Lughnasadh

 

 

“In Celtic Reconstructionism, Lughnasadh is seen as a time to give thanks to the spirits and deities for the beginning of the harvest season, and to propitiate them with offerings and prayers not to harm the still-ripening crops.” – Wikipedia

 

This is the first of three great harvest celebrations.  Lugh, or Lug, was a great Celtic King and God of Light.  August is his sacred month when he initiated festivities for his mother Tailtiu.    There was great feasting, markets, games and bonfires held.  If their harvest was good, they would celebrate their skills at harvesting.  The harvest weas then stored for the hard winter months.

The Great Mother was honored as the Celts celebrated the cycles of life, death, and rebirth.  Grain was the heart of the celebrations.  Great loaves of bread were made from the newly milled grain.

 

Sue’s Artisan Bread

 

3 ¼ cups flour

1 teaspoons salt (or 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt)

½ teaspoon yeast

1 ½ cups warm water

 

In a bowl, stir the flour, salt, yeast and water until combined.

Cover with plastic wrap and set at room temperature for 8 – 24 hours.

Gently turn out dough on to well floured piece of parchment paper and form into a ball.

Rest 30 minutes.

In the meantime, place baking dish (I use a cast iron roasting pan), and lid, into the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.

Slash the top of the bread with an X pattern.  (This is important because bread will blow out and not hold the shape of a loaf.)

Gently transfer the parchment and dough into the heated roasting pan and bake 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake another 10 – 15 minutes until golden brown.

Cool before slicing.   

Now is the time to take stock of our own personal strengths and skills.  We all have talents, some have many, and most are trying to find more that they can learn to do.  Lifelong learning is encouraged.  Think of your accomplishments and honor them by accepting compliments you get for them.  Do not dishonor your gifts by deflecting compliments.  Feel a surge of pride. 

It is wonderful to feel a connection with where our food comes from, the hands that helped us have a harvest, and the hands that prepared the feasts.  This is the month to gain a closer connection to Mother Earth.  We all have our unique gifts and talents, our own heritages, our own cultures and I love international recipes to follow and to try to make.  I have been trying to make deeper connections with my heritages of Welsh/English and Norwegian backgrounds.  I love to make foods, in a modern way, that reflect ancestry. 

Our world is in crises.  We are in crises.  We need to gather as much wisdom as we can that might stir us into action.  Deepening our spiritual aspects as the full moon approaches full of Aquarius/.  Aquarius will bring about big changes and we need to know who we are, right to our ancestry.  We are still part of who our ancestors were.  We are simply progression towards a oneness of compassion and justice. Who we were years ago is not who we are now?  Who are we?  What difference are we making in our world today?  I believe that becoming knowledgeable about our ancestry will help us become closer to the spirit of the universe.  Gathering and feasting is a huge part of making this united front that is needed for our world to feel loved again, our Mother Earth to feel loved again, for us to feel loved again. We are not who we were but a moment ago.  We have changed.  We are unique even amidst our communing together.  Our talents and gifts are needed in the world and it is important for us to allow our talents and gifts to thrive and to meld into the healing of the world, others, and ourselves.    

Bake artisan bread, make jam of fresh fruit.  (I have made raspberry freezer jam from our few bush that gave us gallons of fruit this year). Invite friends and those of ‘your tribe’ to come and feast with you.  Have a bonfire.   Commune.  Share, Develop new skills and utilize our talents for the betterment of The All.

 

©Carol Desjarlais 8.06.22 

 

 

 

Lammas

 

 

August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.  -Sylvia Plath

 

In ancient Ireland, Lammas was celebrated during August.  The name of this celebration, Lammas was once called hlaf-mas, "loaf-mass" before the Christians changed the name.  August/Lammas is all about the cycle of life;  birth, life, death and rebirth.  The God of Grain dies but will be reborn again.  I am late setting up my altar for Lammas, but I want to share some ideas so that we remember to celebrate the near-end of harvest. 

Those who follow the Sabbats, arrange our altar to reflect the symbolic meaning of Lammas.  Here are some ideas, and some ways, I have set up my Lammas altar.  I decorated my altar according to my environment at this place and time. 

Grain has been sheaved and grapes and apples are almost ready to harvest.  Ancestors hard work is honored, corn husk dolls are made, tools are honored, protection is called for with weaponry, fresh flowers are placed in vases, straw (or sweetgrass) is braided and put on the altar. (The three strands of braids represent land, sea, sky.)  Popcorn can be used to represent the grain harvest. If you have a small cornucopia, you can add that. 

