Happy Lammas
Happy Lammas! This is the cross quarter festival, essentially making the beginning of Autumn and while the sun is indeed shining and the temperature is currently warm here on Guernsey, when I went to watch sunset this morning, I was aware of the shifting light and the slight smell of autumn in the air.
This feast day celebrates the first harvest, this of the grains. The second harvest is at the Autumnal Equinox for fruit and the third and final harvest at Samhain for the remaining nuts and berries. Interestingly, the word 'Lammas' comes from 'loaf mass' and is indicative of how much the first grain and the first loaf of the harvesting cycle is honoured and indeed central to our ancestors.
As it happened I found myself making bread this last week. I’ve been meaning to make it for ages, my home school mums are really good at making bread and one of them passed on her no kneed recipe, which suits me perfectly. The amazing thing is, it worked! I actually made bread. Not that the children would eat it and there’s only so much that E can eat. But nonetheless it was a rewarding experience, I didn’t realise how therapeutic it can be to make bread and will continue on, the boys will love it one day perhaps!
Lammas brings with it the knowledge that the bounty and energy of the sun is now beginning to wane, and this is therefore a time of change and shifting energy…active growth is slowing down and the darker evenings will increase as we continue ur descent to the winter solstice. This darkness brings with it the opportunity for greater reflection…
This is also a time to acknowledge the various blessings in our life, expressing gratitude for all that we have, the abundance then, shifting our perspective to something increasingly positive, especially if we have a tendency to focus on all that we don’t have in our life and our continuous wants and desires and manifesting something other than what we do have!
It easily happens, our society is all about wanting more…we are conditioned to always want what we don’t have, so pausing to celebrate what we do have can actually be powerful experience. The more we work with this, the less we actually desire anything different and the more settled our mind becomes. We recognise the joy of true presence!
We celebrated Lammas at a Yoni Yoga class yesterday, which was so lovely to bring together a room full of women, in circle, to practice yoga together, it has been a few weeks now and I forgot how blessed an experience this is, and we continued on with Kirtan which I love too. So there is indeed much to be grateful for, let alone this beautiful weather, long may it continue.
Signs of autumn are here though, I’ve already eaten my first blackberry and my medicinal plants are definitely on the wane. I have a clearer idea of what to grow next year, the milk thistle was super sharp and took up a lot of room, the arnica is just stunning with its gentle flowers, the blue vervain too, and I will grow more of those, and more Tulsi, which I have enjoyed drinking. The echinacea take a year or so to truly take root, but I hope that they flower next year as they are beautiful.
Anyhow enjoy the shifting season and making the most of the sun while we can.
Love Emma x
