Lammas Or Lughnasadh Cozy Chat

Jenny has been a witch for 3 decades, here in this cozy chat, she explains how anyone can tune into the energy of the Lammas or Lughnasadha as part of the Witch's Wheel of the Year. Lammas is one of eight sabbats celebrated by witches throughout the year. Learn about the energy of the season and receive some journaling questions to reflect upon for the season.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to your cozy chat on the pagan or witch's holiday of Lunasa,

Also known as Lamas.

My name is Jenny C.

Bell.

I am the author of Spirit Crystals,

Discover Your Crystal Guide for Healing and Empowerment,

And the host of our coven.

I've been a witch for over 30 years,

And I created this series on the Sabbaths for the witches and the witch's wheel because sometimes it's nice to hear about the Sabbath instead of reading about it,

And over the years I have just kind of come up with my own ways of celebrating these holidays that deviate a little bit from what we read in books.

So first thing I would love you to know is that this holiday falls on August 1st.

It is a cross-quarter holiday.

What that means is that it doesn't land on an equinox or a solstice,

But in between.

So in this case,

This is in between the summer solstice and the fall equinox,

And something I would love for you to think about is the holidays on August 1st.

Does that mean that you have to drop everything and tune in and do celebratory things on that day?

No.

We begin the energy of Lunasa,

Lamas,

On August 1st,

And that energy remains until closer to the equinox.

So whenever you have time,

You can tune in,

And that's just something that I have kind of come to understand for myself as I've gone through these holidays.

I first began celebrating these holidays as a teenager.

It's very easy,

Right?

There's no job,

There's no kids,

There's no spouse or partner,

There's no real obligation,

But as I've gotten older and life has become more busy,

I've found that that's a better way to celebrate for most people.

So some things I would love you to know is that this is considered the first harvest holiday,

And so we think about,

We reflect on what we are harvesting.

So I would love for you to think back to either if you did New Year's resolutions,

Or if you're following this series and in the spring you started to plant seeds of what you wanted to grow this year,

I want you to reflect back at this time on some of the things that are coming to fruition,

Maybe some of the things that no longer serve you.

Like,

Wow,

My resolution was to do this thing,

And that no longer feels important or aligned or in my energy.

I don't want,

I don't even care about that anymore.

And then there might also be like,

I'm still working on this goal,

Right?

I set this goal to eat healthier or nourish my body with vitamins,

And some days,

Some weeks I'm falling off that wagon.

And so this is a time,

This time is in between summer and fall,

This is a time to start to let go of some of the goals,

Manifestations,

Seeds,

Things that are no longer aligned.

It's the time to celebrate the ones that are coming to fruition,

Or the ones that seem to be happening for you.

And it's also a time to maybe light a little fire under yourself to get the other goals accomplished that maybe fell by the wayside.

And it's really your choice.

I look at this time,

These cross border days are like crossroads in a way,

Because it's like,

Do I want to lean more into the summer energy and keep going on these goal setting and that energy of the solar energy and like keep going with that momentum?

Or do I want to lean more towards the fall and start to slow down and let things go.

And this is a very individualized path.

So this is a time,

These cross border days,

Think of them as crossroads.

And that's how you're going to kind of navigate,

I think this holiday.

I like to also at this time,

One of the things we've done as a family is we do a dinner.

And you can do this with friends,

You can do this alone.

But I really love the practice of trying to find things that are locally grown.

So if you have a farmer's market,

Or you're part of a CSA basket,

Or even just going to the store and looking for what is being harvested at this time,

Then I try to do a dinner based off of that.

So I'm in North America.

And so this dinner is always cornbread because corn is usually harvested right around this time here.

I usually do cornbread and some kind of like chili or stew or something with some seasonal vegetables to just kind of tune in with the energy.

Some things you might want to have like around or to work with is I really like to do corn dolls at this time.

A corn doll use the corn husk of shucking corn,

It can be fresh or dried.

And you make a doll and I like to do that.

It's fun to do with children.

And I like to just have the doll out on my altar.

You can give it you can make turn it into a poppet if that's something that's in your practice.

But I really like to do that.

I think too,

This is a good time to have womb symbols of the womb on your altar around the house.

And to me,

That's an empty bowl,

Right?

It's a cauldron,

It's empty bowl,

It's a seashell,

It's a,

You know,

It's something that's empty.

And then you can start to maybe put some of the things that you're grateful for that you're harvesting into the bowl.

So let's say that you made more money this year,

Yay for you,

Right?

Okay,

So in the bowl,

You could put actual money,

Or you can put like your latest check stub,

Or you can write,

I'm grateful for more money and put it in the bowl.

So it's like a little gratitude bowl that you're filling up.

It's a good visual,

And also a good ritual.

I like to have flowers around this time too.

We have a local flower farm,

And there's a lot of flowers that are coming into like their peak season.

And it's kind of the last time to get flowers like sunflowers and things like that.

And I like marigolds are another great one to have at this time.

And then some journal questions.

Now these journal questions can be used as actual like written journal questions.

But they're also really good questions for divination.

So if you read cards or runes or something,

You can ask these questions that way.

You can also meditate on the questions.

So the first one is what are you grateful for this year?

I like to think of the like fall time as a time to really focus on gratitude,

Not just because of Thanksgiving,

But actually because it's when we start to close out the year,

We start to harvest things.

And then also,

If you have seasonal depression,

It's a good way to like enter the darkness of the year in a positive,

Right?

So what are you grateful for?

And then focus then to what are you grateful for,

For your body,

Right?

And sometimes if you're have a hard relationship with your body,

Some of the greatest things you can do is just be grateful for your organs.

Like I'm grateful for my heart pumping blood.

I'm grateful for my lungs breathing.

It helps you be grateful for like the miracle that you are.

What are you grateful for about your home?

Right?

So if you're renting,

If you own a home,

If you have a room in a home,

What are you grateful for about where you live?

What are you ready to receive more of in your life?

This is the first harvest,

Right?

So what are you opening yourself up to?

What do you want to receive more of?

And the last question is,

What is it time for you to harvest?

So it goes back to what we talked about at the beginning of this chat,

Right?

So you're looking over the year so far,

What is it that you're harvesting?

Are you like,

What have you created more of for yourself?

More space,

More time?

Have you created more money,

More love,

More friendship,

More laughter?

You've gardened,

Maybe you have a physical garden,

What have you harvested?

And it's a way to kind of keep things positive.

Another great thing to do at this time is to just kind of let yourself have some time outside,

Right?

We are starting to get into like the hottest part of the year for a lot of people,

But for some people starting to turn cold.

So you want to get out there,

You want to look around,

You want to see the seasons changing,

And you just want to connect with the earth around you.

So I hope you have a great Lamas,

Lunasa,

You can call it either one.

There's some controversy with everything nowadays in witchcraft and especially this kind of these Sabbaths.

So whatever you feel comfortable,

You can even just say,

I'm celebrating the cross quarter day,

Right?

It's totally up to you,

You can kind of do your own research on that.

But I hope you have a wonderful holiday and blessed be.