If Samhain teaches us to look death in the face, Litha teaches us to look life in the face.

I think we often forget this remarkable duality of the Wheel of the Year. In autumn and winter, we reflect on endings, letting go, decay, and the inevitability of change. We learn to accept death as part of the great cycle and gradually stop seeing it as an enemy. Samhain seems to whisper: “Do not be afraid to die.”

But on the opposite side of the Wheel of the Year stands Litha, and its message is completely different. It asks: “Are you afraid of truly living?” Not merely existing.... Not endlessly fulfilling obligations.... Not hiding behind safety and routine... But living in such a way that every cell in your body responds to that word. 

Because if you are afraid to truly live, remember that Samhain is already on its way. It is always waiting somewhere beyond the horizon. In philosophical conversations, I often ask people a simple question: “What if this is it? What if this is your life? Are you genuinely happy with it as it is?” Very few people can answer with an unconditional “yes.” Why? Because there is almost always something they deeply long to do but keep postponing. A conversation they never have. A love they never confess. A place they never visit. A dream they never pursue. A version of themselves they never allow to exist. And then time quietly moves on... Opportunities disappear.... Doors close.... Seasons change... and poof! it's gone... forever! without you even tasting it! Are you afraid of wasting your life? This is IT! THIS is how you waste it... We tell ourselves there will be another chance, another summer, another perfect moment. Maybe there will be. And maybe there won't... NOT LIKE THIS! Because life also requires tremendous courage. It requires the courage to love, the courage to be seen, the courage to speak the truth, the courage to take up your rightful place in the world, and the courage to allow yourself to be as radiant as you truly are.

All you have to do is look at nature during the days of the summer solstice. It literally oozes with life! The grass stretches relentlessly toward the sun. Trees are not ashamed of the fullness of their foliage. Flowers open completely, not halfway. The air is filled with fragrance. Insects pollinate. Birds sing and make nests and create new birdies... Rivers carry water. Everything around us vibrates, pulses, and celebrates its own existence. The whole world seems to experience one immense orgasm of life.

That is why I love this broader understanding of sexuality. Sexuality is not only about sex. It is life force itself flowing freely through a human being. THIS WORLD gives you ALL THAT SEX right now! It is the energy that creates children (NEW PEOPLE!), but also creates music, paintings, poetry, gardens, new projects, laughter, touch, dance, creativity, and deep intimacy. It is the ability to become so full that life begins to overflow through you.

When a woman reconnects with her own nature, she too begins to ooze vitality, that sex... This cannot be imitated or performed. It is visible in the way she walks, in her voice, in the sparkle of her eyes, in the pleasure she takes in her own body, in the way she laughs, touches a tree, drinks tea, looks at the person she loves, and creates the space around her. Have you noticed how others pay attention to you? I do! I feel all of it and I allow it all to ooze through me... I see how people outside look at me with these eyes and start talking to me, giving me gifts, helping me with groceries, telling me compliments - women and men both! 

It is precisely this vitality that generations of people (organized religion) have tried to control. That is why shame arose around the body. This is when morality and rules appear - what you can and can't do... Guilt arose around pleasure... Prohibitions arose around desire. Fear and moral frameworks arose around sexuality, often separating human beings from their own nature. But if nature itself is not afraid of its own flowering, why are we so afraid of ours? 

It is no coincidence that Kupala Night is associated with so many images of love, water, fire, herbs, and flower wreaths. According to folk traditions, young women would release wreaths onto the river while young men would catch them downstream. This ancient ritual represented something much deeper than a romantic game. It symbolized recognition: the ability to recognize your person not through calculation, but through the heart. Have you ever felt that recognition? You meet someone's eyes and instantly you know... and say "yes"? 

There are also lesser-known traditions preserved in certain spiritual teachings and oral stories. According to them, on this night a man and a woman could unite in response to a profound inner calling, saying “yes” to life itself... Not to their egos, not to their rules, not to what is right, but to what feels divine... Children conceived during such a night were believed to be special: blessed by the very power of the Sun and by nature at the point of its greatest flourishing. Whether one interprets these stories literally or symbolically, they contain a profound idea: new life is born where people stop acting only from fear and begin trusting the deepest response of their souls. Imagine that child's inner state? Where Divine concieved this child, not human ego - I will fuck him/her, because he/she is worthy, but rather "I hear the call, I have no idea what future will bring, I have no guarantees, but I have this person and I am going to say "yes"!

Over time, many of these meanings were replaced by moral judgment, condemnation, and rigid rules. We learned how to be proper, but gradually forgot how to be alive. We came to trust lists of requirements more than our own hearts and to rely on rational calculation more than on quiet inner recognition. 

Perhaps that is why so many people today feel lost. They know how to analyze, calculate, compare options, minimize risks, and protect themselves from every possible cost, but they no longer know how to feel.

