Ritual: “Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant” Summer Solstice Ritual
“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”
This quote is from a 1913 essay called “What Publicity Can Do” that appeared in Harper’s Weekly. The author was future Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. Justice Brandeis is a complicated figure. He helped to establish the legal concept of a “right to privacy” and was a leading figure in the Progressive movement of the early 20th century, fighting back against the monopolization of industry in the United States and advocating labor laws.
While being a defender of a individual’s right to privacy, he also understood the necessity of publicity (what we would now call transparency) in holding corruption to account. His early thoughts on this are summarized in a letter to this then fiancé where he states he had been thinking “about the wickedness of people shielding wrongdoers and passing them off (or at least allowing them to pass themselves off) as honest men”, and proposed the following solution:
“If the broad light of day could eb let in upon men’s actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects.”
As I’m writing this, misinformation and disinformation are flooding social media as part of a coordinated global campaign to undermine democracy and fully rupture any attempt at consensus reality. In the midst of the 2024 general election, one party is helmed by an actual insurrectionist who has a 50/50 shot at reclaiming power and establishing a theocratic autocracy in the United States, all of which is enabled by members of that party spewing outright lies without any meaningful pushback. Every week we seem to uncover yet another example of right-wing billionaires buying votes on the Supreme Court.
The ritual outlined below builds upon this idea and weaves in the energy of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, with the goal of dragging these lies and liars into the stark light of the sun. This ritual harnesses the powerful solar energy of this time of the year to shine a spotlight on their corruption. This ritual calls in the purifying flames of the sun to burn away the darkness to expose their machinations.
Instead of listing out materials and a step-by-step guide I am going to provide an example of what I do. You can take the spirit of this and adapt it to your situation. I will, however, note some things that I think should not be altered.
Central to my version of this ritual is a yellow novena candle. I use this for a two reasons: 1) I use yellow to symbolize the color of the sun and 2) the glass of the novena candle allows me to draw sigils, runes, etc. directly on it with a marker.
I draw symbols that I believe will help to anchor, center, and channel the solar energy I will be calling for this ritual. For example, I will draw a large sun and some flames around the candle. I will also draw some arrows pointing down to help channel the energy towards the things I want to bring into the light.
On individual scraps of paper I write the lies, people, organizations, etc. I want to direct this ritual towards. I try to limit myself to no more than six. This is a personal preference, and a number I came to through use of divination to help me finetune this ritual.
After I’ve written everything on my scraps of paper, I lay them out in a small cluster. I place a small dish (I have a wooden coaster I use) on top of this cluster, and place the candle on the dish. (FIRE SAFETY! Even though I am using a novena candle in a class container, I don’t want to take any chances so always make sure to have something sturdy between the candle and the paper. If you’re worried the dish might disrupt the flow of energy to the intended targets, you can inscribe additional sigils, runes, etc. on the dish to help direct it.)
If possible, I try to set all of this up outside so the candle has a direct line-of-sight to the sun. If for some reason that is not an option, I try to set it up by a window where it will get some direct sunlight.
Once everything is set up, I focus my intention. I will recite aloud the targets I’ve chosen, and might verbally provide more context of their lies and corruption. If it feels right I will call in spirit allies (nature, Ancestral, etc.) to aid in this work.
I then light the candle and let it burn for as long as I safely can. (FIRE SAFETY! Don’t leave your candle unattended. If you need to leave for some reason you can pause the ritual by blowing out the candle, and then resume when it is safe to do so. The goal is to direct the purifying light of the sun at corrupt actors, not burn down your home.)
While this particular ritual is, in my opinion, most effective on the Summer Solstice, it can be performed any time of the year during the day.
