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Happy solstice! Here’s the video we’ve just released on the ancient spiritual meaning of the summer solstice.

The summer solstice, the time of most light in the year, was one of the largest religious occasions in pre-Christian times. Ancient cultures across most of the world venerated the sun at the summer solstice and aligned some of their greatest sites to it. Many thousands still honor it according to their ancient traditions, especially in Europe where it is known as midsummer. Why is the summer solstice such an important event and what is its spiritual meaning?

In this video, I delve into the celebration of the summer solstice throughout history. I give many examples of ancient sites aligned to it, exploring the symbolism contained in some of the most amazing examples, including Stonehenge in Britain, the Sphinx and Great Pyramids in Egypt, Ales Stenar and similar sun ships in Northern Europe. I talk about how its celebration was an important part of an ancient religion of the sun that spread to different parts of the world in prehistory, exploring its symbolic relationship to an epic spiritual journey that begins in darkness before returning to the light.

As part of this video, I discuss some original theories put forward by myself and my husband Mark including:

  • The symbolic meaning of Stonehenge’s design and its purpose as an Ancient Portal Site, as part of our Ancient Europe OBE Theory.
  • The symbolic meaning of the summer solstice alignment at the Great Pyramids and Sphinx.
  • The symbolic meaning of Ales Stenar and other ancient stone ship settings, and their possible ritual purpose.
  • The symbolic meaning of the maypole and its relationship to the design of ancient sites.
  • The deeper meaning of the halo and flower wreath.
  • How the annual journey of the sun was used in ancient religions to symbolize the path to enlightenment (our Sacred Sun Path Theory).
  • That these ancient sites and traditions were connected as part of a now lost religion we call the Religion of the Sun.

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This was such a big project! I thought the meaning of the summer solstice was going to be simplest of the four solstices and equinoxes, but as it turned out, there was a lot of information to cover. Some of these ancient sites have not just one, but many solar and stellar alignments. Each of these weaves into a large body of cosmology that takes a lot to unpack. Then on top of that, these sites are also connected to one another, sharing symbolic and even geometric features. It was a challenge to try and bring it all together, especially with the immovable deadline of the actual solstice.

Thankfully, there is a great team working behind the scenes to make it happen. Firstly, a big thank you to Mark for his knowledge that has made it possible to piece the meaning of the summer solstice back together. Thank you Erik for tackling the big job of organizing all the images and video clips – this time there were around 350 of them. And thank you to the small team of people who helped with finding them. You’ll also notice some amazing 3D graphics in this video, which recreate all the different alignments – thank you Julian, these help so much in bringing these places back to life. Thank you Erik and Dara for creating the AI images, which recreate many of the ancient scenes and symbols, and to Dara for another beautiful video thumbnail. Thank you Lucia for composing the lovely quote images. Thank you Jenny and Jordan for putting together all the credits. Thank you Jenny and Priya for sorting out permissions for external content. And thank you Jon for another beautifully produced video, editing it all together with some amazing effects.

Thank you also to all of you who’ve financially supported us and the publishing team, to make this possible.

Wishing you all a very joyful and meaningful solstice.