I've met pagans who shifted everything six months and pagans who didn't, hence my 'WTF??' feelings about this. (This may be partly my own issue - I'm rather aware of my natural surroundings, the season, etc, and have always assumed that people would be attracted to paganism for those sorts of reasons, but apparently not all pagans.)

<headdesk> Argh, fail on the goannas tacked on to more NorAm cultural appropriation. Because all indigeneous cultures are really The Same only modified for the local environment, and you can probably take any NorAm traditional story and search and replace the "bear" and "wolf" to "goanna" and "dingo" and get a genuine Australian story! <headdesk>

I have slight hippy tendencies myself, and yes, the thing is to be responsible and aware and, well, polite to the human beings whose culture you're so fascinated by.