Lammas/Lughnasad Lore

This ancient Pagan festival of early August celebrates the first harvest. The name "Lammas" comes from Anglo-Saxon origin and means "loaf mass," a celebration of the bread made from the first harvest of grain. Lughnasad honors the Celtic god Lugh. His name means, "light," so he has been called the "shining one. " In Wiccan rituals of the season, Lugh is often equated with the Sun god. His light in this season may be waning, with each day just a few minutes shorter, but here in the northern hemisphere we are still very much in the full heat of summer. Any Pagan or Wiccan reference one can check for the Wheel of the Year festivals contains reference to Lugh, though there is very little agreement on either the spelling (Lughnassadh, Lughnasadh, Lunasa, etc.) or the pronunciations of the name. Some sources place the accent on the first syllable (LOO-na-sa), while others say (Loo-NAH-sa), but most all that include any kind of pronunciation key suggest the "g" and "d" are silent. The spelling used in the title here is from The Witch's Circle.

Perhaps the most popular ritual depictions of Lugh focus on his skills as a maker of tools. In Irish Gaelic lore he was a chief of the Tuatha de Danaan, fabled as both a warrior and a very multi-talented towering figure who became, over time, an immortal god equated with the Roman god Mercury. Lugh was considered the patron and inventor of the arts, including the practical tools needed for livelihood. As a protector of his people and teacher/demonstrator of the skills they needed to survive, he fits well the sequential theme of this turn of the wheel as is explained in The Witch's Circle, and also is summary in the Wheel of the Year section of this site. Midsummer was the culmination of the solar year cycle, the longest day and the height of the Sun's power. In the eight-fold cycle symbolism as first clearly defined by astrological philosopher Dane Rudhyar, Midsummer would be number 5, the Full or culminating point. Lughnasad, the sixth spoke of the Wheel, would then be Disseminating. The term "disseminating" means, "to spread" and it is very much a function of Mercury, messenger of the Sun, whose function is to communicate, to disseminate knowledge. This understanding of the theme of the Sabbat, whether it be called Lammas or Lughnasad, fits well and pulls all the varied myths together into one central theme of sharing.

At the Disseminating phase of any eight-fold cycle, we have attained culmination- Full-fillment-and now we must give from what we have received. In the Lammas celebration of the first bread of the early harvest, the community shares the bounty of their labors. Lugh represents the maturity of the traveler on the Wheel of Life, the great Sun King who is each year born of the Mother at Yule, and grows to his Full power at Midsummer when he consummates his union with the Goddess. As his energy flows into the Earth, warming her to the growth that will become the harvest, he recognizes his responsibility to her and to her children. He will become Father and protector, and when the times comes at Fall Equinox, the willing sacrifice as the full harvest is reaped and the stag falls. But now, as Lugh, he is with us to demonstrate and to share his knowledge and his skills by disseminating-spreading the word. He is a teacher and exemplar of sharing. This theme of sharing is the basis for the Personal Ritual for Lughnasad.

Alternatively, rituals of this Sabbat, which is directly opposite on the Wheel from Brighid (Candlemas, Imbolc), often feature the Corn Mother, autumn counterpart of Brighid as the Corn Maiden. In February, you saw here a photograph of Circle of the Cosmic Muse's Brighid, a doll fashioned of cornhusks, dressed in bridal white and placed in a decorated basket-bed with a phallic wand. In Lammas rite, the cornhusk doll is dressed in red and may be mounted on a staff and carried in celebratory procession. She is now the Corn Mother from whose body is brought forth the abundant harvest. The photograph shows the altar for a Lammas ritual in which the Corn Mother theme was used.

Corn bread and apple cider in the chalice made fine treats for the sharing part of this rite. Fresh sweet corn was husked in circle, then cooked and eaten during the potluck feast following ritual. During the ritual the corn husks and yarn were used to fashion simple solar crosses. These were then charged as amulets of house blessing to be taken home and hung over entry doorways.

Other traditions of Lammas focus on the fact that this first rite of First Harvest begins the season of sacrifice, when the grain of the harvest must die in order to provide food. Two mythologies that lend themselves well to this theme are that of John Barleycorn and the Wicker Man. One year Circle of the Cosmic Muse enacted the entire John Barleycorn song as we sang it, and another year we constructed and burned a Wicker Man.

by Maria Kay Simms