Lammas Bread

Lammas Bread

2 cups warm milk

2 packages dry yeast

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

Mix together in a large bowl, cover and set in a warm place until doubled (about 30 minutes).

Add the following:

3 Tbs softened butter

2 cups unbleached white flour

Stir until bubbly.

Mix in the following:

1 cup rye flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

With floured hands, turn the dough onto a floured surface and gradually knead in more white flour until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in a large greased bowl, turning once so that the dough is greased, cover with a cloth and set in a warm place until it doubles in size (about 1 hour).

Punch the dough down and divide in two. Shape into balls, flattened at the top and place on a cookie sheet. Cover and set in a warm place until doubled. (about 1 hour) When the final rising is almost complete, use your athame and carve a pentagram in the centre of the loaf as you recite a blessing of thanks to the Grain Goddess.

For variety, once the bread has been separated in two, shape the dough into figures symbolizing the God and Goddess of the Grain.

Cover and allow to rise until doubled.

Beat together:

1 egg

1 Tbs water

Brush the loaves and bake in a preheated oven at 300 degrees for 1 hour.

Share this blessing of the Goddess during your Lammas Feast.

HARVEST BLESSINGS: A LAMMAS RITUAL

HARVEST BLESSINGS: A LAMMAS RITUAL

by TaTa Chakra a.k.a. TerraFire

From Oct 98-Oct 99 I had the great blessing of living in a run down farmhouse at the foot of Mount Pisgah just southeast of Eugene, Oregon. I knew when I moved in that my stay there would be impermanent but I quickly grew deeply attached to the beauty of this five-acre property.

The man who had lived there before my housemates and I was an avid gardener whose devoted labor had turned an acre of the property from old river bed full of blackberries into a resplendent garden of visual delight. Because this man had been on good terms with many of the local green witches there were many people, mostly women who came to the garden to harvest the herbs and make herbal medicines. The man had also planted plum apple, peach, cherry and asian pear trees. There were logan berries, gooseberries red and gold raspberries, elderberries and of course many many blackberries. He had trained the blackberries over a bower and around the fence so that they created a privacy screen.

Behind the 16 more or less straight garden rows which had an irrigation system, was a ritual circle with three rings of wildflowers. My housemates and I dug a fire pit in the middle of this circle. We also began to keep bees, which was something that I had longed to do for many years. Bees are very sacred to me and the sound of their humming buzz is one I have always associated both with the cone of power and with my own inner guidance.

There were many lovely trees on this property as well, besides the fledgling fruit trees, there were two transplanted redwoods, not more than 30 years old, three old black walnuts to which we assigned the archetypes of maiden, mother and crone. The plant being that I grew most attached to was a Cottonwood tree, which was at least 75 years old. This tree was at the far northwest side of the property just 6ft from both edges of the property line.

A thick growth of mugwort had been planted against the fence. The cottonwood tree welcomed me as her magical companion. I regularly meditated by the tree, created a directional invocation with her, held counseling sessions, taught classes and also did trance work laying in the grass beneath her branches with a mugwort breeze drifting over me. My housemate called the place fennel farm because no matter how much fennel we weeded out more sprang up in its place. Fennel Farm was the most idyllic place I have ever lived and the perfect setting for the 3rd annual Luscious Leo Lammas party.

The Luscious Leo Lammas party was a brainstorm of how to create a public ritual space with the organization Cauldron of Changes and simultaneously celebrate my birthday (Aug 1st) and the birthday of my dear friend Mike (Aug 7th). I also had several other close Leo friends whose birthdays could not be ignored, (take my advice: never ignore a Leo’s birthday if you hope to be close to them).

For several years we had held the party and ritual at Mike’s house in town but this year it would be at Fennel Farm and bigger and better than ever. In addition to the ritual we had a keg, a huge vegan birthday cake (it was Eugene, remember), party lights and tiki torches, a stage for performance of poetry and music and we also hired a local African Dance troupe “Foli Kan”. We made crowns for all of the Leo’s to wear and had a kids activity area.

