Summer Solstice and Medicine Wheel: The Strong Sun Moon
- Lorraine
- Jun 24
- 8 min read
A year ago, I received my sacred pipe in Flagstaff, Arizona. I didn't yet know that this moment carried within it the energy of a specific moon in the Medicine Wheel. It was while preparing my teachings on Sun Bear's Medicine Wheel that I understood: the Strong Sun Moon was already living in my pipe. As if the invisible were orchestrating, with silent precision, the pieces of our original medicine. As if a sacred object, even crafted by hands other than yours, could carry exactly what the Spirits decided it should carry.
Flagstaff, One Year Ago
In the garden of a small café in the heart of Flagstaff, under the white light of Arizona. Thomas placed the cloths on the table. I took my time. I opened the first cloth. The stem of pine. Then the second. The bowl. The pipe was small. Simple. Discreet. I wasn't expecting that. And yet, the very moment I held it in my hands for the first time, something said to me, clearly, without hesitation: This is exactly what you needed. Not a thought. A certainty.
Thomas is the man who made this pipe. If you don't yet know this story, I invite you to read the series From Cigarette to Sacred Pipe. It tells the whole journey — long, unexpected, deeply transformative — that led me to her.
The Summer Solstice: Threshold of the Strong Sun Moon
On June 21st, the sun reaches its highest point.
It is the longest day of the year. Light at its zenith. And it is precisely there, at this threshold of fire and clarity, that the Strong Sun Moon opens in Sun Bear's Medicine Wheel.
From June 21st to July 22nd.
The first moon of Shawnodese, Guardian of the South.
The South, on the Wheel, is the direction of the heart. Of living warmth. Of what radiates when we dare expose ourselves to the light. It is the direction of relationships, of what we carry for others, of what we receive when we know how to stay open.
At the solstice, the light doesn't ask permission.
It is simply there, whole, without restraint.
This moon invites us to do the same.
What within you is waiting to be seen in full light?
When the Pieces of the Puzzle Come Together
I always felt that my pipe was connected to the Medicine Wheel.
On the path that led me to her, I had bought a necklace. A simple Pipestone — the sacred stone of pipes — engraved with a Medicine Wheel. Two paths meeting without my having sought it. The Pipe and the Wheel had been walking together from the beginning.
It was while preparing my teachings on the Medicine Wheel that everything became clear.
I realized that my pipe carried within her the energy of the moon under which I had received her.
The Strong Sun Moon.
Its animal totem: the Golden Flicker.
A woodpecker. The one who strikes wood. Who drums on dead trunks — sometimes to find food, sometimes out of pure love of rhythm.
I stopped.
During the activation of my pipe, a woodpecker was there, present. And Jim Tree, who has Cherokee blood, had named my pipe Woodpecker in his language. Referring to the precise medicine of this bird — and what it implied within the pipe itself.
What Jim didn't know. What I hadn't yet connected myself.
My relationship with the drum.
The drum has accompanied me for more than fifteen years. Since my apprenticeship diet in the Shipibo tradition, where I made it with my own hands. It is my guide. My mount. The instrument with which I accompany those who come to receive a sound healing today.
A few days after the activation of my pipe, something began to be born.
The call of a new drum. Small. Light. A drum in the skin of one of my pipe's guardians — that I could take everywhere, even in those tiny bags accepted by low-cost flights. A drum that would accompany my Sacred Pipe ceremonies.
I am not someone who accumulates.
But this call was clear.
I began searching in the United States. I found a shop. But it wasn't yet the right moment — too complicated before my return to France. I felt I needed to wait.
I waited.
And then the pieces kept assembling.
Over the course of this year, in the silence of working with my pipe, her voice gave me her full name.
Cheseskua Mana.
Woodpecker and woman. Cherokee and Hopi intertwined.
This name didn't come from outside. It came from her.
My pipe told me: I am a pipe of the sacred feminine. And because of your connection with the Hopi — for whom woman is sacred — I carry the Hopi name of woman.
This pipe with a woman's curves, as Thomas had described her.
This pipe that heals hearts, as Jim had said.
This moon is the moon of the heart.
Today, the drum in the skin of my Sacred Pipe's guardian is on its way. It waits at a friend's home in the United States, before crossing the ocean to join me.
This drum will be activated in the sacred cycle of the feminine.
All the pieces of the puzzle will then have come together.
The Teachings of the Strong Sun Moon
This moon is the moon of the open heart.
It teaches us the law of relationship. Family. Care. What we carry for others and what we receive when we stay open. Shawnodese, Guardian of the South, invites us not to flee what we feel, but to inhabit it fully, without drowning in it.
The Flicker strikes. It doesn't circle around the wood.
It goes straight to the heart of the tree.
