As summer settles over California, we feel the sun’s warmth in our gardens, our neighborhoods, and our very bones. For thousands of years, peoples rooted in Earth-based traditions—Pagan, Indigenous, and folk cultures worldwide—have honored this season as a time of life at its fullest: a time to gather, grow, and give thanks for the sun’s power to nourish all that lives.
Yet today, the warming sun carries a double message. While we celebrate the life it sustains, we also feel its heat in ways our ancestors never imagined: intensifying wildfires, record-breaking heatwaves, and droughts that parch our communities and forests alike. Here in California, rising summer temperatures remind us that our climate crisis is deeply connected to how we relate to Earth—and how we must renew that relationship with care, reverence, and justice.
Ancient Traditions, Timeless Wisdom
Pagan and other Earth-based faiths teach that the cycles of nature are sacred. The turning of the seasons reminds us that we are part of a larger web of life—a truth that Indigenous communities have carried forward despite centuries of colonization. These traditions call us to live in reciprocity with the land: to give back when we take, to honor the seasons, and to listen deeply to Earth’s changing voice.
This wisdom is not locked in the past. It is alive today in those who gather to celebrate the turning of the seasons, in Indigenous communities defending water and forests, and in everyday people tending community gardens, restoring ecosystems, and raising their voices for climate action.
Rising Temperatures, Rising Resolve
California knows the heat of climate change all too well. In recent summers, our state has faced scorching temperatures that endanger farm workers, strain our energy grid, and threaten the most vulnerable among us. As people of faith and conscience, we are called to see this crisis not just as an environmental issue, but a moral one—an invitation to transform how we generate energy, how we care for one another, and how we stand with communities hit first and worst.
When we embrace summer, we can root our climate action in a sense of spiritual connection. We can honor the sun’s power by committing to renewable energy, advocating for policies that protect our communities, and holding polluters accountable for the damage they’ve caused. We can join hands across faiths—whether Pagan, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or none at all—to say that Earth is sacred, and so is our collective future.
A Summer Invitation
This summer, may we gather—on beaches, in backyards, in city parks—and feel the sun’s warmth not just as a threat, but as a reminder: We are woven into this Earth, and we are responsible for its care. May we light fires (or candles) not just for ritual, but as symbols of our burning commitment to climate justice.
Together, let’s honor the ancient wisdom that calls us home to the land and rise to meet the urgent task of protecting it for generations to come.
May this season inspire us to grow, to give back, and to work for a just and livable world for all.
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