Being a Witch
in the Southern hemisphere can be frustrating when most of the resources
are from the Northern Hemisphere.
How and why
does that make a difference? Well for a start the seasons are ahead/behind
(depending on your view :D), so when it is Winter in Australia it is Summer
in UK/US - which means it's quite silly to do a "Yule" festival - celebrating
Midwinter, when it's 40ºC here because it's summer!
Also the directions
here are different, for "Deosil" and "Widdershins". "Deosil" means
the direction the Sun travels in the sky (sun-wise)... and this in the
Southern hemisphere is anti-clockwise. This is the direction for
invoking and casting the circle. Widdershins is opposite, being Clockwise
in the SH.
I admit, this
page is biased towards Australia, since that's where I am :)
The Elements Normally,
by Northern Hemisphere lore, the Elements
are as follows. North = Earth, South = Fire, West = Water and East
= Air. In the Southern Hemisphere you might like to change the correspondences.
The explanations and directions that I have heard for Australians are:
North = Fire
(The equator is above us)
West = Earth
(WA is a large state, lots of land)
East = Water
(While all coasts have water - it seems the East coast is more "beachy"
in culture)
South = Air
(Tasmania being detached from the mainland and the "roaring 40s" across
Bass Straight)
North = Earth
(Tropics are lush and green)
West = Fire
(Lots of desert to the West)
East = Water
(Water in the East)
South = Air
North = Fire
(Equator is above us)
South = Earth
(earth is "below my feet")
Since different
Pagans ascribe different directions to the Elements, it doesn't seem to
matter what Element/Compass points you use, so long as you choose one that
works right for you.
The Sabbats I've included
the Sabbat dates for the Southern Hemisphere as well as the North in the
Sabbat
Page, but basically the Wheel of the year for us is half a year away
from the Northern Hemisphere - so we are on the opposite side of the wheel
