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High Summer: The Reflection

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For the 8 Sabbats that are a part of the Pagans Down Under blog project, I've decided to share my fledgling '8 Spoked Wheel' system as I work through them properly for the first time myself in my own practice. This is a work in progress that follows a practice for a number of years that did follow the traditional neo-pagan sabbats but after serious reflection I've decided to give an adjusted practice a go that reflects a system I have created that suits.

I don't imagine this could be directly adopted by anyone else and see it as a personal weaving of my own creation. This series of festivals incorporates colour magic and is adapted to suit my local climate and so we begin with Red and an observation I have termed The Reflection. The energy of this thrums throughout late January and early February and could be shifted to suit astrological or lunar correspondences. For this year that would suit the 3rd of February, when a Full Moon in Leo is experienced. The Full Moon in this sign lends a shining, fabulous quality to the season.

 

Elements: Fire and Water

Direction: NorthWest

Colour: Red

This sabbat is the season of High Summer. The days burn long and hot and the insistent weather brings a perpetual high pressure system and a hot, often humid climate that is unrelenting. The calendar year presses on, however, and the school year begins, giving this season a momentum and an energy of resolve that is powerful with magical intent, if you harness it. The Reflection provides a mirror, and mirrors require light and life in order to make meaning.

This is a festival of power: especially, acknowledgement of the power within. This means you have at your disposal the means to manifest the things that have been your heart’s desire. Temperance is a theme of this festival; being able to blend the energies of Fire and Water which give rise to energy (think of steam power!) that can be harnessed for a forward momentum. Resolutions made in early Januay can now be made manifest if they were worthy of realisation. New leaves can be turned and new habits can be formed.

The Earth is parched, to be quenched with the odd seasonal summer storm which is often leftover material from cyclone systems to the north. The beach is a perfect place for the observation of this festival, and the two elements can be felt here; the Fire of the sun beating down on the hot silver sands, and the force of the Water, the ocean, lapping against the shore. If you have accumulated negative energy over the course of the holiday season, now is the time to cleanse and release. The theme of this festival is The Absolution: a perfect state achieved only when perfect harmony of the elements has been achieved via resolution of any dis-ease that may exist within oneself and a balancing of the terms of existence that requires perfect love and perfect trust.

Red is the colour for this season; the colour of tempered fire, but it is also the colour of war magic. War magic denotes a sense of conflict or evangelical passion, but it can also symbolise a galvanisation of effort against foes that would harm. It is healing sought not through waiting, but acting with a sense of strength and internalised justice. War can bring endings of all kinds and a sense of resolution that can result in unexpected consequences, both positive and negative.

Celebrate this season with foods that can temper and cool the flame, but also foods that will quench the thirst and fuel your fire. Ripe melons and nourishing salads with proteins and grains can suit this festival. Give thanks for water as it is a precious resource, not to be squandered, but looked after, even revered. Give thanks for fire as it reminds us of that which drives us, and that which can bring us to our knees. Meditate and sit with the heat of The Reflection. 

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Lee is an artist and witch hailing from Western Australia. Her practice is one woven from both an intiatory eclectic Wiccan circle and a rigorous solitary practice that is heavily coloured with chaos magic and probably too many unicorns. Sarcasm, dry wit and Happy Squirrels are par for the course.

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