Sunstead-solstice
Taking up your place in the world
Dear writing friends,
I’m writing this to you on the afternoon of the solstice here in the UK, Thursday 20 June 2024. The sun will be at its highest position in the sky here today at around 9.51pm BST.
By the time you read this, the solstice will have passed here, but the sun may still be rising for you. It may be your midsummer. It may be your midwinter.
I’ve been thinking about the origin of the word solstice because, like so many of you, I love to dream on, in and around words – their shape, their form, what they conjure, how they feel on my tongue or on the page.
As Gaston Bachelard wrote in the Introduction to The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language and the Cosmos:
‘I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around…’
The word solstice comes to us through Old French solstice (13c.), which grew out of Latin solstitium, the point at which the sun seems to stand still (from sol ‘the sun’ + past participle stem of sistere, ‘to stand still, take a stand, to set, place, cause to stand’). In earliest use, this was ‘Englished’ as sunstead (late Old English sunstede).
Sunstead. I like this word.
How strange language is – and how wonderful. Two words – solstice and sunstead – bound up in the history of one poetic image. One word that sounds as solid as an old stone wall, the wall of a farmhouse set in the green fold of a hill; the other, shining with planetary light.
Bachelard writes:
…a poetic image bears witness to a soul which is discovering its world, the world where it would like to live and where it deserves to live… Poetry forms the dreamer and his world at the same time.
I’m wondering about all the other words for solstice across time, space and cultures. It’s interesting to note that the word resist is also rooted in sistere.
If you have a word or phrase or image for solstice that you’d like to share with us, please do drop it in the comments. I’d love to hear it.
Writing invitation
What world will you dream this solstice-sunstead? What would you like to dream into being on the page? What would you like your writing to do, right now, in this turbulent world? As you lift your face to the sun, what position will you take up? Where do you stand?
You could use the focusing technique that we explored a couple of weeks ago to help you with this exercise.
I’m looking forward to seeing you on Sat 22 June for our special celebratory Writing Together. Details and link below.