Lughnasadh

07/31/20 • 28 min

Welcome dear ones to the Sixth Festival of the year that is Lughnasadh - the first of the three harvest festivals. It is high summer. Fields, crops, and orchards have been drinking in the summer rains, hosting the blessed bees, bats, and butterflies, and growing fruits, grains, nuts, and berries. This first harvest festival is also referred to as Lammas, the Loaf Mas, and marks the harvest of the grains.

This time of heat and light is a celebration of all that has been seeded and grown. In the face of our human awakening and the clearing of old wounds and old ways making space for the growth of the new, we can take pause at this time to reflect on all that has grown, all that is beautiful, all that is true.

Sacrifice is also a common theme here at Lughnasadh - that we too must now sacrifice the warm part of the year, the light-filled energetics of the growing half of the year, and welcome the cooling, deepening, and going within. The invitation here is to celebrate life and the harvest with great intention, in preparation for the darkening and cooling ahead. Take stock and assessment of the harvest of your year - what was planted and has now flourished? What blessings can we be thankful for? While the days are long and warm, while the flowers blossom and the trees bear their fruit, let’s unite in our deepest appreciation for all that we have on this resplendent, green, beautiful Earth and fill our hearts and our cups to the brim.

In this offering, we explore the story of Lugh, the Great Goddess Tailtu, and the festival celebrating their myth at this time of year. We pause through poetry and reflection to honor our divinity, wounds, and healing journeys. And we close with a rattling to honor the Sun Gods and the well Divine Masculine energy in our world. May you and all you hold dear be blessed by the radiance of the Sun, the Season, of the Ancient Ones honored by this festival, Lugh and Tailtiu. I wish you a beautiful, sacred, and health-filled high summer festival of Lughnasadh!

Previous Episode

Beltane

Welcome, dear ones, welcome to the beloved, ancient fire festival of Beltane! This sun-fire festival is a full half-year turn of the wheel from Samhain when the ancestral veil is thinnest. At Beltane, the veils are also thinned, but they are the curtains that protect the realms of the fae, our etheric kin. We offer them sweetness and play at this time of the year, and offer them our truest thanks for tending the budding shoots and unfurling tendrils, bringing green life back into our lives.

At the time of this podcast recording, the world is being awoken. An emergence is upon us; we are facing the delicate fragility of our human walk and meeting the sheer force of reckoning that is the natural world. We are also being offered exceptional beauty. The air is clearing. The mountains are being revealed. The animals are returning. The Earth is stilling.

I dedicate this Beltane podcast to celebrating on your own. There are so many ways to lovingly celebrate at this time and the Earth in all her ripening splendor is so very deserving of our attention! She continues, unphased and unstopped by the cultural movements of human people so even though we may not be able to gather together in large numbers, dancing around a maypole, feasting with friends, or frolicking under the moonlight, there are so many ways we can bring the richness, fecundity, and celebration of Beltane into our lives.

As part of my offering, and in service of this month of May, I offer you some rituals and pathways to connect with the flame of the Belfire, the sacred waters of the Beltane morning dew and the wildness within us all.

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The Autumnal Equinox - Mabon

Welcome dear ones, dear hearts, welcome to the seventh festival - the Autumnal equinox. In this episode, I offer you a little respite from the world. A moment just for yourself where you can reflect upon and honor this most beautiful of festivals. This is the second of the three harvest festivals, preceded by Lughnasadh and followed by Samhain. This is the festival of the horn of plenty, the cornucopia, where we are invited to gather and connect and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

We explore the lore and spirit behind this festival's modern name, Mabon, the balance and maturing of the energies we find this time of year, and the equal breath we enjoy in this threshold moment on the Wheel of the Year. We celebrate in this episode with a water offering and words adapted from Akasha Ap Emrys, along with a rattling, to welcome in this new season. Blessed Autumn Equinox to you all!