Candles are added to represent the ancient fires that kept the ancestors warm, helped them change their diet into cooked foods.  As well, candles represent the clearing of negativity, healing, and purifying.  The candle also represents being able to see other perspectives. 

The stones for Lammas are citrine (I have mine I have collected and tumbled, in a small bottle).  The Citrine is all about empowerment, about rising energy, manifestation, evokes wonder and delight, and boosts your self-esteem.  The other stones are carnelian, golden quartz, and yellow fluorite.  Peridot is the main stone and peridot was symbolic of the goddess Pele’s tears.

You should have some kind of vessel and I have used an oil defusing bowl.  Some kind of flower should be added.  Sunflowers are best, but, if you do not have one, like me, add a dollar store bloom. 

Whatever your best skill is, you should add a symbolic representation of that.  I have added an easel to mind that speaks to Lammas.  Weaponry was also a part of August as, after the harvest, the men would go back to warring.  I found an antique shell in Yuma, near the practice fields.  I have added that. 

I am baking artisan bread this afternoon.  I love the rich flavor of a bread made with a long rise.

Metaphorically, our mental, spiritual, and emotional crops are ready for the first harvest,

Resource:  https://ladyandreverie.com/lammas-altar/

Carol Desjarlais 8.5.22

 

Girlfriends: Our Blessings

 

 

“Women helped each other in ways small and large every day, without thinking, and that was what kept them going even when the world came up with new and exciting ways to crush them.”
― Alyssa Cole, Let Us Dream

My friend , my sistuh, and I have been friends for 52 years.  Our kids each call us auntie, and they call each other cousins.  We have had a great half century together.  We may not see each other for a few years and then, when we get together, it is like we never missed a beat.  I went fown to Vancouver to pick her up and I have two weeks of holiday with her. 

It is believed that sending time with girlfriend(s) helps us stay emotionally balanced.  They are our tribe, our safe people, where we can be who we are without judgement.  They are our support , our backbracers, our nurturers.  It is give and take, give and receive, and they are a blessing to us.  They are the ppeople we go to to express our thoughts and discuss everything that goes on from day to day.  They are our cheerleaders and allies.  They are our advisors.

We create bonds and alliances.  We add value to each others lives.  They help us feel meded amd appreciated at a soul-deep level.  They are our comfort when we experience loss.  They add laughter to life.  They kerrep us sharp.  They are key to our sense of happiness, our sense of our being alright, enough, in the world.  It is said that they add longevity to our lives. 

Just as newborn babies do not thrive if they are not held and they do not experience intrractin with others, women do niot thrive as well, without friendships.  Friendships need nurturing, epecially as they become elderly. 

Girlfriends can validate us, share a common bond with us.  They GET us.  They let us complain so that we can use them as backbroads to bounce our struggles off of.  They are worth nruturing and need us to be vigilant and focus on them when we are interacting.    

It takes skill to be a friend, to have friends.  It is said that we learn friendships skills early on in life.  To interact properly with friends is learned, taught, practiced thrughout early childhood.  As we age, we begin to form “clutches”, tribes, of women who compliment us, and throughout life we rebui our tribes through loss of friends.  We build and repair.  We nurture our friendships so our friendships are deep and fulfiling.  The better we are at building and maintaining friendships equates to our own happinesss.  Loving friendships can heal.  Loving friendships enrich our lives.  They help keep us positive. 

 

Life is full of stressors.  Life is full of lonely elderly women.  Life can be tedious, full of pains, full of depression without social interactions with other women.  We need a ‘tribe’ to turn to, who understand uss, who understand aging, and without words, we need our tibe to help us live fuller lives in our physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual realms.  They portect us, help us be resilient, and add longivity to our live.    They help us bear aging and life. 

 

Women cope with life’s stressors because there is always someone who GETS what we are going through.  We do not need friends all the same age.  I have some fabulous younger friends.  We need to befriend new acquainces, so that we do not grow stale.  We get their youthful, parental, roles because we have ‘been there’, ’done that’, and they can delight us with their exuberance and sense of adventure. 

 

Find a friend.  Be more than simply acquaintances.  Value them.  Honor them.  Keep friendships alive and thriving so that, in turn, we live more fuller lives.

©Carol Desjarlais 8.3.22