Celebrating Lammas
The 1st of August, Lammas, is the first day of the harvest season and traditionally a time to celebrate the earth's bounty and give thanks. It's also a timely reminder to plan for the autumn and winter as it marks the end of the summer season and a return to darkness (dun, dun, dun!).
I know that those with seasonal affective disorder or who simply don't like the cold may not feel like celebrating this turning of the wheel, but it's also a reminder to grab these blue sky days and make the most of being outside. It’s also a good time to consider what you may want or need over the darker months ahead. How can you plan and prepare?
Align Your Business with the Seasons
Lammas marks the peak of Summer - the season is turning, and the sun's energy will now begin to wane.
This is an ideal time to pause and reflect on what you're doing with your business right now, and consider if you want to still be doing it through the autumn and winter months?
What are you enjoying?
What would you like to try out or do more of?
What would you like to do less of, or stop altogether?
Ways To Celebrate
Bake bread! For yourself and your neighbours. Lammas originates from "loaf-mass", as people would celebrate and share the first loaf of bread from the first grain harvest of the season. Now, we're mostly gluten free in my house but we'll definitely be baking something nice to eat this weekend.
Do a little harvesting of your own! Find your nearest Pick Your Own farm and fill some tubs with fresh, locally grown produce. Or head to your park or green space and hunt out the first blackberries.
Walk barefoot on the grass, look up into the trees, and reflect on your incredible resilience, strength and the care for your community that you have shown through the last few years of collective and global trauma. You are strong, and kind, and others are grateful for you.
Practice gratitude. Write a list of things and people you are grateful for. Keep them in your journal, share them on social media, write thank you notes for friends and family. It's been hard, but we all have things to be thankful for.
Cut flowers to bring indoors - meadowsweet, mint, marigolds, and sunflowers.
Collect seeds from your garden for future sowing and harvesting.
“At Lammas the Goddess is in Her aspect as Grain Mother, Harvest Mother, Harvest Queen, Earth Mother, Ceres and Demeter. Demeter, as Corn Mother, represents the ripe corn of this year's harvest and Her daughter Kore/Persephone represents the grain - the seed which drops back deep into the dark earth, hidden throughout the winter, and re-appears in the spring as new growth. This is the deep core meaning of Lammas and comes in different guises. The fullness and fulfilment of the present harvest already holds at its very heart the seed of all future harvest.”
What is the Wheel of The Year?
“Beneath the manifestation of seasonal change, there is also change in the energy of the earth. These energy patterns affect us whether we are conscious of them or not.
By understanding the flow and direction of that energy, we can move with it, in harmony with it, as true inhabitants of our planet earth: belonging, part of, changing on all levels of our being.”
- Glennie Kindred, The Earth’s Cycle of Celebration
Most people are familiar with the spring and autumn equinoxes, and summer and winter solstices which mark the four quarter points of the wheel of the year. These are the solar festivals, marking the high points of the seasons, but there are four lesser known fire festivals (or cross quarters) which mark each season's beginning - Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain. So instead of dividing the year into 12 months, it is divided into eight sections - quarters and cross quarters.
People of different nature-based faiths celebrate the Wheel of the Year, including Pagans and Wiccans, and the festivals are influenced by folklore and ancient beliefs. I am not a religious person but have found following these celebrations a wonderful way to ground myself and a healthy reminder to change the way I work throughout the year.
I'd love to hear how you're celebrating this season? Do come and let me know on Instagram!
Want to connect with others around seasonal and cyclical living?
“I feel so lucky to have joined this wonderful community. I’m one of those people who has always felt like they don’t quite fit in but can honestly say that this has been the most lovely experience so far. Everyone is so welcoming and it’s such an inclusive, non-judgemental space where you’re invited to share as much or as little as you want to.
I love the focus on cyclical living and learning how to lean into your seasons and energy levels, understanding the ebbs and flows of your cycle, and I’m really enjoying the co-working sessions which are a brilliant place to share part of your day with other small businesses.” - A.F.
Virtual co-working sessions among other live events where our cyclical nature is centred, regular prompts, virtual workshops, sharing circles, and all hosted away from the noise of social media. The Aligned Community might be just what you’re looking for.
