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Temple of the Sacred Spiral
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Lughnassadh is held at the halfway point between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox, ie, the end of Summer and Autumn's commencement. In the Southern Hemisphere this is February 2nd (The eve is February 1st, which is when Lughnassadh rituals are usually held), and in the North, August 1st - 2nd . After Lughnassadh the sun is noticeably lower in the sky each evening.
Lughnassadh (Loo-nahs-ah) is the first of the three harvest Sabbats - principally a grain festival sometimes called the Sabbat of First Fruits. Corn, wheat, and barley are harvested by August (February in Australia), as are many other northern hemisphere grains. Other names for this Sabbat are First Harvest, August Eve, and Lammas, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "loaf-mass," the Sabbat's most commonly used name.
Lughnassadh (pronounced 'loo-nus-uh') means 'the commem-oration of Lugh'. In its simplified spelling, Lunasa, it is Irish Gaelic for the month of August. As Luanda or Lansdale ('Loo-nus-duh', '-dul'), it is Scottish Gaelic for Lammas, 1st August; and the Manx equivalent is Laa Luanys or Laa Lunys. In Scotland, the period from a fortnight before Lunasda to a fortnight after is known as Iuchar, while in the Dingle Penin-sula of County Kerry the second fortnight is known as An Lughna Dubh (the dark Lugh-festival)-suggesting "that they are echoes of a lunar reckoning whereby Lughnasa would have been celebrated in conjunction with a phase of the moon" (Máire MacNeill, The Festival of Lughnasa, p. 16).
Of the Lughnassadh survivals, Ireland supplies a veritable gold-mine, partly because in Ireland rural culture has been far less eroded by urban culture than elsewhere, but also because when the Catholic religion was proscribed or persecuted, the Irish peasantry, deprived of their buildings of worship, clung all the more fervently to the open-air holy places which were all that was left to them. So, obeying an urge far older than Christianity, priests and people together climbed the sacred heights or sought out the magical wells, to mark those turning-points in Mother Earth's year which were too important to them to be unacknow-ledged merely because their churches were roofless or requisi-tioned by an alien creed.
Who was Lugh? He was a fire- and light-god of the Baal/ Hercules type; his name may be from the same root as the Latin lux, meaning light (which also gives us Lucifer, 'the light- bringer'). He is really the same god as Baal/Beli/Balor, but a later and more sophisticated version of him. In mythology, the historical replacing of one god by a later form (following invasion, for example, or a revolutionary advance in tech-nology) is often remembered as the killing, blinding or emasculation of the older by the younger, while the essential continuity is acknowledged by making the younger into the son or grandson of the elder. (If the superseded deity is a goddess, she often reappears as the wife of the newcomer.) Thus Lugh, in Irish legend, was a leader of the Tuatha De Danann ('the peoples of the Goddess Dana'), the last-but-one conquerors of Ireland in the mythological cycle, while Balor was king of the Fomors, whom the Tuatha defeated; and in the battle Lugh blinded Balor. Yet according to most versions, Balor was his grandfather, and Dana/Danu was Balor's wife. (In this case, marriage demoted Balor, not Dana.)
Other versions make Lugh Balor's son. The folklore of our own village does, apparently; as Máire MacNeill (ibid., p. 408) records: "From Ballycroy in Mayo comes a saying proverbial in thunderstorms: 'Lugh Long-arm's wind is flying in the air tonight.' 'Yes, and the sparks of his father, Balor Bóimann.' Lugh, then, is Balor all over again-and certainly associated with a technological revolution. In the legend of the Tuatha De Danaans' victory, Lugh spares the life of Bres, a captured enemy leader, in exchange for advice on ploughing, sowing and reaping. "The story clearly contains a harvest myth in which the secret of agricultural prosperity is wrested from a powerful and reluctant god by Lugh" (MacNeill, ibid., p. 5).
Lugh's superior cleverness and versatility is indicated by his titles Lugh Lámhfhada (pronounced 'loo law-vawda') and Samhiolddnach ('sawvil-dawnoch', with the 'ch' as in 'loch'), "equally skilled in all the arts". His Welsh equivalent (grandson of Bell and Don) is Llew Llaw Gyffes, variously translated as "the lion with the steady hand" (Graves) and "the shining one with the skilful hand" (Gantz).