Lots of people came prepared to sleep over night in tents and we prepared the neighbors and invited them to join in. I had written a special invocation chant for the Goddess and God and practiced this and a directional invocation song with a small group of other priests and priestesses. We spent a considerable time preparing the ritual space and gathering our ritual tools and props. As Night began to fall Mike and I (High Priest and Priestess), gathered the ritual attendees together at the gate that lead into the garden and the ritual space beyond. We explained the ritual to everyone, what would happen in what order and taught them the chants. Then the High Priest picked up a tiki torch and lead a procession into the ritual space singing “We are a circle within a circle” by the group Welcome to Annwyfn.

As the group of about 80 people created a circle entering the ritual gate in the east and traveling clockwise around to take their spaces, I walked the outer perimeter with my smoky quartz athamé casting the circle three times. The group continued to sing “we are a circle” as each directional priest/ess in turn raised their voice above the group to call in their direction. In the East the song goes “You hear us sing. You hear us cry, Now hear us call you, Spirits of Air and Sky” which the directional priest finished by marking an invoking pentacle in the Eastern Watchtower with his athamé. He completed the invocation by lighting the three Tiki Torches set in the East.

Three more rounds of the chant were sung before the Southern Priestess sang out loud and clear, “Inside our hearts, there grows a spark, love and desire, a burning fire.” She raised her wand and drew an invoking pentacle on the Southern Watchtower. The song continued again and the Western Priestess sang, “Within our blood, within our tears, there lies the altar, of living water.” Holding the chalice another invoking pentacle was described and hung in the air in the Western quarter.

The North Priestess took her turn singing strongly “Take our fear, take our pain, take the darkness into the earth again.” Holding her paten up as invoking the northern pentacle. Then all the directions sang together “The circles closes, between the worlds, to mark a sacred space, where we come face to face.” And the song ended. The High Priest and I thanked everyone for coming to participate in our Lammas ritual. We explained that we were going to chant to draw down the Goddess and God into each other. We called the God to us and into the High Priest. We Called the Goddess to us and into the High Priestess. Everyone repeated this three line sing song refrain I AM THE GOD, I AM THE DIVINE, I AM THE DIVINE And the priest responded with the following: IN THE DARK I’M THE NIGHT IN THE DAY I’M THE LIGHT. Then everyone sang the Goddess chorus which was simply: I AM THE GODDESS, I AM THE DIVINE, I AM THE DIVINE and the priestess responded ” I AM THREE I AM ONE AND I CAN’T BE UNDONE”. While this sounds complex on paper it was rather simply done and the text of this singing invocation are given here in completion:

Singing Invocation of God and Goddess

Chorus refrain A: I am the God I am the Divine, I am the Divine

Chorus refrain B: I am the Goddess I am the Divine I am the Divine

Chorus A God response: In the Dark I’m the Night In the Day I’m the Light

Chorus B Goddess Response: I am Three I am One And I can’t be Undone

Chorus A God response: I am Young I am Old I am Green Black and Gold

Chorus B Goddess Response: Maiden Mother and Crone In them Each I am Home

Chorus A God response: I’m the Flowering Rod I’m the Bountiful God

Chorus B Goddess Response: I am tree I am snake I will keep you awake

Chorus A God response: I am Hoof I am Horn As I Leap through the Corn

Chorus B Goddess Response: I Spiral and Wind As I Labrynth through Time

Chorus A God response: I’m the One Inbetween I’m the Seen and Unseen

Chorus B Goddess Response: I’m both Woman and Man Alchemist that I Am

Finish with both Priest & Priestess hands joined singing:

In My Heart and My Mind I am the Divine

The Priestess says: The God is Amongst us, Blessed Be!

The Priest Says: The Goddess is Amongst Us, Blessed Be!

After the invocation, the ritual continued with an explanation of Lammas, The High Priest and Priestess asked participants to look around them at the bounties of the earth and to think upon all of the goodness and wealth that the planet offers us daily. Their words spoken here were in the form of spontaneous offerings from the deities invoked. They explained that Lammas was the first harvest of three harvests, that this was the time of harvesting fruits and flowers, the time to celebrate community and friendships, the time to begin storing things for the coming time of darkness.

