August 1-2 marks the mid-point
between summer and fall. Known as Lammas, or Lughnasadh (LOO-ne-sah), it's one
of the 8 "Cross Quarter Days" on the Wheel of the Year (the others
are the Summer and Winter Solstices, Spring and Fall Equinoxes, Candlemas {Feb.
2}, Beltane {May 1} and Hallomas/Samhain {October 31}). Lammas is a celebration
of abundance, the time of the harvest, and a potent moment to bring ourselves
back into alignment with the natural world. Although it appears to occur at the
peak of summer, in truth it's the first day of fall, and a time to embrace the
dark.
An evocative description of this
turning comes from a comprehensive mythology site with the delightful double-entendre
title, Myth*ing Links, an
annotated and illustrated collection of worldwide links to mythologies,
fairytales and folklore, sacred arts and sacred traditions, loving compiled and
updated by Kathleen Jenks, PhD.
"Lammas...is a hot, lazy,
delicious time of the year. Bees buzz in the heat of the day, the air is still,
and the force of the sun remains strong, even though its sway over the earth is
slowly diminishing day by day. In the cooler nighttime, frogs and crickets keep
us company. It is here, in the gloaming, when so many rituals begin...
"This is when the powerful
gods of the grain harvests are honored. They are in their prime, sometimes
generous, sometimes quixotic, and always aware with a bittersweet pleasure that
their time will wane, as it always does, and they will die, as they always do,
and yet nevertheless they will return to another delicious summer next year, as
they always do, and have, and will, for this is the endlessly circling Wheel of
the Year, and they ride it proudly.
"Yet there is a darker
nuance, one that surprised me, for I had thought that this was a purely
masculine god's festival. I learned however of Lugh's touching and loving
devotion to his foster-mother, the royal Tailtiu, whose fate may be even more
intimately woven into this season than his..."
Jenks quotes Parabola magazine
author Mara Freeman on the further genesis of Lammas:
"...Lugh dedicated this
festival to his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, who
died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be
cultivated. When the men of Ireland gathered at her death- bed, she told them
to hold funeral games in her honor. As long as they were held, she prophesied
Ireland would not be without song. Tailtiu’s name is from Old Celtic Talantiu,
'The Great One of the Earth,' suggesting she may originally have been a
personification of the land itself, like so many Irish goddesses. In fact,
Lughnasadh has an older name, Brón Trogain, which refers to the painful labor
of childbirth. For at this time of year, the earth gives birth to her first
fruits so that her children might live..."
Dying to the Old
What needs to "die" so
that the new can be born in your life?
Canadian astrologer and tarot
reader Tara Greene says that
Lugh's festival points Southwest, and resonates to the element Air.
"Southwest represents the Place of Healing, of the Dreamer and the Dream.
It is the place of both your Personal Dream and the Sacred Dream of the Planet.
What is your Personal Dream? What is your Sacred Dream? The Sacred Dream is
your Highest Spiritual Dream."
This August 1st, especially if
you've never honored Lammas before, remember your relationship with the Earth
and her cycles. Give thanks for the abundance of beauty, harmony, peace, love,
healing, grace and balance you are inviting into your life and into the
collective, and image-in your Sacred Dream.
The quintessential song for
invoking Gaia's healing Sacred Dream came through John Lennon. Feeling deeply
into these words now, there is a cellular resonance I've not been conscious of
before, although I've heard the song hundreds of times:
Imagine
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one.
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