Listener Q: “Is summer magic different from spring, winter, and fall. How so? Should my magical practice look different in each season?”
Recently, I asked listeners of the podcast to send in questions about Tarot, astrology, or spirituality in general that I can answer in the opening segment of Past Present Futurecast. Here’s my response to the question I picked this week:
Hey what’s up hello Futurecasters, thank you for tuning in to yet another episode of Past Present Futurecast - I am your host and Tarot guide Maria Elena Pakulis and this week we have another timely listener question. This listener asked “Is summer magic different from spring, winter, and fall. How so? Should my magical practice look different in each season?”
It’s the very last day of June as I’m recording this which means that we just crossed over the threshold into the summer season here in the northern hemisphere. The summer solstice was just 10 days ago on June 20th so the changing of the seasons is certainly on my mind right now.
This question really makes me think about some of the origins of my personal magical practice and to fully answer the question I think I should first define what a magical practice means to me…the “practice” part, for me, is mostly a practice of observation and learning from that observation. The “magic” of it all, again - for me, is about nature, the earth, the universe. So my “magical practice” is really a practice of observing and studying the natural world around me and basing my values, choices, and worldview around that. The actual craft of being a witch - you know, witchcraft - is in using this wisdom and information to enhance, alter, harness, or otherwise manipulate the world around us.
So when we ask the question, is summer magic different from spring, winter, and fall…I offer the advice to look outside! The appearance, feel, activities, and processes of summer are radically different to those of winter or spring or fall. Naturally (as we are inherently part of nature), our magical practices might look different too.
Now I am not here to tell you what you should or should not do…but I can share with you my experience and my experience is that my practice evolved almost entirely out of observing and marking the changing of the seasons. I started by making an altar space that was just a grouping of trinkets and decor items with some candles (because I like candles) that matched the vibe of each season. Basically the pagan equivalent of those goose statues where you change their outfit each holiday. From there I observed things like how the light changes, what the animals and plants in my area were doing, and what sort of activities felt right for the time. For a really beautiful exploration on this kind of spiritual study through the observation of nature, I highly recommend Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass.
But I’m going to digress a little bit and remind you that I said summer has just begun in the northern hemisphere. When attempting to gain universal wisdom through observation…you do have to observe the whole universe. Or at least the whole planet to start…(I could go into how astrology is a key toole in this kind of observational study but I’ll leave that for another time and stick to planet Earth for the moment...)
So the earth is always balancing the seasons in either hemisphere and by that I mean when it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere. This is why it’s hot in Australia for Christmas (apologies to any Australians listening who are like, yeah duh. The northern hemisphere is so dominant in popular culture that I honestly didn’t fully comprehend this until I was in my 20s and I want to make sure all my fellow northerners are following along).
This means that the summer and winter solstices are always occurring simultaneously and this has a lot to teach us from a magical perspective. One thing I think winter and summer have in common is that there’s a popular narrative encouraging us to do more during these times. In the winter we have all these holidays and holiday parties and family obligations and activities to run to. But when we look at nature, we see a very different picture. We see rest, hibernation, storing energy to ride out the long dark nights, extra sleep… These natural themes are most prominent in areas that have extreme winters with very little light, very low temps, and lots of snow.
Summertime is also a time when there’s a narrative of activity. School’s out so it’s time to travel, explore the outdoors, go swimming, go surfing, have bbqs. But I live in an area with extreme summers and I notice that this is also a time of rest, hibernation, and storing enough resources like water to ride out the long, dry summer. The days are longer so we stay up later and wake up earlier to beat the heat…but the rabbits and ground squirrels outside my window are absolutely getting extra sleep in the shade in the middle of the day when the sun is harshest and there’s not much else to do but conserve your energy and hydration or risk heat exhaustion. My Mexican ancestors had it right when it came to the concept of the siesta…a nice nap in the middle of the day helps us survive a harsh summer.
So when it comes to the question, is summer magic different from the other seasons…the answer is both/and. Summer and winter are wildly opposite timeless that can be honored in wildly different ways, but they also offer similarities and we can learn from both the comparison and the contract. The same can be said for spring and fall.
What other ways do you look to the earth as a teacher? Let me know in the comments or send me a message at persephonictarot.com. You can also submit your own question to be featured on an episode of Past Present Futurecast.
