage lime flowers. Infuse oils. Make rose petal syrup. Try all the rituals I’ve seen on Instagram. I get it. This season can feel fiery and full.

But just like we place our crystals on the windowsill to soak in the sun, we too need time to simply receive. You don’t have to do it all. You don’t have to move fast. Rest is also a way to honour the Solstice. Let yourself nap. Let yourself be still. Let the sunlight fall on your skin without needing to be productive. That too is sacred.

10. The Mid-Year Pause

Just like the tiny seed that has now become a towering plant or blooming flower, you too have grown this year. Even if it felt messy. Even if things didn’t go according to plan. Even if you can’t quite see the results yet. You’ve lived, learned, received, shifted. You’ve had quiet moments of beauty, laughter, and insight. You’ve said yes to new things.

Take a moment to write it down. What are you grateful for from the first half of the year? What surprised you? What helped you grow? And then, from that place, write your intention list for the next half of the year. Let it include the bold dreams, but also the simple ones , a picnic with your sister, the wild swim you keep talking about, the book you want to finish, the softness you’re ready to feel.

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11. Make a Summer Playlist

Sound is one of the most powerful ways we store memory. A song can transport you back to a summer ten years ago, before you even realise what’s happening. You hear it and suddenly you’re on that road trip, at that festival, sitting on that sun-warmed doorstep. Creating a playlist for this summer is more than just background music. It’s a way to anchor the emotions of this season,  joy, nostalgia, freedom, aliveness. Choose songs that make you feel something. That lift you or soothe you or bring you fully into your body. Play it when you’re cooking, walking, dreaming. Let music hold the shape of this summer.

May this Solstice meet you gently and generously, wherever you are. Whether you try just one of these practices or let several weave into your summer, I hope something here sparked a memory, a desire, a sense of connection. You do not need to do them all. You do not need to do them perfectly. Let one small act of presence be enough. Let your own rhythm guide you.

I would truly love to know which practice speaks to you most right now. Was it the sensory magic oil, the journaling, the tea, the hypnosis, or something else entirely? Message me, leave a comment, or share this post with someone who might need a moment of light and reconnection. Your reflections bring these words to life.

Wishing you a luminous Solstice and a season full of softness, strength and soul.

With Love,

Stepanka