Creating Circles and Ceremonies: Rituals for All ... - reading...

Book III: W heel of the Year 221
the first of the three harvests and thanksgivings. Bake a loaf of special ritual bread (cornbread
is good), including some berries you have picked yourself. Share it with your friends and
family with thanks and blessings. Go camping if you can, or at least spend the day outdoors
at the park, taking a picnic lunch and playing active physical games, such as tag, touch
football, volleyball, badminton, and Frisbee. It’s especially fun and traditional to play hide &
seek in the evening as it gets dark. Sometimes this game leads to other nocturnal “activities.”
Lughnasadh is a good time to make and bless magickal tools. Decorate your altar with
summer flowers and food from the fields (especially grains, like corn and grass seeds); use a
yellow altar cloth and candles. To celebrate and ensure a bountiful harvest, a loaf of bread
hand made by the entire family is a nice centerpiece on the altar, surrounded by
harvest figures, such as corn dollies.
Lughnasadh - August 1
Also called Lammas (Loaf Mass), Feast of First
Fruits, Habondia, T hreshold of Plenty
T heme: Ripening1 By Ruth Barrett
Sunlight is noticeably beginning to decline as the Wheel of
the Year turns towards toward its darker half. The beginning of
August marks celebration of the first harvest. The fertile Earth Mother is abundant with life,
as evidenced by the golden fields of grain and the ripening fruits of autumn. Like the cornucopia,
she pours forth her blessings of abundance. The traditional Celtic name of this holiday,
Lughnasadh, stems from a word meaning “the commemoration of Lugh.” The Celtic fire and
light god, Lugh, appears in Irish legend as a leader of the Tuatha De Danann (“the peoples
of the Goddess Dana”). 2 Like so many of the pre-Christian gods, he undergoes death and
rebirth seasonally within the eternal cycle of the Goddess. This holiday is also well known as
Lammas, from the Saxon word, hlaft-mass, meaning “feast of the bread.” 3
In Ireland, farmers hoped to have the first crops ready for gathering at this date, which
traditionally began the harvest. It was against custom to cut any corn or dig any potatoes
before this day. 4 A ritual meal was prepared and eaten from the fruits and grains gathered on
the first day of the harvest. This feast was usually eaten at a festive gathering that involved an
excursion to some traditional site, usually a hill or mountaintop, or beside a lake or river.
Garlands made from stalks of corn, which we call wheat in America, were worn in honor of
the Goddess of Corn. It was a social and flirtatious time for young people, accompanied by
music, dancing, and fire leaping. It was also a traditional time for weddings. In earlier times,
trial marriages that lasted a year and a day began at this time. Other couples, who had
decided to deepen their commitment, would join hands for life. 5
Seasonal Questions and Ideas
• Ask yourself these seasonal questions:
How do I share my abundance with others?
How do I manifest my power?
What can be, or needs to be, sacrificed for my harvest?
How do I support myself and others in attaining or manifesting our life goals?
• Sacrifice to the Goddess as reaper those possessions, behaviors, or attitudes that will hinder
the completion of your own personal harvest. Weed out, pinch back, or thin out anything not