August 1 is known as LAMMAS in the wiccan/pagan calendar of the 8 rounds of the wheel of the year
Lammas is aChristianized version meaning “loaf Mass.”
Lughnasad is its other name. We are half way to the AUTUMN Equinox now.
This feastival honors the Grain gods. IT’s a very very ancient festival. From the races before the Celts.
At this time of year, The Bees are Buzzing, or should be. Where have all the bees gone? Monsanto?
It is traditionally celebrated as the wake of the Sun KING, who is dying now in the waning of his own Light.
British witches celebrate it on August 6 this is a cross quarter station in the round of the year. It occurs in relationship to Leo the Lion, the Royal watcher related to Archangel Raphael and the heart chakra and the deep emerald-green colour.
It was a time for communal festivities, crafts, jams, plays, dances, what we think of as a Renaissance fair.
A highlight of these festivals was a wheel set afire and rolled down a hill called “Catherine wheels. ” Based on a mythological figure, her worshippers were the CATHARS or Cathari= heretics who were routed out by the Catholic Church. The word catharsis comes from the same Latin root.
BONFIRES are always part of this festival perhaps to give the Sun more light.
Celebrations include making cookie people figures and star cookies are baked in celebration. It is time of anxious waiting, we are not yet assured of a harvest which will keep the people alive. It is a time to free oneself from FEAR. A snake dance is created going counter clock wise, bread figures are thrown into the bonfire to symbolize the burning up of one’s fears. Then one says what one hopes to harvest.
Symbols of STARS are held up. The High Priestess would say,
“MAY THE STAR OF HOPE BE WITHIN US ALWAYS.”
The coveners would eat the star cookies and celebrate.
LIke the Tarot image of THE STAR-#17
always a message of Hope- when you wish upon a star.
Think about how your seeded ideas and goals have manifested since Spring EQUINOX. Measure what has grown high, what has blossomed, what hasn’t. Take stock of your life on all levels, as a measure. You are now in the home stretch of greatest growth. Use the time wisely.
Enjoy your Lammas celebrations. I will be having a small ceremony with my family. We send blessings to you and yours.
And for fun I couldn’t help thinking about another Lamas
Billy Crystal- impersonating Fernando Lamas- “YOU look mahvellous dahling.” from Saturday Night Live in the 80’s.
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Marvellous- Billy Crystal as Fernando Lamas
Not to mention S’wonderful, S’marvelous by
THE CATHERINE WHEEL by DAvid Byrne Choreography by Twyla Tharpe 1983
Tara Greene,Tarot Reader, Astrology Psychic 