Well, if the news reports are anything to go by - and they definately are - Australia at this time of the year is certainly living up to the seasons according to my southern hemisphere sabbat calendar [pictured]. While it's a bit early for Lughnasad here - only two weeks early - a large amount of Australia is being severely flooded, primarily in the north, but also in the south. Only two summers ago it was being severely burned. Both extremes, I suggest in my chapter on the southern hemisphere sabbats in 'Practising the Witch's Craft', are aspects of our Lughnasad.
It is a season of extremes and contradictions. Bushfires in the south and cyclones in the north threaten to engulf the land, and yet, the water regenerates the indigenous plant life and so too does the bushfire: many native seeds require burning before germination. Life and death dance upon the same ground. This is a time to appreciate the inscrutable wisdom and power of nature. Earth is the cauldron and all beings are transmuted by her alchemy.
The "power of nature" is really cool, especially when your bedroom is filled with a bright, pinkish-orange light coming through the window.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I don't want to sound like I'm writing for "Bubble-Head Spell-Poop Magazine" when I'm talking about it.
ReplyDeleteI like the bits I wrote (in Doug's edited book) describing what happens/ed at traditional European sabbat times in Australia, but I'm now not so hot on my 'meditations' that acompanied each sabbat description. I think they sound preachy. Maybe I'll change my mind and like them again by Lughnasad?
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