August 1, 2023
Today continues with my series of exploring the pagan holidays in hopes of influencing my overall mental health and wellbeing. Today is Lughnasadh also referred to as Lammas. Lugh comes from the Irish god of the same name. Nasad means assembly. In Irish mythology Lugh created the holiday as a funeral feast and competition in honor of his mother who died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland in preparation for farming the land. The holiday is in celebration of the 1st harvest of the season. As the sun is at its peak and the gift of ripening fruit is bestowed on to us. It is meant to honor the cycles of nature and express gratitude for the abundance of the planet. It is the first of the three harvest festivals celebrated within the year. Some of the rituals for celebration are to meet up with community, friends, and family in a gathering or celebration, bake a Lammas loaf representative of the harvest, create an altar of fresh produce from the land to give gratitude to the harvest from this year, light a candle that is red, orange, or yellow in honor of Lugh and the sun.
This celebration was by far my favorite while the other holidays leading up to now felt heavy. A lot of shadow work and things to be released and cleansed. Full focus and attention on what needed to grow and change. This time frame between Litha and Lammas felt different. It felt like something major was shifting and the beginning of the harvest that I had been planting was finally coming to fruition. Throughout the last few weeks, I have experienced many signs of change and transformation. A friend of mine came over to my house during this time and mentioned that it was curious to her the way the flies that had come to burden my house were spiraling chaotically in the threshold of the two rooms. She got me thinking what this could symbolize a quick search to google would tell me that this could be a spiritual messenger meaning death and rebirth big transformation energy. Later, that week I would come to find three dead birds all on different days out front of my house in the same general location where I couldn’t miss them. Not too mystical as I have a cat that likes to show her independence. Curiosity got me in the end though and I took to google once more to find the significance of dead birds. As you can probably guess yep… death and rebirth. The days continued, and more nature messages would keep coming, a dragonfly would fly at my face when I opened the front door a symbol of transformation. I would even find a chrysalis hanging out on my bathroom floor in front of my washing machine when I was going to wash my dirty clothes. How could that have ended up there in a spot I would for sure take notice of it. A chrysalis you know that thing that moths and butterflies enter right before metamorphosis where they take their final form. I could feel that the energy was significantly pointing to great change and transformation. The seeds I had planted up to this point were coming to fruition. My confidence is at an all-time high. At a time when I should feel defeated, I was unable to find an internship to continue with my master program. Scared to take on more student loans, I already can’t afford to pay back if not able to get the internship needed for my future career anyways, I had to take time from my school. I didn’t feel scared though I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be and doing the things I needed to be doing. I posted a few tik toks that began to explain who I am and what I want to achieve in my career. My habits and routines were constantly at the forefront of my mind. I need to wake up and give gratitude and plan out my day. I need to do dancing and cardio daily to begin my day. I need to use my planner and calendar and get more organized. I need to start truly taking care of myself and ensuring my outward appearance is a true reflection of my internal state of being. I have been extremely focused on health and getting my physical body in order. Aligning my physical actions with my mental ambitions.
During this time, we had a new moon in cancer, the sign of home and family. The new moon symbolizes new beginnings and blessings. It is also the exact placement the moon will be in next year on the day of my wedding or union ceremony with my chosen partner. I started our wedding invites that day and announced the spell I would be doing. I also got the idea then to do spells for our individual selves for our next birth cycles as both of our birthdays were coming up. We are both Leo sun’s so our energy for creation and manifestation is at its all-time highest. I did a spell for his birthday and will be doing one for my own on Friday evening as it turns to the 5th of august my birthday. I felt this was divinely guided timing and creative inspiration. Leo season’s celebration festival Lammas would fall perfectly in between the two and be an opportunity for blessings and gratitude.
On the day of celebration, I woke up this morning feeling rested and optimistic. I set my intentions for the day and got out of bed. I had a nice relaxing morning and got in a nice bath with lavender and rosemary. I got dressed in a dress my mother bought me as a gift on my last birthday. I felt pretty and well taken care of. I did a little bit of yoga and dance meditation where I gave thanks for the things in my life and stated things I would like to bring into my life. I spent the morning cleaning my yard and my home in preparation for my birthday celebration on Friday. The death of my 20’s celebration/ ritual. I went to the store and got the ingredients to make Lammas loaf based on a quick google search recipe. The recipe I found gave a nice protection spell with it where you cut it into four equal parts symbolizing the elements and put them at all four corners of your home for protection for the following year for your home and family. I absolutely loved the sound of that and of course did that. I then filled up the potion bottle soon to be used for my birth cycle spell with water to soak in the moonlight as tonight amazingly enough is not only a full moon but also a supermoon. One of two supermoons to be seen in the month of August with the blue supermoon coming at the end of the month. The moon is also in the sign of Aquarius which is energy of once again change. At a recent family gathering a relative brought oranges, apples, and peaches as a gift and it was perfect to set up a harvest on my altar for the celebration. I also recently began collecting beautiful plants I had found in nature while hiking with my children, at the beach, or walking in my own backyard. I made a lovely jar spell with the ingredients from both pieces of the harvested fruit and the natural ingredients I had scavenged up. I sealed it with a red candle to symbolize the root chakra strengthening my connection to myself and making inspired actions for change in my daily life. also, in hopes to bring me physical world blessings and aid me in changing my habits to align to a new more authentic version of myself. I then began writing all these ideas of things I would like to do with my career and creative ideas are flowing to me effortlessly. I was eager to begin writing this. Aging has always terrified me, and I was dreading 30 but the energy doesn’t at all feel scary it feels like my truest life is just about to begin and I am getting the smallest taste of my first harvest and so much more is yet to come over the next harvest festivals. Funny that my harvest seems so small also because I started my very first garden this year and a common ritual for Lammas is to feast from your harvest and so I went to my garden this morning to feast on my harvest only to find I only had one singular green bean ready for consuming. I ate that singular green bean though and gave gratitude because no matter how small the reward for all my time and effort I am abundantly grateful for each individual blessing I am creating.
Oh and #incaseyougiveash*t the bread was delicious!
Add comment
Comments