Lammas – Giving thanks for abundance

Today is Lammas in the north and Imbolc in the south

Lammas is half way between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox in the north.

Imbolc is between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox in the south.

Contemplating the old Festival days

When we observe the Wheel of the Year and live life by these seasons, indeed, the year does go very quickly as each six weeks there is a festival to celebrate.

When we note these festival-days they are very important for our connection to the cycles of life on our planet. From the cold, closed days of winter, through the warming of the earth and the buds opening, to planting, ripening and harvesting both our food and the health of our lives.

As you know from our Earth Healing events, they seem to come around very quickly, yet they are 12 weeks apart. When you add in the Pagan or Celtic quarter days as well, then it seems we hardly have time to breathe before it is time for the next festival or Earth Healing event time.

What was important about those events though, was that it kept people together. There were no calendars, clocks or time pieces other than what was happening with the sun. So, all of these celebrations were a time of real grounding, bringing people together and honouring our place in the great cycles of life.

By this coming together, everyone was honouring their place in the world and paying court to Mother Earth and her cycles of wealth and plenty whilst planning for the saving of food for the colder times, which were to come.

Nature kept everyone in line. You had to do your bit otherwise you would starve when the lean times came. Everyone had something that they could offer. The young and strong took care of the old and weak and recognised that they had given their lives to the cycles in their turn. The old, whilst not having the strength of the young held the wisdom of many growth periods and harvests that they could share. In that wisdom and knowledge were the seeds of success for the next generations and seasons. And so, the cycle continued.

Although I don’t celebrate these quarter days regularly myself, I am very connected to the seasonal cycles and the weather. I am very connected to the Earth and her ways. The first thing I do every morning is open the door and step outside to feel the day. I can usually feel the temperature accurately within one or two degrees, then I check the thermometer to see was I right. Just a little game I play with myself, I suppose.

Thinking about our next Earth Healing Event

A few days ago, I smelt the autumn arriving. I always have a pang of pain when summer is passing. It has always affected me strongly and this year more so because we had one of the longest winters ever before things began to warm up. My body needs to feel the warmth of summer, to soak up that warmth to nurture my bones deeply. I am sure many of you are similar, and this is why many of us go to the sun in summer to get that drenching of the life-giving light.

In only six weeks-time we will be offering our great help and healing to Mother Earth and now is a good time to remind ourselves that our Earth Healing Event was not something that was thought up or created out of a whim, but was called forth by Mother Earth Herself.

She poured her pain and grief through me to the point where I had to respond.

We can see in the world around us how things are changing so quickly and we have no idea how much our healing work helps in the process, other than we know that it does from the experiences we have during the healing itself. Why would she call upon us if our work was ineffective? She knows more than we do and it is our work to serve her.

In order to perform the healing, Mother Earth calls upon the human heart to hear her. Those who respond become bonded in a greater way to the life of our world and the true way to live in this sacred place we call home. This delicate tiny jewel that spins serenely in the darkness of space. A planet of light that is dimming and dying slowly through the actions of humanity. Yet, she will not die. Before that, she will rid herself of the cause of her illness.

The pendulum always swings between light and dark between yin and yang and when one or the other is reaching saturation point, then the pendulum swings in the opposite direction to rebalance the whole. Through this action of swinging, great changes come about and that is where we are in the cycle at present. The swing forces change upon anything that doesn’t want to change or won’t change. There is no resisting the power of this dynamic. We are all heading for change.

Of course, there are those of us who understand the process and go with the flow, helping where we can, and there are those who think it is all nonsence and won’t look even when it is staring them in the face.

Every great discovery is always derided by those with the power to do so, but eventually, and usually after the discoverer is no longer with us, all is welcomed as blindingly obvious. The problem comes because of the lack of evolutionary thinking on the part of the whole, yet the brilliant idea that will change everything sits unobserved for decades or even hundreds of years before anyone really notices that the discovery has great merit.

A simple example of this is when Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that the earth went around the sun and that the sun was in fact the centre of our solar system. All of science at the time, including the authority of the church was convinced otherwise.

For years I had on my wall a little text that I made of Arthur Schopenhauer’s quote:

All Truth goes through three stages.
First it is ridiculed.
Second it is violently opposed.
Third it is accepted as self-evident.

Perhaps one day, people will realise that we are not separate from anything.

First, we are all connected at the heart.
Second, our hearts are joined to the heart of Mother Earth
Third, she is a living, conscious, being.

I wish you all a great festival day.

With my Deepest Love and Blessings.

David.