The First Harvest: Lughnasadh (or how to kill a god)

...as I type this post, the sun is shining bright while the rain is pouring down...indeed a blessing for this celebration of the wheel...

Last evening at sundown here in the Northern Hemisphere, Lughnasadh arrived, making today the first of the harvest season, of the fall. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the wheel of the year that many of us "dirt-worshipping tree huggers" use for a calendar, it is an astronomically-based system that focuses on the Earth's natural cycles as it revolves around the sun. The only deviation I know of on the planet would be that they are opposites in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It is the original time keeper for two-leggeds as we have made our way through the eons, one that always rings true, and as with many things from our ancestors are actually based on science.

Lughnasadh is the point halfway between the summer solstice and the fall equinox, one of eight points on the wheel (four quarters, four cross quarters). Lughnasadh is the first day of fall, laying opposite Imbolc (the first day of spring, found between the winter solstice and the spring equinox).

Lughnasadh celebrations teach us about the harvest. We are getting busy collecting fruits and seeds from our labors throughout the season to save for the long night ahead. We are gathering together to share our baskets with each other, to participate in games of skill (and share what we have earned with our skills), and to think about what we need to cut away to make room for new plantings, new growth.

While the concepts of Lughnasadh truly come from nature, from agriculture, from tribal living of days past, there are fruits to harvest for the baskets we carry today. The knowledge, while gleaned from nature, is timeless and priceless.

What are you harvesting at this time in your life? What has grown well to produce amply, and what has withered or died or yielded no fruits for your labor? What needs planted or tended for future harvests?

The wheel of the year represents the cycles of birth, life, death, and rebirth in terms of crops or plant growth. When we are in balance we reflect on each of these at every turning of the wheel, whether it is in our personal lives or in one of many greater cycles in which we are connected.

Another special part about Lughnasadh in my life is the concept of tribute. I have been taught by medicine men and women in multiple cultures that gratitude is given before the abundance is received. I have been taught that "sacrifice" is giving something of value prior to gaining the reward. I have been taught that to receive a wealthy inheritance from the universe, I must pay taxes based on it's worth on it long before it is given.

Since I have long heard people talk about Lammas bread (it's a whole other tangent to explain how nearly all Christian holidays are placed on or near prior 'pagan' holidays, but generally if you look you can find the true origins to learn more about what beliefs were prior to the Roman Catholic genocides across the lands), I thought there might be something more to the idea of a Lughnasadh bread. Naturally, a short internet search found someone who had indeed done such a thing! What was really great about the article is that clearly the author follows the wheel and understands the concept of Lughnasadh.

The recipe for the this bread came from the article link below. I take no credit for creating this particular recipe or inventing a person made from bread for Lughnasadh ~ I just found it and made it my own way, my own ritual, in our own pagan community.
https://delishably.com/baked-goods/Lughnasadh-Old-Fashioned-Magical-Blessing-Bread-Recipe

I spent my afternoon yesterday on 'spontaneously' creating, in gratitude, for our Lughnasadh celebration, a tribute, a harvest god to sacrifice. Our community gathers on every wheel turning and every full moon to honor the turnings. We hold talking stick and ritual. I had already decided to bring fresh gifts from my garden to share, but apparently spirit had some even more grandiose ideas...

The ingredients were fairly simple: milk, eggs, yeast, salt, flour, oil, sugar

The recipe was easy to follow, though I think the dough might have been easier to work using a mixer instead of by hand.

It definitely took a lot longer to work the dough than I expected. I must admit here that I refuse to own a bread machine and only work dough by hand, and this was not necessarily a good recipe for efficiency in my case.

Finally, the dough is ready to rise!

Dear reader, I must admit I have had fun taking my time to get you to this point...are you ready for the fun part of the post???

Once the dough set to rise I took my scissors and a basket and I took a walk. I wandered through my plants with one focus: what would be a worthy tribute for Lughnasadh? I caressed, contemplated, and then gathered a little here and a little there. While I gathered, I held gratitude in my heart and in my forethoughts, and I let that gratitude guide my feet and my hands.

Here you see: Rosemary, thyme, oregano, lamb's quarters, red clover, nasturtiums, echinacea, fennel, bell pepper, scallop squash, parsnip, Thai yard-long bean, and habanero pepper blossoms.

In my beloved Cherokee purple tomatoes I found the heart I needed!

Every slice of the knife, sharp and keen, revealed new images to be contemplated. What images can you see in a simple vegetable? Throwing the bones, reading tea leaves ~ all just looking at what you see and allowing the messages to come.

This one will do perfectly for my beloved and me.

A palette of colors and shapes with which to make my masterpiece...

I am so very grateful for how creativity works in my life. Yesterday morning I had a seed of an idea. By afternoon, I had given birth to a god worthy of sacrifice...

Each placement was done with care, each piece had sentimental value and a spiritual connection for me as I worked.

At this point my priestess, elder and dear sister was surely giggling as she received running commentary with the afternoon updates from me ~ "He even has a little parsnip penis!!!"

On a more serious note, the parsnip was exactly representative of gratitude before receiving. So far our parsnip patch for this year is looking great, but they are not for harvesting until later in the season. It felt right to pull one of the lush green plants as a gift to the gods, and also for that energy be the creation of our Lughnasadh man's receptacle of creative juices!

Give thanks for such a beautiful tribute!!

Our harvest god is now washed in egg and milk, and ready for the fires of the oven. As you can see, there was a little dough left to use the tomato slice that spoke to me, which is actually the part that my beloved Rabbit and I split when it was time to eat John Barleycorn!

The finished work of art/the completion of my personal Lughnasadh ritual!

We had just finished our Lughnasadh ritual (which was amazing and powerful, full of infra and ultra and LIFE!!!) and were gathered back behind the castle for our post-ritual comradery just before sunset and the official arrival of the holiday.

It was particularly fun to hear the sound of giggles coming from our priest as he came through the courtyard with my bread man, saying loudly "Who will join me in sacrificing a god?" As we gathered 'round him in the pavilion, thanks were given, the head was taken and left on an altar, and then...

we ate him.

Thanks for reading!