Summer Solstice and Solar Men: Wicca, God/dess, I am he who is the Sun

Words by Tanya Fevzi

At 3:41 a.m. on June 21st, the sun will reach its northernmost point in the sky, marking the precise minute of the summer solstice. At a tilt of about 23.5 degrees, the Earth leans towards the sun, and according to the astronomical calendar, summer will have begun! It is the longest day of the year and holds cultural significance across many traditions, including in Wicca.

As the day approaches, it feels timely to explore the centuries-old Wiccan celebration of the summer solstice. Wicca is a modern pagan spiritual tradition that honours the Goddess and God, reveres nature, and celebrates seasonal cycles through rituals and festivals. There are deeply ingrained misconceptions about the religion, which Raymond Buckland acknowledges in his textbook, Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft. For Buckland, Wicca is ‘the acceptance of personal and social responsibility,’ ‘acknowledgement of a holistic universe and a means towards a raising of consciousness.’ He highlights ‘equal rights’, ‘feminism’, ‘ecology’, ‘attunement’, ‘brotherly/sisterly love’, and ‘planetary care’ as part and parcel of Wicca. It is a tradition that boasts its ties to Mother Nature, and its celebration of solstices and equinoxes largely reflects this. In fact, the first principle of Wicca, as set out by the Council of American Witches in 1974, reads: ‘We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal quarters and cross quarters.’

Lithe, which is the Wiccan term for the summer solstice, is celebrated annually among the eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. Buckland explains that Sabbats ‘are times to celebrate; to rejoice with the gods and have a good time.’ Indeed, the summer solstice is celebrated with much feasting and merriment, including singing and dancing in celebration of the Sun God. Summer flowers, fruits, and green branches are used to decorate altars and sacred spaces, symbolising the Earth’s abundance and the height of the Sun’s power. Since Wiccans traditionally believe in deities representing the Sun and the Moon, often symbolising God and Goddess, the respective masculine and feminine embodiments of these deities are central to many celebrations. For example, while the Goddess is honoured with the phases of the Moon, so is the God at certain phases of the Sun, including the summer solstice.

In an era when traditional gender roles and stereotypes are increasingly challenged as reductive and unfair, it is fascinating to dissect the lunar association with femininity and the solar association with masculinity. Notably, Wiccans believe each person embodies both masculine and feminine energies, so while the God or the Goddess is usually predominant in different celebrations, neither is considered supreme, especially without his or her partner. Buckland reiterates this: ‘the emphasis is on the one but not to the total exclusion of the other… each deity, as with every individual, bears the attributes of both male and female. 

At local solar noon on summer solstice, the sun appears directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer from Earth’s perspective, and solar power – or male solar energy – reaches its peak strength. Like the masculinity it represents in Wicca beliefs, the sun is bright and powerful, and dangerously so. It’s protective, warming, and life-giving, yet capable of scorching and destruction when unbalanced.

The lunar woman, contrastingly, is gentle, nurturing and mysterious. She is subtle and reflective instead of bold and direct. While the sun rises and sets daily, unaffecting, blazing, the moon takes a month to orbit the Earth. The feminine association with the moon ties to the monthly menstrual cycle; just as the moon wanes and waxes through its lunar phases, the female body moves through four distinct hormonal phases. Periods come with painful cramps, full breasts, and heightened sensitivities, which reflect the body’s deep and often uncomfortable attunement to nature’s rhythm.

In a contemporary context, the distinction between the solar man and the lunar woman might reflect the golden retriever and black cat archetypes. The golden retriever – warm, playful and affectionate – pairs perfectly with the black cat – cool, introspective, and mysterious. Together, they become a modern yin-yang, like the sun and the moon, complementary in the natural world. Their energies contrast yet complete one another; where one is open-hearted and expressive, the other is enigmatic and intuitive. This dynamic is not about dominance or hierarchy, but about balance, and in many ways reminds us that harmony is often found not in sameness, but in difference held in equilibrium. This idea of balancing opposites is an integral part of Wicca; during the summer solstice Sabbat, the Priest/ess sings:

As there must be rain with the Sun,

To make all things good,

So we must suffer pain with our joy,

To know all things.

Summer solstice is, at its core, a celebration of the natural world. As the sun reaches its northernmost point in the sky, we are forced to pause to appreciate its light and warmth. We don’t need to celebrate the day as part of a tradition like Wicca – we can simply honour it as the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer in the astrological calendar. Across the globe, many will spend the day in flower crowns, around a bonfire, or at an ancient site like Stonehenge. The day is a reminder to spend time in nature, reflect on the past season, and open our hearts to the sun.