Litha – The Summer Solstice: Meaning, Dates & Rituals
Strength Card from the Motherpeace Tarot Deck
Litha: The Summer Solstice in Australia
Here in Australia, December means the light barely lets go — mornings starting before five, evenings still gold well past eight. Right in the middle of that, at its absolute peak, we arrive at Litha: the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
What Litha Actually Is
Litha is the second of the year's solar quarter days, sitting directly opposite Yule on the Wheel. Traditionally it's dated the 21st of June — a Northern Hemisphere midsummer. Down here, our real summer solstice, our Litha, lands on the 21st of December, deep in an Australian summer, which is exactly where this Sabbat's energy belongs. Most of what's written about Litha online assumes snow is still months away, not that you're sitting in the thick of a heatwave.
The Energy of This Sabbat
Litha is peak light, peak heat, peak everything — and for a lot of us, peak discomfort, if we've spent the rest of the year being trained to take up less space. This Sabbat doesn't ask you to earn your place in the sun. You've already earned it. It just asks you to actually stand in it.
A Tarot Card for Litha
Litha's card is Strength. Not brute force — the classic image is a woman calming a lion with her bare hands, not overpowering it. It's power held with a steady hand instead of a clenched fist: real strength that doesn't need to shout, dominate, or prove itself to anyone. If you've been quietly dimming your own light to keep someone else comfortable, this is the card, and the season, that says you don't need force to take up your space — just steadiness.
A Simple Litha Ritual
Stand outside in full sun for a few minutes — sunscreen on, obviously — and say one true thing out loud about something you're proud of. No caveat tacked on the end, no “but it's not that big a deal.” Let it just be true.
A Few Questions to Sit With
Where are you dimming your own light to keep someone else comfortable?
What have you achieved this year that you haven't properly let yourself celebrate?
If no one was watching to judge it as “too much,” what would you actually let yourself want?
Bring It Into Practice
Litha's a Sabbat that likes company — a Spirit & Soul Soirée aka a Tarot Party, is a lovely way to celebrate this energy with others, or dive into a Masterclass if you'd rather go deeper solo.
I do a full energy reading for Litha every year on the 21st of December — you'll find it right here once it's live, or you can catch it on the Soulful & Wild YouTube channel.
Litha's part of the wider Wheel of the Year — you'll find the full overview of all eight Sabbats in The Pagan Sabbats, and a page for every season in the free Wheel of the Year guide.