At the Summer Solstice it is said that the Oak King and Holly King do battle, and the God of the Waxing Year must give way to the King of the Waning Year. This is a Hinge, a moment of transition that drives the Wheel of the Year. At the Solstice, the Sun is at its peak, the fruitful earth is coming into its most delicious bounty. After this, we cross a tipping point, as the days grow shorter, and we move forward towards the harvest festivals.

For me it feels more intuitive that this transition comes as the solar transit of Cancer turns into Leo. The lunar month attending Cancer is the Oak Moon, hearkening to the Oak King of the growing, fertile, waxing season of the Year. The Oak King evokes the solar qualities of the divine masculine: strength, forthrightness, generosity; he holds the energy of divine kingship and warrior-ship. A sacred animal often associated with this lunation is the Horse, embodying the power and dignity of the Solar God. An animal fit best for open, sunlit plains, the horse has been associated with solar gods since the Greeks wrote of Phoebus driving a chariot of fiery stallions across the sky each day.

Leo, itself ruled by the Sun, begins late in July, when the intense heat of Summer has begun to deepen into a deep, baking oven style of heat. Everything is growing, approaching its juiciest extreme, and even if the days are shorter they are not cooler or darker yet. The pull towards Autumn and beyond seems impossible. But it is now that the Holly King, older, wiser, more seasoned, begins his rule. The strength of the oak is the strength of deep roots and wide spreading branches, but the strength of the holly is its tenacity, its protective spiny, waxy leaves, its compact but stubborn shape. The sacred animal associated with the Holly Moon is the Boar. This symbol of masculine power is, like the Horse, strong, tough, and fast. But the Boar occupies forests, its strength is its solid build, its tenacity, and its stealth. Unlike the horse, it doesn't gallop into battle; it roams in shadowy places, stalking and evading as it needs to.

This is a different aspect of the divine masculine: not the Warrior but the Hunter. The Boar itself heralds a new phase of the Summer—High Summer, when the first of the harvest is just beginning to appear, when the first hints of the season to come begin to show themselves, when the Hunter becomes the Hunted, and the God is asked to sacrifice himself so that his people can live through the Winter.

Tonight we are a few days away from the Lughnasadh, the Festival of First Fruits, the celebration of the very first harvest of the year. This year the full Holly Moon falls on Lugh Eve, the bright solar God of the fields joining with the scythe-wielding Goddess of Life and Death, inviting us to stop and give thanks while we enjoy the blessings of this abundant season.