Litha Crafts

Celebrate Litha, the longest day of the year, with fun crafts you can make with your family. This is the time of year when the herb gardens are blooming, so make some summer incense, a sunflower ring for your altar or wall, a handfasting basket for that lovey-dovey couple who's getting married, and a Stonehenge sundial.

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Blessing Besom

Litha is the time of the summer solstice, and it's a season of strong solar energy. A great project to put together is a blessing besom. Sweeping is, after all, one of the best ways of making a space sacred and clean. Make a blessing besom, and you can use it to physically cleanse your home, and then hang it up to keep positive energy flowing around you.

To make a blessing broom, or besom, you'll need the following:

A broom—either make your own, or purchase one at a craft store
Ivy or vines
Flowers and herbs from your garden
Ribbons
Small bells

Wrap the ribbons and ivy around the handle of the broom. Don't wrap them too tight, though, because you'll want to be able to tuck sprigs of herbs and flowers into the ribbons. Once you've added all of these things, tie a few small bells onto the broom, so that it will jingle as you sweep. In many cultures, bells are used as noisemakers to frighten away evil spirits and negative energies.

If you like, you can consecrate your blessing besom as you would any other magical tool. Use it to sweep around your home, starting near a window or a door, and working in a deosil (clockwise) direction. As you do so, you may wish to chant something like this:

Sweeping, sweeping, 'round the room,
Blessings from this cleansing broom.
From floor to ceiling, and all between,
May this space be fresh and clean.
Sweeping good energy here to me,
As I will, so it shall be.

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Lavender Dream Pillow

The use of lavender has been documented for thousands of years. Pliny the Elder says that its blossom, called Asarum, sold for a hundred Roman denarii. The Greeks called it Nardus, after a city in Syria on the banks of the Euphrates. It was used by the ancients in perfuming bathwater, and for strewing on the floors of temples and houses. It was cultivated in England for the first time around 1560, and is mentioned in the writings of William Shakespeare.

At Litha, the herb gardens are in full bloom, and if you have lavender growing, you're probably blessed with all kinds of purple abundance right now! Lavender is associated with calming and peacefulness, so Midsummer is a perfect time to make yourself a lavender pillow, to help bring about relaxing dreams.

To make your lavender sweet dreams pillow, you'll need the following:

Fabric in pattern of your choice
Cotton, Polyfill, or other stuffing material
Dried lavender
Needle, thread, scissors

To assemble the pillow, place the fabric with the right sides together. Cut out the shape you'd like your pillow to be—square, circle, whatever. Pin the material together, and sew most of the way around the edges. Be sure to leave a gap where you can stuff the pillow.

Turn the material right side out, and fill with cotton or Polyfill. Add a handful of dried lavender, and stitch the opening closed. As you sew, you may wish to offer a blessing by chanting:

When at night I go to sleep,
sweet dreams will come to me.
Lavender scent bring peaceful rest.
As I will so it shall be.

Tip: If you're making this pillow as a project for a child, you can use felt and cut out shapes of the child's favorite things. Appliqué them on the pillow. Ask your child what sorts of things he or she would like to dream about, and use these shapes as a guideline. The one in the photo includes a witch, a cat, the child's first initial, and an ice cream cone.

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Summer Solstice Herb Pouch

Use a simple drawstring pouch to blend together the herbs of the summer solstice. Image by Donna Franklin/E+/Getty Images

The summer solstice is a great time to harvest your herbs. Usually, gardens are in full bloom by now and if you do any wildcrafting, midsummer is a perfect season to find some goodies out in the woods. You can take some of the herbs associated with the Litha season and make an herb pouch to hang in your home (or carry with you) as a multi-purpose talisman.

In many magical traditions, the number nine is seen as sacred, so were going to use nine different herbs in this pouch project. These are all herbs commonly availableduring the midsummer season, but if you don't have access to them, feel free to substitute other herbs that grow in your area. Usually, people use dried herbs in craft projects, but because these are growing right now, you may want to just use them fresh.

Gather equal amounts of the following herbs:

Basil, for good fortune
Hyssop, for cleansing and purifying
Lavender, for calmness and peace
Mugwort, for divination and dreams
Peppermint, for passion and love
Rosemary, for remembrance
Sage, for wisdom
Thyme, for psychic development
Yarrow, for healing

Blend your herbs together in a bowl. If you're using dried herbs, crush them into a fine powder using your mortar and pestle. If you're using fresh ones, it's probably better to simply tear or chop them into equally sized pieces. This will help release the essential oils, and allow you to take advantage of the fragrances.

Stitch together a basic drawstring pouch using a summery color fabric (yellow or orange is perfect, but work with what you have). If you don't have any bright colors available, a plain muslin or cloth fabric will do just fine. Place the herbs in the pouch, and pull the drawstring tightly.

You can keep the pouch on your altar during your midsummer celebrations, hang it over your door to welcome guests, or even carry it in your pocket as a summertime talisman.

