Lammas, Exploration & Experience
It is now high summer, and the union of Sun and Earth, god and goddess, male and female, has produced the First Harvest.
Lammas (celebrated on August 1 + 2) is the celebration of this first Grain Harvest, the harvesting of cereal crops, and is a time for gathering and giving thanks for abundance.
Lammas derives from the Anglo-Saxon "Loaf-Mass." Traditionally, feasting followed the cutting, threshing, and storing of corn, wheat, barley, rye, and oats.
Lammas' most potent and significant ritual is cutting the first corn and baking it into a loaf to be used in the Mass on August 1 or 2. In the Hebrides, they celebrate Lammas on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, linking Mary to the great nurturing grain mother goddess of millennia past.
All through the Middle Ages, the days from August 15 to September 15 were called "Our Lady's Thirty Days" (Frauendreissiger) in the German-speaking sections of Europe. Many Assumption shrines, even today, show Mary clothed in a robe covered with ears of grain. These images (Maria im Gerteidekleid, Our Lady of Grains) are favored goals of pilgrimages during August.
This is Mary as the Earth Mother.
In the East, she is known as Theotokos Sporitelnitsa, Mother of God, and Ripener of Grain. Notice in the ancient and traditional icons below that Mary is portrayed as a Black Madonna, further linking her to the great nurturing grain mother goddess of millennia past and the earth mother herself.
Lammas, like the other cross-quarter holidays on the wheel of the year,
(Imbolc Feb. - 2, Beltane, May 1, - Lammas, Aug, 1-2 - Samhain, Oct 31- Nov. 2) occurs at the turn of a month and marks a shift in season.
Energy in nature is changing, and this may signal the beginning of an internal shift. While the weather may still feel decidedly summery, the death part of the " life-death-rebirth" cycle begins here in slow, gradual, almost imperceptible ways.
The Demeter Connection
In Greek mythology, Demeter is the Grain Mother.
The grain mother is a powerful aspect of the archetype of the Nurturing Mother who Feeds the World. She is also seen in her aspects as Harvest Mother, Harvest Queen, and Earth Mother.
[Demeter’s] daughter, Kore/Persephone, represents the grain or seed that drops deep into the dark earth, which is hidden throughout the winter and reappears in the spring as new growth. This is the deep core meaning of Lammas and comes in different guises. The fullness and fulfillment of the present harvest already holds the seed of all future harvests at its very heart. (It is a fact that a pregnant woman carrying her as yet unborn daughter is also already carrying the ovary containing all the eggs her daughter will ever release - she is already both mother, grandmother, and beyond, embodying the great Motherline - pure magic and mystery.) ~ adapted from The Goddess and the Greenman
This is the season for working with the Loving Grain Mother archetype.
You may relate to her simply as Mother Earth or by any name that resonates or is aligned with your beliefs.....
Gaia (Greek), The Pachamama ( Andean), Ceres (Roman), Demeter (Greek), The Corn Mother (Native American), or Mary Ripener of Grain (Christian).
The Mother Archetype is one of the foundational principles in all human experience. We all have a mother. Our culture has certain expectations around mothers, which may or may not have been met in your own life. This is why working with the varying Mother Archetypes is so essential. We all need mothering; if we receive it as children, it is easy to celebrate that universal principle, see it in nature in many ways, and feel safe and supported. If we didn't, this is when we have an opportunity to tap into mother love as an archetypal force and activate healing by receiving this love.
Art Invitation
Create art in any way that feels important to you. Find ways to bring the energy of the season into your work...
abundance
safety
security
mother love
plenty
harvest
comfort
nurturing
blessing
self-worth
care
fed
filled
held
peace
sheltered
Create some art that celebrates the earth's goodness during this season of the year, as expressed through any variation of the Mother Archetype.
Celebrate Lammas through offering and gratitude.
Create an Altar or Sacred Space for Lammas/Lughnasadh to open the Harvest Season.
Set up a Lammas/Lughnssadh altar or sacred space and honor the Grain Mother.
Consider including anything you have grown in your garden or cut a bundle of wild grasses that are going to seed. Perhaps a loaf of bread, baked or store-bought. A small dish of any grain. Bring any art that you have created into your sacred space.
