With the Summer Solstice at our back, we move forward on our eight spoked wheel of the year, towards what is seen as the first harvest of grain. A lot of our Neo Pagan traditions are rooted in the folklore practices and observances of old-world agrarian life. Some are presented as pre–Christian Celtic traditions of the Irish, Scottish, Welsh & similar regional practices of England. Much of this material was founded upon the seasonal cycles of the Land as worked by the villages around old Brittany, and focused on the interactive spiritual relationship between the Agrarian people and the spirits of the Land and harvest. 

Much effort has been put into play by the Christian Church to distance itself from the ancient Legacy that is the inspiration for its own Holy day observances. The reality is: no matter how much we would define ourselves as different, the same root observances are being honoured and worked. The language may change but the core of the work remains because the spirit remains imperviously the same throughout. From the old Legacy work of the Megalithic Period up until the industrial revolution, which dismembered much of the agrarian way of life, and with that their living communal observances. Only the remnants of Folklore practiced by Pagans and those wishing to reclaim our heritage remains. 

For us, the Pagans, especially with Lammas, viewed through the filter of village life in the old world, the focus was on literal forms used to observe and celebrate the people’s relationship with the spirit of the Land and their first Harvest of Grain. Alas, much of the mainstream world today views history and the world of the past and present quite literally. Even some newly joining our Pagan community, having been conditioned to think in such literal ways, also fall into line with this perspective. But the older Witches and Traditions understand, the real mysteries lay within the literal observances, and work them metaphorically. So if the meat of the work is not as it presents and we as townspeople have no need for building a relationship with Wheat, then removing the observances surrounding the cutting of the Wheat, leave us where? 

I want to make something clear. We honor and cherish our agricultural roots. But there’s an important distinction to be made here. Witches are present in all cultures and times. They are not restricted to any specific cosmology. Witches are not pagans (though often times, we choose to be). Witches are heretics, outsiders, and we are born within all cultures. We see the folklore as it’s practiced and look for the deeper mystery. 

As a Witch who was never part of the Agrarian world (and as one who is allergic to Wheat), I never felt a sense of truth in doing such observances. It felt like LARPing at best, cultural appropriation at worst! Yet I was in search of the deeper mysteries and insights within the Legacies of old, so I embarked upon reframing the material to fit the work at hand. So rather than trying to fit myself into a past pagani agrarian world I embraced the Artist inside me and stepped outside the Box to look at it all through Witch’s eyes. And with that I joined the occultists in search of the deeper vault of Legacy, seen only by those who looked on from outside the box of literality. And so I began to see a rich and timeless inheritance designed to impart the tools we need to evolve towards our full potential. And I understood that such a Legacy can only be claimed through the experiential path of an Initiate Witch, committed Artist, Outcast Seeker of the Occult Mysteries. For this legacy presents in a language outside the logical, literal universe. It speaks in the timeless language of experiences, of insight, and inspiration. Its purpose is not to answer questions, but rather present riddles that provoke the awareness of reality itself to evolve and widen.

For the Witch, as the heretic who exists outside of convention and all religion, this is exactly what we seek within the material, however it may be framed. We have always sought the depths of knowing over the simplicity of understanding. It’s an addiction we all share! So I look to the Eight-Fold division of Time and Space, as it plays out over the seasonal shifts of Celestial Light and Earth’s lifeforce responses, not only within the land but within the mythic landscape of our witch’s blood memory. The real Legacy that a Witch seeks, is beyond the seasonal shifts of agrarian folklore traditions or the liturgy of any religion. Yet we see the breadcrumbs of this Sacred Legacy strewn within all those renditions.  And we explore them all in our search of deeper elusive shadows!   

Upon my personal journey as a Witch in this exploration, it was actually Lammas or Lughnasah that first flagged that these sabbats held valuable keys to a Legacy I not only wanted, but I truly needed, in order to complete my long-term goal of claiming the occult mysteries, of magic and meaning of life for a witch! Through Lughnasdh I got a glimpse of how these eight seasonal stations of the Sun were in fact 8 portals in the year’s cycle through which this rich Legacy could be accessed.  

