Bringing olden ways to modern days,
For Wiccans,
Witches,
Pagans,
And all who honor a nature-based path.
This is Desert Magic,
With Crow Moon.
Merry Meet,
And welcome back to another episode of Desert Magic.
I'm your host,
Crow Moon,
Coming to you from the beautiful and magical desert of southern Arizona.
The ever-turning Wheel of the Year now brings us to the First Harvest.
How you refer to this day depends largely upon your preference or tradition.
For many Wiccans,
This is the Sabbath of Lammas.
Others in the pagan community prefer to call it Lugnasa,
Which is in the Celtic tradition,
As opposed to Lammas,
Which is in the Anglo-Saxon tradition.
Regardless of what you call it,
We are all celebrating the same thing,
The First Harvest of the Year,
A festival of bread.
Also,
Regardless of what you call it,
Or whether you even celebrate it or not,
I welcome you here.
As always,
What we see in the Wheel of the Year is representative of that which we experience in life itself.
At this Sabbath,
At least from an agricultural standpoint,
We see and harvest the first fruits of our labors.
From both an agricultural and spiritual perspective,
The sun is showing its first signs of waning,
Before this energy is born again at the Sabbath of Yule.
If we pay attention,
We might also notice that our energy is,
Shall we say,
Becoming a bit more relaxed.
After all,
We have spent a lot of energy over the course of summer,
Enjoying and sharing in the vibrance of the season.
Lammas,
Which is how I refer to the Sabbath in my tradition,
Is therefore basically a pause,
A time between a period of heightened energy and just before we enter into a period of rest.
The First Harvest is upon us.
Joined together are we to give thanks for the Earth's continued abundance,
As we celebrate the Sabbath of Lammas and honor the Celtic god,
Lugh.
That was Our Harvest,
By yours truly.
In the modern world,
Few of us associate the month of August with the idea of any sort of feast,
But this was most definitely a festive time to our forebearers.
The First Harvest was a time of checking in,
Doing a bit of tallying to note whether or not the fields had produced sufficient grains to sustain them until the next growing season.
Behold,
We now see the sun starting to fade ever so slowly before the dark half of the year begins its return.
This is a time of harvesting corn and grains.
Harvesting grains and baking bread were of critical importance to our ancestors at Lammas,
So we honor them and the season by also baking bread and giving thanks for the abundance in our lives.
With Lammas being the First Harvest,
We can feel an even stronger connection to the Earth and our crops.
And while we look forward to the days becoming somewhat cooler,
We recognize that nothing would be on our dinner table without the energy of the sun.
That was Laf,
Also by me,
Its title being the Old English word for bread or loaf.
Especially during this season,
Many pagans make a clear distinction between Lammas and Ludnasa because there is once again some overlap between Christian and pagan observances at this time.
Lammas,
In the Catholic Church,
Means loaf mass,
Which,
Similar to what is observed in paganism,
Is a celebration of the harvest of grains and bread.
In the Christian celebration,
Emphasis is placed upon the bread that is used for sacramental purposes,
Whereas those who follow the old ways are celebrating all bread.
Take a few moments sometime this week to simply call to mind the importance that bread and grains play in our day-to-day existence.
Think about how much bread is being baked and consumed on a daily basis in all places around the world.
It's almost impossible to imagine an accurate picture of how vast this really is.
This goes far beyond what we consume in our homes.
Think about how many restaurants,
Shelters,
And so forth prepare meals with bread,
Contributing to our reliance upon it.
Now,
Further think about this in the context of our ancestors,
For whom this was also very much a component of their survival.
They worked diligently in the fields the entire growing season,
And,
Without the same storage facilities we enjoy in the present day,
Their harvest had to be kept in such a way as to last for almost an entire year.
Reflecting upon these things,
We are reminded that we should never take any of the foods we eat for granted,
And the fact that there is such an abundance in the world even today is worthy of a celebration.
At this Sabbath and always,
Take a pause to appreciate the abundance in your life.
Appreciate the ways in which those all around us,
Some we know,
Some we don't know,
Contribute to this.
And along the way,
Don't forget to appreciate the contributions that you make,
For there are many.
Until next time,
The crow flies from me to thee,
To send the message,
Blessed be.
