Happy Calendar-Lughnasadh (and reading)...LATE~!
Author's Note: I actually wrote this soon after August 1. And then I went about my merry way until I sat down to start the Autumn Equinox post. That was when I discovered I had neglected to hit the "Publish" button. I'm sure you all did well without the guidance, but now you can look backward and see if it was spot on or not.
If you have heard me talk about the high days at all, you will know that the so-called 'cross quarter days,' the four Celtic fire festivals (Beltainne, Lughnasadh, Samhain, and Imbolc) I tend to celebrate them based on what my land is doing. I don't have a lot of land, only a few raised garden beds, and I'm definitely not dependent on them for my survival. But I have this romantic notion that these holidays were not fixed to a specific date on a calendar (that likely did not exist), but that the holy day happened based on certain things going on in the agricultural cycle. The "date" of which might have varied from year to year, if there were a calendar to go by, and instead the folk would wait for certain signs.
For the past few years, I've been trying to track said signs, and as such, we actually celebrated Lughnasadh last week. Our "first fruits" come way before August 1, so celebrating them then ... well, they're long gone. Instead, we waited until we had a plentiful harvest of our zucchini, beans, strawberries and other things. We had a fire, and we sacrificed last year's corn dolly after transferring her magic to this year's, along with flowers from the yard in full bloom and a sampling of our harvest.
If you have heard me talk about the high days at all, you will know that the so-called 'cross quarter days,' the four Celtic fire festivals (Beltainne, Lughnasadh, Samhain, and Imbolc) I tend to celebrate them based on what my land is doing. I don't have a lot of land, only a few raised garden beds, and I'm definitely not dependent on them for my survival. But I have this romantic notion that these holidays were not fixed to a specific date on a calendar (that likely did not exist), but that the holy day happened based on certain things going on in the agricultural cycle. The "date" of which might have varied from year to year, if there were a calendar to go by, and instead the folk would wait for certain signs.
For the past few years, I've been trying to track said signs, and as such, we actually celebrated Lughnasadh last week. Our "first fruits" come way before August 1, so celebrating them then ... well, they're long gone. Instead, we waited until we had a plentiful harvest of our zucchini, beans, strawberries and other things. We had a fire, and we sacrificed last year's corn dolly after transferring her magic to this year's, along with flowers from the yard in full bloom and a sampling of our harvest.
Ideally, the first tomatoes or my sunflowers blooming could also signify "Lughasadh" but we got those in late. I was also noticing the cicadas are really starting to sing the last few weeks so if you don't have a garden, that could be your signal as well. Really, anything that to you signifies "late summer."
Lughnasadh is I think my favorite of the high days. It's also interesting that it's the one I think we've kept up the best, even though we don't call it that. Here in Ohio, we have a plethora of agricultural festivals. There's the various county fairs, and then the Ohio State Fair which date-wise encompasses Lughnasadh. But lots of small towns have festivals celebrating sweet corn, zucchini, blueberries, and tomatoes all through August. (There's more through September and then ends at the end of October with the Circleville Pumpkin Show).
There are competitions of various types, games, rides, food, enjoyment, parades and a queen chosen for each one (goddess of the land representative, anyone). What could be more Lughnasadh than that!!
We are now almost finished with the year. This year's keynote was the Air Dragon, a very powerful insight and clarity. Like a bolt of lightning, many of us may have received sudden realization of what our path shoudl be, and all the steps of the year were necessary to understand and work with that realization. Most recently, we let go of or repaired relationships that were holding us back.
For the Lughnasadh arc of the wheel, the omen is Borage. The keywords for borage are "courage, forgetfulness, and gladness." While these are somewhat odd together, I am reminded of something my spouse often says. "Forget me today, so that we can meet anew tomorrow." The idea is that we should not carry preconceived notions about people, or situations, with us, and we should not hold any grudges toward others. Similarly, borage calls us to have the courage to look beyond ourselves, towards what is for "the greater good." It could be through selflessness, advocacy, or just being willing to move past old grudges and hurts that have been the focus of the last two arcs. We are done with them.
From the east, representing our mental, intellectual life, we have Agrimony. That certainly fits into the whole journey we've been on, as we get rid of those old things that have been holding us back, and make way for the new. One of the things associated with the purification of Agrimony is that in addition to purifying, it also energize, so we can forge ahead courageously, as Borage indicates.
From the south, Plantain informs our sensuality and our instincts. The resiliency of Plantain supports the energy of Agrimony, while also reminding us to remain grounded. For some reason, this brings to my mind work with the lower chakras.
West brings the energy of Swan to our emotions, feeling selves. Swan brings us love and beauty, and is reminder that we too our worthy of love, of others and of ourselves.
Finally the North and our intuitive, spiritual side is the energy of Seal. Seal dives into the depths of the oceans, the waters of the world, a fairly overwhelming process. However, like the souls that travel under the waters back to Guinay, we emerge transformed.
Taken together, having left behind the hurts of the past we forge courageously ahead, and what is forgiven is also forgotten; it no longer holds sway over us. We work this 8th on purifying ourselves further and energizing us for the work ahead. We work on being resilient and grounded, remembering that to love others, we must first love ourselves, and we use all of that to dig deep into the waters of wisdom to aid us in this transformation.
Bright blessings!
We are now almost finished with the year. This year's keynote was the Air Dragon, a very powerful insight and clarity. Like a bolt of lightning, many of us may have received sudden realization of what our path shoudl be, and all the steps of the year were necessary to understand and work with that realization. Most recently, we let go of or repaired relationships that were holding us back.
For the Lughnasadh arc of the wheel, the omen is Borage. The keywords for borage are "courage, forgetfulness, and gladness." While these are somewhat odd together, I am reminded of something my spouse often says. "Forget me today, so that we can meet anew tomorrow." The idea is that we should not carry preconceived notions about people, or situations, with us, and we should not hold any grudges toward others. Similarly, borage calls us to have the courage to look beyond ourselves, towards what is for "the greater good." It could be through selflessness, advocacy, or just being willing to move past old grudges and hurts that have been the focus of the last two arcs. We are done with them.
From the east, representing our mental, intellectual life, we have Agrimony. That certainly fits into the whole journey we've been on, as we get rid of those old things that have been holding us back, and make way for the new. One of the things associated with the purification of Agrimony is that in addition to purifying, it also energize, so we can forge ahead courageously, as Borage indicates.
From the south, Plantain informs our sensuality and our instincts. The resiliency of Plantain supports the energy of Agrimony, while also reminding us to remain grounded. For some reason, this brings to my mind work with the lower chakras.
West brings the energy of Swan to our emotions, feeling selves. Swan brings us love and beauty, and is reminder that we too our worthy of love, of others and of ourselves.
Finally the North and our intuitive, spiritual side is the energy of Seal. Seal dives into the depths of the oceans, the waters of the world, a fairly overwhelming process. However, like the souls that travel under the waters back to Guinay, we emerge transformed.
Taken together, having left behind the hurts of the past we forge courageously ahead, and what is forgiven is also forgotten; it no longer holds sway over us. We work this 8th on purifying ourselves further and energizing us for the work ahead. We work on being resilient and grounded, remembering that to love others, we must first love ourselves, and we use all of that to dig deep into the waters of wisdom to aid us in this transformation.
Bright blessings!
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