An Ghrian

The Irish Word for “The Sun.”

Solstice, blessings to you all! This is a beautiful time of the year when we can celebrate the sun. An Ghrian. 

I love the Irish Gaelic word for Solstice- Grianstad- which means “sun stop”. At this time of year, the sun has its greatest moment of light, the longest day of the year, and this lasts for a few days where the hours of daylight remain almost exactly the same, as though the sun has stopped in the sky at that place of most light. Then, the light begins to lessen as the days shorten again into the autumn and winter seasons. I imagine it as the sun coming out into her full abundance and turning around then, just as the seasons turn, for home. The darkness returned, and a different season of reflection and slowing down. 

Our ancestors lived close to the land and understood very well the importance of the sun and celebrated this Solstice time of year in honour of Áine, the goddess of the sun, and Lugh, the god of light and the sun.

The solstices were extremely important to the Neolithic age, and they built stunning monuments such as Brú na Boinne (Newgrange) that reflected their vast knowledge of the sun and stars. The solstice was a time of celebration, rejoicing, and honour of the gods and goddesses in anticipation and hope for the harvest at Lughnasagh. 

May we take this time today to celebrate the power of the light and the sun, to take it in, to celebrate it, to allow ourselves to rejoice in the abundance of this season, the full fruits and bloom of life itself.

Focail Gaeilge | ‘Irish Words’

In this series, I share words in Gaeilge (Irish) and explore these words through a Depth Psychology lens, allowing us to begin exploring our inner world— our psyche, and deepen our understanding of our place in the world around us. When we embrace our native language or become curious about the languages from our ancestral roots, we can embrace our sense of place, our speech, our imagination, our psyche, and the song of the soul...