🌾Lughnasadh/Lammas Ritual🌾
(Originally created and hosted for The Alexandria Archives on 8/1/19)
Instrumental/Nature music for this ritual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiveDidzPyw
a small handful oats/rice/grain (or paper scraps to symbolize the grain) to scatter on the ground or table
a simple grain-based snack (cracker, popcorn, ricecake, slice of bread, bagel, cookie, etc.) berries or grapes or a pear/peach. Enough to be split- half for yourself and half as an offering.
Candle dressings with holiday associations (oil/tincture/tea of rose, sandalwood, or citrus; gold or yellow colored flower petals (dandelions count!); amber, citrine, peridot, carnelian crystals; gold, orange, yellow, green, or light brown ribbon/thread/fabric)
Today we give thanks for the first harvest. This no longer means literally for most people but it doesn’t we can’t do it symbolically! Also a harvest, in witchcraft, can mean many things beyond agricultural hauls. We are through the first half of the year and are reaping what we’ve sown for those first six months. Observing the changes in your community, your local wildlife and foliage. This greater connection is all a part of the harvest of life.
Get settled somewhere safe and comfortable; your supplies nearby. Collect the oats/rice/paper scraps in your hand. Feel their texture and the way they connect to the earth. How they hold the very foundation of a harvest in a tiny compact little vessel; waiting to be planted and tended to. Cup your hands in front of your face and gently blow on the grains. Think of the sun, the rain, the warmth needed to turn a seed into a crop. You are lending your energy to them. Tonight they are going to help guide us along this ritual. I like to take a breath and blow on the grains three times, but you can do it as many times as you need until it feels like the grains are bathing in your energy.
Gently scatter the grains/scraps on the floor (or a table surface- that’s okay). We are asking for the Harvest’s Blessing tonight and give this grain in trade.
Close your eyes. Envision that you are now in a field and the grains you’ve scattered are already sprouting, growing, until there is a field of grain at least waist high around you. Run your hands gently through the soft shoots. Hear the wind blow through them; birdsong joins in joyously- it almost sounds like music. Wander through this field at your leisure; reflect on what this year has brought you. The good and bad. Think about how you can weed the bad out of future harvests and how to multiply the good for the next harvest.
At some point, you will stumble across a small curved knife or pair of scissors in the field. Pick them up. They feel warm and familiar in your hand. The earth offers you some of her harvest willingly. Cut a small sheaf of the grain, the size of a small bouquet.
As you come back to yourself in your physical space imagine the sheaf of wheat came back with you and was transformed into energy that infused your candle dressing. Take a moment to hold the dressing and visualize that- the energy of the Harvest filling that oil/ribbon/petals/stones/etc.
Take your candle and dress it with the Harvest imbued dressing; thinking of those wheat fields and the music they made. Charge the candle with the energy of the sabbat (charging methods: visualizing, rubbing, singing/humming, tapping, blowing, etc.).
Take your pen and paper and think back to that walk in the field. Think about those personal harvests this year has brought you so far. On the top of the paper write down the good harvests you’ve been brought. On the bottom write down the bad. Tear the paper in half.
Feed the “bad harvests” to the candle- the Light of Lugh consuming it and cleansing it. Take the other half and place it under your offering you have. Focus on the good of those harvests and how they made you feel filling that snack and lighting the way for the rest of this year. Take a portion and eat it. The warm glow of prosperity and luck of the holiday fills you all the way to your toes as you eat this offering. Declare the other portion for the earth and deities/spirits of this Harvest. Leave your paper underneath until you dispose of the offering (in whatever manner you are comfortable with).
Lastly, time for some sabbath divination! You can do this at your leisure and share the results if you’re comfortable! I also have a specific holiday cartomancy spread below if you happen to be using those tools and feel so inclined! Once you’ve performed and recorded your holiday divination, take a moment to ground yourself and be gentle in returning to a more solid frame of thought. Please share any impressions, observations, feelings that you’d like to!
Harvest Blessings to you all!
Baking Bread Spread
The Knead: What you must surrender in order to develop your next harvest/goal
The Dough: The central goal/idea of your next harvest
The Oven: What you need to perfect your next harvest/goal(edited)
