Gone Fishin'

Photo by Egor Kamelev: https://www.pexels.com/photo/sturgeon-fish-swimming-in-aquarium-7987543/

 Definitely the dog days of summer around here.  July in central Ohio is shaping up like other July's.  Hot. Humid. The idea of rain but no actual rain.

The civic holiday of July 4 has gone, but that hasn't meant people have stopped with the fireworks.  I keep hoping they'll run out, but it's July 10 as I'm writing this, and some neighbors still had some last night.

It's not like it's not the time for that. If I look to my idealized past of paleopagan ancestors, this would be a time between planting and harvesting, so a few weeks of blowing off steam before the work begins again is, I suppose, in keeping with the spirit of the season.

I am off to a family get together and then straight on to Sirius Rising festival.  I'll do a review when I get back.  This will post after I've left, but I may or may not have Internet access to post an announcement on Facebook.

Themes for this late summer "mooth"

The Gauls called this month "Equos" and that is kind of like it sounds, the Horse month. Our grove honors Epona, a goddess associated with horses and sovereignty.  We once got to use dye that was safe for horses to paint symbols on a real horse; most of the time we add to a hobby horse someone found for us.  We honor the sovereignty of the land and the goddess that represents it (others in the Celtic realm could be Macha, Rhiannon, or Maeve, too).

For the Anglo-Saxons, it is "Æfterraliða."  Which basically means....after Liða.  

The Almanac calls this the Sturgeon Moon, because sturgeons (Great Lakes) were most readily caught this time of year. Normally they were at the bottom, but would come to the surface around this time.  

Finally, Kondratiev calls this the Moon of the Spear.  Given that Lughnasadh often falls during this moonth, the Spear of Lugh Lamfadha figures greatly in his ritual cycle.  At this moon, the summer's heat is stored for the coming winter in the three cauldrons (head, heart, and loins).

So lots of good ideas for spiritual work, that may or may not go together as easily as it does some other moonths.  Going fishing seems like a good activity though, to honor the energies of the sturgeon, of the third month of summer (Liða), and to appreciate the land around us.