Morrigan:

MERRY MEET AND WELCOME TO WICCA 101! Our topic tonight is Lammas.

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IF YOU WILL ALL TAKE YOUR SEATS I WILL BEGIN

Lammas/Lughnassadh is coming up in a few weeks, and here is an article written by StormWing which covers not only this Sabbat's lore, but ideas for celebrating it. Lughnassadh (pronounced Loo-Hahs-ah) or Lammas, is one of the Greater Wiccan Sabbats and is usually celebrated on August 1rst or 2nd. Some celebrate this holiday on the first Full Moon in Leo. Other names for this Sabbat include the First Harvest Festival, August Eve , Lammastide, Harvest Home, Ceresalia (ancient roman in honor of the Grain Goddess Ceres) Feast of Bread, Sabbat of First Fruits, Festival of Green Corn (native American) Feast of Cardenas, Cornucopia (Strega), Thingtide and Elembious.

Lughnassadh is named for the Irish Sun God, Lugh, and variant spellings for the holiday are Lughnasadh, Lughnasa or Lunasa - which is actually an Old Irish word that means "August". It is considered a time of Thanksgiving and the first of three Pagan Harvest Festivals, when the plants of Spring wither and drop their fruits or seeds for our use as well as to ensure future crops. Also, first grains and fruits of the Earth are cut and stored for the dark Winter months.

Symbols to represent the Lammas Sabbat include corn, all grains, corn dollies, sun wheels, special loaves of bread, wheat, harvesting tools and the Full Moon. Altar decorations might include corn dollies and/or kirn babies (corn cob dolls) to symbolize the Mother Goddess of the Harvest. Other appropriate decorations include Summer flowers and grains. You might also wish to have a loaf of whole cracked wheat or multigrain bread upon the altar.

Deities associated with Lughnassadh are all Grain and Agriculture Deities, Sun Gods, Mother Goddesses and father Gods. Particular emphasis is placed on Lugh, Demeter, Ceres, the Corn Mother and John Barleycorn (the personification of malt liquor). Key actions associated with Lammas are receiving and harvesting, honoring the Parent Deities, honoring the Sun Gods and celebrating the First Harvest.

Activities appropriate for this time of the year are the baking of bread and wheat weaving (such as the making of Corn Dollies) or other God and Goddess Symbols. Sand candles can be made to honor the Goddess and God of the sea. You may want to string Indian corn on black thread to make a necklace, and bake corn bread sticks shaped like little ears of corn for your Sabbat cakes. The Corn Dolly may be used both as a fertility amulet and as an altar centerpiece. Some bake bread in the form of a God-figure or a Sun Wheel. If you do this, be sure to use this bread in the Cakes and Ale Ceremony. You can create a Solar Wheel or a Corn Man Wheel using a wire coat hanger, cardboard, and several ears of Indian corn complete with the husks. Here is how:

Bend the wire hanger into a circle keeping the hook to hang it by. Cut out a small cardboard circle to glue the tips of the ears of corn onto. You may want to create your Corn Man Wheel as a pentagram using five ears, or a Solar Wheel using eight ears to represent one ear for each circle. Wrap the husks around and glue where necessary, leave some of the husks hanging loose to fray out from the edges and make it more decorative. Where the ears of corn meet in the center, glue them together. This is where the cardboard circle comes into use.

Another "crafty" thing some Wiccans so is hang a broom on the front door of their home, decorated appropriately for the Sabbat. For Lammas, one could decorate the broom with small ears of corn (perhaps Indian corn), corn shucks twisted around in the form of a circle, with the corn seeds hanging loose as further decoration.

It is customary to consume bread or something from the First Harvest during the Lughnassadh Ritual. Other actions include the gathering of first fruits and the study of Astrology. Some Pagans symbolically throw pieces of bread into a fire during the Lammas ritual.

The celebration of Lammas is a pause to relax and open yourself to the change of the season so that you may be one with it's energies and accomplish what is intended. Visits to fields, orchards, lakes and wells are also traditional. It is considered taboo not to share your food with others. This is a time when the God mysteriously begins to weaken as the Sun rises farther in the South, each day grows shorter and the nights grow longer. The Goddess watches in sorrow as She realizes that the God is dying, and yet lives on inside Her as Her child.

It is in the Celtic tradition that the Goddess, in her guise as the Queen of Abundance, is honored as the new mother who has given birth to the bounty; and the God is honored as the God of Prosperity. Spellwork for abundance and good fortune are especially appropriate now, as well as spells for connectedness, career, health and financial gain.