That Lugh is also a type of the god who undergoes death and rebirth in a sacrificial mating with the Goddess, is most clearly seen in the legend of his Welsh manifestation, Llew Llaw Gyffes.
Because there is much more to be grown and harvested in the coming months, Lughnassadh is not wholly void of fertility imagery. Some covens perform the Great Rite at this Sabbat, preferably in a fertile field. The God-dess is honoured and thanked for bringing forth the first fruits. She is revered and treated with the respect and care shown to any new mother. Yet this Goddess is still pregnant with the future harvests of autumn and she is nur-tured as such. It is no accident that most of the first fruits of summer came to be revered as fertility plants. Corn, wheat, potatoes, turnips, summer squash, and oats are all used in magickal spells for fertility. Portions of this harvest were thrown back onto the still growing fields both as a sacrificial gesture and to induce the autumn crops to continue to thrive.
In some covens (and in synagogues and some churches) a part of the harvest is placed on the central altar as an offering of thanks to the bountiful deities. When the rites of thanksgiving are ended, the food is taken away and given to the poor.
Lughnassadh has always been a Sabbat where only grains and vegetables were sacrificed, as animal sacrifices were usually reserved for the autumn holidays. But in Romania's Transylvanian Alps, high in the dark Carpathian Mountains, there is a ritual enacted on the first Sunday of every August that has obvious pagan roots and does involve animal sacrifice. At daybreak, a procession of peasants takes a live sow up the steep slopes of Mt. Chefleau where it is ritually slain in thanks for the abundant harvest. The blood of the animal must be allowed to flow into the earth. Then the fingers of the right hand touch the blood on the ground and are used to mark the sign of the cross-for protection and self-blessing-on the forehead. For centuries the local priests in this deeply Catholic land have tried to no avail to put a stop put to this odd and ancient ritual. The peasantry, though they now offer their thanks and prayers to the Christian God, are convinced that their next har-vest would be blighted should this ritual ever be allowed to go unobserved.
[Modern covens that wish to mimic this custom, especially those follow-ing Slavic traditions, might choose to bring a pig (even a small guinea pig would do) into the Lughnassadh circle and honour it. Pigs have been sacred to the Mother Goddess in almost every culture on earth, probably because they efficiently convert small amounts of raw grain quickly into large amounts of lean meat, therefore the pig symbolises abundance just like the Goddess of the Harvest. Use red wine spilled on the ground to represent her blood and mark yourselves with equilateral crosses or pentagrams as a way of self-blessing.]
Native Americans celebrate early August as a grain festival in honour of the Corn Grandmother and called it the Festival of Green Corn. Corn, or maize as it is sometimes called, is the most well-known and celebrated of the Lughnassadh yield. It has been a major feature of Autumn solar festivals in most of North America and Europe since the sixteenth cen-tury, and was revered and celebrated by Native Americans long before then. Though its exact origins remain a mystery, it is known to have been culti-vated as early as 7,000 years ago in Mexico and the southwestern United States. To celebrate the corn harvest, the Native Americans gathered together their large clans and celebrated the Festival of Green Corn in honour of the Corn Grandmother who resides in the corn stalks. The festivities usually lasted for several days at minimum, and featured feasting and games of skill as well as religious rituals. In the Cherokee language the Green Corn festival was called the Busk, and was a time for the rekindling of sacred fires, offerings of thanksgiving, and for rededicating one's self to personal deities.
The ancient Romans honoured their grain goddess, Ceres, at their annual August Ceresalia with this version of corn personified as deity being seen in the grain mother and grain maiden images of Ceres, Demeter, and Persephone. In ancient Greece these grain goddesses were once focused into the body of a bull (a male symbol that made them a complete fertility image) that was burned as a living sacrifice each August Eve. The Minoans of Crete used to hold a sim-ilar but more dangerous rite. They would draw the essence of the harvest deities into a bull, place the bull in a small arena, then take turns attempting to grab it by the horns and vault themselves over its back. This symbolic conquering of the deities was thought to force them to submit to the peo-ples' will of a successful harvest. In Bardic Wales, a similar practice called Bull Dancing was part of the annual Lughnassadh rites. This is also the ori-gin of the expression, "Take the bull by the horns:' . The birth of the Egyptian goddess, Isis, was celebrated in North Africa near the time of this Sabbat, as was a Roman festival in honour of Vulcan, god of the forge and guardian of its fire. In ancient Phoenicia this Sabbat honoured the grain god, Dagon, and a substantial por-tion of the harvest was sacrificed to him.
