Flag Day and the Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice is when the sun is at its highest point in the sky, and we get the longest day of sunshine all year long. It usually happens around June 21st, not long after the start of hurricane season here in Florida. 

Long ago, people all over the world noticed this special day. They built stone circles, lit bonfires, sang songs, and raised flags or banners to honor the sun. They gave thanks for the warmth, the crops, the light, and the life that the sun brings to everything.

Closely related to the solstice is Flag Day, observed on June 14th in Florida, a time to create prayer flags and reflect on the happiness and well-being for all beings as we enter the hurricane season and the second half of the year.

In many traditions the raising of flags is a spiritual gesture. Prayer flags are strung in the open air to catch the wind, carrying blessings across the landscape. Each color represents one of the five elements. white for sky, green for air, red for fire, blue for water, and yellow for earth.

Starting on Flag Day, we can began to create elemental flags or banners with personal prayers, intentions, or poems. Reflect on our aspiration to benefit all beings. Then on the Summer Solstice we can hang our flags outdoors in the wind.

Prayer Flags

In both the Vietnamese tradition and the Yungdrung Bön tradition, prayer flags are part of a practice called lungta, which means "wind horse" in Tibetan.

Prayer flags are powerful energetic supports for invoking blessings, dispelling negativity, and increasing personal and communal vitality.

Together, these elements not only make up the cosmos but also the internal constitution of the human body and mind. When the elements are balanced and in harmony, there is health, clarity, and success. When they are imbalanced, there is illness, confusion, and misfortune. The flags are meant to restore and reinforce that elemental harmony both within us and in the world.

Creating Prayer Flags on Flag Day

The prayer flags come in five colors, and each one with a different meaning:

Blue is for the wide sky and space
White is for the wind and fresh air
Red is for the warmth of fire and sunlight
Green is for water and flowing rivers
Yellow is for the strong, steady earth

We can also make them in the three traditional colors of Ah Om Hung, the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha – our own enlightened body, speech, and mind. Which is a white Ah, red Om, and blue Hung. These three colors (white, red, and blue) also represent the three bodies of the Buddha, the Dharmakaya (reality body), Sambhogakaya (enjoyment body), and Nirmanakaya (manifestation body).

When creating prayer flags, we can put on them the ancient animals that represent positive qualities we wish to send out into the world. Traditionally the horse symbolizes diligence, the tiger determination, the lion courage, the garuda strength, and the dragon esteem. These are qualities which are essential for success in life. We can use the traditional ancient animals, or use animals from our local ecosystem and legends, such as the alligator, mythical skunk ape, or hurricane bird – the white ibis. 

Hanging Prayer Flags on the Summer Solstice

Hang your flags outside where the wind can blow—on a tree branch, porch, or fence. Each time the wind moves the flag, it’s like your wishes are flying through the air, blessing animals, trees, friends, and strangers.

We can also make Sang Smoke Offerings at this time, or light incense or a candle. We can recite prayers that we may know and send wishes that everyone’s luck and well-being will flourish through this hurricane season. We can send our wishes out on the wind, to ride the wind horse.  We can thank the elements—the sky, wind, sun, water, and earth—for helping make life possible.

When we hang them outside in the breeze, Imagine a strong, powerful horse with wings, galloping through the sky. On its back is a shining jewel, a symbol of your biggest, brightest wishes—for happiness, kindness, courage, and peace. When we hang these colorful flags outside, we are asking the wind to carry our prayers and good wishes to everyone, everywhere.

“May my little flag ride the wind like a horse.
May it carry my wishes high up to the sky.
May it bring peace to animals, trees, and people.
May the whole world feel happy and light!”

“May my life force and vitality increase!

May the strength of my body increase!

May my personal power increase!

May my lungta be well developed!

May my soul and prosperity increase!

May all lungta, soul, and prosperity that have decreased become well developed!

May external, internal, and secret obstacles be cleared!

May these wishes bring the accomplishment of all goals and intentions!”  

~Prayers on a Yungdrung Bön lungta prayer flag

For centuries in Tibetan culture, people have spoken of windhorse—lungta—as the vital life-energy that carries confidence, clarity, health, and good fortune through one’s life. When windhorse is strong, things tend to flow. When it is weak, one may feel scattered, discouraged, unlucky, or dispirited. Windhorse is not simply luck, and not merely mood. It reflects the alignment—or misalignment—of mind, conduct, body, environment, and intention. This month, we explore what it actually means to raise windhorse, and why prayer flags have long been one of the traditional ways people support that uplift.

What Is Windhorse?

