“It’s HOT!”

“Um, you live in California!”

“BUT IT’S HAWT!” 

There is little I enjoy less than a day out in the hot sun. My husband puts on his “Aztec Princess oil” and sits in the sun to bake, reading, surfing the internet with wi-fi, or playing his didgeridoo. He will plow around the lake on his boat, romp in the ocean surf, or work out in the yard at top temperatures. Not me. I go to the beach, play in the water for four minutes, stretch out in the sun for ten minutes, then complain that there is sand in my butt, it’s crowded, and I want to go home. Of course, I do that in my head because everyone else is having an amazing time and I don’t want to be the wet blanket in the bunch. Once menopause hit thirteen years ago in what – based on evidence – is a never-ending process, I am even less tolerant to high heat and yet, there is powerful magic in the Sun’s mighty rays.

Hot days may not seem like much of a weather phenomenon, but they bring with them their own intensity and therefore, their own magical power. The closer we get to Summer Solstice, the stronger the male energy grows. Because high heat originates from the Sun, which is a masculine celestial sign and from Fire, which is a masculine element, High Sun energy instills us with the strongest male energies.

Words that go along with an infusion of male energy are:

• · warrior
• ·strength
• · endurance
• ·pro-activity
• ·intensity
• ·projective
• ·analytical
• ·objective
• ·virility

That is never to imply that women cannot also embody those traits anymore than men cannot also be intuitive, nurturing, healing, life affirming, mystical, or any of the female attributes. We are all beings with both masculine and feminine attributes.

On either side of the Summer Solstice, in the waxing or the waning of the height of male energy, we can have long, blistering hot days. Since the dawn of time, humans have worshipped the Sun as a life source and powerful deity. There is nothing like seeing the Sun break through the clouds after days of rain and gray skies. Before there were alarm clocks and electric lighting, the light of the Sun told us when to wake up and when to go to sleep. The absence of the Sun from the sky during an eclipse was a profound magical event in times gone by.

The power of the Sun is profound and so as with classic favorite weather events like rain, wind, thunder, and lightning, this is a power that can be used in our magic.

We all have times of vulnerability and weakness and the pick-me-up energy of a burst of sunlight is quite a boost Without essential Vitamin D from the sun, we do not thrive. In complement to the Mother Earth, the Sun is also a sustainer of life. One of Aesop’s fables tells a story about The North Wind and the Sun who have a debate about which one is strongest. They agree that whichever of them can force a traveler to take off his cloak first is the strongest. You can see this is sort of a rigged gig. The North Wind blows hard at the traveler, using all its ferocity, and the man only pulls his cloak tighter. The Sun smiles and beams proudly, covering the traveler with its warm rays. Within a few minutes, the man takes off his cloak and the Sun wins.

Choose a yellow or orange stone, even a flat glass marble, and lay it out in the direct sunlight, allowing it to absorb the rays and the heat of the Sun. Once it has collected energy for a few hours, take it inside and place it on your personal altar or put it somewhere safe for future use. When you know that a situation is coming that will require you to exhibit endurance, strength, intensity, or effective strategy beyond what you normally possess, carry that stone with you knowing that it is charged with the energy of the Sun to bless you and fuel your efforts.

Use the long days of summer much as our ancestors did before us. For all of the medical advances we now possess, ancient people knew a secret to healthy life that we do not now employ. They followed the cycles of Nature in their lives rather than continuing the same level and type of productivity throughout the entire year. Consider the harvest cycle. They planted and fertilized in the spring, nurtured and protected in the summer, harvested in the fall, and then rested and planned in the winter. They used the long days of the summer months to put in some of their hardest physical work and then went inside and used the introspective, feminine time of the year to plan and learn.

In our modern life, we tend to demand the same level and type of productivity with no shift to accommodate the changing seasons and the cycles we go through internally that reflect those natural transitions. Just as our bodies and minds are meant to rest in the winter, we are meant to be active and engaged in the summer.

High Sun days are great for motivational magic to build stamina, strength, and aggression in ourselves (or in others!). When the Sun is high and hot, our magic can light a fire under a situation, stimulate it, and get it moving again.