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Litha is celebrated on the Summer Solstice and it is the longest day of the year and it is also know as Midsummer.
~Litha is one of the four Lesser or Minor Sabbats.

~At mid-summer the Sun God has reached the moment of his greatest strength. Seated on his greenwood throne he is lord of the forests.

~The Goddes can be seen now as heavy with child, as nature is heavy with the bounty of the coming harvest, although she is already pregnant (with the God) she will not give birth to the God until Yule.

~This is considered to be a time when energies abound, and is a good time for magic and purification rites.

~Healing and love magic are especially suitable at this time

~Midsummer Night's Eve is supposed to be a good time to commune with field and forest sprites and faeries.

~This is a time to look internally at the seeds you've planted that should be at full bloom.

~At this time the trees and fields are full and prosperous. And the young animals and birds are learning to live an frolic in the fields and trees.

Did You Know:

~Midsummer Night's Eve is also special for adherents of the Faerie faith.

~Litha is a time of the Faery, when a festival called the Feast of the Faery is held. It is beleived that at twilight on this day, the portals between worlds open and the faery folk may pass into our world.

Cleanse yourself and your space in your normal manner by means of ritual bath:

Simple Ritual Bath

~Put in essential or magical oils and or herbs into the bath water, but use only a couple drops
~Choose your herbs based on the intent and personal preference
~Turn off the light and light the bathroom using candles
~While you are soaking think about the ritual and any magic that you will be working.
~Meditating in the bath can be a powerful and yet gentle way to connect with deity.
~Let the water sooth you, allow yourself to feel nurtured
~Playing soft music might help to complete the special atmosphere
~As you step out of the tub let all negativity go, imagine it all staying in the water and glowing down the drain away from you.
~Dress for ritual, and then you are ready.

Before you begin:

The altar should be decorated with summer herbs, greenery, and flowers. Rather than wine the chalice can be filled with milk. If you have made a protective amulet previous to the ritual then you may want to place this on the altar. Before the ritual begins, make a small pouch out of white cloth and fill it with any combination of midsummer herbs that you wish. Be sure to add them in threes. Tie the pouch with a red string and place it on the altar. The altar cloth and candles should be white.

Litha Ritual

Light the altar candles and the incense, and then proceed to cast the sacred circle:

Circle Casting

Take a deep breath, and relax into perfect calm. Walk North of room and hold your dominant hand out from your body, index finger pointing out and down OR athame/wand pointing out and down. Walk the circle deosil (clockwise) , speaking the words or circle casting, imagine a hedge springing up as your finger glideds along through the air, or perhaps a light surrounding you in a circle manner, visualize whatever will make it easier for you to believe there is a magic circle around you and your altar.

The words:

I conjure thee, O great circle of power,
so that you will be for me
a boundary between the world of men and the mighty spirits,
a meeting place of perfect love, trust, peace, and joy
containing the power I will raise within thee.
I call upon the guardians
of the North, the East, the South, and the West
to aid me in this consecration.
In the name of the Lord and the Lady
thus I do conjure thee, O great circle of power!

The circle does not have to be as big as the room, the circle can be as small as you like as long as you reamin standing or sitting within the boundaries. Now walk North of cicle, pound your hand on the ground and say:

As above, so below, this circle is sealed!

Then invoke the God and the Goddess. Kneel before the altar, facing east, and say:

"With these mystic rites, I celebrate the summer time and the coming bounty of autumn. Now, the world is bathed in the warm glow of the sun, and the fields and seas and skies and forests are teeming with life."

Hold the cloth pouch in your hands. Concentrate on any problems, pain or illness that you wish to be rid of. Picture these things going into the bag. Stand up and walk round to the East side of the altar. Light the pouch with an altar candle. Drop the pouch into the cauldron to watch it burn. As you watch, know that those impurities are burning to ash. Say:

"Oh great Goddess and God, on this magical night I pray that you will help me to know and understand myself and the world around me. May you bring joy and happiness into my life, and may no harm come to anything by my hands."

After this is through, feel free to perform any magic you wish. Midsummer is a very magically powerful night and is considered a classic time for works of magic, Healings and love magick are especially suitable at this time. Midsummer Night's Eve is supposed to be a good time to commune with field and forest sprites and faeries.

End with celebratory Cakes and Ale, and then release the Circle in your usual manner.

Release the circle:

When your ready to take down the circle, widershins (counterclockwise), stating West, going South, East, then North, drawing the energy back into you (visualize the energy being drawn from the circle as a bright light going into your finger/wand/athame then up your arm, through your body and out your feet into the ground thus grounding the energies). When you reach the West again, pound the ground with hand and say:

The circle is open, but never broken.
So mote it be!
We are the people, we are the power,
and we are the change!
Merry meet and Merry Part,
until we merry meet again!

