LUGHNASADH
Mama Nature has undergone a transformation and we are launching our new website today to coincide with the Witch’s Sabbat, Lugnasadh. To embrace the luck, prosperity, fertility and success it signifies, and also because… Mama Nature told us to 🙂
We hope that you can also share in this prosperity.
We have also included a video at the end of our blog by the lovely Witch, Luna Leodrune, who discusses Lughnasadh and its history and background and ways to celebrate it.
Our ancestors celebrated life together with the rhythms of each season. Many of these celebrations were interwoven and connected to nature and Earth’s natural cycles (which is sadly, almost lost in our modern world). Lughnasadh (pronounced lew-na-sa) is one of those celebrations.
Also known as Lammas, Lughnasadh is the first of three autumn celebrations in the Wheel of the Year. Lughnasadh is celebrated in the sign of Leo, halfway between the summer solstice (Litha) and the fall equinox (Mabon).
Our ancestors deemed the beginning of August as the start of Autumn. A time where growth had already taken place during the spring and summer months and fruits were ripe for picking and grains ready for harvesting.
It traditionally started on the first harvest on the first full moon in August (so they could also work under its moonlight) and ended around two weeks later when the final stalk of grain was cut.
Ancient communities marked the first harvest of the season with the gathering of grains and baking bread. Because of this, early Christians referred to Lughnasadh as Lammas “loaf mass”.
Much like Halloween and other pagan festivals, it was adopted by the Catholic church in order to convert people to Christianity. So when blowing out your candles, please bear in mind that birthday celebrations were also a pagan ritual.
LUGHNASADH SYMBOLS
Colours: Yellow, orange, gold, green.
Foods: Grapes, wine, beer, bread, grains, blackberries, pears, raspberries, black currants, corn.
Stones: Citrine, peridot, carnelian, gold topaz, clear quartz, amber.
Symbols: Corn dollies, wheat, bread, cauldron, corn, herbs, threshing tools (scythe, sickle, etc…).
Flowers: Sunflowers.
Deities: Lugh, Ceres, Vesta.
CELEBRATE WITH US
Today, we encourage you to celebrate Lughnasadh with us as a way of honouring nature’s incredibly fertile energy at harvest time, and as a way to connect with our natural world on a deeper, more meaningful level. We truly believe that by recognizing and celebrating the little shifts in the Earth’s natural rhythms, we can become more attuned to nature and feel more grounded in our everyday lives.
HOW DO I CELEBRATE LUGHNASADH YOU’RE ASKING?
- Bake bread
- Gather flowers
- Make some arts and crafts.
- Make a corn dolly.
- Set intentions.
- Celebrate the grain moon.
- Host a Lughnasadh party or potluck dinner.
Even if Lughnasadh isn’t your thing, it’s still a great excuse for kicking back, relaxing and taking some time for yourself, some healing time either on your own or with those you love and cherish.
LUCKY NUMBER 13!
As a bit of useless information, the size of text we tried to use on this blog (and the rest of our website) was 13 but it is not available!. Unlucky number you may think? Quite the opposite. This number is a lucky, powerful, feminine number that was intentionally tarnished and misrepresented as a negative (which is why it’s not available!). But that’s for another day and another time. We plan to do a feature regarding this in future newsletters and blogs.
UNLEASH YOUR INNER WITCH – EMBRACE YOUR FEMININE POWER!
Peace and Love
The Mama Nature Team
