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Blessings of the First Harvest to you,
August 2nd is Lammas (meaning loaf-mass), the celebration of the beginning of the three traditional harvest festivals (along with September 21st and November 1st). Virtually every culture honored the Grain Goddess: Corn Grandmother, Ceres, Demeter, Freya, Isis and Ziva, to name a few, and bread baked from the first grains is one of the most universal symbols of this harvest. The people gathered on hills such as the Tor in Glastonbury and offered their first fruits in thanksgiving.
I hope you had a chance to watch the opening ceremony for the 30th Olympiad, held in London’s East End. The ancient Tor was featured throughout the changing historical pageantry of that event, culminating with the image of flags of two hundred and five participating countries as well as the flag of the Olympics flying from that ancient hill. For me, the symbolism was especially poignant because I’d been to Glastonbury and climbed the spiraling paths around the Tor in meditation, just as the people would have, thousands of years ago. I remember lying on the gentle curve of the slope, looking up into the sky and marveling at the enduring magic of this powerful place at the center of a confluence of ley lines. A great many legends have been attributed to the Glastonbury Tor and the fact that the director of the pageant chose to give it a starring role is testimony to the enduring mysteries of the Isles of Great Britain.
It is believed that the Goddess gives birth at Lammas and her labor begins at the full moon according to the ancient wisdom. The symbolism of giving birth is rich with meaning. For me it represents release and surrender, receiving the gifts of Mother Earth and allowing abundance in our lives. Release and surrender are really somatic experiences and by that I mean we have to feel it rather than think about it. So if you have something or some situation in your life that you would like to release, you will want to create an image that represents the feeling of release. The symbolic act of writing it on paper and then burning it can help you move into that feeling.
Receiving and allowing are also experiences that belong to the realm of feeling rather than thinking. The Abraham Hicks material has so many technologies around these concepts so I’ll offer one of my favorites. In order to receive abundance, we need to find the feeling of abundance. One way is to acknowledge all that we already have. The tradition of thanksgiving is just that; a heartfelt appreciation, be it of the fruits of the harvest, of friends and family, of home and health. Whatever we can focus on that gives us that wonderful feeling of abundance, hold that focus long enough to really feel it. The more we turn towards that feeling, the more we allow all good things to come.
I wish you all the blessings of this season,
Linda
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