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Sunflower Candle Ring

Make a sunflower candle to celebrate the sun. Image by Patti Wigington

This sunflower candle ring is an easy craft project to make, and you can use it on your summer Sabbat altars, or simply as a tabletop decoration around the house. Another great option? Instead of laying it flat on a table, place a loop of wire on the back and hang it on your front door as a welcoming wreath for your guests.

Sunflowers are often associated with truth, loyalty, and honesty. If you want to know the truth about something, sleep with a sunflower under your pillow - and the next day, before the sun goes down, the truth should be revealed to you. The sunflower is considered a flower of loyalty because day after day, it follows the sun, from east to west. In some folk magic traditions, it is believed that slipping a bit of sunflower oil or seeds into someones food or drink will cause them to be loyal to you.

Youll need the following items:

Grapevine wreath (the one in the photos is a 12 diameter)
Sunflowers
Mini-LED lights with battery pack, available in craft store floral departments
Candles
Hot glue gun

Start by determining where you'd like the sunflowers to go. You can use a whole bunch, or a smaller amount - the candle ring in the photo uses just five sunflowers, one for each point on the pentacle. Don't glue the sunflowers in place yet - just have a general idea of their positioning.

Wrap the LED light string around the grapevine wreath, tucking it into nooks and crannies, and weaving it among the vine branches. Be sure you leave yourself a small spot to tuck the battery pack into place so that it will not come loose later. Also, its a good idea to check to make sure the batteries on your LED lights work BEFORE you start this project.

Once your LED lights are in place, go ahead and hot glue your sunflowers into their assigned positions. Be careful not to get hot glue on the LED lights or the electrical strands - this can damage the system and cause light failure.

Place your wreath on your altar, with candles in the center, and enjoy as a summer centerpiece for ritual.

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Handfasting 13 Blessings Basket

Put together a basket of goodies for friends who are being handfast. Image by Barry Winiker/Photodisc/Getty Images

Many Wiccan and Pagan couples choose to have a handfasting ceremony instead of a traditional wedding. Pagan clergy often are willing to perform a handfasting ceremony for gay or lesbian couples. Also, if a couple (whether hetero- or homosexual) has decided they do not want or need the government's blessing to be together, they may opt for a handfasting instead.

June is a popular month for handfasting (and weddings in general). No matter what time of year your happy couple is being handfast, you can make this simple gift basket easily with items you can find in just about any craft store.

You can make a handfasting basket as elaborate or as simple as you like. The easiest way to do it is to buy a commercially made basket, which you can usually find at thrift stores, and cover it in fabric. Choose something with romantic summer colors -- yellow, reds, flowers, etc. Fabric can be found inexpensively (as little as $1.49 a yard) at most discount stores or at craft supply shops.

Place the basket on a flat surface, and use the fabric to line the inside. Use a piece of fabric large enough that you'll have some overhang. For stability, you may wish to hot glue the underside of the fabric around the rim of the basket. Next, cut a piece of ribbon about three times the length of the basket's handle. Tie it in place at one end of the handle, and wrap it around until you reach the opposite side. Trim off any excess. If you're really crafty, use two different ribbons. Add a small dab of glue to the underside of the ribbon periodically, to keep it from slipping down the handle.

Finally, add some small silk flowers to the handle of the basket. You can find these in the wedding aisle at nearly any craft store. If the flowers don't have wires built into them, use some thin florist's wire to anchor the flowers in place.

Thirteen Blessings

Here's the really fun part. Think about the couple who is being handfast. Are they traditionalists? Are they silly, and willing to laugh at themselves? Consider what you know about them.

To fill the baskets, you'll need a variety of things, each symbolizing some aspect of the relationship. Try to find thirteen items that are meaningful to the couple. Small ornaments are perfect for this, so they can be hung up later, but use your imagination to find the symbols that are right for your couple. Use the following list to help get you started:

A sun, symbolizing the strength and sturdiness of the male partner
A moon, representing the woman, beautiful and mysterious*
A cat, to guard the hearth and home
A dog, to offer loyalty and protection
An owl, for wisdom
A star, for the dreams of the future
A clock, to remind them that time is valuable
An acorn, for strength and longevity
A butterfly, for all the summers they will be together
A car, for the journey they're about to embark on
A house, so they have a place to return
A pinecone, for prosperity and abundance
A heart, for the love that brought them together

* In the case of a same-sex couple, it would be appropriate to use two moons or two suns.

Make sure that while you're creating and filling your handfasting basket, that you're sending positive thoughts into it. If you like, turn this into a small ritual. You can charge the basket by focusing your intent into a simple couplet if you choose, such as:

This basket of gifts I give from the heart
with blessings for [name] and [name]'s handfasting.
With these treasures I offer you joy, and hope,
and happiness and love everlasting.

https://www.thoughtco.com/summer-solstice-craft-projects-4136751

Sabbats

Litha Crafts

Blessing Besom

Lavender Dream Pillow

Summer Solstice Herb Pouch

Sunflower Candle Ring

Handfasting 13 Blessings Basket

Thirteen Blessings

How to make a witches ladder

Litha Ritual

Gods and Goddesses of Litha

Litha Crafts

Litha Activities

Correspondences

Litha

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