So what was so special about Lughnasadh? Well let’s peel back this one to its core. Lughnasadh, the Celtic name for this Sabbat, was named after the Celtic God Lugh, who was a God of Light, also known in Wales as Llew. Gods of Light represent the illumination state of awareness. How light brings the abstract or unformed into illumination and visible presence. The quality of that Light, further illuminating its nature & virtue. This state of Illumination, seen as the presence of Divine Spirit, is sometimes depicted in works of art as a Halo or radiance about the head. It is also the source of what a Crown represents with its circle of flaming points placed upon the Head, depicting that the head is aflame with the radiance of Divine Inspiration and Gnosis. 

The old Celts called this the Burning Brow or Radiant of Face. It all depicts the head as being in a state of divine gnostic illumination or communion. And through this Communion with the Divine, the Tribe and the Sovereign are embraced by the Divine Light and become ONE. So from this perspective we understand Llew or Lugh as the Crown of Light, and in particular at this time, as the virtuous and predictable expression of the Sun’s Solar life-giving Light. The golden Head of Wheat that is cut down thus becomes a perfect metaphor for the Crowned Head of the God or King of Light, Lugh. The death of the God of Light, of the illumination of Divine presence, is then through the Great turning Mill of Heaven, ground to dust and reborn as the Bread of our Communion. If this is starting to get a bit Christian in flavour, we could always go back to munching on the bones of the Sacrificed Sacred King, as his burnt offerings corpse comes out of the pyre? But seriously, bottom line, however you get to it, the real key here is the mystery of the Phoenix rising from the ashes of destruction, illuminating the life beyond the paradigm shift!

Cannibalism you ask?  Well this mystery goes back a long way, back to the Megalithic period in old Brittany or Albion, and elsewhere most likely even older! However you come at it, the issue has always been about how to transfer the Virtue & knowledge of Divine Illumination, represented by the Crown, the King of the Tribe, from generation to generation. How do we pass the Legacy of gnostic communion between the Tribe and Divine Spirit, when the wheel turns and the King’s Head falls? Once a cannibalistic ritual of feasting upon the burnt offerings of the sacrificed king, taking the essence of Divine illumination legacy within, becomes transferred to Bread – Cakes and Ale.

To get a more complete picture, the mystery of Sacrifice also needs to be addressed, as this is gravely misunderstood in today’s world. Perhaps the easiest example of Sacrifice is the Odin mystery where he Sacrifices self to his Divine Self, as a transformation of awakening to a higher state of being. Sacrifice as a word has its origin in ‘to make Sacred’, as in: to sacrifice the profane into a state of Union with the Divine Spirit. Because the reality of Divine Spirit was as real as the physical world. But unlike the physical corporeal world, defined by time, birth and death, the reality of Spirit was outside of time and was eternal. So to Sacrifice to the Divine was to unite with the realm of eternity beyond the confines of the corporeal world. 

Down through many time frames and cultural or religious contexts, the root mystery of the King’s Sacrifice has endured. However, what was the Sacrifice of the light & the Virtue of the Crown, shifted to represent purity and innocence. And with that, the Sacrifice of the physical King was shifted to the Sacrifice of the innocent, the naïve. Finally, the Sacrifice went from human to a pure and unblemished animal sacrifice, and then further to the mystery of how the Head of Wheat is cut and is resurrected as the Bread, and the Crown of the Grape is cut down and resurrected as the Wine. Or in our Pagan Rituals, the rite of Cakes and Ale, made Sacred through the ritual observance of ‘The Great Marriage’: the sinking of the blade or wand into the grail.

This core mystery of the communion or great marriage goes back to what is called the Hieros Gamos. It is the Sacrifice of the profane to the divine, and the divine to the profane. And through this great marriage, the two are united as ONE. This union of Heaven and Earth is depicted mythically in the origin story of the Isis, Osiris, and their kin. They were born of Nuit (Heaven), who became pregnant by her brother Geb, (the Earth). As mentioned, this same root mystery is depicted by Odin who hangs on the World Tree and Sacrifices self to Self.  And then of course there is Christ, who bears the Liminal Thorn Crown of Light, who also hangs on the Christian Axis Mundi, and from his death is reborn through the Sacrament, which replaces the Sacrifice of animals! 

