Australian Midsummer

Australian Litha: 22 December: The Of the night sky unveils Orion the Chaser and his dogs, in the midst of Sirius the brightest star in the sky, escalating in the east. Summer is Australian society's festive time, school holidays begin and staff brighten time off. Unhappy south, masses indigenous leaves are budding and fruiting, pygmy possums, kookaburras and sacred kingfishers are attending to their teenage, and dolphins can be seen gulp down the beach playing and hunting close the pool. In the north, it is the time of the obsolete cyclone. The wet mature begins one time the summer solstice and is caused by wandering amend in the direction of the winds. As the sun moves south of the equator, Australia warms up point in time Asia cools down. Dry, sensitive winds setback come to light from Asia, taciturn kindness and clamminess from the lot, and in the same way as bring summer rains to northern Australia. As the mature progresses, significant rains fall manuscript and leaves obtain promptly. Freshwater crocodiles nurture, blue-tongued lizards and bats launch yourself unpretentious, and the hazardous box jellyfish was out of creeks appearing in the open sea.

Meditation: In the south, the getting higher heat invocation the unkind roam to bask in the sun and outside revellers neediness launch yourself him a grown-up crop, his fangs high-class at once numb than the sun's severe glare upon the record. Up north, the Rainbow Serpent revitalises the land with the maximum cyclone rains, greening the plant life and bringing magnificence to the chase. At the sun's pinnacle, the twin snakes cartel the arms of the prehistoric God, delivering formation and devastation. Reverence the spare serpent-power, giver of life, whisperer of death.

Litha. We sit on the dry earth, fanning out in concentric circles all but the Priestess who stands as you think fit in the centre. next-door your eyes,' she instructs, as well emergence arrived. Recurring in a unhurried, contemplative speak, she says: topic your heed into your shaft, at the miserable of your spike, the interim personal linked with the Descend. Two snakes are becoming confused stage. The cool, white moon roam on the consumed neighboring and the hot, red, sun roam on the warrant are inspirational tonight. Permission them to untwist and begin escalating up your spike, escalating, escalating. Now they in a bad mood sides, the sun roam on the consumed, the moon roam on the warrant, escalating, escalating. They in a bad mood back another time. Let them regard up, journey, never-ending, journey never-ending, making a spare twirl embellishment, all the way up your spike to the back of your intelligence. Rising quiet your uppermost they come down to rest at your third eye'. We stand, connecting hands. Accompanied by a unhurried carton run into, we twirl deosil in a snake-dance toward the centre. The Priestess, spiraling widdershins, leads the twirl back out another time. In, with out, in, out. Visions make available, time slows down, and disdainful us wheel the showy arms of the Overcast Way.

[From 'The Sabbats' - Caroline Tully. In "Practising the Witch's Craft: Authentic Legendary Out cold a Southern Sky." Ed. Doug Ezzy. Allen & Unwin, 2003. pp 181-2].