The Golden Flicker
It drums on dead trunks. Sometimes to draw out insects. Sometimes out of pure pleasure of rhythm. Native peoples hold this bird in great esteem for its unique way of playing the drum — its feathers are associated with blood, life, and protection.
Working with the Flicker means learning the courage to express oneself. The joy of rhythm. The art of striking true, without detour, without fear.
It invites you not to be afraid to take a stand.
To strike the wood.
To let it resonate.
Carnelian
It is the gift of the heart. The stone of this moon sustains, opens, protects. To carry carnelian is to keep your heart both open and guarded — capable of loving without losing yourself. It brings peace, keeps away what would enter your inner space uninvited.
Wild Rose
Its beauty is obvious. Its gifts, many. Its fruits — rosehips — nourish and heal. Its petals soothe. A wild rose tea can refresh the spirit and open the heart. It is the plant of gentleness that strengthens.
Pink
The color of this moon is pure pink — neither red nor violet. The pink of love that heals. Having this color around you helps open you to sensitivity, to the swift movement of emotions, to the maturity of the heart.
A Moon of the Sacred Feminine
Intuition that guides without explaining.
Care given without counting.
The loving home, family, the law of relationship.
Motherhood.
Emotions fully inhabited — without flight, without shame.
Carnelian that opens the heart. Wild rose that heals with love. Pink, color of benevolence that seeks not to impose.
This moon is a moon of the sacred feminine.
And yet it opens at the summer solstice — under the light of Tawa, the Sun Spirit, a masculine figure in Hopi cosmology.
Contradiction?
No. Unity.
Among the Hopi, masculine and feminine do not oppose each other. They complement. Tawa radiates not to dominate, but to give life to what is feminine and nurturing on Earth. Light in service of the heart. Strength in service of care.
This moon is its perfect expression.
And Cheseskua Mana, Sacred Pipe with a woman's curves, Pipe that heals hearts, is its living reflection.
The Sacred Pipe itself is this union.
When assembled — the stem, masculine, united with the bowl, feminine — a cosmic gesture is accomplished. Heaven and earth are joined. Sun and heart. Breath and matter.
What this moon teaches, the Pipe honors at every ceremony.
Honoring the Strong Sun Moon
This moon invites you into relationship.
With yourself. With what you carry. With what you give and what you receive.
Here are some simple gestures for walking with her.
Carnelian
If you have one, hold it in your left hand — the hand of the heart. Close your eyes. Set this intention, gently: I keep my heart open and guarded. You can carry it with you throughout this moon. It will work quietly, in silence.
Wild Rose
A rosehip tea — the fruits of the wild rose — is a gentle gesture to honor this time. As you drink it, let this question come: What am I healing in myself right now? What am I helping to heal in others? Don't look for an immediate answer. Let the question steep, like the plant in warm water.
Rhythm
The Flicker strikes wood out of love of rhythm. In the energy of this moon, offer yourself a moment of free rhythm. Your drum if you have one. Your hands on a table, on your thighs, on a tree. The surface doesn't matter. Strike. Slowly at first. Without trying to be beautiful. Without trying to be right. Let the body express itself. That is the Flicker's medicine — not the perfection of rhythm. The courage to strike.
The Union of Polarities
At this solstice, take a moment to honor the two energies that live within you — the masculine and the feminine. Not concepts. Real, interior presences. Place one hand on your heart. The other on your belly. What I give. What I receive. What radiates. What contains. The light. The hearth. Stay there a moment. In this unity.
The Wheel Has Spoken
My pipe is one year old.
One year of shared prayers. Of ceremonies. Of inhabited silences together. A year in which she held me, taught me, guided me.
I didn't know, in Flagstaff, under which moon I was receiving her.
I didn't know that her name carried the totem of this moon. That the woodpecker present during her activation was its sign. That the drum calling me since was woven from the same medicine.
I didn't know.
But the Strong Sun Moon knew.
This moon is the moon of the heart. Of relationships that nourish. Of what grows when we care for it with constancy, with love, with trust.
Cheseskua Mana is all of this.
And this drum crossing the ocean to join me — it will carry this same medicine. Feminine. Sacred. Rooted in the moon under which everything began.
The Wheel turns.
The pieces come together.
And you, under which moon did your original medicine begin to reveal itself?
To Go Further
If this article has touched you, several paths open before you.
To walk consciously through each moon, each season, each passage of the Wheel, I invite you to discover my teachings on Sun Bear's Medicine Wheel.
If the energy of the sacred feminine has resonated with you, the women's way is a path of reconnection to your deep nature, your cycles, and what you carry that is essential.
And if the drum is calling you, I invite you to come receive a sound healing — an ancestral practice to release, recentre, and let resonate what is seeking expression.
My workshops take place at Yoga With You studio in Le Bouscat. You can also join our community to walk this path together.
May this Strong Sun Moon illuminate where your heart is waiting to be seen.
ASKWALI
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