In Peru, corn is a staple of the rural diet. The Peruvians celebrate its har-vest by turning out for a parade in their best clothes. The village elders place small handfuls of corn into everyone's pockets on the parade route. At the end of the procession the corn is either scattered on the fields in a gesture of sacrifice or as a fertility spell, or it is taken into the home and given a place of honour until the next corn harvest. If your coven is in the habit of forming a procession to the Lughnassadh circle, you might adapt this idea to fit in with your own ritual.
The Bretons traditionally cut a pregnant human silhouette from the last sheaf of corn harvested, and kept it in their homes or planted it in the field the day after the harvest was complete. This was clearly an effort at sympa-thetic magick to ensure the continued fertility of the field, a real concern in the days before pesticides, soil depletion, and crop rotation were general knowledge.
In India, the cotton harvest was treated with the same sacredness given in other places to grain. It is an event still celebrated in that region. The first boll to break through is honoured as the Cotton Mother, and becomes the focus of the family or community celebration. It is symbolically fed, ritually honoured, and kept nearby until the next harvest when it is burned amid prayers of thanksgiving.
Much lore surrounds the last grain to be cut from each field-not the last for the season, that comes at Samhain-but the last for this Sabbat's harvest. Most pagan cultures required that the last grain be left standing as an offer-ing for faeries or other nature spirits. Native Americans left the last corn stalk in the field for the Corn Grandmother to reside in. Middle Eastern pagans buried the last harvested grain back in the earth so the corn spirit would want to return the following year.
Sacrifice of the first fruit or grain cut is another old Lughnassadh tradi-tion. Almost universally the first cut of the harvest was buried, burned, left in the field, or placed at a ritual or sacred site for the harvest deities to enjoy while the rest of the field was harvested.
GOD-SACRIFICE?
Lughnassadh was the traditional time for regicide, or king-killing rites. This practice came from an ancient belief that the king, like the God whose earthly vessel he was, must periodically die and spill his blood on the earth in order for human life to continue. In the mowings of the harvesters' scythe we reap the death of the immanent God as He gives Himself up to the flashing blade in order that we may be physically nourished through the baking of bread and intoxicated into altered consciousness by the magickal fermentation of brew and beer'-a gift from the spirit of the Corn King. This reflected the belief in most pagan cultures that the God must die at some point in the year before he could be reborn at Yule. Different cultures had different time periods for these rites. Usually they were seven- or nine-year cycles. Kings were acutely aware of this religious duty and never knew which of their trusted advisers was sad-dled with this unpleasant task. This practice continued until recently in parts of Africa and southeast Asia, where for centuries, no king was allowed to die a natural death.
Graves also says: "The Anglo-Saxon form of Lughomass, mass in honour of the God Lugh or Llew, was hlaf-mass, 'loaf-mass', with reference to the corn-harvest and the killing of the Corn-king." The Tailltean Games, held in Ireland at Lughnassadh, were originally funeral-games, tradi-tionally in honour of Lugh's dead foster-mother Tailte; but as Graves points out (p. 302), this tradition "is late and mis-leading". The wake-games were clearly to honour the sacrificed Lugh himself. And unless one grasps the meaning of the sacrificial-mating theme, one might be puzzled by the apparent contradiction that an early Irish tradition also refers to the wedding-feats of Lugh at Tailtiu; in a sense, this too is a blurring of a half-remembered story, for he who mates with the Goddess at harvest is already her Waning Year consort. As Máire MacNeill rightly says (ibid., p. 424): "Lughnasa, I would suggest was one episode in the cycle of a divine marriage story but not necessarily the bridal time."
