SumSol Celebrations

Saturday December 28, 2019

The summer solstice in Australia is a little sad this year. The solstice generally marks the start of our proper summer weather, and yet we’ve already broken records in most of the country for the hottest days on record, and most of the country is on fire. As much as I enjoy the warmer weather, the broader implications are not so nice.

Still, the warmer weather does bring with it some extra energy for me (which is nifty when you suffer with so much fatigue)! I got excited the other day and brought out my aptly-named Children of Litha tarot deck and found the cards that reflected how this time of year makes me feel: the Queen of Wands, and the Sun

While Christmas is still celebrated here, with all of the Euro-centric winter solstice imagery, the context is a little different. Where I live (Perth, Western Australia) it’s sunny and HOT! The WA Christmas Trees (which, funnily enough, are a species of mistletoe) are in full boom, as well as jacarandas, roses, bougainvillea, and the species of eucalyptus with red and orange blossoms. I feel like this helps me distance myself from Christmas (which I’m not really a fan of) and focus on the season at hand.

I do take advantage of traditional Aussie Christmas fare for my summer solstice feast: ham, coleslaw, and (of course) pavlova with cream, custard, raspberries, and passionfruit. Yesterday’s version came with a strawberry and blood orange cocktail (using the bottle of sparkling wine from my work Christmas lunch), but the goal was a rose lemonade cocktail with a delicious pink gin made locally with native botanicals, so I daresay that will come tonight or tomorrow. The bonus of being chronically ill and needing to stretch out seasonal celebrations over several days is that you get the chance to do more things!

One of my more recent traditions for the solar celebrations has been the making of a seasonal candle! My SumSol candle was based around a scent called “Australian Bush”, which smells so like the bush in summer, with added lemon myrtle, orange, and rose essential oils. It was decorated with jacaranda and jasmine flowers, rose petals, lavender, lemon myrtle, and bio-glitter in silver and pink. I need more colours of candle dye and bio-glitter, but I’m working with what I have in the meantime. It does also have a small amethyst point, but it hadn’t set quite enough before I added it, so it fell through the surface, whoops!

The solstice also marks the time to dye my hair its summer colour, so I’m feeling nice and fresh and bright pink!

As much as some themed makeup felt a joyous idea, I just haven’t had the energy - although I have been enjoying adding a splash of sparkly gold to my eyes when I’ve needed to attend family gatherings!

And now, it’s time for me to hibernate to conserve energy to hopefully be able to go out bush for NYE, to bring in the new year dancing barefoot in the dirt.