The Summer Solstice or Midsummer is the longest day of the year. The Sun hits the fulcrum point of its bi-annual passage through waxing solar light, and pivots to begin its journey through waning light towards the Winter Solstice at Midwinter. 

The four greater Fire Festival Sabbats of the Land are Beltane, Samhain, Lammas and Imbolg. They leave us with a rich pagan folklore legacy of practices and observances. When we come to the minor sabbats, marking the four Solar Light fulcrum points (Ostara, Mabon, Midsummer and Yule), we have very little clear direction within the pagan folklore traditions other than the observances surrounding the Winter Solstice, otherwise known as Yule. As the neo-pagan movement took much of its direction from the old village traditions, the lack of clear direction with these minor sabbats left the various groups within the neo-pagan community each finding their own way to address these. 

From what has been published from the early Wiccan Traditions, at Midsummer we can see the theme of rivals battling for the hand of the Goddess Maid of fecundity in Nature. And so these early traditions approached the Summer Solstice event, where the Waxing Phase of the Sun, personified as the Oak King, meets and does battle with the Waning Phase of the Sun, personified as the Holly King. To ritualize this battle, pagans have been very creative, from finding symbolic practices illustrating this turning of light qualities, to having two priests in various degrees of battle armour, stage a literal battle!

There is no definitive, clear, and universally accepted practice to mark this Solar Sabbat. And so like all other witchcraft lines, the Ced Tradition has its own understanding of these minor sabbats. Where many traditions have kept the focus on the agricultural origin from which the pagan folklore traditions were sourced, in the Ced Tradition, we place the focus more on how this material relates to the Initiate Witch as we quest towards the finding and claiming of our occult legacy of Mysticism & Mystery. 

The early pagan village source material is all about how the seasonal tides of sunlight impact the land. It was worked by the pagan agricultural folk as a way to strengthen the spiritual tie between the people and land, as these people were intimately entwined with the health and fecundity of the land. There are many green witches, who very much see themselves as pagans rooted in the Earth Magic connection. So their focus remains close to the originating folklore material. But for other Witchcraft Traditions, the identity of who we are is rooted in Mysticism and Magic. 

In the Ced Tradition, we seek to find our connection to the world through expanding our connections and comprehension of the realms of Spirit. We do not see ourselves as pagan farmers or village folk; we are on the path of the Initiate Witch. We are on a Quest to evolve our Sight and through that our awareness and mastery of Self and the Spirit-based multiverse of Reality. So we keep clearly in mind that the seasonal shifts in the land are a wonderful example of shifting qualities of lifeforces within our world, showing how there are invisible forces, powers of life, that are impacting all life in accord with the shifting influences of sunlight & moonlight. But this legacy of land observances works best for us as a reflection of what is also impacting us and how we are entangled with the forces of life around us.

So to turn this focus back towards the power of lifeforces in creation and how this manifests within the role of the Traditional Initiate Witch, we need to look at what this zenith point of Solar power means to us. Even with the Wiccan battle of Kings, the key here seems to be one of Sovereign Authority. Understanding the Mystery of the Crown, what the Crown symbolizes and how the true Sovereign serves the Crown, brings us into an interesting branch of esoteric mysteries. The mystery of the Crown, in its simplest understanding, is as an illustration of the Head being on Fire. Meaning: in a state of gnostic communion with a greater Spirit. Like the thorn crown of Christ, the thorn being the wood of the Hedge, the liminal wood that divides two realms, the physical world and Spirit realm. All Crowns represent the mediation of the greater identity of who we are. That includes both worlds: the world of people and of divine Spirit. 

The ability to access, mediate and even wield the power inherent within both realms is mythically depicted in the Lore of the Blue Blooded Sovereign Houses of kingship. It’s also presented in classic Mythology as the Hero who, born with one parent that is of Earth and one that is Divine, holds the power of both Realms of Reality and has the ability to redefine reality itself. This origin of being the child of two bloodlines in the bible is the lineage of Christ. And in the story of the Fallen Angels, lead by Azazel, the semi-divine offspring were called the Nephilim. And this is the origin of what we call the Witch-blood. So the observance of the mysteries surrounding the Crown is not so alien to Traditional Witches. We see these mysteries surrounding the claiming of that state of Gnostic Communion, illustrated by the Crown, as central to our path towards mastering our power and innate abilities of Sight.

The tides of the Moon pushes the forces of sinistral change, upending the tight grip of order, bringing in primal forces that make it possible for life to find its way upon a path of evolution through change, chaos & order, destruction, death and rebirth. The Sun brings into being the forces of constancy, predictability, making it possible for us to align with a clear sense of cohesive order. This quality of energetic order and divine harmony is how we perceive Virtue. We are able to align ourselves with the spirit quality of virtue when we align ourselves with the forces and tides of the sun. As we are able to work with the sinistral forces of change when we align ourselves with the moon. 

