First Annual SciFi Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop!!

Welcome midsummer revelers to the Science Fiction Romance Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop 2012! If you got to my page from the SFR Brigade page, welcome, and make sure you enter my Rafflecopter Giveaway below for a chance to snag my book and some bookish swag. If you are one of my regulars or happened upon my page, make sure to click this link to hop from blog to blog so you can check out all the amazing posts – and enter to win! Remember, your comments on the blog posts enter you in the giveaway for the prizes offered by the Brigade, namely a Kindle OR Nook!!

Here, my ode to midsummer:

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet mush-roses and the eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight.
     -From A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare

Ah, midsummer. Shakespeare’s lines capture it well, don’t you think? When reading these lines, you can almost smell the sultry perfume of abundant flowers, their blooms brazenly open, releasing their musky scent. I’m picturing a lush, green English garden – a perfect place for faerie folk to linger.

Midsummer has long been a time of celebration for many cultures. When researching my novel Emily’s House, I was intrigued by ancient Celtic rituals. Though the Summer Solstice was not the most important celebration for the ancient Celts, it certainly was honored.

On my trip to Ireland in 2010, I had the opportunity to visit Loughcrew. Loughcrew is a megalithic site dating to 3500 to 3300 B.C. To put that in context, the Great Pyramid at Giza was completed in 2560 B.C. That means that the ancient Celts in Ireland created large, planned structures for burial and ritual over a thousand years before the Egyptians built the pyramids.

Loughcrew has a small hole in the capstone of the structure which is aligned with the sun at both the Spring and Autumnal equinox. As the alignment occurs, the sun illuminates the back wall and the petroglyphs and symbols etched there.

This hole still aligns the sun at the spring and autumn equinox, as it has for over 5000 years.

Loughcrew isn’t the only cairn in the area. There is also Carrowkeel with its cairn aligned with the setting sun at the Summer Solstice.


Summer Solstice Sunset at Carrowkeel Cairn G viewed through the roofbox

Scholars aren’t sure why our ancestors built these sites. But clearly it was important to them to observe the cycles of the sun. Their livelihood likely depended on it.


I can’t say for sure the purpose of Loughcrew, but I can say that when I was there, I felt its spiritual power. It is my belief that objects and places retain the energy signatures from the people who touched or used them. At Loughcrew, you feel the spiritual energy and solemnity of the site.

An alter? A view of the outside of the Cairn at Loughcrew.

As I walked the grounds and laid my hands on the stones, I tried to imagine why the ancients had built the structure and what had taken place there. I could almost smell the smoke of the burning wood of the celebratory fires. The odor of roasting meat filled my nose. I could feel the pulse of the deep ritual drums. As I stood on top of that hill, feeling the Irish wind whipping my hair, I felt the power of the words spoken by ancient Druid priests calling upon the sun god for blessing.

Sheep share the hill at Loughcrew
The cairn at Loughcrew, Ireland

Fire was, and still is, a significant component of midsummer celebrations. In midsummer, our ancient ancestors were concerned with making sure their crops would have plenty of sun to help them grow to maturity for harvest. Fire was considered “sympathetic magic,” used to amplify or call down the power of the sun.

The ancients relied on the cooperation of nature for their survival. These ancient sites reveal that their rituals were tied to nature’s cycles.

When I wrote Emily’s House, I knew that I wanted to include a scene with an ancient Celtic ritual. What fit with the story was a ban feis, a ritualistic marriage of the King to the Goddess (representing the land). Once I’d been to Ireland and Loughcrew, I rewrote the scene entirely, calling on my impressions of the ancient rites that I received subconsciously while I was there. While at Loughcrew, the whole place imbued with the lingering imprint of the spirits of our ancient ancestors who built it, I felt like I’d been there before.

Perhaps we’ve all been there. Maybe the collective memory of the days when our ancestors danced and feasted around the bonfire is buried in our DNA. Just maybe our need to mark the seasons with ritual and merriment is an ingrained part of our human nature.

Being a desert dweller, the fires of midsummer will burn in my heart rather than my yard. Sláinte!



