Motherhood at Lughnasadh

At the agricultural feast of Imbolc we welcomed the goddess of regeneration back into the world as a corn-baby preserved from the previous year’s harvest. By Beltane she had matured into a fertile corn-maiden with no shortage of earthy suitors. She is now at her most bounteous and it is time to honour her fruitfulness as the corn-mother.

The youthful exuberance of spring is over. With the passing of the summer solstice the vitality of her masculine consort, be he Belenus, St George, or Robin Hood, is waning. His return brought salvation from the darkness of winter, but now his duty is done. It is the nature of male energy that, once sacrificed in the act of creation, needs time to recover. He must now withdraw from the world, perhaps by journeying across the dark sea, or by following the sun to the underworld as it sets beyond the western horizon – as seen at the end of many cowboy films.

In the ancient agricultural Wheel of the Year this was the time for the livestock to be rounded up, and was therefore the season for many sheep and cattle fairs. These summer gatherings often became associated with horse races and robust sports such as wrestling and shin-kicking. In Ireland one such gathering was the Assembly of Lugh, or Lughnasadh in Irish Gaelic. Some believe the Lughnasadh to be the funeral games of the Irish hero god Lugh himself, but most maintain that the feast was instigated by Lugh in honour of his foster-mother, Tailte, who had expired after clearing a huge area of woodland in readiness for growing corn.

Although probably originally determined by nature’s calendar, the feast of Lughnasadh is now fixed as the 1st August. With a modern spelling, Lúnasa is also the Irish name for the whole month of August. Lughnasadh is commonly known as Lammas, a name derived from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘Loaf Mass’, which honoured the first fruits of the harvest.

That King William II, known as Rufus, was killed at Lammas-tide during a deer hunt in the New Forest on the 2nd August 1100 has led to the speculation that his death may have been a ritual murder inspired by the symbolic sacrifice of a hero-god. The version of the story related on the Rufus Stone, which marks the spot where he fell, says that an arrow fired by Sir Walter Tyrell glanced off an oak tree and struck the King in the chest, killing him instantly. If this account is historically accurate it would seem that the King was transfixed, both literally and symbolically, midway between an oak, a symbol of the Green Man and the coming of summer, and a stag, a symbol of horned Herne, the wild huntsman of winter.

Although her Beltane lord has now departed, the corn-maiden, the cultivated virgin, has bloomed into motherhood. The fields are swaying with her golden offspring and we can be hopeful that her seed will sustain us through the coming winter. The world is now at its most bounteous, most benevolent, and it’s most maternal.

However, with every swing of the scythe or turn of the combine-harvester blade the corn-mother’s spirit is weakened. Within weeks there will be nothing left of her except the apparently barren earth and the hope that Anu, the great Earth Mother of the Celts, will give her rebirth in the spring.

Perhaps to chasten the lazy, it was often considered unlucky to be the last farm in the area to cut the final sheaf, which was commonly known as the ‘Old Woman’ or ‘Hag’. No-one was inclined to undertake this fateful task, so the reapers would sometimes employ techniques, such as all hurling their sickles at the last sheaf whilst blindfolded, to ensure that the deed became a matter of chance. With her spirit residing in a corn dolly made from these last stalks, the corn-hag would be preserved through the winter to reappear at the next Imbolc and be reborn as a new Brigid.

This cycle of fertility and hopefulness is reflected In the Christian legend of St Anne, the grandmother of the Christ, who was barren yet bore Mary of the Immaculate Conception. Whether by chance or design, St Anne’s feast day falls less than a week before Lammas.The spirit of Anu may even appear in a popular Irish folk song set at this time of year. In ‘The Star of the County Down’ the suitor first sees Rosie McCann ‘one morning in July’ and he vows to woo her ‘at the Harvest Fair’. He is told that she is ‘from the banks of the Bann’. The name of this river means ‘woman’ in Irish (as ‘banshee’ translates as ‘fairy woman’) and is said to be named after the Celtic Earth Mother.

Text and Main Photograph  ©  Philip Tate 2008

Kaz and Phil combine a reverence for primal archetypes, the turning Wheel of the Year, and Tibetan Buddhism to create psycho-spiritual events that resonate with 21st century living. These events have ranged from presentations of the Celtic agricultural feast days through to larger community-inclusive celebrations. Kaz and Phil also share a love of local  history and folk music, and regularly perform at local folk venues. For details see: www.communigate.co.uk/dorset/christchurchfolk