Ritual courtesy of:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/spiritwolf/litha.htm
(this site still works)

The circle casting and closing is from the book:
"Teen Witch, Wicca for a New Generation"
by Silver RavenWolf

(details on ways of visualizing is from me not from the book)

~Tie a sprig of rowan, a sprig of rue, and three flowers of St. John's Wort with red thread and hang over the door.

~Make amulets (simple charms) of protection out of herbs such as rue and rowan. If you make new amulets each year you can dispose of the old in the midsummer fire.

~Create a pouch for psychic dreams (mugwort and bay leaves in a cloth of lavender, blue, or yellow and sewn with red thread) and place under your pillow.

~Make a Solar Wheel as a terific family project - everyone can make one for their bedroom. Wind palm or grape vine into a circle, twisting as you go. Cut two short lengths of stem to be just a bit larger than the diaameter of the circle and place one across the back horizontally and the other vertically crossing in back on the horizontal one and coming forward to the front of the circle to secure both, then adorn with symbols of the elementals (stone, feathers, ashes in a pouch, or a small candle, and a shell) and festoon with green and yellow ribbons. Hang in a tree outside or indoors at a reminder of the God's protection.

~Make a Witch's Ladder (another fun family project) using three colored yarns (red, black, and white for the Triple Goddess) braided together to be three feet long. Add nine feathers all the same color for a specific charm (such as green for money) or various colors for a more diverse charm, tie ends and hang up. Colors are red for vitality, blue for peace and protection, yellow for alertness and cheer, green for prosperity, brown for stability, black for wisdom, black and white for balance, patterned for clairvoyance, and iridescent for insight.

~Make a rue protection pouch out of white cotton. Add two or three sprigs of rue, bits of whole grain wheat bread, a pinch of salt, and two star anise seeds and hang indoors (can do one for each bedroom).

~Tie vervain, rosemary, and hyssop with white thread and dip the tips into a bowl of spring water (you can buy bottled spring water in grocery stores) and sprinkle the water about the house to chase out negativity, or sprinkle your tools to cleanse and purify.

~Soak thyme in olive oil, then lightly anoint your eyelids to see faery folk at night.

~Tie a bunch of fennel with red ribbons and hang over the door for long life and protection of the home.

~Look for the faery folk under an elder tree, but don't eat their food.

Summer Incense

-Use a mortar and pestle to blend and powder your herbs when making incense or other magical concoctions.-

To make your own magical summer incense, first determine what form you’d like to make. You can make incense with sticks and in cones, but the easiest kind uses loose ingredients, which are then burned on top of a charcoal disc or tossed into a fire. This recipe is for loose incense, but you can always adapt it for stick or cone recipes. As you mix and blend your incense, focus on the intent of your work. In this particular recipe, we’re creating an incense to use during a Litha rite -- and since Litha is all about the sun and its strength, we’re going to make this a fiery and powerful incense. You’ll need:

3 parts myrrh
1 part apple blossoms
1/2 part bay leaves
1/2 part cinnamon bark
1 part chamomile flowers
1 part lavender flowers
2 parts mugwort
1/2 part rosemary

Add your ingredients to your mixing bowl one at a time. Measure carefully, and if the leaves or blossoms need to be crushed, use your mortar and pestle to do so. As you blend the herbs together, state your intent. You may find it helpful to charge your incense with an incantation, such as:

Balance of the heavens and earth below,
The power of the sun in this incense grows.
Cinnamon, mugwort, apple and bay,
Fire and water, on this longest day.
Herbs of power, blended by me,
As I will, so it shall be.

Store your incense in a tightly sealed jar. Make sure you label it with its intent and name, as well as the date you created it. Use within three months, so that it remains charged and fresh.
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/incense/ss/Litha_Incense.htm

Summer Potpourii

What You Need:

3 tablespoons orrisroot
1/2 tablespoon lemon, lime, mandarin, or tangerine oil
1 cup dried orange rind
1/2 cups dried lemon rind
1 cup dried calendula flowers
1/4 cup dried lemon thyme
1 cup dried lemon verbena
1/2 cup dried lemon balm
1 cup dried scented geranium leaves

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients.
2. Pour the mixture into an airtight container and set aside to cure for three to four weeks, stirring every few days.

Midsummer Door Ornaments

Items Needed:

Small broom, about 1' by 8"
Plastic seasonal flowers ~ {Roses, Wildflowers}
3 different colours of ribbon, about 12"-16" long
Some thin wire ~ {strip garbage bag twist-ties of their paper coats}
Ornament oriented to the sabbat
Wire Cutters
Scissors

Directions: (Note, if doing this project with children, please watch the scissors and wire cutters) Take the wire cutters and cut the flower stems to a height that is workable. With the wire, begin tying into them the seasonal flowers and the berries at the base of the broom nearest where the bristles begin. Make sure the leaves of the flowers lie flat against the bristles. This will be a great background for the colour of the flowers to contrast against.

Take the berries and the fruit and lie them between the flowers and then tie them of with the wire. As soon as all of that is in, pick out your favourite Midsummer ornament.