Midsummer Blog Hop Participants

1.  Pippa Jay   13.  Liana Brooks   25.  Debra A. Soles  
2.  Misa Buckley   14.  A. R. Norris   26.  Marlene @ Reading Reality  
3.  Arlene Webb   15.  L.J. Garland & Debbie Gould   27.  Rae Lori  
4.  Pauline Baird Jones   16.  Sandra Sookoo   28.  Bella Street  
5.  Frances Pauli   17.  Cara Michaels   29.  Kyn Hatch  
6.  Imogene Nix   18.  Sheryl Nantus   30.  T.K. Anthony  
7.  Natalie Wright   19.  Diane Dooley   31.  Jo Jones  
8.  Greta van der Rol   20.  Kathleen Scott   32.  A.B. Gayle  
9.  Jessica E. Subject   21.  Ella Drake   33.  Sue Ann Bowling  
10.  Kayelle Allen   22.  Cathy Pegau   34.  S. Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore  
11.  Joanne Elder   23.  T. C. Archer   35.  DL Jackson  
12.  Melisse Aires   24.  Kitty Roads   36.  Hywela Lyn  

42 thoughts on “First Annual SciFi Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop!!”

  1. I agree, the more revered a site was, the stronger the energy left behind. You can feel this when you buy a house and move in. You can always tell if it contained a happy family, or not, by the energy left behind. The beliefs were strong and these sites carry an echo of them from the past.
    Great post!

    Dawn

    Like

  2. Between Shakespear quotes and fantastic pictures, thoughts of energy and channeling, this post is very cool. Also, I love the cover for Emily's House and I'm intrigued. Thanks for sharing.

    Like

  3. I agree that the past leaves imprints of the people who passed there, particularly places where people sacrificed a lot to create them. We visited an old Catholic church outside of San Antonio and I had a sense of awe and history there.

    Like

  4. Dawn, I totally agree. My husband is great at picking up on those energies.
    Glad you enjoyed the post and thank you for stopping by the blog. Best wishes

    Like

  5. Yes Pauline, I love what you said about sacrifice to create them. I hadn't thought of that, but yes, I think that the imprint of those that created the place is there too.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog

    Like

  6. LJ – you definitely should get to Ireland. It is an amazing place – beautiful and the people are warm and inviting. Definitely a must visit place.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog and best wishes

    Like

  7. Debra,
    It was magical. And I won the trip to Ireland so the whole trip had a magic quality to it. I hope you get to visit some mystical places of the ancients 🙂
    Thanks for stopping by my blog

    Like

  8. JC – I love to read anything and all year too! I'll read any genre as long as I like the characters.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog and best wishes

    Like

  9. I had no idea there are so many sites like that. I knew of a few but that is really cool. Makes you kinda wonder about the times those celebration or ritual sites would have been like in their prime.

    Like

  10. Beautiful post! I love all the photos. I love fairies. My favorite mythical creatures. Thanks for sharing and for the fun hop!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

    Like

  11. Since I've only become a bookworm in the last several years, I've really never thought about reading specific books at specific times of the year. Unless you count reading some holiday related stories around those holidays. LOL So, I really just read whatever strikes my fancy at the time. Or if I've requested some books for review, then I'll go with those. 🙂

    And I won't be entering the rafflecopter because I'm grateful to already have a signed copy of Emily's House. 🙂 But thank you just the same for participating in this blog hop!

    Pam
    vanillaorchids69(at)gmail(dot)com

    Like

  12. I know, Ireland alone is dotted from end to end with ancient stone rings and cairns. It does make you wonder. I wish I could go back in time and find the truth of what was really happening back then, but since I don't have a time machine, I'll have to continue to imagine it instead

    Like

  13. I'm with you katsrus, I read all genres and it's more about what sounds interesting at the time. But I might have a slightly higher need for romance and fun books (nothing too heavy) in the summer than at other times.

    Like

  14. My reading isn't seasonal — so this Summer, I'll probably be reading a lot of UF, Fantasy & Sci-Fi!

    Thanks for the amazing giveaway!
    elizabeth @ bookattict . com

    Like

Leave a comment