The Sun-God significance of the Midsummer Sabbat is, literally, as clear as day. At the Summer Solstice, he is at his highest and brightest, and his day is at its longest. Witches, naturally and rightly, greet and honour him at the peak of his annual cycle, invoking him to “put to flight the powers of darkness” and to bring fertility to the land. Midsummer is perhaps the most celebratory of the Festivals, in the sense that it rejoices in the full flood of the year’s abundance, the apogee of light and warmth.
But the Sabbat cycle, even at the height of its joy, always takes into account what lies behind and before. As the ancient Greeks put it: “Panta rhei, ouden menei”1 — ”Everything flows, nothing is static.” Life is a process, not a state; and the witches’ Sabbats are essentially a means of putting oneself in tune with that process.
So at Midsummer, the ‘process’ aspect is reflected in the other God-theme — that of the Oak King and Holly King. At Midsummer, the Oak King, God of the Waxing Year, falls to the Holly King, his twin, the God of the Waning Year, because the blazing peak of summer is also, by its very nature, the beginning of the Holly King’s reign, with its inexorable progression to the dark nadir of midwinter, when he in turn will die at the hands of the reborn Oak King.
The Oak King’s midsummer death has taken many forms in mythology. He was burned alive, or blinded with a mistletoe stake, or crucified on a T-shaped cross; and in ancient times the human enactor of the Oak King was thus sacrificed in actuality. His death was followed by a seven-day wake. But the Oak King himself, as God of the Waxing Year, withdrew to the circumpolar stars, the Corona Borealis, the Celtic Caer Arianrhod — that turning wheel of the heavens which the ancient Egyptians called ikhem-sek, ‘not-knowing-destruction’, because its stars never dipped below the horizon even at midwinter. Here he awaited his equally inevitable rebirth.
Robert Graves suggests that the biblical story of Samson (a folk-hero of the Oak King type) reflects this pattern: after being shorn of his power, he is blinded and sent to serve in a turning mill. (One might also suggest that Delilah, who presides over his downfall, represents the Goddess as Death-in-Life and that, in demoting her to villainess, Hebrew patriarchalism forgot or suppressed the sequel — that in due course, as Life-in-Death, she would be destined to preside over his restoration.)
Graves points out, further, that “since in mediaeval practice St John the Baptist, who lost his head on St John’s Day” (24th June), “took over the Oak King’s title and customs, it was natural to let Jesus, as John’s merciful successor, take over the Holly King…. ‘Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown’…. The identification of the pacific Jesus with the holly or holly-oak must be regretted as poetically inept, except in so far as he declared that he had come to bring not peace but the sword.” (The White Goddess)
Any significant Midsummer Sabbat ritual must embrace both these God-themes, for the solstices are key points on both. But what of the Goddess? What is her role in the Midsummer drama?
The Goddess, as we have pointed out, is unlike the God in that she never undergoes death and rebirth. In fact, she never changes — she merely presents different faces. At the Winter Solstice she shows her Life-in-Death aspect; though her Earth-body seems cold and still, yet she gives birth to the new Sun-God and presides over the replacement of Holly King by Oak King with his promise of resurgent life. At the Summer Solstice she shows her Death-in-Life aspect; her Earth-body is exuberantly fecund and sensuous, greeting her Sun-God consort at the zenith of his powers — yet she knows it is a transient zenith, and at the same time she presides over the death of the Oak King and the enthronement of his dark (but necessary, and thus not evil) twin. At Midsummer the Goddess dances her magnificent Dance of Life; but even as she dances, she whispers to us: “Panta rhei, ouden menei.”
Midsummer is both a fire festival and a water festival, the fire being the God-aspect and the water the Goddess-aspect, as the ritual should make clear. Midsummer is also sometimes called Beltane, because bonfires are lit as they are on May Eve; it has been suggested that St Patrick was largely responsible for this in Ireland, because he shifted Ireland’s ‘bonfire night’ to St John’s Eve to play down the pagan implications of May Eve.2 He may indeed have shifted the emphasis, but he can hardly have shifted the name, because Bealtaine means May in Irish; the use of the name for Midsummer can have arisen only in non-Gaelic-speaking countries.
In any case, Midsummer was a principal fire festival throughout Europe, and even among the Arabs and Berbers of North Africa; it was lesser, and late-developing, in the Celtic countries because they were not originally or naturally solar-oriented. Many of the customs have survived into modern times and often involve the turning, or rolling downhill, of a flaming wheel as a solar symbol. As at Bealtaine and Samhain (indeed, at every Festival) the bonfire itself has always been regarded as having great magical power. We have already mentioned (under Bealtaine) the custom of jumping the fire and driving cattle through it. Ashes from it were also scattered on the fields. In Ireland a burnt sod from the St John’s Eve fire was a protective charm. In flax-growing countries the height achieved in jumping the fire was believed to foretell the height to which the flax would grow. Moroccans rubbed a paste of the ashes into their hair to prevent baldness. Another custom widespread throughout Europe was to strengthen the eyes by looking at the fire through bunches of larkspur or other flowers held in the hand.