In Tibetan Buddhist thought, windhorse energy rides on wind—the subtle movement of breath, energy, and awareness. Because of this, windhorse is sensitive to how we think, how we act, and how we live. When windhorse is high, it often shows up as natural confidence without arrogance, clear thinking and emotional resilience, steady energy, good timing, and a sense that circumstances cooperate. When windhorse is low, one may experience self-doubt, mental agitation or dullness, fatigue or heaviness, and repeated obstacles or poor timing. Rather than treating this as personal failure, the tradition treats windhorse as something workable—something that can be strengthened.

 Moving through clouds across the changing winds of circumstance., the windhorse shows how inner vitality travels beyond the individual, influencing environment and relationships alike. The ornate saddle represents skillful means and the dignity of disciplined conduct, while the flaming jewel it bears signifies awakened intention—wisdom, compassion, and the fulfillment of aspirations radiating outward. Windhorses can be depicted in many colors - each color emphasizing different qualities such as purity, power, growth, spacious awareness, or abundance, while the essential meaning remains the same: a life carried forward by uplifted energy and favorable conditions.

Traditional Ways of Raising Windhorse

Raising windhorse is not about forcing optimism. It is about removing what weighs the spirit down, so natural vitality can rise again. At its core, windhorse depends first on the state of the mind. Here are some of the ways windhorse has traditionally been cultivated, moving from inner causes to outer supports:

Settling and uplifting the mind

Windhorse rides on the wind of mind. Agitation, fear, resentment, or collapse weaken it; calm clarity strengthens it. Even briefly pausing, breathing naturally, and reconnecting with a sense of dignity can lift windhorse. In Vajrayana terms, this is a return to one’s natural state; in the Shambhala tradition, it is often described as restoring basic goodness.”

Acting with integrity and courage

Windhorse rises when actions are clean and aligned with truth. Keeping one’s word, acting decisively, and facing difficulty directly—even in small ways—has a noticeable effect on vitality.

Practicing generosity and virtue

Merit and windhorse are closely linked. Giving time, help, or material support without calculation creates the conditions in which windhorse naturally ascends. Quiet virtue is especially powerful.

Working with the body and breath

Because lung means both “wind” and “breath,” physical vitality matters. Time outdoors, gentle movement, rest, and avoiding chronic exhaustion allow wind energy to circulate rather than stagnate.

Harmonizing one’s environment

Traditional cultures took this seriously. Clean, open spaces; respectful arrangement of meaningful objects; and minimizing exposure to ongoing conflict or neglect all support uplift.

Maintaining joy and appreciation

Joy is a natural expression of raised windhorse. Appreciating beauty, humor, and small successes allows energy to return to its proper level. In essence, to raise windhorse is to: stand upright in body and mind, act cleanly, relax fear, and let confidence return.

Ritual and symbolic methods

Hoisting prayer flags, reciting windhorse prayers, and making smoke offerings (sang) are symbolic ways of aligning mind, environment, and intention. They are a simple yet powerful ways of purifying obscurations and restoring harmony between people, place, and unseen forces.

The practices described above—settling the mind, acting with integrity, generosity, caring for the body, harmonizing the environment, ritual, and joy—are all ways of freeing blocked or collapsed energy. When these obstructions loosen, the inner “wind” begins to move again. In this sense, when physical wind moves through prayer flags, it is understood to be stirring the same wind-energy that moves through the human body and psyche.

Prayer flags are a visible expression of this process. They make something largely invisible—inner uplift—tangible and observable. As fabric rises, flutters, and spreads prayer into space, one can literally see movement, openness, and circulation at work. Prayer flags are activated by actual wind and are therefore placed in open, elevated places where wind moves freely. Printed with mantras, aspirations, and protective symbols, they are traditionally hung so that, as wind passes through them, prayers are released into space for the benefit of all beings—while at the same time supporting the rise of windhorse in those who raise them.

Although there are prayer flags specifically named Lungta (Windhorse), all traditional prayer flags will raise windhorse energy by addressing different conditions that allow windhorse to rise. Windhorse reflects the overall uplift of life-force. That uplift depends on vitality, purification, compassion, courage, protection, clarity of intention, and harmony with the world around us. Each prayer flag design strengthens windhorse indirectly by strengthening what supports it.

The five colors of traditional prayer flags represent the five elements: space, wind, fire, water, and earth. Together, these elements form the energetic environment in which windhorse lives. When the elements are disturbed—through agitation, collapse, stagnation, aggression, or confusion—windhorse energy decreases. When the elements are in balance, windhorse naturally rises. Prayer flags are not petitions in the usual sense. They are reminders—set into motion by wind—that uplift, clarity, and harmony are possible, even in difficult times.