So to the core mystery of this Sabbat: Sacrifice and the purpose of the Sacrifice, the mystery that awakens illumination of the Divine within our mortal, earthly body with the celestial divine spirit. This is the central theme of this Sabbat of Lammas, Lughnasadh. This gift of Divine Inspiration that brings us insight beyond our paradigm is first encountered through the arrival of the Muse and the Artist mediating the Divine at the Sabbat Station of Imbolg, directly across the wheel. One of the important elements to be observed at the first Harvest event of Lammas, is to remember that the Harvest that comes of seeds we sowed – whether inspired and holding Virtue of truth, or born of ego and perhaps not so virtuous. But if our harvest is fruitful and born of insight, then we need to pay observance of from whence it came. We need to make the com-union, the Sacrificial Sacrament observance that bridges the Profane with the Divine through the Hieros Gamos Ritual observance, in whichever form you use. This observance becomes an act of grace, one of gratitude. That is a powerful defence against Hubris, which can empower the Ego and bring about the Death of the Sacred Union, setting rot into one’s own Divine Spirit. 

So whether you observe this root mystery through the observance of Grace over the Harvest, or through the cutting of the Wheat Head of Lugh and making good through Sacrifice the communion with the Divine Spirit within the Land, or the celebration and observance of the excellence within your Tribe, inspiring the future of the Tribe, paying it due recognition as the fruit of the union of Divine Spirit and the corporeal world: all are expressions of the same root origin, which is Lammas, Lughnasadh, or the First Harvest. 

This Sabbat is also a turning point in the cycle of the Seasons, the last in a three part cycle of the Summer Draconic Festivals. It started with observance of the Lifeforce within the Land & tribe, at Beltane. Then unifies as a Tribe around the Crown of responsibility and service which places the power of the Draconic Forces in the service of the Tribe as a whole, at Mid-Summer. Finally with this 3rd and last station of the Summer-tide, at Lammas, we observe how our harvest comes as a consequence of both the Divine Lifeforce of Earth together with the Divine Spirit, and the union of these two fundamental forces. These qualities of being are vital to the health both within ourselves and within the harmony of our cosmos and expanded reality. It is crucial for our continued evolution and health as a Tribe, that this dynamic relationship between the Divine Spirit and the Life-force of the corporeal world is recognized, honoured, and placed in its due place within ourselves and our tribal society.

So, to bring this all to a close, this Sabbat, Festival of the first Harvest, when all is whittled down to its bones, has a very clear central mystery and message. Whether it is villages coming together to aid one another to clear the land, the fields of its Harvest;  or gamesmanship and competitions of excellence for the young of many tribes; the pacts of marriage, both permanent or temporary, that may occur among all assembled; the spirit of the Tribe reconciling and honouring the spirit of the Land to cement their future relationship; or finally the recognition, honouring and communing with Divine Spirits, through the manifest presence of Light…the underlying theme of Lammas is about the coming together of the many as one. It’s the Sabbat of the Communion in all its expressions.  The recognition that we do not thrive alone. That Hubris leads us to our own separation and final destruction. That the balm to contention comes with grace, gratitude, gratia. The Communion, the feasting together, and the taking in of the Legacy that comes through death and resurrection of all life, to nurture the next generation. The coming together of the Past and the Present to secure the Future…this is all the mystery of the Communion. And this celebration of our enduring community, sharing in the communion of our collective Harvest, the Life we build together, the Laughter, and at times the sorrow. That all this is the Communion with the Light of the Gods that binds us all as ONE and awakens us to Inspiration and Evolution, when we are open to each other and to our Gods & Spirits.

This is the Mystery that completes this triad of workings, with the end of the Summer Tide.