New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
It is the season of the harvest. We are between the harvest festivals of Lammas and Mabon, surrounded by the bounty of the fruitful earth. But as Witches, we know there are many kinds of abundance and many ways to reap the seeds we planted earlier in the year. Don’t forget to take the time to celebrate all the things in your life that have brought you joy—the people, the animals, the successes, and even the failures that taught you something important. Celebrate the enduring ...
It’s Lammas, the first of the harvest sabbats, celebrating corn and Lugh, an ancient harvest god. Grains are honored during this sabbat, but especially corn. Begin this ritual at sunrise. Cover your altar in yellow fabric. In the center, place one yellow candle. In front of the candle, lay one ear of corn with the husk removed. Safely light the candle. Meditate on how grains such as corn, the Mother of Seeds, have fed civilization since before recorded history. Then speak these ...
Lammas is the most important day in my personal ritual calendar (the anniversary of my initiation), along with being the first harvest. Prepare your ritual space, and have offerings of fresh-baked cornbread, grapes, and beer. Cast a circle with your wand, athame, or hand. Start in the north or the east. Use your tool to send out energy, defining the sacred circle you will use, turning clockwise until you end up in the direction in which you began. Then invite the directions, starting with the ...
Like the year and the moon, our lives move through seasons and phases. August opens with Lammas, traditionally the time of the first harvest. We learned in our Pagan 101 classes that we celebrate the full moon by metaphorically harvesting what we have metaphorically planted. So what’s your crop at half past August? How’s your life coming along? Consider this: wherever you are today, your life is full today. Alone or with your coven, cast your customary full-moon circle with white candles ...
