MidSummer Magic with Marie LaVeau

Midsummer, celebrated around the time of Summer Solstice in New Orleans is celebrated in a festival also known as St. John’s Eve.

During Midsummer, it is said that the Goddess manifests as Mother Earth and the God as the Sun King. In Celtic lore, it regarded as the best time to see fairies and in pagan times it was the feast of the Goddess Aine. In later days as Christianity took over the holidays from the pagans, they changed the festivals to feasts for Saints.

Currently in Catholic celebrations, June 23rd is known as St. John’s Eve, with St. John’s Day celebrated on the 24th, as the day of his birth, though it is not confirmed whether this is the actual day of his birth. It is interesting to note that the pagan story commemorated the balance and changing of rule between the Oak King and the Holly King and then in Christianity, it became representations of the birthday of St. John to represent Summer Solstice and the birthday for Christ as Winter Solstice.

This eve culminates the celebration of Summer Solstice. This day is one of several days throughout the year where the veil is thin and communication with the spirit world is strong and easily accessed.

Though the heat of Summer is just beginning, this date actually begins the ‘metaphorical’ decline of the Sun as it embarks on its journey to the Underworld, which will culminate on December 21st, the darkest day of the year.

Loaded with symbolism, St. John’s Eve was and is still celebrated throughout Europe, with bonfires, parties and celebrations. Perhaps there is no place on earth where St. John’s Eve is celebrated like it is in New Orleans. The French people brought Catholicism with them as they moved to Louisiana and in New Orleans it mixed in easily with traditional African magic, rituals and rites. This blending of the two cultures found common ground in lighting candles in prayer to ancestral spirits and asking saints to intervene when help was needed, as well as revering divine feminine figures in both religions.

Home to famous Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, St. John’s Eve has been celebrated in New Orleans for hundreds of years and Marie Laveau is undoubtedly the Queen of this celebration, having understood the esoteric rites to connect with spirit and the power of ritual to release the energy, moving all who participated. During these celebrations, bonfires are lit, drums beat and rituals, feasts and dancing are performed at Bayou St. John and other locations throughout the city.

This culmination of MidSummer celebration is a powerful time of transformation and purification through fire with bonfires and candles and by water, ritual baths and jumping into water are important rituals to remove stagnant and negative energy and create a new beginning.

While this ritual is dynamic, rejuvenating and renewing anywhere it is celebrated, it has been said that nowhere on earth is this magic stronger than in New Orleans, due to its unique location at the mouth of the Mississippi River, as the energy pours forth from the River into the Gulf — with New Orleans serving as the crescent bowl gathering and holding the energy. The ceremonies performed in connection with this powerful connection with water are similar to the ones performed in the times of ancient Egypt along the Nile.

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Kala Ambrose

Exploring MidSummer with Marie LaVeau

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