East Woods at Midsummer – Lughnasadh

We are currently at what’s called Midsummer holiday. This is one of the cross-quarter days, when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of a fixed sign, currently, Leo. That was overnight Friday into Saturday, but due to Monday’s New Moon, the game is still on. In Christian terms this is called Lammas; pagans refer to it as Lughnasadh, celebrating the first harvest and the reaping of grain. In mediæval times the feast was known as the “Gule of August.” It gets a few other names tacked onto it as well.

These natural holidays tell the story of the year. The quarter-days are the equinoxes and solstices. At the midpoints of these days are the cross-quarters, sometimes thought of as ‘minor’ sabbaths but in truth, they are the real hot spots. We’re all familiar with Beltane, Mayday or The May. This is the Taurus holiday, celebrating birth, sex and wealth. It is the rite of spring, probably the oldest of the cross-quarter days. We’re all familiar with Samhain (pronounced sah-wen), which exists in modern times as Halloween. In Christian terms this is the time of year when we celebrate All Soul’s Day or All Saint’s Day, and in Latin countries, the Days of the Dead. This is the counterpoint to Beltane, the Scorpio holiday of death and rebirth.

The two sabbaths not commonly known in modern times are Lughnasadh and Imbolc — also called Lammas and Candlemas. (The Onion also celebrates Zweibelmas, named after its 128-year-old publisher emeritus, T. Herman Zweibel.) Note that all of these holidays or sabbaths go by many different names. For example, Imbolc is called Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of Mary, Groundhog Day and a few other things.

Basically, Lughnasadh is the first harvest or second planting. This, as contrasted to the final harvest at Samhain or Halloween. The Sun at this stage has reached the midpoint of Northern Hemisphere summer; that was yesterday. It is a solar holiday, one of the eight noted points of the Earth’s journey round the Sun. It is traditionally celebrated Aug. 1, a bit ahead of the exact Leo midpoint.

The quarter days are when the Sun changes seasons and aligns with the Aries Point. When we reach a cross-quarter day, the Sun is 45 degrees from the change of seasons, and thus activates the Aries Point. Tomorrow there is a New Moon at 17+ Leo, so we have a solar-lunar event very close to one of these midpoints. So, in a seemingly roundabout but in fact direct way, the Sun and Moon form a conjunction in alignment to the current Venus – Mars – Jupiter – Saturn – Uranus – Pluto lineup in the early cardinal signs. This could definitely shake the tree. Fortunately, Congress has gone home for summer recess. It would be nice if CNN took a recess as well.

Here is a cool bit from Wikipedia that gives a glimpse into how this festival was celebrated in relatively recent times. In The Every-Day Book by William Hone (published in 1838), he speaks of a festival common among Scottish farmers near Edinburgh that happens on Aug. 1, or “Lammas Day.” He says that they “build towers…leaving a hole for a flag-pole in the center so that they may raise their colors.” When the flags over the many peat-constructed towers were raised, farmers would go to other’s towers and attempt to “level them to the ground,” which, if successfully attempted, would bring great praise.

So, it looks like the farmers would play this elaborate game at halftime of the growing season and get their yayas out. Given how significant is our relationship to agriculture, Lughnasadh would seem to be a pretty significant holiday to note. Basically, whatever you see in the world around you, except for fucking, childbirth and death, is connected to agriculture. — efc