Witchcraft includes the energetic practice of change through magic, which clearly aligns with the moon. But we are not power hungry ego-ridden anarchists, looking for adrenaline hits. We seek our evolution of awareness, our ability to become architects of reality, and to awaken our inherent potential within our state of consciousness. We want to make a better world, for ourselves and our tribe. So it serves us to work both the right hand of virtue (order) and the left hand of change (sin). 

Coming out of Beltane, we have looked into our potent primal nature, even delving deeper into the darker draconic forces of desire. We raised the power of the land up through our flesh, awakening the energetic & emotionally charged dragon forces within ourselves. The question that all such twice born heroes, sovereigns and witches must then face, is about whether the forces of Dragon the seeker has awakened, will serve a greater good, beyond their personal desires?  Will this Nephilim serve the crown, be that the flaming crown of Gnostic communion with the Divine, or the Crown of Horns that represent Wisdom.

All Crowns are associated with the Venus quality that resides at the liminal place between the two realms of corporeal earth and celestial spirit. Wisdom, like Beauty, and Harmony are all representations of this state of Venus Communion, which is illustrated by the Crown.  Aligning with the virtue of harmony, beauty, splendour is the key point we observe at the Summer Solstice. But this aligning as always, comes often through a trial!

The trial of Virtue is as vital to the path of a Witch as it is for any seeker of the mysteries and power. When you seek the liberty that comes with total authority, you must address the responsibility that also comes with it, lest you sow the seeds of your own demise. Claiming such power without regard for the responsibility or virtue required in order to hold such a power has left us with many infamous stories of abusive and corrupt individuals that have represented the worst of us!  

So the trial of the Crown, is one of being willing to serve a greater purpose even at personal cost. Looking to a metaphoric example from the ancient world, we can look to the Druids, who were students of the mysteries related to authority. They observed the cleaving of the Mistletoe from its native tree and transplanted upon the Axis Mundi Tree of their Tribe. As a metaphoric theme depicting the cost of cleaving one’s procreative seed in order to use it to empower with that seed, the unified Tribal Identity. In other mythologies this act of sacrifice of personal power to the service of the greater good of the tribe, is depicted by what is called the wounding in the thigh. Which is a metaphor for castration as an act of transplanting one’s personal self-interest to total commitment & service to the Tribe. 

June 25th is marked in the Christian calendar as their Solstice observation, which like the winter solstice observance is a few days late!  The Christian Summer Solstice Day is seen as St. John the Baptist’s Day. Which I find relevant and interesting when we look at the esoteric role that John the Baptist plays in Magical/Mystical Christianity. The Head of John the Baptist is fabled as a Sacred Relic that holds the power of Prophecy as do all old world classic oracular heads. One version of lore that I was told many years back, was that the notorious Templars, who even challenged the Vatican’s Authority, felt so empowered due to their possession of this Holy Relic. And that this is the source of the mythos surrounding their relationship to what became known as Baphomet. Baphomet was in its essence related to the Mediating Venus Crown in the persona of the oracular Head of John the Baptist. 

As a Witch, I view all of Mythological sources as inherently holding renditions of the mysteries, including the Christian Mythos, which I do not accept as literal history. And all these mythologies of the old world are reflecting the same key mysteries, over and over again. These mysteries are about how we who manage to liberate ourselves from the rank and file mindset of the tribal flock, who through our art emancipate our perspective from the boxes of the literal mundane reality, are able to evolve further into full potential. That the keys to the greater cosmos of reality reside beyond the bounds of the mundane. And those who bear the Crown of Wisdom, Gnostic Communion and Service, include us as Traditional Witches. But when we step beyond the established boxes of established societal order and reality, we are then called heretics!   

So to bring all this back to a focused practice and observance for the Summer Solstice, we place into the foreground the trial of personal ego and self interest verses what is necessary for the seeking and claiming of the power of authority, requiring the acceptance of responsibility and service of that role within the Tribe of one’s peers and/or the spirit tribe of allies and Gods which we see as our extended family and tribe. When taking this mystery out into the public arena, then the focus can shift to the question of what is the function of Divine Authority in the community, who bears the Crown, what principles are included in that and how can we empower and incorporate that legacy into our lives?

Recognition and honouring of Authority with the expectations of what it serves us all as a Tribe, is a worthy approach to this Sabbat. A recognition of our power as Heretics, and outcasts who are born of Flesh & Spirit and therefore see the Gods as family, how we must accept responsibility and make recognition of what purpose our pursuits serve. Perhaps spending the time to address what the Crown means to us, as a symbol of communion with the Divine. How we walk in life hand in hand with the Divine Spirit and take a moment to step into the bliss that communion can bring us!  To stand in the Sun and open yourselves to the power, splendour and bliss that the Sun bathes you in. And to open yourselves to how this state opens you to a greater Divine presence of Creation and Life.