Lammas/Lughnasadh

Halloween rehearsals.

The first of the harvest holidays, one of the four major Pagan holy days, is nearly upon us. August the first is when pagans such as myself celebrate and venerate the abundance of our annual harvest.

In the ancient Celtic pantheon of Goddesses and Gods, it was clear that one God stood out from the rest. We know this because whilst most pagan dieties were fairly local and isolated to one or two tribes, evidence for the worship of this one God has been found from one end of the former Celtic empire (really a bad term, more of a confederation of tribes) to the other. That is the God Lugh. The Wikipedia entry I have linked to is a good one, there is a lot of great information there. As always, most of the information we have comes from the Irish and Welsh Celtic traditions, where they survived Romanization, Germanization and Christianity. The important thing for our purposes is simply that Lugh was the many-skilled God and in many ways appears to have been a form of Celtic sun god. Who better for a celebration of the harvest?

I have to admit I don't really get the neopagan mythology about the sacrifice of the Corn God... but I suspect that is largely because my life is so detached from agriculture and hunting/gathering. This is where I see a lot of Christianity in paganism; or should I say it is the other way round? In any case, the sacrifice of the Corn God that we may have an abundant harvest and sustanance as we head into the part of the year with shorter days and less light leading to the resurrection of the God at the Winter Solstice when the days and light begin to grow again and we enter into the part of the year where we sow our efforts for the future.

Talk about feeling disconnected; my harvest comes from the grocery store. Seasons hardly matter to the unnatural cycle of harvest that surrounds us in this suburban/urban world.

I badly need a vacation. Not time off for surgery and recovery but time to go into nature and plug in; connect to the world and feel her beautiful rythmns again. I'd like to take my daughter with me; but this won't happen anytime soon.

I miss my coven. I have no idea how I will celebrate this holy day on my own.