Lammas or Lughnasadh

I popped up a quick post last week to say I was going to facilitate a Yoga Nidra tomorrow evening to celebrate and honour Lammas, but I didn’t have time to say much about this Harvest Celebration, this honouring of the turning of the wheel. So, here’s my musings.

Lammas, also known as Lughnasadh, this morning I was reading Ian Siddons Heginworth, and he tells us that it was originally Lughnasadh and that the Anglo Saxon Christians renamed it to Lammas. I didn’t know this I knew about the two names but not this snippet of history. I find it interesting that this harvest is always Lammas to me, and that Autumn Equinox is just that and never Mabon. It’s funny isn’t it our own little idiosyncrasies.

I have always known Lammas as the first harvest festival, I think I did mention this in a post recently when I had taken a photo of some Hawthorn berries. You can see all around us that many fruits are ripe for the picking, some even on the wane the strawberries have reached their peak. Now we are looking to harvest the first fruits that we can make jams and all sorts of other delights with to begin to store up the larder for winter.

As I write this, I can’t believe that the wheel is turning us towards Autumn; when we meet the second harvest at Autumn Equinox. I’m not sure I feel that I’ve had summer yet. Although in a recent study group we were reflecting back to Summer Solstice and this year how it had felt so powerful and the Full Moon. The energies that have been with us have been too much for some of us and left us feeling exhausted and wanting to go inwards rather than the usual summer fullness, abundance of turning outwards. In our yoga session last week, we were talking about the subtleties of the turning how you can begin to feel it and smell it.

Not only is Lammas about the fruits it was the grain harvest a time of coming together to harvest the grains the basic food for the coming winter months. A time to acknowledge that as we harvest the grain’s seeds become the seeds of next year’s harvest. We are literally reaping what we sow. As we gathered to bring in the harvest it was a time of celebration, the hard work of gathering complete we could feast and be joyful. A time to feel gratitude towards Mother Earth and all that she has gifted us. A time to look forward as we gather the seeds from not only this year’s grains but the seeds from our other plants, our flowers and vegetables. To gather them in safely tuck them away ready to sow next year.

There are so many stories to immerse ourselves in at this festival, we can Celebrate the Grain Mother, we can think about Persephone and her journey through the darkness until next Spring. This was the time of horse fairs and in turn we can honour Rhiannon the Horse Goddess of the Underworld. The Sun God Lugh after whom the festival was named. So many stories, so many deities to celebrate, which one calls to you? Each and every festival is steeped in myths. I invite you to take time to read one, it will only take a moment or two. Perhaps create a corn dolly or bake a loaf of bread. Take time out to gather some seeds. Give gratitude and thanks for the abundance all around and perhaps take a moment to reflect back on you, what have you harvested? What have you grown and created? Perhaps you might even wish to create your own story for this time of year and what is happening where you live.

Back to the beginning tomorrow evening at 8pm online I will guide you through a Yoga Nidra and we will weave in the magic of this time of year, we will honour and celebrate all that it is and that we are knowing, if you read my last blog/post, that we are not separate we are all one. Pay as you can/feel PayPal https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/sacredawakenings44 or contact me for bank transfer details. Zoom link will be sent tomorrow, Tuesday 2 August 2022.

I look forward to you spending a magical time with you.