As the Description of Lammas ended the Priest and Priestess started Charlie Murphy’s chant “It’s the blood of the Ancients that runs through our veins, And the forms pass, but the circle of life remains” And as the drummers chimed in and the group picked up the chant the Priest and priestess took up a basket and bowl respectively and revealed a Mystery to all the participants in groups of two or three around the entire circle. The Priest showed his basket full of harvested fruits, vegetables and grains saying solemnly “This is the God” and the priestess showed her bowl of rich garden soil saying solemly “This is the Goddess”.

When the Showing of the Mystery was complete a brief grounding meditation was led and each person was asked to answer the Question “What Magickal gift is present in your life right now?” Participants were asked to think of the blessings of this gift to experience it’s presence in their life and to make their awareness of it as big as possible.

They were instructed to focus on the sense of gratitude and blessing and send it off to the earth and sky to anyone in need of it during the cone of power. The cone of power was facilitated by high priest and priestess with the help of the directional priest/esses and began with our imitation of bees buzzing. After several minutes of our toning getting progressively higher the cone was sent off and then held in resonance as we fell to the ground, earthing the energy. Several minutes of silence followed before the priest and priestess arose and moved again to the central altar. They brought out local Blackberry wine and freshly made blackberry juice and a rack of fresh honey comb. The Priest said the Feasting Blessing (from Starhawk’s The Spiral Dance, p.169)

All Life is Your own, All fruits of the earth Are fruits of your womb Your union, your dance. Goddess and God We thank you for blessings and abundance Join with us, feast with us, Enjoy with us! Blessed Be.

And we took the honey and wine and juice to each person as they laughed and made jokes and began to dance and sing again. When all had eaten and some had seconds, it was time to “devoke” the deities and directions, earthing again the powers we had raised and acknowledged. God and Goddess, each direction in turn were invited to leave and thanked for their presence. We sang “The Circle is Open” of course ending with Merry Meet and Merry part and merry meet again.

It has been a moving process for me to share this ritual with you, to consciously re-enter my experience of that sacred day in that beautiful and sacred place where I had the good fortune to live for a while. I hope that our ritual may inspire further rituals, that we humans may become more and more compelled to experience and express our closeness to the earth and our gratitude for her bounty. Blessed Be.

Lighten Up – Difference Between a Spell Checker and a Spelling Checker

Difference Between a Spell Checker and a Spelling Checker

by Don

Having been in the Pagan scene for many years, but being new to computers, I was fascinated when I saw a program that was called a “Spell Checker”. My naive mind had visions of a program that would check the contents of the spells that I typed up. I imagined that it might make suggestions such as, “You’ve forgotten to specify the type of incense to be used”, or…”You are supposed to use a green candle for money spells, not red!” I soon found, however, that it only checked the spelling of the words, not the wording of the spells.

I discovered this difference during the course of updating my (computerized) Book of Shadows. I had typed up an ancient spell called “The Wicca Charm”, and to my horror, when I pressed the Spell Checker option, the computer altered the wording significantly. Those of you who know more about computers than myself (which is probably everyone except the natives of the Upper Amazon) would undoubtably know that when a Spell Checker finds a word that is unfamiliar, it assumes that a typing error has been made, and it substitutes a word that it thinks may have been intended. I however, did not understand this basic premise.

And since Pagans tend to have a language that is littered with words that other people do not normally use, the results from using a Spell Checker can be hilarious, as was the case with the computer’s versions of “The Wicca Charm”.

The original spell is shown immediately below, and following that is the revised version that resulted from using the Spell Checker program.

The Wicca Charm

Wicca followers heed the call of Lammas to Imbolg, dancing deosil, never widdershins as we worship ye old religion.

From the grimoire’s magic true, we find that we now have the runes; & the sigils that will bring power to our Sabbat’s witching hour.

With a pentacle in hand, await the Goddess’s command, then cast your circle with athame and with a censer burning vervain.

Throw your talisman into the fire, and to you comes what you desire. Then jump astride a besom firm and ride until the talisman burns.