So in Lughnassadh we have the autumn parallel to the Bealtaine sacrificial mating with the God of the Waxing Year. On the human level, it is interesting that the Bealtaine 'green-wood marriages' were paralleled by the Lughnassadh 'Teltown marriages' (i.e., Tailltean), trial marriages which could be dissolved after a year and a day by the couple returning to the place where the union was celebrated and walking away from each other to North and South. (Wiccan handfasting has the same provision: the couple can dissolve it after a year and a day by returning to the High Priestess who handfasted them and informing her.) Teltown (modern Irish Tailteann, old Irish Tailtiu) is a village in County Meath, where tradition remem-bers a 'Hillock of the Bride-Price" and a 'Marriage Hollow'. The Tailltean Fair seems in later centuries to have become a mere marriage-market, with boys and girls kept apart till contracts were signed; but its origins must have been very different. It stemmed, in fact, from the óenach, or tribal gathering, of pagan time of which the óenach of Tailtiu was the most important, being associated with the High King, whose royal seat of Tara is only 15 miles away. (MacNeill, ibid., pp. 311-338.) These gatherings were a mixture of tribal business, horse-racing, athletic contests and ritual to ensure good fortune; and Lughnassadh was a favourite time for them. The Leinster óenach of Carman, the Wexford goddess (MacNeill, ibid., pp. 339-344), for example, was held on the banks of the River Barrow for the week beginning with the Lughnassadh feast, to secure for the tribe "corn and milk, mast and fish, and freedom from aggression by any outsider". (Gearóid Mac Niocaill, Ireland Before the Vikings, p. 49.) "Such deep-rooted traditions could not be jettisoned and had perforce to be toler-ated and as far as possible Christianised. Thus in 784 the óenach of Teltown (Tailtiu) was sanctified by the relics of Erc of Slane. Mac Niocaill also says (p. 25) that Columcille-better known outside Ireland as St Columba-is credited with a bid to take over Lughnassadh "by converting it into a 'Feast of the Ploughmen', not apparently with any great success".
The ritual behaviour of the King, as the sacred personification of the tribe, was particularly important. At Lughnassadh, for example, the King of Tara's diet had to include fish from the Boyne, venison from Luibnech, bilberries from Bri Lóith near Ardagh, and other obligatory items (Mac Niocaill, p. 47). (The bilberries are significant; see below.)
A formidable list of the taboos surrounding the Roman Sacred King, the Flamen Dialis, is given by Frazer (The Golden Bough, p. 230). Graves (The White Goddess, p. 130) points out what Frazer omits-that the Flamen, a Hercules-type figure, owed his position to his sacred marriage with the Flamenica; he could not divorce her, and if she died, he had to resign. It is the role of the Sacred King to bow to the Goddess-Queen.
This brings us straight back to Lughnassadh, for Graves goes on: "In Ireland this Hercules was named Cenn Cruatch, 'the Lord of the Mound', but after his supersession by a more benignant sacred king was remembered as Cromm Cruaich ('The Bowed One of the Mound')."
Crom Cruach (the usual modern spelling), also called Crom Dubh ('The Black Bowed One'), was a sacrificial god particu-larly associated with Lughnassadh; the last Sunday in July is still known as Domhnach Chrom Dubh ('Crom Dubh's Sunday') even though it has been Christianised. On that day every year, thousands of pilgrims climb Ireland's holy mountain, whose summit can be seen through our study window-the 2,5 10-foot Croagh Patrick (Cruach Páddraig) in County Mayo, where St Patrick is said to have fasted for forty days and defeated a host of demons . The observance used to be a three-day one, starting on Aoine Chrom Dubh, the Friday preceding. It is still Ireland's most spectacular pilgrimage.
The Sacrifice of Crom himself seems to have been enacted in very ancient times by the sacrifice of human substitutes at a phallic stone surrounded by twelve other stones (the sacrificial hero-king's traditional number of companions). The eleventh -century Book of Leinster says, with Christian distaste:
"In a rank stand Twelve idols of stone;
Bitterly to enchant the people
The figure of the Cromm was of gold."
This was at Magh S1óacht ('The Plain of Adoration'), generally held to be around Killycluggin in County Cavan, where there is a stone circle and the shattered remains of a phallic stone carved with Iron Age decorations-in keeping with the tradition that St Patrick overthrew the Crom stone. Later the sacrifice seems to have been that of a bull, of which there are many hints, though only one which can be specifically linked with Crom Dubh. That is from the north shore of Galway Bay. "It tells of the tradition that a beef-animal was skinned and roasted to ashes in honour of Crom Dubh on his festival day, and that this had to be done by every householder." (MacNeill, ibid., p. 407.) Many legends speak of the death and resuscitation of a sacred bull (ibid., p. 410).