The Lughnasadh Connection
As sometimes happens over the centuries, various festivals are merged and blended, and this is the case with Lammas, which is also sometimes called Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-nassah).
Lugh, or Lug, was the great Celtic Sun King and god of all human skills: art, warfare, roads and travel, money-making, and commerce. His sacred month is August.
Feasting, market fairs, games, and bonfire celebrations were the order of the day. Circle dancing, reflecting the movement of the sun in sympathetic magic, was popular, as were all community gatherings. But an undercurrent of these festivities is the deep knowing that the bounty and energy of Lugh, of the Sun, is now beginning to wane. It is a time of change and shift. Active growth is slowing down and the darker days of winter and reflection are beckoning.
*the italicized portions of the above are adapted from The Goddess and the Greenman
John Barleycorn & The Cailleach
Grain is associated with gods and goddesses of Resurrection
John Barleycorn is the living Spirit of the corn or grain. As the corn is cut, John Barleycorn is also cut down. He surrenders his life so that others may be sustained by the grain so that the life of the community can continue. He is eaten as bread and then reborn as the seed returns to the earth. The first sheaf of corn is supremely important, producing the first (and best) seed and assurance of future harvest: death and rebirth. Everything dies in its season. Everything is reborn. This is our whisper of immortality. And the wonderful bittersweet of Lammas.
John Barleycorn has obvious ties to the parable of the wheat "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives." and to the bread used in the Christian communion service where Jesus is identified with the bread.
The last sheaf of the harvest was ceremonially cut, often made into a 'corn dolly', carried to the village with festivity and was central to the Harvest Supper. The corn dolly was made into a Corn Maiden (after a good harvest) or a cailleach, hag or cone (after a bad harvest). She could be dressed with ribbons, even clothed.
This last sheaf would live in the home, often above the fireplace or hearth of the home, until the next harvest. Or it might be placed in the branches of a tree or mixed with the seed for the next year's sowing. In some way it eventually needed to return to the earth from whence it came so that the fertilizing spirit of John Barleycorn, could pass from harvest to harvest. It could be ploughed back, returned to decay and rot, or burnt and the ashes scattered.
Once the harvest was completed, safely gathered in, the festivities would begin. Bread was made from the new grain and thanks given to the Sun's life-giving energy reborn as life-giving bread. ~ the italicized portions of the above are adapted from The Goddess and the Greenman
Medieval Lammas Traditions
During the Middle Ages in Lancashire, England, a summer festival called Rush-bearing took place.
In those days, churches had no pews and only packed earth floors, so the villagers sat on piles of rushes.
Once a year, during late July and early August, the old rushes are swept away, new rushes are cut, and, with grand ceremony, they are brought into the church. Once that is accomplished, the rest of the day is taken as a holiday.
There are many fascinating elements to consider around this medieval festival.
First, how would your spiritual experience be different if your place of worship had an earthen floor?
What would it be like to stand or sit in direct contact with the earth during a sacred time?
Would you remove your shoes?
Would it be easier to engage with the earth as sacred?
Would you consider it holy ground?
You may want to create an art piece that explores
connection to the earth as a sacred experience
what does "holy ground" look like in your experience
your felt, lived, and known experiences of the earth as sacred.
It's also interesting to note that once a year, the villagers replaced the rushes. They swept out the old, worn-out ones and brought in new ones so they could once again be comfortable in church.
Things to consider or make art around...
What old beliefs about the sacred might you need to sweep away so you can introduce new ways of understanding, relating, and believing so that your soul, which is always growing, maturing, and expanding, is again comfortable?
If you sense it is time for "new rushes," create a ceremony to sweep out the old and carry in the new.
You might create a card or art journal page with one side for old beliefs and another for exploring new ones.
Or you may go outside and cut actual rushes, reeds, or tall grasses and tie them up with twine or ribbon, carry them indoors, and place them in your sacred space.
Lammas is a beautiful season filled with the joy of the first little harvest. Its energy is one of ripening, fruition, and the promise of abundance, bringing peace and prosperity to the soul.
Use these materials to guide you as you live into this moment in the year and deepen your connection to the earth and your inner being.
Lammas Blessings!