Colors appropriate for Lughnassadh are red, orange, gold and yellow. Also green, citrine and gray. Candles might be golden yellow, orange green, or light brown. Stones to use during Lammas include yellow diamonds, aventurine, sardonyx, peridot and citrine. Animals associated with this time are roosters and calves. Mythical creatures include the phoenix, griffins, basilisks, centaurs and speaking skulls. Plants associated with Lammas are corn, rice, wheat, rye and ginseng. Traditional herbs of the Lammas Sabbat include acacia flowers, aloes, cornstalks, cyclamen, fenugreek, frankincense, heather, hollyhock, myrtle, oak leaves, sunflower, and wheat. Incense for the Lughnassadh Sabbat Ritual might include aloes, rose and sandalwood

Traditional Pagan Foods for the Lughnassadh Festival include homemade breads (wheat, oat and especially cornbread), corn potatoes, berry pies, barley cakes, nuts, wild berries, apples, rice, roasted lamb, acorns, crab apples, summer squash, turnips, oats, all grains and all First Harvest foods. Traditional drinks are elderberry wine, ale and meadowsweet tea.

It is also appropriate to plant the seeds from the fruit consumed in ritual. If the seeds sprout, grow the plant with love and as a symbol of your connection to the Divine. A cake is sometimes baked with Nature, and we are reminded that nothing in the Universe is constant.

I have a short poem here by an unknown author that I think you will enjoy:

Lammas Night

I stood before my altar at Lammastide

and asked the Lord and Lady to be my guides

"Please show to me a vision that I may see what sacrifice is worthy to give to Thee"

They showed to me an apple without a core

They showed to me a dwelling without a door

they showed to me a palace where They may be, and unlock it without a key

How can there be an apple without a core?

How can there be a dwelling without a door?

How can there be a palace where They may be, and They may unlock it without a key?

My spirit is an apple without a core

My mind is a dwelling without a door

My heart is a palace where They may be, and unlock it without a key

I stood before my altar on Lammas night

and gave my Lord and Lady bright

the sacrifice They asked for - with spirit free

Upon that Lammas evening, I gave Them me

Blessed Be. And that concludes my offering for the night. Hope you all got something out of it

Dallas3rd:

this Amairgin's song. i am the wind on the sea/i am the wave of the ocean/i am the roar of the sea/i an powerful ox/i am a hawk on a cliff/i am a dewdrop in sunshine

Azenath:

Thank you, Morrigan

WiseWitch:

Thanks, Morrigan.

Lilyhawk:

wonderful job, Morrigan

Tela420:

That was beautiful, Morrigan

WiseWitch:

We Celtic pagans, not Wiccans, see the holy day a bit differently, of course.

Morrigan:

now, this will be my first Lammas so I'm not sure if I can answer any questions you might have, but I open the floor for them in hopes that there are others here who know more than I

calluna:

thank you Morrigan. good stuff!

Morrigan:

thank you Lilyhawk

Lilyhawk:

{just have to be different, don't you, WiseWitch? {G}}

Morrigan:

do tell WiseWitch!

Menolly OakF:

thank you Morrigan.. it was very informative

WiseWitch:

always, lily [g]

Lilyhawk:

;)

Morrigan:

so Wise, what do you do differently then?

WiseWitch:

First, Corn is not a part of it - barley, yes, but that's what Europeans mean by 'corn'. our corn is maize.

Azenath:

I remember on my "first" I exhausted myself trying to do everything that I read about.

WiseWitch:

now for us Celts, this is the feast of Tailtenn that is pronounced Teltown, Gaelic being.....stubborn.

Lilyhawk:

(makes sense, corn was discovered in America way after the Celts were around...)

Morrigan:

how does that relate Wise...stubborn?

WiseWitch:

Tailtenn was Lugh's foster mother, who cleared the land so barley could be planted. Clearing the land broke her heart and she died.

No, Chatty, just the problems in pronouncing Gaelic names!

Lilyhawk:

hee hee

Morrigan:

I see

WiseWitch:

So Lugh ordained a fair, with feasting and games annually for all time. Barding and fires and feasting would be the focus for most of us Celts.

Morrigan:

do you use the same type of foods for your feast? Or different ones?

WiseWitch:

Sometime we'll have to discuss fostering, and how important that was in Europe. We make bread men, anatomically correct.

RedStar:

(mischievous Grin)

Lilyhawk:

hee hee...

Morrigan:

cool!!

WiseWitch:

But in our grove, some won't eat the naughty parts! So this year we're making a bread phallus, so ALL will have to eat it.

Morrigan:

I know where MY first bite would be {eg}

Lilyhawk:

eek! That's horrible, WiseWitch!

Musashii:

LOL

Morrigan:

lol

calluna:

yum

RedStar:

Wise......Did you inform that that those same Grained items (bread etc)....was also made as women anatomically correct as well...

WiseWitch:

Sometime we'll have to discuss things like fostering, and how important that was to the Celts.

Lilyhawk:

fostering? Like frosting? We are talking about cakes here, right? {G}

Morrigan:

well...what is fostering then WW?

WiseWitch:

We don't do that for this holy day, we do that for Beltane.

WiseWitch:

no, fostering - having childrearing shared by several families.