Calendar of the Sun
5 Haymonath
Aphelion Day
Color: Gold
Element: Fire
Altar: On cloth of black place a single gold sun, flanked by five golden candles.
Offerings: Contemplate solitude.
Daily Meal: Fasting today, until Hesperis.
Aphelion Invocation
On this day the Sun swings far from the Earth his lover,
And the two lovers part for a time,
For in any connection there must be spaces
As well as closeness.
For even as the Sun spins far away,
We can feel its brightness
As if it had never left.
And so it is with all connections that are true:
Our loved ones and our gods,
That we feel them even when they are absent,
And that shining echo of their spirits in our lives
Gives us the hope that we need
To wait for them to draw near again,
Even as the Sun will draw near to the Earth once more
And the two smile upon each other yet again.
Chant:
Look for the spaces between our bodies
Look for the openings between our minds
Listen for the places where the wind enters
It's the way that the Gods find their way through time.
(All sit on the floor in silence for a time, being careful to leave as much space as possible
between each other, and meditate on solitude and being apart from others. For the rest of the
day, work should be done alone in silence, with as little speaking as possible.)
[Pagan Book of Hours]