Lammas starts the moment the
Sun hits 15 degrees in the sign of Leo. That is happening Tuesday evening of the
7th, though the ‘official’ day is usually August 1st or
2nd depending on who you read. It is a wild sabbat & season for
me. I feel like I’m always starting these things with ‘what a wild ride.”
Whatever. My life is always a bit wild, bumps & all. But I’ve also been
‘going downstream’ more & more so, life is good.
The Season of Fertility
(Beltane to Lammas) brought a lot of change, as did Litha/Summer Solstice. When
the full power of the Sun in Cancer shifted into Leo mid July it did its trick
on me inside & out. To say I have
been busy is an understatement. But I have struck a balance between inner work
& outer work, inner rest & outer rest. It hasn’t been pure bliss 24/7
but I’m enjoying the wild & calm as deliberately as I can little by
little.
Some of you may know my elder
cat Binx crossed over. I kept that one real quiet for a number of reasons.
Mostly I wanted to move through it & the less people I had to tell the
easier that was. Because I did, I actually learned a lot about death, the
non-physical world, spirit(s) & all of that. I suppose any Witch would at
such times. It changed me for sure & for the better. Binx will be back &
there is another kitty soul waiting to move in already, a girl this
time.
But if you’ve heard me speak in
the past few weeks you know that my take on death & dying is much lighter
than it was. This is sort of important considering we are about to hit Lammas or
Lughnasadh, the first harvest sabbat. It is followed by Mabon/Autumnal Equinox
& the harvest season concludes with Samhain / Halloween. So yeah, death is a
constant all wheel round, but at harvest time, we reap what we have sown. To do
that the old self is weeded away in stages for the new to emerge.
I know I have put in my
internal time. I have a daily spiritual practice. I don’t know how I would get
through this world without it. It may be morning or night & different from
day to day, but we’re looking at a good 30 to 45 minutes of solid practice every
day, even if takes place in the bathtub.
But Lammas being a solar
holiday symbolizes external changes, often surrounded with the idea of
sacrifice. Now, sacrifice doesn’t mean the same thing to me as it once did. The
correlation of sacrifice to death is ancient. But after what I have learned this
past season, everything that lives, dies. It is the one inevitable thing that we
all tend to freak out about.
So, sacrifice means ‘making
sacred’ to me. As I harvest there is an opportunity to truly appreciate what I
have. This is more than gratitude; it is about seeing my life through the eyes
of Source.
This takes us into the
3rd Eye which is the corresponding chakra to the sabbat. The Sacred
Truth of the 3rd Eye is “Seek only Truth.” So we have to ‘old school'
sacrifice our illusions & ‘new school’ make sacred the truth that is right
in front of us. That’s not always pretty, but with practice, it can be. Call it
pivoting or forgiving or blessing, what have you. But as we go into Lammas we’re
dealing with a refining of mental power in the 3rd Eye. It is
symbolically how we see things that determine what we harvest.
For example, you cast for/
asked for/ intended a new car. The car exists somewhere. Some company has
already made it. The money for you to get it already exists. The question is how
are you looking at & therefore thinking about the car? The illusion is
that it may not be possible for you. But that’s not true; anything is possible.
That is a Truth. Seek it; seek only
that truth & it will lead you to another & another & another. If you
are in alignment with it vibrationally, a match, the car must come into your
experience.
Lammas is a celebration, Loaf
–Mass if you want to translate it. It is about the first loaves of bread baked
from the first wheat harvested. It is a beautiful symbol of the rewards of not
only reaping what we have sown, but molding it & fashioning it to be
something satisfying, nurturing & hopefully delicious.
But everyone gets their own
Lammas-dough you see. If you keep your eye on another person’s loaf making, it
can screw up your own. The more you care about what YOU are thinking& less
about what other’s are thinking, the more truth you will find. You also get a
happier healthier loaf. (There is a pinching joke I am going to exclude here,
but those of you who know me can enjoy the probabilities,)
So have at it. Get to kneading
rather than so much needing. I’m reshaping & making some changes in my
schedule. August is a busy month with few days off, but Fashion week approaches
in September pretty much right after my 44th birthday. I may not be
walking the runway, but I am certainly looking forward to experiencing it as a
very busy vacation to another dimension, as I always do.
All in all I expect to harvest
well. I do what I love just about every day. I have fallen in love with teaching
like never before. I want to do it as often as possible. The right technology
for DTCP is slowly working itself out & that’s just fine. I’m going with the
flow & enjoying my friends & laughing my way downstream. Even when a
bump hits, though it may take me a day or two to get my canoe going downstream,
I always do eventually.
It’s too late now. I know too
much. I’ve been doing this for too long. I’m not perfect unless I am perfect in
process like everyone else. But I do practice & if that makes me perfect in
process like everyone else here, then so be it.
Things will leave & things
will come. That is Lammas & indeed the entire Harvest Season through
Samhain. But I guarantee you this, if you continue seeking only truth, popping
those illusions as you go, forgiving everything to the best of your ability, to
the point where it becomes almost natural, you are well on your way to riding
this wheel into bigger & better with every turn. After all, your practice
becomes your path over time. So, get to harvesting & keep an eye on DTCP. We
have sown & we are reaping.
Blessed Lammas,
Mark A Lyons
Professional Witch
Follow me on Twitter @ProfWitch
