The wheel keeps turning, and the work keeps asking to be done in season. This is where seasonal rune rituals live — practices tied to the turning year, the sun’s position, and the rhythms our ancestors moved with. Each one stands on its own. Start wherever the season finds you.
Sun at the Center — A shamanic rune ritual to honor the Longest Day and awaken your inner flame
At the Summer Solstice, the sun stands still. It hovers at the zenith before it begins to fall. We stand in the full fire of life — yet this is also a threshold. This is a time to gather, to celebrate, to anchor the light within before the darkness returns. This ritual helps you do that in a sacred, animist way — with runes, nature, and breath.
Important — please read
This ritual requires an offering after the ritual is done. This is to thank the deities and runes for listening and working with us humans. If you already know what to offer, go ahead and do that. If you don’t, here are my suggestions for Sol: Mead or Kombucha, and also a small portion of cream or butter. If possible, do the ritual followed by the offering. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to me.
A candle or fire (or the sun itself if outdoors)
A bowl of water or flower petals
Staff, drum, rattle, or your hands
A quiet space
Optional: your rune set
Tap the ground four times with your staff (or hand), turning clockwise. Chant: “Austri, Sudri, Vestri, Nordri… Austri, Sudri, Vestri, Nordri…”
Say aloud: “I honor the high sun. I honor the light within me. I honor the land and all that walks upon it.”
Invoke these runes:
Eiwaz — Axis of the world.
“Yggdrasil, tree of life, carry me through the turning of the year.”
Jera — Cycle and harvest.
“Let the seed I planted become fruit. Let the work I’ve done be seen.”
Sowilo — Sunlight, victory, clarity.
“Hail, Sol! Sun spirit, light bringer, awaken my vision and my voice.”
Dagaz — Threshold.
“Let me walk with grace through what is ending and what is beginning.”
(You may whisper these, carve them into wood, or draw them in the air.)
Hold your palms up to the sun (or to your candle). Say: “I gather the fire of this day into my spirit. I gather the light of the sun into my path. Hail, Sol — giver of clarity, warmth, and will. I remember that I am alive, and that is sacred.”
Close your eyes. Let the light soak into your chest, spine, and hands. Let any message or memory rise. Drum or hum three times.
Dip your fingers into the water. Touch the Earth. Say: “As the sun gives, I give. As the Earth receives, I receive.”
(You may pour water over your hands, or over tree roots or soil.)
Tap the ground four times again, turning clockwise. Chant: “Austri, Sudri, Vestri, Nordri… Austri, Sudri, Vestri, Nordri…”
Say: “The sun begins to fall now, but the light is within me. I carry it forward. Hail, Sol.”
Blow one breath to each direction. Bow to the Earth. It is done.
Pull a rune and ask: “What am I meant to tend as the light begins to wane?”
If something in this finds you, the deeper work waits in Singing the Runes and through Patreon — shamanic journey, spirit relationship, galdr sung into candle and rune.
The offerings themselves grew slowly, over more than a year, in a discussion group working primarily through Rune Rasmussen’s Nordic Animist Year — a book that gathers and compiles research on seasonal practice from many sources. Where the text gave us a thread, we followed it. Where it gave us none, we listened for our own.