Chapter LXII of Frazer’s Golden Bough is a mine of information on fire-festival traditions.
For modern witches, fire is a central feature of the Midsummer Sabbat as it is of Bealtaine. But since the cauldron (which on May Eve holds the Bealtaine fire) is used at Midsummer for the water with which the High Priestess sprinkles her coven — and is referred to as ‘the cauldron of Cerridwen’, reaffirming its Goddess symbolism — we have drawn on another long-standing tradition by suggesting twin bonfires for the Midsummer rite (or twin candles as their equivalent if the festival is indoors). Magically, passing between them is regarded as the same as passing over a single fire and, if you are driving cattle through as a spell for a good milk-yield, is obviously more practical!
Of all the Sabbats, Midsummer in temperate climates is the one to hold out of doors if facilities and privacy permit; for skyclad observance, it and Lughnasadh may prove to be the only ones. But as with the other Sabbats, we have described our ritual as for indoor celebration — if only because adaptation of an indoor ‘script’ to outdoor use is easier than the other way round.
Talking of skyclad — one Midsummer tradition may be of interest to any woman who is anxious to conceive and who owns a vegetable garden. She should walk through it naked on Midsummer Eve and also pluck some St John’s Wort, if there is any. (If your vegetable garden is anything like ours, shoes might be thought a permissible modification of nakedness!) This is an intriguing mirror-image of the ancient and widespread fertility rite in which women walked naked round the fields to ensure an abundant harvest, often emphasizing their sympathetic magic by ‘riding’ (a discreet euphemism) phallic ‘broomsticks’. (for a twentieth-century survival of this.)
The cauldron is placed immediately in front of the altar, with some water in it and decorated with flowers. A branch of heather is placed beside it, ready for the High Priestess to sprinkle water with. (Quite apart from this branch, heather is a good plant, symbolically, for Circle decorations on this night; red heather is the passionate flower of Midsummer, and white heather represents the moderating influence — will controlling or directing passion.)
Two crowns, one of oak leaves and one of holly leaves, are made and placed beside the altar. The High Priest (who represents the Sun God) should be crowned too, but from the start of the ritual; his crown should be gold-coloured, and he may add any other accessories or decorations which enhance the solar symbolism.
High Priestess and Maiden may wear chaplets of summer flowers.
The two altar candles, in their holders, may be used at the appropriate moment as the ‘bonfires’; or two other candles in holders may be kept ready. Outdoors, of course, two small bonfires will be laid ready for quick lighting — one halfway between the centre of the Circle and the East candle, one halfway between the centre and the West candle. (The outdoor Circle will, of course, be much larger, leaving room to dance between and around the bonfires.)
A dark-coloured scarf is laid by the altar, ready to use as a blindfold.
A number of straws are laid on the altar — as many as there are men at the Sabbat, except for the High Priest. One of them is longer than the rest, and one shorter. (If the High Priestess, for her own reasons, decides to nominate the two Kings instead of drawing lots for them, the straws are of course not needed.)
After the Witches’ Rune, the Maiden fetches the straws from the altar and holds them in her hand so that all the ends are protruding separately, but nobody can see which are the short and long ones. The High Priestess says:
“Let the men draw lots.”
Each man (except the High Priest) draws a straw from the Maiden’s hand and shows it to the High Priestess. The High Priestess points to the man who has drawn the long straw and says:
“Thou are the Oak King, God of the Waxing Year. Maiden, bring his crown!”
The Maiden places the oak-leaf crown on the head of the Oak King.
The High Priestess points to the man who has drawn the short straw and says:
“Thou art the Holly King, God of the Waning Year. Maiden, bring his crown!”
The Maiden places the holly-leaf crown on the head of the Holly King.
The High Priestess leads the Oak King to the centre of the Circle, where he stands facing West. The rest of the coven surround him, facing inwards, except for the High Priestess and High Priest, who stand with their backs to the altar on either side of the cauldron.
The High Priestess says:
“With the Sun God at the height of his power and majesty, the waxing of the year is accomplished, and the reign of the Oak King is ended. With the Sun God at the height of his splendour, the waning of the year begins; the Holly King must slay his brother the Oak King, and rule over my land until the depth of winter, when his brother shall be born again.”
The Holly King moves in front of the Oak King, facing him, and places his hands on the Oak King’s shoulders, pressing downwards. The Oak King falls to his knees. Meanwhile the Maiden fetches the scarf, and she and the Holly King blindfold the Oak King. The rest of the coven move back to the perimeter of the Circle and sit down, facing inwards.
