Summer Solstice: Dreams, Manifestation, Movies

Summer Solstice—a magical time, a time of transformation.  From midwinter to midsummer, the life forces are burgeoning, pushing forth into form, struggling to manifest.  The sun grows higher, stronger.  But at Solstice, the shift occurs.  The tide turns.  Life has blossomed forth—now it begins the slow preparation to  dream again.  Fruit slowly swells and ripens, sheltering the seeds of what is yet to come.

Here’s what Witches and artists know:  There’s the visible, material world—and then there’s the World Behind the World, the Otherworld, the Underworld, the Dreamtime, where manifestation begins. 

When we stir the waters of the Otherworld, still waters ripple and tides shift in the world of Day and Night.  When we want to change the living world, we first plant seeds in the dreamtime.  We can do it with ritual and magic, with the power of a concentrated mind.  We can do it with art, with poetry, fiction, music, songs, movies.  All cast their own spells—for a spell is merely energy focused through imagery, to make something happen.

So the Solstice-tide, the several days when “the sun stands still” at its highest point in the sky, seems like an auspicious time to launch our spell to manifest that fifth sacred thing which weaves the worlds together.  Yes, I’m talking about the movie we intend to make of my novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing

But I won’t lie to you—we are casting a spell.  We believe the world needs a powerful vision of a positive future here on earth.  Once we might simply have told the tale around the fire.  Two decades ago, I wrote it as a novel.  Now, as the world becomes ever more visual, we want to make it a film.  We want fourteen-year-old boys in the mall to get excited about a world of flowing streams and gardens, that honors earth, air, fire and water.  We want all of us who have been working so hard to bring us through these challenging times to catch a glimpse of what we’re working toward—and to wrestle with the story’s central question:  how do we defend a peaceful world from the forces that will contest it without becoming what we’re fighting against?

Stir the brew, add a pinch of this or that, light the Solstice fires, and the sun descends into the Dream.  Our spell is woven of contemporary threads—the web of the internet is where we begin to weave.  So at this time, we launch our website:  And we’re also launching our Kickstarter campaign, to bring in that material manifestation we call money to get us started on the road.

We invite you to join us.  On the website, we’ll begin to develop resources both for making the movie and for making the vision manifest.  Come sign our mailing list and you’ll get updates as we go along.  You’ll see the art we develop in process and have a chance to post your own ideas of what that future might look like.

And please come check out our Kickstarter page.  There you’ll see the video that shows some of our inspirations for the movie we hope to create.  Watch it, and if you’re inspired, you can donate some material wealth that will help us move the project to the next level—and get cool stuff in return!  Most of all, help us spread the word.  Share the links, post them to your own networks, and together we’ll weave the dream.

A blessed Solstice to you all!

12 comments to Summer Solstice: Dreams, Manifestation, Movies

  • At 07:30 on the morning of the Solstice, I drove through the Avebury Circle in Wiltshire on my way to work, as I do every morning. It’s a tough life, but someone has to do it…:)

    People of all ages were gathered round the stones as they had been since dawn. And three cops, will little else to do other than make sure that no-one parked in silly places and chat with the celebrants. British cops still do that, especially out here.

    I’m very lucky – I live in the middle of a Sacred Landscape. But the Fifth Sacred Thing shows that we all can.

    I’m backing this project – how could I not do? Do it too, and help turn the tide..

  • i agree with you and would like to help i’m new here but i believe i have since i was a little girl .. i just never had someone to teach me everything ! i listen to your show earlier this morning i am very interested let me know what i can do my name on face book is kara richardson thanks

  • Dawnchild

    Summer Solstice came as a surprise for me. I live in Phoenix, AZ. Often our governments lean toward conservative Christianity so the celebration held in the Main Library on the 21st of June came as a surprise. The architecture of the Burton Barr Branch of the Phoenix Library is done in tensegrity and because of the design at Solar Noon on Summer Solstice the ceiling/roof appears to be floating on light and air. Amazing feeling when you realize someone had taken into account this day. Maybe not as a religious thing, the architect was thinking of the sunlight on that day, but definitely as a moment of wonder. Native American musicians played as the sun made the shadows and light shift in the room. And here I think on it. Here I feel it and understand the deeper message. We all walk the spiral. With every breath we take we walk this spiral. Change is Magic, Magic is Change.

    ~Dawnchild

    • How wonderful! I would love to see that! Thanks for telling us about it.

    • It really does sound wonderful …

      “Maybe not as a religious thing, the architect was thinking of the sunlight on that day, but definitely as a moment of wonder.”

      I think that moments of wonder ARE what makes spirituality real. And make science real as well for that matter, although we seem to be awfully bad at linking the two together…

  • Caroline

    It’s very exciting to hear about The Fifth Sacred Thing as a movie – I saw it as a powerful movie when I read it several years ago and am glad to have the opportunity to support the vision now. I’m also interested in learning more about Yerba Buena films, and why you chose them to work with on this wonderful project…. Thanks, Caroline

    • Yerba Buena is a small, San Francisco based company that’s just starting up, and The Fifth Sacred Thing will be its first production. The main reason I decided to go with them rather than look for an established studio was Philip Wood, our producer. He struck me as being so in tune with my vision for the movie and the larger-than-movie movement, also grounded, talented and highly competent, and really, really committed to getting the movie made. It’s very common in Hollywood for an author to sell an option on a book or a screenwriter to sell a script that never gets made–in fact, that’s the norm. To get the movie made, it takes someone dedicated to pushing it forward. Also Philip–aka Mouse–was eager to have me involved with the project and writing the screenplay–which is also unusual in Hollywood. So, while he didn’t have the financial resources of a studio, I felt that Yerba Buena offered a fighting chance of getting the movie made that I wanted to see, in the way I wanted to do it.

  • I have questions (I am doing research about animals and how they relate in your field) I know it’s not the cool thing to post this on your blog but didn’t see a email I could email you directly. could you email me. All friendly easy questions – I know nothing of any of this sort of thing (sorry). mr_mrs_crafty_rving@yahoo.com

  • 

    He leído tus artículos un par de veces queriendo hallar algo diferente y la realidad es
    que de esta manera pasa. Cada que leo tus artículos encuentro algo nuevo.

    Te juro que llevo no menos de 3 horas leyendo cada una de las cosas que has escrito y me parecen geniales.
    Espero que no creas que intento acosarte jeje. Ya en serio, quiero decirte que
    es una grata experiencia poder encontrarme con gente que tiene grandes habilidades con las letras.
    Espero que sigas de esta forma y que si se da el
    momento, podamos conocernos. Saludos!

  • Aloas Kino

    Starhawk, please include in your vision the magical opposition of the seasons: we celebrate the Summer Solstice on Dec. 21st here in Chile.
    Cheers!
    Aloas K.

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