There are rhythms to everything we experience, the day we live through, our work, leisure and pleasure, the things we create, the emotions we own, the meals we prepare.
These rhythms exist to give us insights into ourselves and as a way to share together with others.
The most ancient of all these rhythms are the seasons of the year. Each cycle following on from the last in a prescribed pattern. As night follows day, we know that summer follows spring. Cycles exist in all levels of our lives, but it is through the seasons we sense our own place in the rhythm of the earth and our part in the wider sphere.
We have always found a way to mark these seasonal changes, to come together as people and celebrate the changes that make up the year. These are referred to as solar festivals. By marking them ourselves, we not only connect in a deeper way with the natural world but also with ourselves. We are able to work on our own sense of self at a deeper level, in tune with the natural processes that exist to support us.
I have celebrated these festivals for years and they are a constant source of personal joy, delight, insight and enlightenment.
At the time of each festival I will post here a description of my insights and observations, what it means for us today and any events I am originating to form part of a collective celebration.
Lammas Solar Festival (Festival of Transformation).
The Festival of Lammas. Lughnasdah or the Festival of Transformation (August 1st) celebrates the gateway into autumn. It is the shift in the seasons, when summer ends and autumn and all its gifts, begin.
Lammas is the start of the ripening of the year, when we bring our awareness to what we want to come to pass in the different parts of our life after the effort and the growth that we have been putting forward during summer. This is not necessarily the final or the complete fruition of everything but as the year on year growth occurs we need to staging posts that help us to maintain our path and our journey.
Like all the fruit on a tree, the tree knows which are really ready to ripen and acts accordingly – we find it shedding certain fruit that either is not set right or that the tree does not have the resources to bring to ripening and to fulfil their journey.
A tree has no compunction in the discharging of these things where as often we find ourselves wanting to make all that we have in our lives continue and to ripen into something that we once saw. This is not in our best interests and with Lammas, we have the opportunity to feel into what will come and what we now need to put down.
Jeremy Rye 