Beginning in the early Middle Ages, many Western cultures began using scapegoats for this sacrifice, such as a minor prince whose blood had been mingled with the king's in a special ceremony not unlike what children do today to become blood-brothers or blood-sisters. Later, these sacrifices were done wholly symbolically with wine as a substitute for blood. Many believe that these periodic symbolic sacrifices are still continued in secret by the British Royal family.
Roosters are often present at Lughnassadh festivities because they were long held sacred to the Sun Gods of Europe. In England, roosters figure heavily in nursery rhymes and in children's stories. This one dearly uses harvest images:
THE COCK'S ON THE HOUSETOP BLOWING HIS HORN,
THE BULL'S IN THE BARN THRESHING THE CORN,
THE MAIDS IN THE MEADOW ARE GATHERING HAY,
THE DUCKS IN THE RIVER ARE SWIMMING ALL DAY.
The threshing of grain, separating the actual grain from the straws, began the day after Lughnassadh and was considered a magickal task. Threshing houses were believed to be guarded by grain deities, and their symbols could be found carved into the walls of the threshing room. The practice of carrying a new bride over a threshold, the wooden floor beam across a doorway that holds the grain inside the threshing house, was an old fertility custom now kept alive in paganism by having a newly handfasted couple jump over a broomstick.
Lughnassadh, like Midsummer, was a great time to have summer gather-ings, either pagan or non-pagan, and to celebrate the bounty of the late summer season, such as a traditional early American Corn Husking Bee. This was when entire communities joined together to remove the green sheaths from the yellow corn. If one uncovered a red ear he or she was allowed to kiss the person of his or her choice. Even the Puritans followed this old custom which had its roots in pagan fertility rites. What the Puritans did avoid though, because of the sexual symbolism, was the lively folk dance that traditionally ended these Husking Bees.
At the Temple of the Spiralled Web, we see Lughnassadh as follows:
Lughnassadh (the beginning of Autumn and the season of Water, usually 1st February, close to our Australian National Day and also the commencement of the Wet Season).
The rains arrive, the harvest is well under way particularly the wheat harvest and other cereal and grain harvests, and the excessive heat has begun to wane although humidity now takes its toll. This is often the season for flooding in Australia, one natural disaster following another. The God of Light's reign is nearing an end and we will all be thankful for it.
From the mytho-poetic point of view the Goddess, now Mother going onto Crone, is being wooed by the precocious God Of The Underworld and overtures being made to her for her to descend into the land of the Underworld, the Land Beyond The Shadow And Veil. She castrates Her ageing consort, the Corn King, and so He gives his seed to enable the seed from the harvest to germinate in the coming winter months, requiring as it does life-giving rains.
From a psychological point of view we are being challenged with the idea of future considerations in the midst of the plenty of the early harvest and the commencement of the life-giving rain. We are being urged to come to terms with our Dark Self and if not we will be worried and tormented by that Dark Self as it will seek its manifestation in us one way or the other. We learn to make willing sacrifices for the greater good, and for our future growth. Click here to go back to Contents.
These rites are culled from various sources, mainly Shadwynn's Crafted Cup, Morwyn's Web of Light, and Cunningham's Wicca. They are to be added at the appropriate place in the generic ritual as seen on this website under Rituals
We gather together on this Lughnassadh night to celebrate the blessing of the successful harvest and the gift of the Crone and Her ancient Lord to the land.
We wish to give thanks for the bounty of the fertile earth and to feel part of the ever-turning wheel of Life, Death and Rebirth.
"May the powers of the One,
The source of all Creation, all-pervasive, omnipotent, eternal;
May the Goddess, the ageing Queen of the Harvest;
And the God, Ripened Corn King;
May the powers of the Spirits of all living things,
And the Rulers of the elemental realms;
May the powers of the stars above and the earth below,
Bless this place, and this time, and we who are with You."
The High Priest begins the prayer of harvest offering facing the altar, and kneeling before the Crone, with hands uplifted.
HP: "Our Lady of Lughnassadh,
Crone of the approaching death of Thy Ancient Lord,
That provides us with seed for sowing,
Thou reward us with fields for reaping;
Thou bring forth upon the laboured land
Sprouted legions of the staff of life.
