Feel me now as bountiful mother;
I am fertility & creativity.
I am the abundance of the harvest.
I am the abundance of life.
I create & nurture all beings.
My golden cloak is the ripening grain.
Pause a moment whenever you eat;
Feel my presence.
I am the nurturing mother.
-Lammas Blessing by Wendy Andrews
This coming Monday, August 1st is Lammas/Lughnasad the day of first harvest which was a blessed time in many pagan cultures. Here we are are looking at some practices from the Druid/Ancient Celtic/Celtic Neopagan traditions.
In earlier times and in many places around the world still, the success of the first harvest determined how successful a community would be at surviving through the winter. So we can imagine how important this event was in people's lives! Often the first fruits or grains were offered up to the goddess & god in gratitude for the abundance and a wish for them to show the same kindness the following growing season.
Herbs of Lammas: Yarrow, Sunflower, Calendula, Vervain, Goldenrod, Meadowsweet, Mints, Apples and all other fruits that attain ripeness in late summer, All Grains, Nasturtium, Clover blossoms, etc.
Colors for Lammas: Greens, Yellows/Golds, Light to Deep Oranges
Simple Rituals to honor the day:
1. Give gratitude to the earth for the abundance she provides.
2. Support your community farmers and craftspeople! If you are able, it's an incredible gift to support your local growers and makers and it honors this day beautifully!
3. Craft & Create your own foods and goods if you feel called to. Lugh was a sun deity who was also an incredibly skilled artist and craftsman! Corn dollies, apple candleholders, any craft made of grainstalks or vines or dried fruit or flowers would be marvelous for an altar.
4. Bake! It could be a loaf of bread, cakes or whatever else you like.
If you want to take your magickal practice a bit further, we love this beautiful Harvest Blessing from Druidry.org
Harvest Blessing:
Take a loaf, hold it up and say:
This is the blessing of the Harvest Mother and the Corn God:
The soil is sacred.
Food is sacred.
We are sacred.
I give thanks for the life cut down in harvest, for its generous sacrifice, that we might be nourished.
Break off a piece of the loaf and say:
Within me the life cut down is reborn.
Eat the piece of bread, meditating on gratitude. Then say,
Mother and Father of the ripened corn whose generous heart brings a harvest of peace and prosperity, grant that the seeds of our future will be our nourishment and happiness; through your wisdom may we learn true gratitude for life’s abundance. Show us your precious gift of hope, for your greatest teaching is of rebirth: with harvest comes the death of the corn, yet in the midst of death we are fed and sustained by the glowing seeds of new life.
Picture Credit: "Lughnasadh Feast" by alisonleighlilly is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.