We have become remarkably good at making sensible decisions and surprisingly disconnected from the quiet wisdom of the heart. Sometimes I wonder whether this is also why truly extraordinary people seem so rare. What kind of children are conceived when their parents are driven primarily by fear, obligation, or social expectations rather than by a wholehearted “yes” to life?

And then another thought arises. What if you were conceived during what others would dismiss as a one-night stand or "rape" (because to justify your choice would seem morally wrong, so I need to pretend it was "rape")? What if, in that moment, two souls recognized each other beyond logic and simply surrendered to life? Perhaps there was something sacred in that encounter. Perhaps you arrived carrying extraordinary potential, only to spend years being shaped by other people's stories, judgments, and beliefs about the circumstances of your conception. Who knows... 

What I do know is that many people have learned how to meet expectations but forgotten how to hear their own desires. They know how to build a safe life, but not necessarily an authentic one... without a mission... without a purpose... They know how to survive, yet quietly wonder what it would feel like to truly come alive.  

There is another beautiful symbol associated with Litha that speaks to me on a deeply personal level: the inner King and the inner Queen.

The Queen is the part of us that knows. She feels... She dreams... She recognizes what is truly ours long before the mind can explain it. She is intuition, longing, creativity, desire, and the quiet voice that whispers, “This is the path.” The King is something entirely different. He is our will! Our ability to choose! Our courage to act! He is the one who saddles the horse and begins the journey! Yapee! 

Many people think their problem is that they do not know what they want. More often, the Queen already knows perfectly well. The real question is whether the King is brave enough to follow her... To GIVE her what she wants... 

When the inner King finally hears the inner Queen and has the courage to follow where she leads, he becomes her King. And when the Queen trusts his strength and his willingness to act, she becomes his Queen. This is the alchemical union of mutual service... not domination, not submission, but devotion to something greater than either one alone. In many spiritual traditions, this inner and outer dance is described as the alchemy of the Twin Flames: the sacred marriage of vision and action, intuition and will, desire and embodiment. from abundance... BALANCED! 

The Queen inspires, but she does so with measure. She does not manipulate, demand, or drown in emotional chaos. She feels deeply, yet remains rooted in wisdom. The King acts, but he also acts with measure. He does not rule through fear, force, or control. His strength is expressed through courage, integrity, and conscious choice.

Without that balance, the archetypes become distorted. The King forgets his sovereignty and turns into either a servant who abandons himself to please others or an authoritarian ruler who seeks to dominate and control. Sometimes both depending on who he is around... The Queen loses her inner dignity and becomes an impulsive child, ruled by emotional storms, endless demands, and unintegrated desires. She becomes a savior who simply earns love... 

True alchemy happens only when both stand fully in their mature expression: each honoring the gifts of the other, each keeping the other in balance, and together creating a partnership that serves life itself. If he is ruled by fear, scarcity, social expectations, or old wounds, he will keep the Queen locked inside the castle. He will choose certainty over truth, comfort over aliveness, and approval over love. But when the King and the Queen finally stand together, something extraordinary happens. Desire is no longer dismissed as fantasy, and action is no longer driven by fear. The heart chooses the direction, and the will has the strength to walk the road.

Perhaps that is one of the deepest invitations of Litha: not simply to discover what your soul desires, but to become courageous enough to live it! 

For me, Litha has been an invitation to remove inner prohibitions. To allow yourself to be loud. To allow yourself to take up space. To allow yourself to experience pleasure. To allow yourself to orgasm! To allow yourself to love! and BE LOVED! To allow yourself to be sexual, not as an image or a role, but as the natural expression of your own life force. 

And at the same time, Litha reminds us of another important quality: the sense of measure. When a person lives from scarcity, nothing is ever enough. Not enough love... Not enough money... Not enough recognition... Not enough attention... They cling to everything because they fear that tomorrow the source will disappear. They never feel safe... 

But nature in midsummer demonstrates an entirely different law. It does not bloom out of greed. It blooms out of fullness! You don't overeat, because you've had enough... there is no hunger anymore... no fear that if you don't eat more, it will be gone... You had enough and you can stop... I always called it a process... 

Life blooms out of the feeling that life flows through it abundantly and that nothing needs to be grasped or hoarded. 

Perhaps this is what true healing really is: to stop living from the fear of lack and begin living from inner abundance. 

So if Samhain reminds us not to fear death, Litha reminds us not to fear life.

• Not to fear our bodies. 
• Not to fear our sensuality.
• Not to fear love.
• Not to fear joy.
• Not to fear following what truly brings our hearts alive.

Because it is entirely possible to live a long, respectable, and very safe life without ever allowing yourself to bloom.

Or one day you can stand in a midsummer forest, watch every blade of grass reach unapologetically toward the sun, and finally say to life its deepest, most embodied, and unconditional:

Yes. 

Да будет так!