The computer-revised version is

The Knicker Charm

Knicker followers heed the call lamingtons to imbibe, dancing docile, never widdling we worship a yelled religion.

From the grim one’s magic true, we find that we now have the runs; & the sickness that will bring power to our sad bat’s twitching hour.

With a testicle in hand, await the Goddess’s command then cast your circle with shame and with a sense of burning vermin.

Throw your tallest man into the fire, and to you comes what you desire. Then jump astride a bosom firm and ride until the tallest man burns.

“The Wheel of the Year has turned once more….

“The Wheel of the Year has turned once more,
and the harvest will soon be upon us.
We have food on our tables, and
the soil is fertile.
Nature’s bounty, the gift of the earth,
gives us reasons to be thankful.
Mother of the Harvest, with your sickle and basket,
bless me with abundance and plenty.

The power of the Harvest is within me.
As the seed falls to the earth and is reborn each year,
I too grow as the seasons change.
As the grain takes root in the fertile soil,
I too will find my roots and develop.
As the smallest seed blooms into a mighty stalk,
I too will bloom where I landed.
As the wheat is harvested and saved for winter,
I too will set aside that which I can use later.

As the grain dies, it transforms to bread,
and brings us life through the winter.
We bless this bread, and it blesses us in return,
and we are thankful for the gift of the harvest.”

– Patti Wigington, Hold a Lammas Harvest Festival

No. 2 Things To Do For Lammas…..

Read about and make a loaf of bread. Loaves of bread are a traditional part of the First Harvest Feast. Break bread into four pieces and place at each of the Four Corners altars. Lammas means “Loaf Mass” in the Welsh language. Sharing bread is a common feature of a Lammas celebration. What is the role of baking bread in human culture? Find a really good bakery in your area.

Calendar of the Sun for August 1

Calendar of the Sun

1 Weodmonath

LAMMAS

Colors: Golden and purple
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon the cloth of golden and purple fill baskets of unthreshed grain, and bowls of threshed grain, and clay jugs of beer and wine, and grapes, and other fruits of the harvest. The wheatsheaf loaf should have pride of place, and beside it should be the corn dollie from last year’s Lammas. The new corn dollie should be carried in the arms of one participant.
Offerings: Give food to the poor.
Daily Meal: Bread. Lots of bread and grain.

Ritual Note: Like all the eight high holidays, this day should ideally be spent not enclosed and isolated, but in common with the larger pagan community. This can be done a number of ways, including spending the day elsewhere, at the Brigid’s Day ritual of another group or tradition, or by inviting in those pagans who would otherwise not be able to attend a ritual. Either way, the eight holidays should be a time of remembering the place of the house in the greater community. If the choice is made to go elsewhere, then no liturgy is needed for the day. If the choice is made to bring the greater community into the lesser one, the following ritual can be used:

(First four who have been chosen to do the work of the ritual cast the quarters with sickle, flail, basket, and pot.)

East Caller: Spirits of the East, Powers of Air!
You who are the cold steel of the scythe,
You who are the blade that separates
One from another,
Life from death,
You who are smoke on the wind
And the bringer of the new dawn,
Be with us today!
South Caller: Spirits of the South, Powers of Fire!
You who are the bright Sun above us,
You who are the unflinching light of day,
The scorching heat of the summer,
Pulling the crops toward the sky
And drying them to golden as your rays,
Be with us today!
West Caller: Spirits of the West, Powers of Water!
You who are the gentle rains that fall
To feed the plants that long ago sprang forth,
You who are the summer storms
That knock down those you nourished,
Capricious and random as you are eternal,
Be with us today!
North Caller: Spirits of the North, Power of Earth!
You who are the ground beneath our feet,
You who sustains and nourishes us,
You who brought us forth,
You to whom we shall all one day return,
We honor you especially today.
Be with us now!

Lammas Invocation

Great Lugh,
You who shine forth upon us,
Give us this day our daily bread
And serve it forth with a great helping
Of joy and mirth
Even as we watch your track in the sky
Slowly lower down from the zenith,
This is still your time,
You are still strong,
Ruler of the Earth,
Until the day we watch you fall.