The High Priestess picks up her athame and moves forward;3 the Holly King takes her place before the altar, on the other side of the cauldron from the High Priest. The High Priestess, athame in hand, dances deosil around the kneeling Oak King (see Plate 9) while the High Priest declaims the following poem, steadily and clearly, emphasizing the beat and maintaining the rhythm:
“Dance, Lady, dance — on the Oak King’s tomb,
Where he lies half a year in thy quiet womb.
Dance, Lady, dance — at the Holly King’s birth,
Who has slain his twin for the love of Earth.
Dance, Lady, dance — to the Sun God’s power
And his touch of gold on field and flower.
Dance, Lady, dance — with thy blade in hand,
That shall summon the Sun to bless thy land.
Dance, Lady, dance — in the Silver Wheel,
Where the Oak King rests, his wounds to heal.
Dance, Lady, dance — for the Holly King’s reign,
Till his brother the Oak shall rise again.
Dance, Lady, dance — in the moonlit sky
To the Threefold Name men know thee by.
Dance, Lady, dance — on the turning Earth
For the Birth that is Death, and the Death that is Birth.
Dance, Lady, dance — to the Sun on high,
For his burning splendour, too, must die.
Dance, Lady, dance — to the year’s long tide,
For through all change must thou abide.”
— and now, accelerating the rhythm —
“Dance for the Sun in glory,
Dance for the Oak King’s passing,
Dance for the Holly King’s triumph —
Dance, Lady, dance —
Dance, Lady, dance —
Dance, Lady, dance …”
The coven join in the chant “Dance, Lady, dance,” to a fast insistent beat, till the High Priest signals to them to stop and also stops himself.
The High Priestess ends her dance by laying down her athame on the altar. She and the Maiden help the Oak King to rise, and they lead him, still blindfold, to kneel before the West candle.
The High Priest then says:
“The spirit of the Oak King is gone from us, to rest in Caer Arianrhod, the Castle of the Silver Wheel; until, with the turning of the year, the season shall come when he shall return to rule again. The spirit is gone; therefore let the man among us who has stood for that spirit be freed from his task.”
The Maiden removes the Oak King’s blindfold, and the High Priestess removes his oak-leaf crown. They lay them on each side of the West candle and then help the man rise; he turns and again becomes a part of the coven.
The High Priest says:
“Let the Midsummer fires shine forth!”
The Maiden and the Holly King fetch the two altar candles and place them on the East-West line, equidistant from the centre and four or five feet apart. Meanwhile the High Priestess rejoins the High Priest at the altar. (Outdoors, Maiden and Holly King light the two bonfires.)
The Maiden then fetches the High Priest’s athame from the altar and stands beside the westerly midsummer candle, facing East. The Holly King fetches the chalice of wine and stands beside the easterly midsummer candle, facing West.
The symbolic Great Rite is then enacted by the High Priestess and High Priest — the High Priestess placing herself between the two candles, and the Maiden and Holly King handing over the athame and chalice at the appropriate moment.
After the Great Rite and the passing of the chalice, the High Priest stands before the altar with the wand in his right hand and the scourge in his left, crossed over his breast in the Osiris Position. The High Priestess faces him, and invokes joyfully:4
“Great One of Heaven, Power of the Sun, we invoke thee in thine ancient names — Michael, Balin, Arthur, Lugh; come again as of old into this thy land. Lift up thy shining spear of light to protect us. Put to flight the powers of darkness. Give us fair woodlands and green fields, blossoming orchards and ripening corn. Bring us to stand upon thy hill of vision and show us the path to the lovely realms of the Gods.”
She then traces the Invoking Pentagram of Earth in front of the High Priest with her right forefinger. The High Priest raises both his hands high and then plunges the wand into the water in the cauldron. He then holds it up, saying:
“The Spear to the Cauldron, the Lance to the Grail, Spirit to Flesh, Man to Woman, Sun to Earth.”
The High Priest lays the wand and scourge down on the altar and joins the rest of the coven. The High Priestess picks up the heather branch and stands by the cauldron. She says:
“Dance ye before the Cauldron of Cerridwen, the Goddess, and be ye blessed with the touch of this consecrated water; even as the Sun, the Lord of Life, ariseth in his strength in the sign of the Waters of Lifer!”
The coven, led by the High Priest, start to move deosil round the Circle, outside the two candles. As each person passes her, the High Priestess sprinkles him or her with water with her heather branch. When she has sprinkled everybody, she joins the moving ring.
The High Priestess then orders everybody in turn — singly or in couples — to pass between the midsummer candles and to wish as they go. When everyone has been through, the High Priestess and High Priest pass through together. They then turn back and pick up the two candles and return them to the altar, to leave room for the dance.
High Priestess and High Priest then lead the coven in spontaneous and joyous dancing, until the High Priestess decides it is time for the party stage of the Sabbat.