High Day Explanation: Lammas/Lughnasadh

Lammas, Freyfaxi, Hlafmaest, or Lughnasadh (named in honor of the Celtic God Lugh), marks the first of two harvest festivals and is celebrated at the beginning of August.

I grew up in Green Bay, WI, a city surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of corn fields and dairy farms (so much of it has since been sold off to developers) so I had a very rudimentary understanding of what the growing season entailed.  Driving west out to Seymour Lake many times over the course of the summer, I could gauge whether or not the corn was growing on schedule (knee high by the fourth of July).  Late summer heralded the beginning of the Brown County Fair and the grocery stores were flooded with sweet corn and farm stands began popping up everywhere.    

Now, as a baby homesteader on thirteen acres of land with ever expanding vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens, I understand the harvest in a much more personal and physical way than I ever did as a kid.  I’ve been enjoying the fruits of my labor since late June, but now the gardens are exploding.  I’m out in the gardens almost every day and my canning equipment has been dusted off and won’t be put away until December when I finish making my homemade sauerkraut.   Preparations for winter are underway and besides stocking my pantry with canned goods to last us for the next year, my husband and I are busy cutting, splitting, and stacking wood (which takes us at least two months to finish) that will feed our wood stove and keep our house warm throughout the many cold months ahead.

Fourth High Day Recap: Summer Solstice - 2014

My Summer Solstice celebration was kept simple and very low-key this year.  I am still grieving the loss of three pets within a span of only 23 days in May.  I just couldn't muster enough enthusiasm to perform a full-blown Summer Solstice ritual this year. 

Summer Solstice Bonfire

I spent the night in our woods, burning a large bonfire of wind fallen tree debris that I had cleared from a small section of the woods.  My two dogs kept me company while I kept an all-night vigil, marinaded in natural bug repellant, and tended the fire.  At dawn, I greeted the morning sun with open arms and a short prayer of love and gratitude.    I returned indoors where I spent some quiet time alone in front of my altar to do my daily morning devotional.  

The weather was cooperative this weekend so I was able to enjoy an entire afternoon working in my gardens and then a long, early evening walk in my woods where I visited the new area I have chosen to build my Grove/Nemeton this summer.   The tree arch at my original location snapped loose sometime in early spring when the ground began to thaw after a long and extremely cold winter. 

Broken Tree Arch

New area where I will build my Grove/Nemeton this summer

Maple Tree Arch

Area around my "Sacred Space"

Third High Day Recap: Imbolc 2014

NOTE:  This essay is not in its final form.  It will undergo several revisions before it is  "submission" worthy. 

       For quite some time, I’ve been troubled by the fact that performing ritual has been an awkward and unnatural experience for me.   I’ve participated in group ritual before, and can easily commit the entire script to memory so I won't be encumbered by flipping pages or losing my place..  I admit—I’m not the world’s most inspiring orator, but I know that can be improved with time and practice.  So I began to wonder:  Do my problems stem from the fact that the gods are as unimpressed with it all as I am?  That the distance that has developed between us, whether real or imagined, is due to my hazy intentions and distracted heart?  

        

      I approached this year's Imbolc celebration with simplicity and few expectations.  It started earlier in the day when I took a long walk in my woods and visited the site I have chosen to build my sacred grove come spring.  I collected enough freshly fallen snow that once melted, would be placed in a small blue glass jar to be blessed by Brighid.   The sense of anticipation built as I wrapped myself up in the multi-colored ritual shawl I had knit for myself with all the skeins of yarn leftover from the many blankets, shawls, and scarves I had crafted as holiday gifts for family and friends.   

     I performed the ritual just minutes before midnight on February 1^st, and it was the first time that I had ever felt truly inspired and became physically aware that I was in the presence of the Kindred.   I can’t express the experience in words, but I just felt different.  

            I’m a solitary ADF member and perform my rituals alone.  It was quiet in my room, except for the soft snores and sighs from my dogs who were sound asleep and oblivious to the proceedings.  I lit the candles and poured an offering of goat’s milk to Brighid.  The words I spoke, although familiar to those I have recited in the past, finally found their true voice and I was filled with an empowering sense of love and gratitude.

            When the ritual was complete, I brought my shawl outside where it would hang beneath the cold, star strewn winter sky to be blessed by Brighid when she passed by sometime during the night.  The jars of melted snow and goats milk were placed in my window sill.  The candle I lit in Brighid’s honor, and whose flame I will tend to until it is extinguished at the Spring Equinox, was left to burn all night.

        
      

OMENS DRAWN:  Questions asked:  Do you have any wisdom to share and is there anything you require of me?

Shining Ones:  Ruis-Elder: Transition

Ancestors:  Muin-Vine:  Introspection

Land Spirits:  Ur-Heather:  Dreams, Feelings

Brighid- Deity of the Occasion:  Or-Spinille:  Creativity

(Word Count:  550)

Third High Day Explanation: Imbolc 2014

A tradition I began at Imbolc a few years ago, was to make a list of “Sacred Intentions.”  This is my version of New Year resolutions, but composed long after the guilt-induced  hangover of the holiday season has passed.  Imbolc is approximately the

half-way point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, and it feels like the perfect time to start shedding the heavy layers I have accumulated over the course of the season.  Having been locked in by below freezing temperatures since December 5th, it's hard to remain optimistic that spring will ever come, but I keep the faith by designing my garden expansions, ordering vegetable and herb seeds, and envisioning what my sacred grove will look like when it is no longer buried beneath several feet of snow.