Grain-giving Goddess,
Mother of the early and latter harvests,
We rejoice before Thee
For these first fruits from the fields:
The baked bounty of fresh-baked bread
And the hops-laden ale of February.
I invoke Thee and call upon Thee,
Mighty Mother of us all,
Bringer of all fruitfulness;
By seed and root, by bud and stem,
By leaf and flower and fruit,
By life and love, do I invoke Thee
To descend upon the body of this thy servant and priestess."
Now the Crone comes forward, stands before the altar and lifts up the sheaf of wheat and waves it to and fro as she says:
Crone: Behold the Dread Crone before you,
Queen of the Harvest, giver of life
And of plenty
Since before time began,
I give to you, as of old,
My joy, and gift of life, and power.
The High Priestess continues the prayer of harvest offering facing the altar, and kneeling before the Corn King, with hands uplifted.
HPS: Be pleased to accept
These our offerings upon Thine altar,
That we who partake of them
May be blessed with the strength of the summer sun,
The refreshment of renewing rain,
And the abundance of this sultry season.
I invoke Thee and call upon Thee,
Mighty Father of us all,
Bringer of all fruitfulness;
By seed and root, by bud and stem,
By leaf and flower and fruit,
>BR>By life and love, do I invoke Thee
To descend upon the body of this thy servant and priest.
Corn King: I am the ancient Lord,
Lord of the Ripened Harvest,
Sacred King, giver of riches
And of protection since before time began,
I give to you, as of old,
My strength, and gift of life, and power.
Crone: Let us now, as of old,
Make a consecration of the harvest
And mark here the fullness of the season.
For life does fulfill its cycle
And lead to life anew
In the eternal chain of the living
That has stretched and broken
Since time immemorial.
She takes up the sickle (or knife) and an ear of wheat still in its husk and leads the procession deosil (anti-clockwise) about the ritual area, with the Corn King holding the wheat up to her as he goes backwards before her, no less than three times. The Priest and others shall beat a rhythm and all shall chant:
We all come from the Goddess
And to Her we shall return,
Like a drop of rain
Flowing to the ocean…
Corn and grain, corn and grain,
All that falls shall rise again…
This should be repeated again and again. It is appropriate for members of the group to carry fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and such in the procession, as well as their candles. Finally, the Crone shall stop the procession, the Corn King shall take her light and hold it as she holds up and before her the sickle and the ear of wheat calling:
Crone: I accept this offering and this sacrifice
Let it stand for the mighty genitals of the God
As I give the fertility of the Corn King to the Earth.
She tears the husks from the maize and cuts it in two with the sickle, the Corn King gives a loud cry and falls to the earth as if stricken, then she says:
Crone: That the season of plenty
Shall return once more,
And in commemoration of life
Springing ever new from death,
I charge you now to bury
Within the Earth
The offering of the God's power of new life.
The coven then help put the seeds of wheat into the hole at the earth quarter, and the Corn King puts soil over it, and the Crone waters it.
(After the ceremonial theme of the Sabbat has been enacted or ritually performed, everyone will stand around the circle facing the altar in the centre. The priestess and the priest will both be standing at the altar itself, facing the other coven members. The priestess, priest, or another appointed reader will then recite the opening preface to the Great Rite which corresponds with the theme of the Sabbat being celebrated.)
Priest: At this celebration of Lammas, we rejoice with the Great Mother, full with the fruit from Her union with gods and lovers.
(The priest now lowers the blade of his athame into the wine of the chalice as he recites the Words of Consummation, which are always unique to the Sabbat being celebrated.)
Priest and Priestess: Behold the risen rod of the Lord of Light and the waiting womb of the Lady. Behold the union which brings forth harvest: Gaia's grain clad in the gold of Lugh.
(When the priest and priestess sense that the time has come to conclude the ritual celebration, they will then bid all to rise for the Closing Rites. The priestess will then take her place before the altar, facing the eastern quarter, in preparation for the parting prayer to the Lady. She will then raise up her hands [or sceptre] in parting benediction as she says the following words.)
Priestess: Gracious Goddess,
we have tasted of the brew and the bread;
we have fed upon the nourishing staples of life,
thoughtful of the Lord of Harvest;
and we are thankful for the mystery of meaning
that these gifts of grain convey to us.
