Lammas, the first of three harvests.

Lammas is sometimes called the forgotten holiday. It doesn’t coincide with other secular holidays so it seems to get lost in the summer adventures. Lammas or Lughnasa is on August 1^st each year. It’s a stationary holiday, unlike the solstices that are dictated by astrological events. Lammas is a fire holiday. All of the cross-quarter holidays are fire holidays- including Samhain, Imbolc and Beltaine.

Lammas is also the first of three harvest holidays- Lammas, Fall Equinox and Samhain are all harvest festivals. We can celebrate our good fortune of having access to food at these moments in time. When working with the seasons of the year you could also be aware of the things that are coming into fruition for you. What harvest are you reaping? Have you been practicing a skill? Have you been working on manifesting a certain lifestyle? It’s a great time to pause and reflect on you have gathered, created and learned.

Some activities that are Lammas related might be canning fruits and vegetables, dehydrating abundant harvest, making medicines from herbs, and creating smoke cleansing bundles. You can do these tasks with reverence towards the abundance the earth is constantly offering us. You can also make lists of all of your accomplishments. Reflect on your successes, reassess where you want to invest your energies.

Some folks refresh their altars with each seasonal change. I have many altars in my house and some I change seasonally and some are updated on other schedules. When I am creating a Lammas altar, I often add fresh flowers and in particular, sunflowers. I use the colors of late summer; gold, yellow, green and brown. My favorite sunflower table runner adorns the altar space, sometimes I will add dried stalks of wheat or other grains. I often add the four elements, a bowl of water, a bowl of salt or soil, a candle and some smoke cleansing wands or incense.

The holiday across the wheel from Lammas is Imbolc. I often feel that these holidays speak to one of another. Samhain and Beltaine are reflections of one another from the perspective that, in my opinion, Samhain celebrates the ancestors and Beltaine celebrates the descendants. Imbolc is a holiday that we begin planting seeds, seeds of thought and actual vegetables and plants. We make plans for what we want to grow in our lives.

Lammas is the holiday that we begin harvesting the seeds that were conceptualized and planted in February. This is a great time of year to reassess and review your life strategies. Are you harvesting the metaphorical or actual seeds that you planted? Is the harvest what you expected?  Journal these questions and refer back to them, when the wheel swings back around to Imbolc. Like a garden journal, we can use this information as you embark on new strategies for your life.

Karin Olsen teaches classes in the Pacific Northwest near Olympia, WA. She teaches classes on the wheel of the year, psychic hygiene, astrology, spiritual paths and psychic development. She teaches through Moonhill Mystery School both online and in-person. She teaches the Dark Side of the the Wheel of the Year in September and the Bright Side of the Wheel of the Year in March/April. Check out the current classes at https://www.moonhillmysteryschool.com/about-the-mystery-school