A Few More Thoughts for Lammas
With The Sun at 20° Leo, we begin to leave the Lammas season behind for this year. Before moving on I wanted to share some thoughts on the greater meaning of this Sabbat.
Lammas is the cross quarter between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox. It is the first of three harvest celebrations, the other two being Mabon (Autumn Equinox) and Samhain (Halloween). Along with ideas of bounty and gratitude, harvest, both in the literal and metaphorical sense, contains the idea of conclusions and ultimately death. While death is most strongly associated with Samhain, any time we are dealing with the “fruits” of our labor, we are dealing with endings and (hopefully) the potential new beginnings.
In my own practice, I have found it profitable to use these seasonal observances as an opportunity to think about the “seasons of life”. The unfolding looks something like this:
Yule (the Winter Solstice) is when life ignites within The Earth. It is the moment of conception. A new cycle begins in obscurity.
Imbolc (Feb 1 or 15° Aquarius) is about birth and “nursing”. The new year is underway. Like an infant, what it will become depends on a lot of tender care and planning for the future. Whatever we undertake in life requires this sort of nurture before it can stand on its own.
Ostara (Spring Equinox) is like childhood. A time to dream and try things out. It is also a time of rebirth after the deathly sleep of winter. The energy of resurrection is available to fuel our efforts and warm the “seeds” we plant. It is a time of enthusiasm and vivid imagination.
NOTE: On both solstices, balance is an important theme. I will have more to say about that toward the end of this essay.
Beltane (May 1 or 15° Taurus) is like puberty. The world is alive with erotic fire. We may not even understand the stirrings we feel but something drives us toward others and the world in general. We want to get all mixed up in the riot of growth all around us. This is a time when possibilities seem unlimited. We might even overestimate ourselves and our powers, but this is appropriate for this season of life. It is far better for a young person to aspire to things beyond their abilities than to underestimate themselves. A degree of “productive naivete” provides the momentum that launches us into life.
Litha (Summer Solstice). There is a reason for the tradition of the June Wedding. After running around “sowing our oats” there comes a moment when we must commit to something if we are to grow beyond ourselves. Weddings are such occasions but also commitment to a course of education or craft. At the peak of light and energy there is nowhere to go but down. The idea of pollination suggests itself here. No matter how beautiful the bloom, if the flower is not pollinated, no seed will form. At the same time, the absolute “YES” of commitment means saying no to many things. At the height of growth and expansion, the walls of limitation begin to slowly close in.
Which brings us to Lammas (August 1 of 15° Leo). We begin to sow the “seeds” of our commitments (Lammas is especially concerned with grain harvests). We also begin to see what could have been had we made different choices, and, if we look closely, to catch the first glimpse of death and decline.
As a “season of life” Lammas represents that moment where our life, by what we have done and left undone, has attained a “shape”. It gets increasingly more difficult to change course and we begin to really feel the limitations that bound our lives. This could be a moment of midlife crisis, a desperate and often futile attempt to do those things we might have done earlier. Many people who go through this season come to see that what might have satisfied them in youth, fail to do so in middle age.
Although this can be depressing, we should recognize that becoming ANYTHING means not being EVERYTHING. Psychologically, spiritually and emotionally, Lammas is about maturity. We must embrace what we have become and learn to live AS that thing with grace and dignity. We still have time (Lammas is only the first of three harvest celebrations). But we must embrace and learn to live within limitations, those chosen (consciously or not) and those which are simply the price of being something rather than nothing. We might even come to see that these two types of limitation are one.
Everything useful, valuable and beautiful, is so by virtue of its structure and its ability to function in and as this structure. Lammas invites us to look at what we have built and assess its value and beauty. If there are modifications that might make them more so, we still have time to make them. But we should also make peace with what we can not change. Doing so will make us more resilient as we grow into elderhood.
If you are among my younger readers, you might well ask how this applies to you. Let me suggest that we all live many smaller lives within our greater one. Every relationship, every undertaking, every stage of growth contains within itself the same pattern. If you try to notice them in the smaller circles of life it will be easier to come to terms with them in the larger circles.
I should say something about the remaining two “spokes” on the wheel of the year just to round things out. Mabon (Autum Equinox) like the Vernal Equinox, has to do with balance. In Spring, the challenge to balance in baring in mind that everything new will one day be old. At Mabon the challenge is to balance the recognition that everything perishes with the certainty of rebirth beyond our individual lives. Doing the work associated with Lammas will help a lot in this regard.
Finally, Samhain (October 31 or 15° Scorpio) brings us to the “final harvest”. This is the time to honor, celebrate and make peace with our dead. This includes not only the people who have died but what ever ambitions we might never have realized.
Lammas is the entry point to this season of harvest. If we make the most of this first harvest, we might make the best of the rest of the season. Remember, that season between Samhain and the return to Yule represents the “bardo” between this life (year) and the next. According to most accounts of reincarnation, the condition we die in has a great deal to do with how we will be reborn. How we end any cycle will similarly determine how we shall enter the next. I encourage you to use this first harvest not only to enjoy what you have grown, but also to prepare for the season ahead.
Blessed Lammas