Our Lady of Lughnassadh, we pray Thee,
bestow upon us now Thy Sabbat blessing
as Thou takest Thy leave of this sacred space,
leaving us with Thy silent, Summer benediction.
All Hail, Farewell, and Blessed Be!
(The priestess will then make the final proclamation of the ritual's conclusion.)
Priestess: This rite of Lughnassadh is ended! Go forth ever mindful of She who is the gold of God and grain! Click here to go back to Contents.
Grain ales made around Lughnassadh were dedicated to the God in his aspect as Harvest Lord. Whiskey, an alcoholic beverage distilled from barley, was once sacred to this Sabbat in Scotland. Other Lughnassadh ales were dedicated to the Moon Goddess and put aside for honouring her at Esbats.
Breads, especially ones made with newly harvested grain, are also a tra-ditional part of this Sabbat's festivities. The baking of sacred and ritual breads is far older than humans realise, and its potent pagan symbolism has been wholeheartedly adopted by both Christianity and Judaism. It repre-sents not only the harvest, but Mother Earth, home, and hearth. Its gentle rising as it bakes is symbolic of growing pregnancy and thriving fields.
In many covens it is traditional to count one's blessings when gathered in the Lughnassadh circle. A ritual loaf of bread is passed clockwise around the circle, and coven members break off portions and consume them after they announce all the things for which they are thankful.
Serve Lughnassadh breads with honey, another sun-associated food. Middle East braided breads such as challah or the Danish julekage are also appropriate and can symbolise the intertwining of Goddess, God, and humans, or the unity of the Triple Goddess. French breads are also a good choice when feeding a large number of people. These breads are easily found ready-made in delicatessens and bakeries.
Popcorn is another delicacy given to Europeans by Native Americans, and it is another appropriate food for Lughnassadh. Feature it at parties or at ritual meals. String the corns together with a needle and thread to use as a circle decoration just as many people do at Yule.
In North America, cornbread, with its bright yellow colouring, is the most fitting bread symbol of the season, and is often made fresh from the fruit of the harvest. Cornbread mixes can be found in the baking section of any grocery store, though you might want to make your own. If you live in a rural area with a mill nearby, you can purchase fresh ground corn meal and flour.
(Serves four)
Preheat a greased 9 x 9 baking pan in a 425' F oven for 20 to 22 min-utes. Pour the bread mixture Into the hot pan and place it back in the oven for 20 minutes. Serve hot with butter or honey.
Blackberries, a plant sacred to the Irish goddess Brigid and to the Norse thunder god Thor, ripen in July and August (in the northern hemisphere), and gentle blackberry wines are made from them and dedicated to these deities before Mabon. In Ireland there was, and still is, a folk taboo against eating blackberries after Mabon. Other regions have similar taboos against eating any summer berries or grapes after that date, but all berries made into wines for a goddess or god have always been permissible to keep and use.
Blackberry pies are also a featured item at this Sabbat feast. Scour gently wooded areas for untapped bushes. They are often easy to find. If you have no luck, check the produce section of large groceries or farm stands.
Preheat oven to 325'F. Line a deep pie dish with the pie crust, or purchase a commercially-made one. Set aside. Mix all other ingre-dients together in a large mixing bowl. If it appears too "wet," mix in a little more flour (about 2 tablespoons). Turn the fruit into the pie shell and dot with butter or margarine. You can bake the pie as is, or cover it with another pie crust. If you do this, pinch down the ends to hold it to the other crust. Then score the top several times with a sharp knife. Bake for 1 hour, or until the top crust is a golden brown. (Note: A sugar-free version of this pie can be made by substituting appropriate amounts of artificial sweetener.)
The feast of Lughnassadh is one of the largest of any Sabbat. All the first fruits of the season are consumed, especially any and all grains that have been harvested. The feast is often consumed at least partly inside a ritual cir-cle with generous libations being made to the deities. The Cakes and Ale ceremony, a ritual celebration of earth, water, and the Mother Goddess that accompanies the Esbats, might also be observed, only instead of having the cakes act as moon symbols, they now function as sun symbols. Cookies or flat sheet cakes cut into pentagram or disc shapes are good to use as cere-monial cakes. They can be frosted yellow or orange, and even topped with sun-golden sprinkles in honour of the sun gods.
