Summer Altar
Today, I changed the altar out from May to summer. The first cicada sounding on Semik during Rusalia/Green Week seemed like a nudge in that direction. Also, Sunday is Letnice (the Czech folk name for Pentecost)—the root of the word is the Czech name for summer.
I made an offering of first fruits and amaranth and sheep sorrel to the ancestors. Amaranth has a long tradition in the Americas as a spiritual offering and I have been developing a strong personal relationship with sheep sorrel.
I always put this cicada netsuke out the first day I hear a cicada.
The netsuke and berries are sitting on a tin of dandelion salve “the sun itself in the grass.”—Thoreau 🌞
Mimosa was put on the altar for pretty and birch for its long relationship with Rusalia and the rusalka.
This was the first time Morana was dressed in the linen that I dyed in the spring with redbud blossoms.
For the first time the Sun Goddess tapestry (left) that I stitched last year appeared on the summer altar. I stitched this piece in honor of the Northern European sun goddess who shows up under the names Sunna (Scandinavia), Saule (Baltic), and Solntse (Russian).
The painted rock was a lovely gift from my days as a children’s librarian. One of my tweens decorated it for me.
Happy Semik everyone!