Take the ribbon and tie in a bow or a knot, either will do, around the wire. Let some of the extra drape around and under the broom.

When you want to hang this, simply take a bit of wire and string it through the top of the broom handle and nail it to the door, hang it in a window or wherever you prefer. To hang it with the bristles pointing upwards, weave the wire up through the bristles and then twist it a few times for some extra strength.

Solstice Dream Pillows

Materials needed

1-4 oz (30-120 gms) each of the following five herbs: dried chamomile, mugwort,catnip, hops, lavender, whole oranges & lemons, cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, (optional) myrrh or frankincense resin lumps.
Scraps of lightweight cloth (4-7 inches/100-175 mm, two for each bag) optional bits of ribbon, embroidery floss, scraps of lace or a few small beads.

For those who are sitting up all night on the Solstice, this is a special dream pillow you can make for prophetic dreams when you go to sleep the next night or throughout the year.

Take the first five dried herbs and mix them in whatever proportions you desire/have on hand. More Mugwort will lead some folks to more psychic dreaming, more hops will lead to a sounder sleep for some others, more catnip may encourage feline pillow sharing.

As the night passes, eat the oranges, and use the lemons (minus their peels) in teas/punches/hot drinks. As you use them try to remove the peels in large chunks or in easy to work with sections. Using a spoon, carefully scrape out as much of the white inner rind as you can without damaging the zesty outer peel. Scatter the remaining outer peels on a cookie sheet and dry them on low heat in the oven (200F or less). Watch them to make sure they are drying but not scorching. Remove them from the oven, and let them cool.

If you have a fire or incense burner, burn some of the incense resins, saving most to use in the pillows.

Crumble the dried peels up into smaller bits, break up the cinnamon sticks up into smaller pieces, and add the spices, resins and peels to the herb mixture. Mix well. Gather up the scraps of material, and sew up small bags: 3-6 inches/75-150mm should be fine. Leave one side open: small openings will make it more difficult to fill the bags later. If you want to use the ribbons and floss to embroider protective or other magical symbols or representative designs, it will be easier to do before you stitch the sides together. Work on this to keep you awake, thinking of the season and what it means to you as you do it. If these are intended as gifts, think kindly and lovingly of the folks you will be giving these to.

Fill each of the bags with the herb/spice mixture, but not so full that it is hard: people will want to smell them, but they need to be soft enough to sleep on. Fold the last side inward, and stitch closed. If you want, a small loop of ribbon may be added at this point at the top.

After the sun rises, and you have finished your celebrations, set these aside, and finish them when you have/make time during the day if they aren't done. When you go to bed, slip one or more of these into you pillowcase, and inhale deeply as you relax before sleeping. Watch for special dreams as you sleep.

Prosperity Pentacles

4 tbsp. ground Cloves
4 tbsp. ground Cinnamon
4 tbsp. ground Nutmeg
4 tbsp. ground Ginger
3 drops Cinnamon oil
3 drops Clove oil
3 drops Nutmeg oil
2 tbsp. Gum Arcabic
4 tbsp. Water

Gather all of the spices above and mix them well together. Add the gum arcabic to the water and mix the two thoroughly. Once that is done, let that mixture stand until all of it is absorbed by the water. Add the spices to the mixture and blend well with your fingers. This will make a firm dough mixture. If this mixture is too wet add a few more bits of the ground spices. Once it is all mixed and ready, take you hands and form this mixture into flat one inch circular shapes. With a knife or the end of a brush trace along the inside of the circle and pentagram onto each of the circles. When this is done, set these in a warm, dry place to harden. When they are dry, you can carry this in your purse or pocket to promote prosperity. You can also place these on your altars with the appropriate incenses and green or gold candles. After about a month or so, refresh your prosperity by either burying it in the earth or wrapping it up and storing it in a safe place. Enjoy!
http://www.chroniclesofavalon.com/litha2003.html

Aren't Mugwort and St. John's wort the same thing?

In answer to your questions:

Yes I am sure you can whisper your spells if you need to, though speaking with a louder voice might sent the intention out faster.

You can do spells and rituals with partners, if you use the stuff listed here you can also alter to meet your own preferances, these are just ideas they are not final rituals for wicca is very personal and it is always suggested that you do make alterations to please yourself.

To visualize anyway is good, once again these are just guidelines and you should always make things personal. You do not have to visualize things they way they are listed here, you should do what you feel comfortable doing. Imagination is indeed a good thing.

No No! I just remembered reading that they were....... so when I saw them both listed.... I figured I'd ask. lmao.

If you don't mind me butting in on the other girls question... I remember way back in one of Scott Cunningham's books... there was a whole ritual done completely out of gestures. So I think whispering would be fine... seeing as in that ritual no words where spoken at all. I know Blue said the same thing... I just wanted to back her up lol.

And having a good imagination is a gift! Use it. I've always had trouble with that lol.