Highlights
– St. John’s Eve
– Tree Agate
– Plant therapies
– Energy vampire

St. John’s Day

The feast of John the Baptist coincides with the Summer Solstice. In Northern Europe, it was celebrated traditionally on the eve of Midsummer, but could fall anywhere between June 21-26. In Sweden, Midsummer festivities occur on the Friday night closest to Midsummer.

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June2016

On St. John’s Eve in Europe, women gathered medicinal herbs. Herbs picked on this sacred night would be especially potent at warding off evil. Yarrow, mallow, rue, mint, fennel, rosemary, wormwood, and, of course, St. John’s Wort were collected.

In Italy, green walnuts were harvested on this night to create a liqueur called Nocino to ward off witches, as it was believed they gathered around walnut trees.  In Denmark, on Sank Hans Aften, a witch effigy is prepared by the children and burnt on the fire. The Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky wrote music about St. John’s Eve and dispelling a gathering of witches on a bare mountain. His inspiration was Russian folklore. Sadly, his composition was never performed during his lifetime, but was later made famous by Walt Disney in the 1940 movie Fantasia. You can view the creepy scene for Night on Bald Mountain here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLCuL-K39eQ.

Disney, for better or for worse, has become a key modern purveyor of mythology for recent generations. Joseph Campbell said each new generation has to reinvent the basic archetypes of the human experience to make it relevant to their own culture.

In North America, there are still post-colonial remnants of Midsummer St. John’s Eve. Christopher Columbus originally named Puerto Rico the island of San Juan Bautista. Marie Laveau, the renowned Creole Voodoo priestess is said to have attracted thousands to her Bayou St. John Midsummer rituals in New Orleans. Saint Jean was officially declared the patron saint of French Canadians by Pope Pius in 1908; however celebrations for the saint first occurred almost 400 years, and really became popular as a Gallic response to Montreal’s Irish St Patrick’s Day celebrations two hundred years ago. La fete Saint-Jean-Baptiste is now more of a secular provincial holiday in Quebec