Imayna Caceres. Offering (2022). Made for "Learning from plants, rocks, and waters: counter-stories of earth-beings in the midst of multiple crises." Photo: Marisel Orellana Bongola.
Why do so many groups and cultures continue to celebrate solstices and equinoxes? Perhaps it helps to imagine how on birthdays we celebrate the people who are part of our lives and we drink and eat food to which fire has been lit (a candle on a cake), make wishes and give gifts as a token of this appreciation.
When we gather on a solstice we celebrate the star that makes our life possible, we show our appreciation and bring gifts that represent that celebration to give back the energy of the sun that we are about to receive. In gratitude to the star on which we depend. We give gifts and offer things that matter for the life of the planet and our own to exist: water and shells for aquatic life, stones and quartz for the earthly worlds and mountains, healing and sacred plants such as coca leaves, seeds and flowers for fertility, candles for fire, cotton, wool, fabrics, and whatever we want to give thanks for.
Over the years I have also realized that on the solstices, when half of the planet has more light and the other half less, we also celebrate the differences in how we come to be and the plurality of what makes the planet possible. While on the equinoxes, where nights and days last the same in both hemispheres, we can celebrate the similarities, the coincidences that cross our paths, the moments in which we share resonances.
The picture offering was placed near the Kongresspark of Vienna in the district 1160, so I approached the trees there and ask for some of their leaves for the offering, adding plants to which I owe my existence, such as quinua, lentils, rosmary and lavendel. As well as shells, candles, agua florida, and palo santo.
"Ritual offerings recognize what sustains life on Earth. In that sense it works as a technology that helps to de-fetishize hegemonic relations with what we call nature in systems of accumulation, ways of relating to the non-human that continue to accelerate the climate crisis. A community practice with transformative political potential." Quote from "Rituals and Co-razonadas" in Bisagra 005, 2021.
In gratitude to the cotton that covers us, to the seeds that feed us, to the plants that heal us, to the rocks that sediment us, to the sounds, vibrations and movements that repair us, to our guides, and to life in the water, the earth, and throughout the cosmos.
Written by Imayna Caceres for the solstice of June 21th, 2023. The summer solstice is the longest sunny day, which in 2024 fell on June 20th.
Gabe für "Lernen von Pflanzen, Steinen und Gewässern: Gegengeschichten von Erdwesen inmitten multipler Krisen". Foto: Marisel Orellana Bongola.