mid-summer nights
20 June midsommarafton 
Namnsdag Linda
from lind, linen
Linda in Swedish means bandage, or twine. Lind has an ancient meaning rooted in the myths as the wedding veil. The story goes that on mid summer night the faeries celebrate the Golden Wedding. It is the night when the work of the faeries and devas of the garden is complete. The flowers are set with fruit. “I sin linda” is the bud or the embryo. Inside the sweet flesh of the fruit is the seed of a new tree.
small magic
What falls away reveals our future.
In all ways of telling the story of the summer solstice, at its most simple is: this time belongs to Hel goddess of wholeness, union and healing of the opposites, the sacred lind is the twine that binds, bandages and joins in marriage.
Shakespeare knew well of what he wrote when he penned the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
On Solstice-day 21 June, we are greeted by the namnsdag Alf, Alvar
Elf…light elves.
These are nights of magic, of love, mischief, and a little bickering between faeries and elves, some scheming for we humans to move forward, a dash of jealousy but overall they are a setting for harmony and enjoyment of life’s pleasures.
Linda is the sacred thread that ties light to dark, weaves the veil of union.
God midsommar, may you find small magic everywhere
Good Morning:
Beautiful, thank you. Happy Summer Solstice to you.
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 9:15 am
And Happy Nameday to you Lynda, you get an extra slice of cake with your coffee by tradition.
It’s a wonderful nameday, one of the great feminine energies of the jule (wheel)
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 10:05 am
I’d never heard that before, and actually didn’t consider it personally for myself. Linda in Spanish means pretty. I had no idea it might mean something in other languages.
I especially like “what falls away reveals our future”.
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 10:19 am
I sin Linda the embryo suggests a seed within protection, it is easy to find esoteric or mythic symbol of the seed held in our protective sub- consciousness waiting for the moment of enlightenment. At summer solstice the days grow shorter and we head toward the “inner” light of winter. Sept 21 the “light” goes underground and is held in feminine consciousness through the darkest days to be released at winter solstice.
~light into dark, dark into light.
Linen the fabric was once currency in Sweden it was so highly valued. So much comes from Lin - Flax that sustained the people. My grandmother’s recipe book is filled with uses for flax seed from furniture polish to the foundation of a cough syrup that works remakably well.
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 10:47 am
Do you use any of your Grandmother’s recipes in your Homeopathic healing?
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
When flax is processed into a spinable fiber, the last stage is pulling the dried stalks through spiky teeth called “hackles” clamped to a table. This removes the coarser fibers and leaves the fine. The color of the fine flax fibers are very pale blonde . . . hence “flaxen” hair as tseka’s is. Also called “tow heads” for those of us with white blonde hair as toddlers and children.
Here’s link showing some people processing flax into spinable fiber, brave souls!
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
oops! the link did not appear. try again
http://www.woolgatherers.com/id107.htm
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 5:52 pm
Lynda, there are so many superior remedies to flax cough syrup (an herbal) that i would not think of it. But these things are good to know. My ancestors left Scandinavia during and just after the last famine years. They settled the Pacific Northwest.
Neith/ Diane a sister-friend who is also descended from those stalwart Scandinavian pioneers will attest to their ability to make do with what’s at hand.
Comparing notes with my friend Gunn from Stockholm we find very little differences in how we were raised - we are the survivors - And we make it part of our family culture to pass on all the how-to stuff.
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 7:01 pm
Hey Diane. Great photos.
I love the feel of silken flax in hanks ready to spin. Not that i was ever successful spinning it on my Ashford wheel. I never invested in proper spindle for flax.
My flax made wonderful hair for some dolls tho..
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
tow head = lintott
lin (Flax) tott (tuft)
Comment made on June 20, 2008 @ 7:20 pm
And linseed, from which linseed oil comes, is another link in the etymology of lin.
Comment made on June 29, 2008 @ 7:38 pm