Blessings of the First Harvest my friends,
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). The Celts called this time Lughnasadh (pronounced loo-na-sa), Native Americans called it the Green Corn Festival and in Slavic Regions it is called the feast of the Big Glad Woman. In India, a cotton festival is held to honor Cotton Mother and the great Bull Dancing of Minoan Crete occurred at this time. (At the opposite time of the year in Peru there is a Corn Parade.) Ireland still celebrates Lammas as Big Sunday and farming communities gather at hundreds of traditional hilltop sites to set up craft fairs, feast, play games and dance. A part of every one of these gatherings is a ceremonial meal where the first fruits of the harvest are shared in gratitude.
Lammas is a time of great thanksgiving, a time to experience feeling gratitude for the abundance that nature provides. There’s a song that captures this feeling and it brings tears to my eyes. It is called ‘Prayer Song’ by Leah Wolfsong (Songs of the Circle) and her words still give me chills.
My song is my prayer
I send the voice of gratitude
I pray for Peace, I pray for Love
I pray for Life
For the Life, for the Life of our planet
Teach us to live in harmony
Teach us to live as one
Harmony as I’ve come to understand it from my Shamanic training is about our essential uniqueness; uniqueness that is in each one of us— we are all the colors of the Rainbow, all of us different and yet the intelligence of life teaches us that we all belong. In this current time our hearts are awakening. This is what it means: that we allow ourselves to open to acceptance, of ourselves and of all others; that we choose love over fear; that we find beauty in all of life; and that we share the good.
If ever there were a time in recent memory for the practice of gratitude and for offering prayers for our planet to live in harmony, this is that time. The best thing we can do is to grace our lives with gratitude, focusing on what is going well, giving us hope and accessing happiness on purpose whenever possible.
"Your happiness is the spark that will ignite global change.” –Ross Arntson
I wish you all awakened hearts full of gratitude,
Linda
lindasavagephd@goddesstherapy.com
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