(The sickle is swung in the air.)

In this time of harvest,
When the Sun begins his drop from the sky,
We shall find beauty and contentment by our hearths.
For as the Sun falls, so falls the grain,
So falls each plant life grown by those golden rays,
Fallen by our hand to nourish us,
And nourished we shall be,
By he that grew from the Mother’s womb so many moons ago.
The Sun above has become part of our memories
And we shall carry him forever,
And the grain below will become part of our bodies,
And we shall carry that memory as well.
For to be bound to the cycle of life
Though it be painful, is the truest thing
That any of us can ever do.

(The bread is passed, and torn apart, and eaten.)

Do not forget, in this time of harvest,
The power of love above and below the Earth.
At Beltane, when love flourished forth
In all directions unchained and unboundaried,
We felt it like a rushing wave of pleasure
Unadulterated with pain.
At the Solstice, when the Oak King died
We learned again, and for the first time,
That there is pain in love, and the deeper the love
The greater the pain. And now as we face
The first funeral of the year, we gain
An inkling of how deep both love and pain can be.
May this wisdom bear us up
Throughout the bright days and the darkness
And the dawning yet to come.
Taste sweetness and give thanks
That there is still sweetness in life.

(The wine and beer is passed around, and drunk.)

Follow the serpent to the end of the labyrinth,
And there you will find the door under the earth.
Slide down between the roots of all life
And there you will find the source of all life.
Follow the roots to the underground rivers
And there you will find the deepest nourishment.
Swim down the rivers through the darkest caves,
And there you will find hidden the spark of life.
Follow the spark upwards through the soil
Until it bursts out into the singing air.
Watch it shoot skyward towards the Sun its progenitor,
As gold returns to gold
And the heavens take back their own.
Do not let go of that spark!
Stretch upward with its soaring,
Risk the bright sky and the high flight
Though it will mean your death,
And then you understand the Mystery.

Song: Lammas Prayer

(Last year’s corn dollie is lifted aloft and carried to the stove or fireplace, where it is burned. Then the new corn dollie is lifted to her place on the shelf or altar, and all cheer. Great feasting comes next. Invite in as many as possible to share it.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

The Wicca Book of Days for August 1 – Lughnasadh or Lammas

The Wicca Book of Days for August 1

Lughnasadh or Lammas

On August 1 Wiccans and Witches celebrate Lughnasadh, or Lammas (to give it its Christianized name), with a Sabbat. This ancient Pagan festival marks the harvesting of the year’s first sheaf of wheat or corn, and with it the self sacrifice of the Horned God in his incarnations as the Corn King, or the Lord of the Harvest. As its name suggest Lughnasadh (‘The Games of Lugh”) was originally linked by the Celts of Ireland with Lugh, their God of Light and possessor of a magical sling and spear, who reputedly established the original festivities in honor of his foster-mother, the Earth Goddess Tailtu.

First Fruits

It is acceptable to place fresh fruit on your altar, instead of corn, for your Lughnasadh rite. After you have given thanks to the Horned God and Goddess, and have partaken of the fruit, plant the seeds within in a pot today and encourage them to germinate.

Things To Do This Lammas……

Throughout today’s posts you will find hints on things to do this Lammas. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful.

Collect corn husks, dry and store in shade. “Corn” was a generic term for cereal crops (i.e., wheat, barley, oats), and New World corn was added after 1520. Our non-irrigated winter wheat is harvested in June and July where I live. We can collect wild wheat stalks and seeds, tie, and hang in shade. Make a corn dolly and keep until the Yule Celebration. We can pick fruit (apricots, berries, figs and plums) and dry them. Many kinds for fruit are ripe in late July, so place some of these on your home altar. Many garden herbs are at their peak and ready for harvesting to make herbal remedies, air fresheners, use in herbal magic, and for decoration. There are hundreds of good books and websites on the magical, sacramental, and health uses of herbs.

HARVEST BLESSINGS: A LAMMAS RITUAL