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Blessings at Lammas.  This pagan festival of celtic origin comes at the beginning of August and marks the first harvest, a day of ‘first fruits’. For our ancestors in agricultural communities, the fields were glowing with corn at this time and reaping would begin. Symbols connected with the reaping of corn predominated in the celebration of Lammas, whose name derives from loafmass, as on this day loaves of bread were baked from the first grain harvest.  And still for us now in the 21st century it is a time for contemplation, thankfulness and JOY at the way Mother Earth supports and sustains us.

Also known as Lughnasadh (pronounced loo'nass'ah), after the Irish god Lugh, the Irish celebrate Lammas for the whole month of August, whereas for others the 1st of August is formally Lammas day, whilst others again refer to the astrological date of August 6th as Old Lammas, a date long considered a Zodiacal power point, and symbolised by the Lion.

The harvest period continues until Samhain on October 31st, and Lammas not only marks the beginning of this period of gathering the fruits of our labour, and stock-taking, but also marks the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, with the days growing visibly shorter.

Marking the wheel of the year in this way helps us to live consciously. Living spiritually means living consciously ~ seeing the sacred in everything.  Living spiritually isn’t solely about being able to sit and meditate ~ far from it.  It means being able to feel connected with the natural world, and being able to take this awareness of interconnection and oneness with all that is out there into our daily life so that it encompasses everything.  This includes being mindful of our effect on the environment and the ethics of our daily life. If we are interconnected then how we act or react affects everything and if we don’t care for the environment we aren’t caring for ourselves. We are all part of a beautiful whole.

This brings me to our new eco section, which I hope you enjoy and to which I invite you to contribute if you feel drawn to.  Elsewhere in this issue the theme of mindfulness and oneness threads through some of the articles, and more therapy news in the News section, so read and enjoy!

Dance in the corn and sing your song.