How to Celebrate Litha: 7 Rituals with Tarot

Rituals that live in the body

There is a difference between reading about the Summer Solstice and standing in its light with fire in your hands and intention in your chest.

Litha rituals are not performances. They are conversations — with the sun, with the earth, with the part of yourself that has been growing all year and is finally ready to be seen. You do not need to do them perfectly. You need to do them honestly.

Here are seven rituals for the longest day. Choose one that calls to you, or weave several together from sunrise to sunset. The Solstice gives you up to 16 hours of daylight — there is time for all of it.

1. The sunrise greeting

What you need: Yourself, a place where you can see the sky, optional gold or yellow candle

Time: Dawn on the Solstice (check your local sunrise time)

This is the oldest Solstice ritual there is: greeting the sun on its most powerful morning.

How to do it:

1. Set an alarm for 15 minutes before sunrise. Go to a window, a balcony, a garden, a rooftop — anywhere you can see the eastern sky.
2. As the first light appears, stand facing east. Feel your feet on the ground. Take three slow breaths.
3. As the sun breaks the horizon, speak or think: I greet you on your longest day. I stand in your light. Show me what has reached its peak, and give me the strength to carry it forward.
4. Stay for at least five minutes. Watch the light strengthen. Let it warm your face and hands.
5. If you lit a candle, let it burn while you have your morning tea or coffee. The flame carries the sunrise energy into your day.

Tarot addition: As the sun rises, pull one card and ask: What is the sun illuminating for me today? Read it in the growing light.

2. The solstice fire ceremony

What you need: A candle (gold, yellow, or orange), paper, pen, fireproof dish

Time: Sunset on the Solstice

Fire is Litha’s heart. This ceremony honors both the peak and the turn — the moment when the longest day begins to yield to night.

How to do it:

1. As the sun begins to set, light your candle. This flame represents every Midsummer bonfire ever lit on every hilltop across every century. You are joining a tradition older than writing.
2. On a piece of paper, write what has reached its peak in your life this year. What has grown, bloomed, succeeded? What are you proud of? Be specific and generous with yourself.
3. Read it aloud by candlelight. Let yourself feel the weight of what you have accomplished. This is your solstice harvest.
4. On a second piece of paper, write what you are ready to release as the light wanes — a fear, a habit, a belief that no longer serves you. The waning half of the year is for letting go. Name what needs to go.
5. Hold the release paper to the flame and let it burn in the fireproof dish. Watch it transform.
6. Keep the harvest paper. Place it somewhere you will find it at Yule (December 21st) — you will be amazed at what you wrote when the light was longest.

Tarot addition: After the ceremony, pull two cards — one for “what the fire celebrates” and one for “what the fire transforms.”

3. The herb gathering walk

What you need: A basket or bag, scissors or garden snips

Time: Morning or midday (when the sun is strongest)

In folk tradition, herbs gathered on the Summer Solstice are at their most potent. The sun has been feeding them for the longest possible day, and their essential oils are at their peak.

How to do it:

1. Walk through your garden, a park, or any green space. If you do not have access to wild herbs, a visit to a farmers market or herb shop on the Solstice carries the same intention.
2. Gather what calls to you. Traditional Litha herbs include: St. John’s Wort (the quintessential solstice herb, blooming right around June 21st), lavender (calm in the midst of power), chamomile (sun energy in a cup), rosemary (remembrance and clarity), thyme (courage), and mugwort (dreams and divination).
3. As you pick each herb, pause. Notice its color, its scent, the warmth of the sun on it. You are not just collecting plants — you are gathering solar energy stored in living things.
4. Bring your harvest home. Use it for tea, to decorate your space, to make a bundle for drying, or to add to a solstice bath (Ritual 5).

Tarot addition: Before your walk, pull a card asking: What medicine does the Solstice want me to find today? Let the card guide which herbs catch your attention.

4. The sun wheel

What you need: Sticks, vines, or a wire hoop; ribbon (yellow, gold, orange, white); flowers and herbs; string

Time: Any time on the Solstice

The sun wheel is one of the oldest Litha symbols — a circle representing the sun at its fullest, decorated with the abundance of the season.

How to do it:

1. Form a circle from flexible sticks, grapevine, wire, or even a sturdy embroidery hoop. It does not need to be large — even a 20 cm circle works.
2. Wrap ribbon or twine around the frame. Gold and yellow are traditional. If you want to add spokes (creating a wheel shape), stretch ribbon across the center.
3. Weave in fresh flowers, herbs, and greenery. Sunflowers, chamomile, lavender, roses, and any yellow or gold blooms are perfect. Tuck in sprigs of rosemary or thyme.
4. Hang it on your front door, above your altar, or in a window where the sun will hit it. The sun wheel is both decoration and talisman — a visible statement that you are honoring the peak of light.

