Lammas

Lammas is celebrated either on the First of August or on the evening of the Thirty First of July. The festival itself has two names, that is, Lughnasadh and Lammas. Lughnasadh is the Celtic name and means the morning or the remembrance of Lugh who is the sun god. On this day, the sun god, Lugh, lays down his life for the sake of the harvest. Lammas is of Saxon origin, coming from the words, hlaef mas, or loaf mas, the celebration of bread. These terms have been used in both the farming calendar and the Christian calender. It may be recommended that you use whatever name you feel at ease using. Other names are, First Harvest, First Fruits and if you celebrate on the Thirty First of July, August Eve.

The two names “Lammas and Lughnasadh” for the festival points to the fact that it is both a time to celebrate and remember the passing of the god and the year. At Lammas, we celebrate the first harvest. Fruits and berries are ripening, seeds are being scattered and the first of the corn is being cut. But the days are noticeably getting shorter: the colours of the countryside are the browns of dry grasses, dotted with mourning purples, whites and blood scarlet poppies. Although the weather may still be hot and the time of year means holidays for many people, the sun is dropping and the year is starting to die.

Where ever you may be living,  it may be a nice idea to get outside and view the changes that are taking place. In the countryside hedgerows and tall dry grasses will now be dropping their seeds.  The first of the blackberries may be starting to appear ready for consumption. In the parks and towns, you may be able to view the colours of the annual flowers. Seeds will be flying from sycamore trees and rowan berries will be turning red.

At Lammas we may look at the tasks that we set ourselves and the start of the year are coming along. Some of these tasks may be complete and they will make up our first harvest. We may acknowledge that, for the sake of this harvest and also for the sake of the harvest grain all over the
world, the god has made a willing sacrifice and the Goddess has willingly let him go.

It may be time for us to think of how great a role the Goddess and Gods play in our lives and give thanks for it all. At Lammas, we may make a “Mary Barleycorn” as a symbol of the Goddess, hold her up in our rituals and hang her up in the house. We may count our blessings and pledge to share out gifts as we acknowledge the Gods sacrifices by promising to make a sacrifice of our own for someone in need. Like the wild grasses, we scatter seeds, hoping they will do some good in the world. At the end of this, we may celebrate.

## Lore

A harvest festival with a difference, the Hero makes the ultimate sacrifice, and offers Himself up to Fate, hanging on the Tree, just as Llew — in the form of an eagle — took refuge in a tree after being speared by Geronwy, the lover of Blodwedd. In our rite, the Sacred King is offered up as a sacrifice along with a scapegoat, a loaf of bread. The working involves senior initiates literally hanging on the Bile Tree by their initiate cords, and taking a journey with the Sacred King into the Underworld. The whole thing is presided over by the Millwife, a form of the Dame, and upon the acceptance of the scapegoat loaf, the King returns to be crowned.

Although rare, it has happened that the Sacred King has been taken instead of the scapegoat (i.e., the person representing the King dies at this time of year), in which case the coven immediately goes into Dark Time as if it were Samhain. In one case, an initiate who knew he was dying took the role of sacred King in order to make his passing more meaningful to himself and those he loved, and did indeed pass around this time of year. To quote a phrase written about another Sacred King, “Greater love hath no man than this…” It is at Lammas that the Mother becomes the Crone.

What can I say about hanging on the Tree? As Sacred King, I experienced a journey through the Underworld, passing through three sets of great gates (one bronze, one silver, one gold), that took me to the Great Enclosure at the centre of the Earth, where I came face to face with the Black Interior Sun, and embraced my Fate by leaping into it and surrendering myself to the certainty that I was not going to return from this journey. It was not until I acknowledged and fully accepted the fact that I was going to die that I was released from its grasp and was allowed to ascend back up to where my body and the rest of the coven were. I’m told that when they all got back up I was not breathing and there was a tense minute or two before I drew a breath and returned to them.

What I do know for sure is that although I returned, part of me stayed with the Interior Sun, and remains there to this day. Because of that I can take myself back there in an instant, which is extremely useful for the crafting I do, and this was the start of the journey that led to my discovery of the visceral nature of magick.