Happy Lammas!
Today is Lammas, the celebration of the first grain harvest, a time for gathering in and giving thanks for abundance. This cycle continues to Mabon or the Autumnal Equinox bringing the second harvest of fruit and then Samhain and the third and final harvest of nuts and berries.
The word lammas is derived from ‘loaf mass’ and is indicative of how much the first grain and the first loaf of the harvesting cycle was honoured. I thought I would honour this today by making bread for the first time, at least on my own.
In theory the fullness of the present harvest already holds at its very heart the seed of all future harvest. I have had a sense of this recently with my medicinal plants and I’m pretty sure they have been telling me to get them out of their pots and get them into the earth so that they can self seed. I spent today preparing. We had to move a whole heap of granite from out of the pigsty, to make space for about 150 saplings that we are nurturing as part of our Plant A Tree Project (more on this in the spring). It was hard work!
However in many respects this was the easy bit. Once we had shifted as much stone as we could for now, and moved all the saplings, we then had to prepare the earth in a spot in the garden which has not been dug over before. I was up for the challenge though and possibly the mood I was in, what with the full moon approaching and here in my dark days of releasing, I set to task with the spade and turned it all over while the family watched a film!
This morning I had it in mind that I wanted to establish a moon garden, a part of the earth dedicated to the moon in celebration of Lammas, but I hadn’t figured out how that might work. However as I dug the earth I suddenly realised that this patch of land faced the rising full moon. Perfect! I had prepared my moon garden without even realising it; I’m pretty sure my medicinal plants will like the space and we’ve let it settle with the waxing moon energising it. With any luck the plants will settle into the ground on the waning moon and rest easily into it.
We visited La Gran’mère du Chimquière this afternoon. I left some bread and a bouquet of herbs gathered from the garden, I left them perched on her right shoulder as E said they’d attract rats if I left them on the ground; he’s forever the health and safety one! I love this goddess, she’s so calm and so centred and so peaceful. There’s no drama with her. I know that sounds ridiculous but when you see her, and especially when you touch her you’ll know what I mean.
I went out to La Varde this evening too, with my friend Chris to have a look at the goddess who resides within this beautifully calm and peaceful space. It really is a wonderful place and we felt welcomed and awed by it. The guardians were there as usual, keeping a watchful eye, and there was a quiet opportunity to say thanks. The skies were magical when we left too, as if the earth was kissing us with her beauty - or perhaps we were kissing her too.
I don’t have expectation about the harvest, I think that’s what has made the growing of the plants so enjoyable. There has been no expectation, and no attachment to the fruits of my labour. That is except for one little fella, the liquorice! I had been told that liquorice is challenging to grow from seed but I was confident, because I had no reason not to be, perhaps a little arrogant when I reflect on it, after all, the rest of the seeds had been so abundant for me (apart from Culver’s root, that was tricky too!).
My competitiveness came out with the liquorice and I did my best to nurture the seeds, but to no avail, or so it seemed. And then finally a shoot appeared and I was excited, it looked like I might get my liquorice plant after all - non-attachment out the window with this one! I watched it grow and tended to it with lots of love and Reiki and was curious because the leaves didn’t look like what I imagined liquorice would look like.
And alas there was a reason for this, because last week a daisy blossomed from what I thought was my liquorice plant and I laughed out loud at the cosmos joke, reminding me to let go of expectation and attachment to the fruits of our labour, and to grow for the love of it, not to feed my ego. It was a fabulous lesson and never more so because daisies represent joy and happiness; grow for the joy of it! Lesson learned! I’ll try a liquorice next year instead!
I am grateful, from the bottom of my heart and from all of my being because those little seeds that Fi offered out to her friends on Facebook just before I deleted my account has been life changing. A whole new world has opened up to me and I have discovered or perhaps rediscovered a love of growing and of tending to the earth and I can’t get enough of it. I am thoroughly enjoying drying the flowers and leaves in preparation for more potions and teas.
Recently I’ve using dried lavender, rosemary and sage to make bath oils, which just smell divine and are healing in their own ways, I have made bath salts with them, and this just makes for such a beautiful bath experience. The sage is very cleansing after energy work and the lavender definitely prepares you for a good night’s sleep. Nature knows best and I am grateful to have the opportunity to learn more and be guided by her. I’ve got calendula flowers soaking in almond oil out in the moonlight, I’m excited about making that into salve in a few week’s time. This all infused with Reiki from seed to salve, I’m grateful for that too.
I’m also grateful for my family for all their love and support, for the challenges and the joys, the sleep deprivation and the minecraft and the guns! There is never a dull moment and I love that they entertain all this, the witchery stuff, the hanging herbs drying in our kitchen, the time spent in the garden, the help with the potion making and the fact Elijah loves nothing more than that “yellow bath stuff”! They indulge me with my Reiki requests, they are both attuned now and will slowly learn what this means, for now it is magic hands and that’s good enough for me.
It’s a marvellous beginning harvest and I hope for you too. I can see the results of the seeds planted, and yet i in ways I could never have imagined, a bit like the daisy. Sometimes things just happen. In the last few years I have really steered away from vision boards and forcing an outcome, because I noticed that in my life the most life changing things have just entered from nowhere without any effort on my part. So I celebrate that too, the great mystery and being OK with that, with the not knowing and just seeing where it all goes as you try to keep in alignment; that’s all you need to do. Plant the seeds, tend to them and keep open to all possibility.
Sending love on Lammas.