Tarot addition: Place a tarot card in the center of your sun wheel — choose one that represents your Solstice intention. The Sun is the obvious choice, but Strength, The World, or Ace of Wands all carry powerful Litha energy.

5. The solstice bath

What you need: Bath (or a large basin for a foot soak), herbs, flowers, salt, candles

Time: Evening, after sunset

Water and fire together. A solstice bath is a purification ritual — washing away what the longest day has illuminated so you can step into the waning year cleansed and clear.

How to do it:

1. Run a warm bath. Add a handful of sea salt (purification), a few drops of essential oil (lavender for calm, rosemary for clarity, chamomile for solar energy), and any fresh herbs or flower petals you gathered earlier.
2. Light candles around the bath — gold or yellow for solar energy, white for purification. Turn off the electric lights.
3. Before stepping in, pause. Set your intention: I wash away what no longer serves me. I carry forward what the light has shown me.
4. Soak for at least 20 minutes. Close your eyes. Feel the water holding you. Let the herbs and salt do their quiet work.
5. When you drain the water, visualize everything you are releasing flowing away. Step out feeling clean — not just physically, but energetically.

If you do not have a bath, a foot soak in a basin with the same ingredients works beautifully. You can also make a solstice shower by hanging a bundle of fresh herbs from the showerhead and letting the hot water release their scent.

Tarot addition: Pull a card before the bath asking: What am I washing away tonight? And one after: What do I carry into the second half of the year?

6. The solstice feast

What you need: Food you love, a table you can decorate

Time: Any meal on the Solstice

Feasting is ancient solstice magic. Food made or eaten with intention on the longest day carries the sun’s energy in every bite.

How to do it:

1. Prepare a meal using seasonal, sun-associated ingredients. Honey, berries, fresh bread, salads with edible flowers, grilled vegetables, citrus, golden fruits. If cooking feels like too much, order food you love and set the table beautifully — intention matters more than recipes.
2. Decorate the table with flowers, candles, and anything gold or yellow. Place a sunflower in the center if you can find one.
3. Before eating, pause. Look at the food. Acknowledge the sun that grew it, the earth that held it, and your own hands that brought it here. This is not a prayer — it is presence.
4. Eat slowly. Notice flavors. Share the meal with someone you love, or savor the solitude of eating alone in candlelight on the longest evening.

Tarot addition: Place a card face-up on the table during your feast. Let it be the “guest of honor” — the energy you are inviting to share the meal. Pull it intuitively or choose The Sun for maximum solstice energy.

7. The midnight bonfire (or candle vigil)

What you need: A bonfire, fire pit, or several candles; journal

Time: Late evening into the brief Solstice night

The Solstice night is the shortest of the year. Staying awake through it — or through part of it — is a traditional act of honoring the turning point.

How to do it:

1. If you have safe access to a bonfire or fire pit, light it as the sun sets. If not, arrange a cluster of candles — enough to create real warmth and flickering light.
2. Sit with the fire. Journal, draw, read tarot, or simply be. The brief night is for reflection: looking back at the bright half of the year and looking ahead to the dark half.
3. Write three things you want to carry from the light into the darkness — strengths, lessons, or accomplishments that will sustain you when the days grow shorter.
4. If you stay until sunrise (the shortest wait of the year), you will greet the first day of waning light having never left the fire’s company. There is something profound about bridging the Solstice night without sleep — holding the light through the dark.

Tarot addition: At midnight — the exact center of the shortest night — pull a single card and ask: What message comes from the turning point? This card carries the energy of the pivot from waxing to waning light.

Weaving rituals together

These seven rituals are not an all-or-nothing list. You can do one, or you can create a Solstice day that flows from sunrise to midnight:

• Dawn: Sunrise greeting + one-card pull
• Morning: Herb gathering walk
• Midday: Make a sun wheel
• Afternoon: Prepare the feast
• Sunset: Fire ceremony
• Evening: Solstice feast + bath
• Night: Candle vigil + midnight card

Or choose just one ritual that speaks to you and do it with full presence. A single candle lit at sunset with genuine intention carries more power than seven rituals rushed through on a checklist.

The sun is giving you its longest day. Give it your full attention in return.