Happy Lughnassadh and happy Imbolc

In the old Celtic calendar, many say, Lughnassadh was the time when the ageing Sun and Grain God sacrificed his life for the harvest as the last sheaf of grain to be cut down. He transferred his remaining powers to the Earth Mother Eriu. The principle is as valid today, for sometimes what we need to sacrifice in the short term to fulfil our dreams that can bring us long-term gains beyond what we hoped for. This grain was made into the first harvest loaf to transfer the power and courage of the old sun into the lives of those who ate it. This continued as the Christian tradition called Lammas or Loaf mass on August 1 when a loaf made from the harvest was offered on the altar.

At the wheel of the year’s turning, Lammas is for many a hard-won harvest as wars, forest fires and the extremes of climate change and famine persist. Poverty affects every land for the increasing number of have-nots.

But still the Wheel turns. The first harvest demands to be reaped even as half a world away, new seeds are jostling for dominance in the softening soil. The seasons will not be halted.

Time then to celebrate a personal harvest of what we have achieved in the previous year sometimes despite seemingly impossible odds and what we wish to plant in future in faith of better times. No wasted moments regretting what we cannot do or what did not succeed, but within constraints and constrictions, re- awakening our lives in ever more ingenious ways.

Now is the time to do something fun and creative, striving to make an income from what you enjoy most or just enjoying that creativity, finding or restoring true love or rejoicing in being alone, conceiving a healthy child when you had given up hope or moving to the place you most want to be.

For now, too, experience the pleasure of small harvest treasures, rejoicing as you help others also to fulfil their dreams. Value maybe for the first time in ages, who you are as you are, where you are and with whom you are sharing your world or experiencing the freedom to define your separate unique path through life.

The focus of this period is for obtaining justice and for natural justice or karma kicking in, for human and personal rights issues, freedom from abuse of any kind; for partnerships, both personal and legal or business, for signing contracts or concluding property matters(good for house sales and purchases); promotion and career advancement and the regularizing of  personal finances; for holidays and  journeys to see friends and family or on business and the renewal of promises, loyalty and fidelity; also willing sacrifice for a long term gain or one made in love, trusting the cosmos to provide by giving without seeking immediate return.

Ways of Marking the Festival in the Modern world

• Bake your own bread on Lughnassadh Eve or night, either with yeast or from a mix in the shape of a figure who can either represent the Grain\Corn Spirit or the Grain Mother. Add a little milk to the mix and as you stir the mix in turn with friends and family or alone, make wishes for abundance and the harvest you wish to reap during the coming months.
• When your bread is cooked eat or share it and name the transformations you seek in your life/the world.
  
• Bake extra bread or fruit pies to give to neighbours and colleagues who maybe live alone and do not cook for themselves often.
  
• Cut down an area of weeds or overgrown grass in your garden or tidy up plants, remembering to leave some wild for the butterflies and small animals. Alternatively spend a day on an organised project clearing local wilderness or litter strewn areas or beaches , to generate the energies to clear your way ahead in your life and relationships.
  
• Light an orange candle every evening, if possible, for a week around the Lammas festival. Sprinkle a pinch of salt in the flame to let go of any injustice that cannot be put right but which needs to be released from your mind to set you free.
  
• Then add a small pinch of dried sage to the flame and name a blessing however small or an unexpected kindness you have received in the previous few months. At the end of the week, make a practical gesture or spoken small blessing to someone who does not merit it.
  
• Make a Corn spirit figure, as an abstract shape with ears of corn tied together. Burn him/her on the last day of Lughnassadh, just before dusk and scatter the ashes in your garden or on indoor plants to bring abundance to the home during the winter.
  
• If you feel you have been unjustly treated and cannot put matters right, knot dried grasses or pluck the petals of a dying flower, one for each injustice and cast them into running water or bury them, planting late flowering seeds or autumn flowers.
  
• Arrange journeys to see friends and relations or mail or phone making definite plans to meet, as this is a time when tribes would get together before the long winter.
  
• Each day find the smallest blessing and bonus not to be squandered or wished away but making our personal mark on life on our personal renaissance.
  

Happy approaching Imbolc in the southern hemisphere, often celebrated between sunset on July 31 to sunset on August 2.

Imbolc means In the belly of the Mother and refers to the potential for growth in whatever way is most relevant in your life. This festival is associated by many with the pre- Christian tradition of the young maiden goddess Brighid or Bridget, Brigit who with her willow wand melted the winter snows and brought new life to the land. It is also linked with the story of the newly delivered mother of the infant Sun king whose milk is mirrored by the milk of the ewes, who gave this festival its other name of Oimelc or Ewe’s milk. Whether semi-myth or reality these represent the rising energies of the year

The focus of this period is for expressing new ideas, the promise that winter actual or emotional, will end, planning the future and putting out the first shoots of new love and the growth or regrowth of trust, for taking the first steps to launch any projects that start in a small way; for reconciliation with estranged loves or family members and for melting rigid attitudes or prejudice that may have led to conflicts between families and work colleagues; a special time for fertility, for newborn infants, babies and young animals and for animal rescue and the conservation of habitats for wild creatures. 

Above all in both hemispheres, have already been seen in previous years, now increasingly so, the harsh results of climate change, of wars, inequalities of resources, suffering in which there are no winners.

We seek the thawing of Imbolc will allow peace, shared solutions leading to the reduction of climate extremes and a world where cooperation not confrontation, is the harvest to be grown by Lughnassadh. We can all individually strive to make not miracles but a world in which our grandchildren and great grandchildren can be safe and happy For we have only borrowed the world from our descendants and need to honour them and leave for them a beautiful place as the future caretakers.

Ways of marking the festival in the modern world

• Personal and home purification, by burning smudge or incense sticks in sage, sagebrush or cedar and spiralling the smudge around your home, your possessions and yourself before taking the smoke stick outdoors to burn away.
• Personal detoxing and the beginning of a fitness and healthy eating regime to maximise your energy and increase your resistance to ills and chills.
  
• Candle meditations or quiet times sitting by candlelight talking to your family or friends. If you are alone hold a clear crystal between your hands and ask your guardian angel and spirit guides if they have any messages for you. These may be expressed through words that come into your mind or images and sudden good ideas.
  
• Create a candle web with friends or relatives for healing or peace. Choose an evening when you are all at home and pre- agree a time when you can light a white or beeswax candle and all focus on the same person, animal or place, sending send healing through the candle. You can adapt the web for people who live in different time zones. Leave the candle to burn through in a safe place.
  
• Plant seeds, and nurture them, naming for each handful of seeds what you wish to bring into your life in the months ahead.
  
• In age-old tradition, pour a little fresh milk on to the earth as a tribute to the Earth Mother and as you do so, ask for fertility in any aspect of your life you need it. Drink the rest or use it in cooking.
  
• On the night of July 31 or August 1, place nightlights safely at every window of your home to welcome the new energies into your home. Once torches, it is said were lit to welcome Brighid the maiden goddess on her day in the Northern hemisphere, February 1 and later St Bridget on the Christian festival of Candlemas, February 2, the blessing of the candles for the year ahead in a special church service.
  
• Take a green plant or two to refresh your workplace and as a reminder of the coming spring.
  
• Write some poetry or a story or start your novel whether for pleasure of publication.
  

Wherever you live in the world, let your Imbolc even in uncertain times symbolise the promise of future harvest after growth in the unbroken ever-turning  cycle of the world.