Other Lughnassadh Recipes:
Try these at Red Deer and Elenya's Page
Feel free to email us with your own Lughnassadh recipes - concentrate on the themes of harvest, sacrifice, grain and cereal products, including beer and oats. Click here to go back to Contents.
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PARTY GAMES!
Ideas for Lughnassadh parties include a canning party to preserve the bounty of the harvest, family reunions, or simple barbecues with lots of fresh corn on the side. Other Lughnassadh parties might have farm themes. Have guests come dressed as farmers and bring a pot luck dish made with newly picked veg-etables. Play games that use Lughnassadh fruits such as bobbing for corn, or pass the tomato. Make a game out of singing the children's song, "Old Mac-Donald Had a Farm," and see how many animals you can add to it before the group loses track. Offer baskets of food, fresh ground grains, or packets of seeds to the winners of any games. You might also try a party with a Native American theme. Play games of skill or endurance, honour the Corn Grandmother, do Native American dances, and tell Indian folk stories around a campfire. Lammas Eve parties are a natural for pagans. Invite your friends and family to help you celebrate the first harvest. Feature not only corn and grain items, but fresh melons.
Pagan kids will especially like bingo games with pictures of natural items they are learning to identify.
To make this game you will need stiff cardboard, white poster board, a ruler, a pencil or pen, paste, scissors, several old magazines, and either a can of old buttons or checkers, or some removable stickers to use as markers.
Cut the cardboard and poster board into 12 x 15-inch sections. This will be the size of your playing board, and you will need one for every passenger in your car or van. Some people think bingo games go faster and are more exciting if you are playing many cards at once. If this is your thinking, then make several cards for each player.
Take the poster board and, with a pencil and ruler, make a grid. Leave a three inch bar at the top, then divide the rest into thirty-six 2 x 2-inch sec-tions: six rows of six.
Print the word "Bingo" at the top, and begin to fill in the squares with the names of the items you have chosen to work with. Some cards can have a few items that others don't have. Mix them up so that no two cards are the same, and be sure to print the names of the items small enough at the bot-tom of each square so that you have room for a pasted picture.
Glue the poster board to the cardboard to provide a firm surface. Place heavy books over them and leave them overnight to bond together.
Meanwhile, look through old magazines for pictures that represent the items you have chosen to work with. Be sure to consider the region where you are travelling when making these decisions. It would be difficult to find cactus in Massachusetts and lakes in New Mexico. If you are travelling through several regions, your bingo cards can reflect this, too.
Cut out the magazine pictures small enough to fit into the 2 x 2-inch squares. When they are all selected you can glue them in place and leave them to dry overnight. If you cannot find enough magazine pictures to rep-resent the items you've chosen, you can draw them above their labels, but magazine pictures are more colourful and help keep children interested. Children, when supervised, can even help select, cut, and glue the pictures.
Use checkers, old buttons, or removable stickers to mark each item as it is seen along the roadside. The first one to make a line up and down, across, or diagonally wins. Or make it a tougher game and require the entire card to be covered.
Another perfect Lughnassadh pastime for pagans is stargazing. The sky is renowned for its meteor showers and shooting stars, and quietly watching for them is a beautiful way to connect with one's place in the universe. Shooting stars have long been part of the folklore of many lands which tells us that if we make a wish, it will come true. This lovely bit of folk magick is a nice way for solitaries to end Lughnassadh rituals.
CORN DOLLY
It is common practice among Celtic and English witches to hold back a small portion of the corn harvest to make the Imbolc Corn Dolly. Other grains can be used, but corn is the most prevalent and the Dolly's exact name varies with each tradition. Use the Dolly made at last Imbolc both as a fertility amulet for this harvest and a ritual centrepiece. Take it out of the place where it has been blessing your home and bring it into the circle or place it on your altar. The Dolly was dressed as a bride at Imbolc, but now it should be dressed as a pregnant woman with a baby in her arms. Use a green cloth to fashion the dress, as this is a colour of fertility. Add a ball of stuffing to her stomach. Use a small twist of wheat or ear of baby corn for the child.
Take the fresh shocks in from the fields, tie them in manageable bundles, and hang them up to dry in a warm place in your home. Click here to go back to Contents.
Blessed be and Never Thirst from Kim and Quenten.
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