Lughnasadh/Lammas Ritual

I performed my first Core Order of Ritual (COoR) this morning in honor of Lughnasadh.  I had originally planned to celebrate this high day out in my woods, but the forecast was calling for rain, so I played it safe and set everything up on my small indoor altar.

Here are a few thoughts on the experience:

1.  For my next High Day, I am going to memorize the entire ritual.  I don't like having to shuffle papers and reading from a ritual "script" felt clumsy and awkward.  I would want it there in case I got lost or needed to use it as a memory prompt, but I was so busy concentrating on reading the words and trying to find creative ways to free up my hands so I could light the candles and make offerings, that a great deal of the ritual's meaning and emotion got lost.

2.  I need to bring more offerings.  What I gave didn't feel like it was enough.  (Offerings were homemade baked bread, herbs, flowers, and greens from my gardens, and an alcoholic beverage I made from the strawberries I picked at a local farm this past June). 

3.  I didn't draw an omen because I haven't decided upon a divination system yet.

4.  I forgot to wear my ritual shawl.

5  Although my altar was beautiful, it's small and I would have preferred to be outside.  It's a perfect place for my morning and evening devotionals, but for a High Day ritual, it began to feel claustrophobic...I prefer to have enough room to stretch my wings.  

      It may sound like I'm only focusing on the negative, when in fact there was a great deal of positive things that came out of it.  I learned what I need to change and improve upon for my next ritual, but more importantly, I realized how much I actually enjoy doing it.  I get to be an active participant instead of someone stuck sitting in the pews and bored to death.  I feel like I've crossed a major hurdle. 

Second High Day Explanation - Lammas/Lughnasadh

How I celebrated the Winter Solstice

After the dreary and melancholy weather of November overstayed its welcome (last weekend we had rain and temperatures in the high 40's) an old-fashioned Upper Peninsula winter storm finally arrived on the afternoon of December 20^th and dumped a good 16” inches or more of snow before it cleared out of the area on the 21^st.   I was granted my Yuletide wish.

I didn’t get the opportunity to celebrate the Winter Solstice until Saturday the 22^nd but I made the most of it.  Alone, I hiked out into the woods, making my way through deep, sometimes waist high, snow drifts.  I stopped frequently to soak in the breath taking scenery around me and to capture it all with my digital camera.  I didn’t have a particular destination in mind since I am still taking the time to get intimately familiar with these eleven wooded acres I just purchased less than a month ago to add to my beloved three acre homestead.  I decided to follow the deer tracks and trust that they would lead me to the perfect place to hold my ritual. 

I’m not sure how far I hiked and I doubt it will be easy to find this place again as winter winds and storms can completely transform a landscape, but I knew it the moment I saw it…a small area semi-enclosed by a border of trees.  From my winter coat, I removed a yellow candle, the only ritual “tool” I had brought with me to symbolize the returning sun, and placed it in the snow.  I stood for a long moment, silently watching the flame flicker and dance as the wind gently sighed through the trees.

 

The ritual I had spent weeks crafting and fine-tuning was abandoned for something much more spontaneous and meaningful.  I formally introduced myself to the Land Spirits that reside in this beautiful wooded acreage and gave them my word that as their new guardian, I would love and care for this land that had known only neglect and indifference for more than 30 years.   I honored my ancestors of blood, bone, and spirit but I did not, however, call upon any specific deity.  Even though I have felt the presence of the gods every day of my life, the more I pursue them, the more elusive they become.  Yet, somehow I know that they are always there--as steady as a heartbeat.  

My ritual complete but in no rush to return home, I began exploring the area around my ritual site only to be stopped dead in my tracks by a deep, loud growl behind me.  I slowly turned around and saw, just beyond some small pine trees, the dark body of an animal but couldn't tell what it was.  I starting yelling at him, the entire time thinking, "Oh great, I'm going to get mauled to death and all they're going to find is my bloody corpse."  Then the wild animal started running toward me and all my brain could muster up as a reaction was, "oh shit!"  As he plowed through the snow in my direction and I braced myself for my violent demise, a familiar, goofy looking face emerged and almost knocked me on my ass. 

He's a hunting dog that belongs to the neighbors who own the 20 acres just north of me (I've had to bring him home several times in the past).  He happens to be one of the sweetest, most gentle babies alive but I know that we both scared the hell out of each other.  He runs out in these woods all the time and I’m sure he never expected to encounter a crazy human babbling to herself out in the middle of nowhere.  After a quick friendly greeting and a loving pat on his head, he high tailed it home and I enjoyed a good laugh at my own expense.  Of course, it would have been funnier if my heart hadn't gotten lodged in my throat!   

The ass end of the "wild" dog running toward home...:)