Lughnasadh 2013: Harvesting the Light

Lughnasadh 2013: Harvesting the Light

Each of us has the opportunity to see in 1 of 2 essential directions. We can see truth or we can see illusion. The choice is ours, but not so easily done. We can look at our lives & worlds through the lens of the shadow or through the lens of the light. This is an archetypal truth as all things have their shadow & light in a dualistic world.

Lugh, the Celtic God of light who’s Holy Day & following season Lughnasadh, is all about the mental choice to harvest the light/truth & gather in all of the Love, Power & Wisdom such a harvest automatically brings. Thus Lughnasadh marks the beginning of Harvest Season.

As I was laying in bed last night after watching some inspirational stuff on TV I heard this prayer to Lugh.

Brilliant Lugh, Burning Bright

Bless me; touch me with your might.

Fill my eyes with Godly light

So I may see with blessed sight.

As sweetly poetic & reminiscent to the Green Lantern oath as it is, it keyed me into a connection to Lugh, the 3 month harvest season that Lughnasadh initiates & the 3^rd Eye.

Lughnasadh is the 6^th Sabbat in the Witch’s Wheel of the Year. Each sabbat has a chakra correspondent, starting with Yule/Winter Solstice which links to the Root Chakra & on upwards. Lughnasadh being the 6^th, it correlates to the 3^rd Eye, the chakra that, let’s face it, has the best press agent.

The 3^rd Eye manages Mental Power & we are aware of how wonderful & dangerous that power can be. Many of our deeply held beliefs are based on false premises. The illusion of separation, when gradually undone dismantles racism, misogyny/sexism & even co-dependence among other shadow beliefs that control how we see the world.

So, we have the opportunity to weed the garden of our minds of these false beliefs/weeds, which sap our true sight. Yes, again, the pagan Agriculture Archetype. This leads me to a little discussion I like to have with my students about 1^st sight.

“First Sight means you can see what really is there, and Second Thoughts mean thinking about what you are thinking. And in Tiffany's case, there were sometimes Third Thoughts and Fourth Thoughts although these...sometimes led her to walk into doors.”

― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

OR:

“First Sight is when you can see what’s really there, not what your head tells you ought to be there… Second sight is dull sight, it’s seeing only what you expect to see.

–Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men.

 

That said, Lughnasadh can highlight the very mental attitudes we carry that prevents us from experiencing & manifesting what we want in life. In our coven we see Lughnasadh as the sabbat of ‘sacrifice,’ though it’s not about slitting throats or virgins... usually. The idea is, if you haven’t yet manifested what you started casting for at Yule/Winter Solstice, then you need to make room in your mind & your life for what is trying to get in, but can’t get in due to the old or illusory that blocks it. In other words, start some late Summer Cleaning (in lieu/Lugh of spring cleaning) or better yet, weeding the garden of your mind/life.

The spell I received last night & printed above can be a good jumping off point. But keep in  mind, no sabbat is just one day. They mark first a 1 & ½ month period from sabbat to sabbat, but also mark a whole 3 month season. Lughnasadh marks the beginning of the Harvest Season that will conclude at Samhain. 

So have at it my magickally minded friends, but be gentle with yourself. No sense trying to dismantle belief systems based on false premises in one go. That leads to all sorts of psychological & spiritual crises & complications. Rather, have fun with this. Question everything & put your focus on that which really rings with a high vibrational truth. In this you ‘sacralize’/make sacred the light & truth in your life while sacrificing what was never truth, felt good or served.

Blessed Be & Blessed Lughnasadh

Rev. Mark A. Lyons, President
Drawing the Circle Productions, INC
Drawingthecircle@aol.com
www.drawingthecircle.com
631-968-8307