ABOUT LAMMAS 2022
๐ฃ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ, ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฎ๐๐, ๐ผ๐ป๐น๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ด๐ป๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ ๐ป๐ผ๐!
What are we beginning to harvest, what are we grateful for, what is yet to be done? Are fire (creation, transformation, will, vital energy, passion, sexuality) and water (reflection, the unconscious, intuition, emotion, compassion) in balance in your life (and your garden)?
Lammas falls between the fire of the Summer Solstice and the water of the Autumn Equinox. It is a celebration of harvesting, especially grains, a time when our ancestors came together after the hard work of bringing in the first crops, to feast and celebrate. Growing up on a small farm in rural Germany in the 1980s we children were not exempt from participation in the harvest work/ritual. We used to stand on the back of a moving trailer, with the adults, receiving and stacking the bales of straw or hay as they arrived in their neatly formed bundles. I remember the uncomfortable feeling of being too hot, sweaty, dusty and covered all over in itchy scratches from the straw and hay (which seemed to get everywhere). Afterwards, we would ride home on top of the fully stacked trailer in victory. On returning to the farm someone would drive to the nearest Italian ice cream parlour and return with big tubs of unimaginably delicious ice cream. Adults and children would sit together, exhausted, sun burnt but happy that there would be fodder and bedding for our animals in the year to come (well, Iโm not sure I had the foresight for that at the time but I was happy about the ice cream and having been part of something that seemed important). For me, this snippet of remembering, filled with the memories of itchiness, scratches, sun burn, laughter and a full hayloft, sums up the feeling of Lammas.
Itโs taken me a while to find the inspiration to write anything about Lammas this year. I have been trying to put my finger on why this might be. Like all of us in the UK, and most of Europe, we have been battling unprecedented heat this week. Iโm not built for hot weather and have had heat stroke in the past. Anything above 25 degrees Celsius triggers my fight/flight/freeze survival instinct and I go a bit crazy. There is a strict protocol for keeping the house liveable and woe behold anyone who leaves a window or door open at the wrong time.
Perhaps my resistance to writing anything is because all of my energy and focus has been directed at making sure the vegetable crops, bees and our chickens survived the desiccating winds and high temperatures. We ran out of rainwater a week or so ago, despite having a storage capacity of around 3000 litres and using what we had sparingly. Itโs been hard work watering everything that needed it by hand.
The house was turned into a cave with curtains drawn and shade cloths over skylights. I was yet again grateful we invested in external insulation on most of the walls a few years ago as we managed to maintain temperatures in the mid 20 degrees Celsius indoors without aircon. The south facing greenhouse was another matter altogether and despite my best-efforts the temperature rose to just over 50 degrees C for a few hours. Nature is resilient and it seems that the tomatoes and chillies kept their flowers and hung on in there.
I made desperate and messy attempts to keep the sun from shining on the roof of the bee hive.
I had seen pictures taken by distraught beekeepers of puddles of melted wax and honey and dead bees in the bottom of their hives which had literally melted.
Being the master engineers that they are, our bees implemented their own ingenious ventilation system to keep the internal hive temperature at their required 35 degrees C. This also involving them carting water around and ensuring that only certain entrances and exits to the hive were open.
Our broody hen remained on her eggs, seeming like she was in a Zen trance much of the time and managed to keep herself hydrated, fed and alive.
As far as I can tell, the only losses we incurred were a nest of baby goldfinches, who must have simply succumbed to the heat and dry winds, and half of our winter beetroot plants. Most things therefore survived but the efforts required seem to have left little energy or time for philosophical contemplation beyond asking myself โwhat do I need to do next to protect and support things?โ.
And now, finally, it is raining. Iโm noticing there are peas, French beans and potatoes ready for harvest, chillies and tomatoes are ripening and I have bunches of medicinal herbs hanging from the ceiling drying in my office. The chicks are due any day now too and the breeze coming out of the beehive is laced with the intoxicating scent of honey.
Sometimes we can be so caught up in the act of survival we do not notice how much we are achieving or what we are reaping for our efforts.
When we consider our own psychological/spiritual/soul development we might also miss the progress and harvests we have worked so hard for. This is especially true when stuck in the fight/flight/freeze response, as so many of us are most of the time (especially if you are regularly exposed to main stream media which thrives on generating fear). Lammas is therefore a good time to take stock of the progress we have made when it comes to our personal evolution and remembering of our divine nature: what little, or big, wins have you had? Have you made progress towards an intention you might have set earlier in the year? Look back to January and February this year and remember what was going on for you back then. How have things changed? You might be surprised at what you have achieved, how much has shifted in this short time. If the stores seem empty there is time yet to make any amendments before the final harvest of the Autumn Equinox.
For me this Lammas, I will take the time to pause and acknowledge and give thanks for the effort expended in creating food and medicine for the coming months, both from myself and from Nature and I will also acknowledge the immense psychological shifts that have taken place for me.
From a collective energetic sense we are all on a fast track of soul evolution at the moment, whether we know it or not. People are healing and releasing generational trauma and unhelpful patterns of being like never before. Things that used to take months and years of therapy to transmute can now be changed in an instant when the root disturbance in the energy field is identified and released (again, this may be through conscious intervention or not). We are revealing and honouring hidden, often painful, aspects of ourselves to bring balance to our souls and release conflict. This is huge and if you are reading this now, you too have been engaged in this process in one way or another. Take a moment to give thanks to yourself and to acknowledge the effort it has taken just to be here now. You are a beautiful manifestation of the divine (including your shadow parts) and more powerful and resilient than you have ever imagined. I, and others, are sensing that more is yet to come, that we are not yet done with this process of remembering who we are. When we do this, and align with ourselves, we shine with divine light and bring healing and balance to everything around us. So, letโs come together and remember and celebrate ourselves, our nature and mother Nature too, for we are part of her and she is part of us. Remembering that we are all connected, we are all whole, we are all one with everything is perhaps the greatest harvest of allโฆand this is just the beginning.
This is an excerpt of a message I received during meditation in the Upper Room of the Retreat House at the Chalice Well in Glastonbury during a recent visit. I am reluctant and a bit embarrassed to share it (for lots of reasons, but especially since it sounds a bit Christian which I know may put some off, for understandable reasons). Here goes regardless:
The Light is coming in fast and with increasing intensity spreading through the open hearts.
Only hearts broken open will receive the light,
To unite the mind with the heart is divinity manifest,
All is one but now no longer veiled by the illusion of separateness.
I am the word and the light and the word and the light are one,
You are the universe manifest and manifesting,
All is one,
See the sacred in all,
Separateness is an illusion.
It is in fellowship we can create heaven and peace on Earth,
Open with others in humility, curiosity and love whenever you are able.
Go in peace and seek out the divine in all Godโs manifestations and forms,
You are God and God is you,
Unite with other sparks of the divine in heavenly connection on Earth.
Blessings to you.
This year Lammas falls on the 2nd August (calendar Lammas) and 12th August (lunar Lammas). I am offering a Trance Dance Ceremony on the 30th July in preparation. Drop me a line if you are interested in finding out more about this.
With love and blessings,
Anna
Links/Reading:
Glennie Kindred, Sacred Earth Celebrations, Permanent Publications, 2018 โ a really useful, heartfelt and practical guide to the festivals of the year.
This little beauty greeted me when I went down to the garden to clear my head after finishing the first draft of this post. :)
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