Lammas or Lughnasadh honours the ground, the fruits of the harvest and its associated spirits. Traditionally pagans would celebrate the fruits of the harvest and honour the mother, making corn dollies and baking the first harvest loaves to toast the season. Even though many traditions associated with Lammas have been lost over the years, many tribes and magical communities still look to both celebrate and protect the harvest bounty at this time.
My name is Amanda McWhirter, I’ve studied indigenous magic across the globe throughout my whole life, spending time with tribes and learning their rituals and traditions. I describe myself as a World Weaver as much of my magic (and time) is spent in other dimensions, learning from the beings that reside there. I had the good fortune grow up with some positive role models who made me accept and embrace that which we cannot see for as long as I can recall.
My Grandfather always had a flourishing garden – awash with a rainbow of roses and successful yields of vegetables and fruits that were the envy of the neighbourhood. Indeed, years ago we were much more reliant on local crops and what we could grow ourselves. We learned to grow and trade with neighbours at times of war and poverty to keep the community nourished and fed. Having something to trade, however small, was so important.
Farming in the UK
British farmers have found the last decade increasingly difficult with the unpredictable weather and tenuous harvests, meaning farming has had to adapt simply to survive. For a while chemical fertilisers were thrown at the growth cycles so they could compete with the produce coming in from warmer climes. However, such growth boosts could only be a temporary measure owing to the costs. Plus, the damage these chemicals did to the environment was a source of anger to the fae so ‘cursed’ harvests were becoming more and more frequesnt.
Across the globe, farmers and crop producers are still struggling but they have a very different approach to helping the harvest prosper, ones we could perhaps employ here.
My grandfather and mother worked very closely with plant spirits and the unseen in order to grow madly successful crops, luscious house plants and gardens bursting with colourful flowers…. It comes down to two things honouring and listening.
I spent time with a tiny Rastafarian collective in Jamaica. This community were almost completely self sufficient growing their own food and generating power. Each morning the medicine woman and wife of the village elder would leave gifts at the river for the water spirits, we would celebrate the sun gods with music and prayer, we would send love into the winds and pray to the earth. Every morning the men would smoke around the fire and they always blessed the mother of all creation and the father. In that tribe every life was equal (one love) to a young sapling tree, a stray kitten or a human.
In Haiti the local magician always holds ceremony at the beginning of harvest and at Lammas. We would dance, sing and leave offerings to raise the crops vibration and receive a blessing from the Orishan Gods. It is thought that the three sisters Oya, Yemanja and Oshun require gifts and honour to ensure their elements work in your favour. At midnight on Lammas we would send corn dollies out in the sea with rum and white flowers for Yemanja, blessing her and asking her to rain down and nourish the food sources.
My grandfather and I always asked for the help of the invisible realms at the beginning of summer. He could often tell owing to the vibration of the elementals as to whether they were going to bless us this year or whether something was angering them within the world. If something was out of balance then we needed to do our part to bring it back into equilibrium.
The Ritual
Hopefully this little ritual he taught me will help you this Lammas…
Firstly we would clean and prepare.. We would brush away all the old cobwebs, sweep dry and dead leaves and turn over the soil if needed. We would ask permission to the rose fairies to cut off dead heads (sometimes they use them to build) and remove weeds to then compost. We always knew when to stop with the trimming or cutting back – there would be a slight whisper in the winds or heat from the earth saying ‘enough now’…
We would then take a sage stick and walk to each part of the garden, cleansing it of any bad energies and anything affecting growth and health.. As we stood cleansing, we would listen to each plant and the elemental spirits around them, asking them what they needed in order to feel good. Some would want to be moved to a different area of the garden. Some were simply tired and didn’t want to bloom that year and others felt choked through bugs or lack of water.. Of course, some of the fae would try to be tricksy, asking for Malted Milk biscuits to be left to ensure vitality..
Interestingly, I found that the old earth elementals seemed to care for root vegetables as well as the plant spirit associated with them. The gnomes and elves would very much be in charge of potatoes, onions and carrots. My grandfather would often leave the gnomes honeyed milky tea and potato cakes. They would repay this by redirecting lots of the caterpillars and bugs to other feeding areas
The second part of our ceremony would involve cleansing the watering can with sage and then filling it from the rainwater barrel. As we repeated our walk of the garden, we would nourish each plant with the water, imagining it blooming with abundance and colour. Each plant and its guardian would be thanked and blessed.
Once this was complete, we would sit and have homemade Lammas bread and jam, remembering to leave ample portions for the wee folk.
If you don’t have a garden then feel free to perform this ceremony on any house plants that you care for. It is also really worthwhile to do this in nature. I often enjoy doing a beach clean up before gifting to the water elementals and deities, asking them to keep the sea creatures safe and nourish the lands with rain.
