Monday, August 1, 2016

a green blessing at lammas


The light has changed, have you noticed? To me, it has a greenish cast, maybe because there is so much green mass for sunlight to pass through. I don't know exactly why, but I always notice this, every August 1st the light turns the air green. 


I dismantled my Summer Solstice altar and built a new one for these beginning days of Lammas, a gratitude celebration for the beginning of the first harvest. Representations of the first harvest from the garden fill the bowl while also calling to mind other things in my life coming to fruition as well -- things that I've made intentions toward and worked on over the last six months.  


Nice to use a cloth with a grid to lay sacred objects onto -- crystals & stones and pinecones...


...a necklace and a green glass pyramid filled with healing intentions for our oldest dog...


...a key and a bee and a woman with her ruffled feather. 

Lammas-time holds some fine memories for me, it is a point on the wheel of the year that I am so familiar with, the green air and all. This year though I've changed. I am purposely rewilding myself and everything is different. So I created a garden blessing ritual that draws on some energies in Nature that I've gotten to know better.


Breath of Light, Heart of Green,
Earth and Spirit and All between,
Bless this land as sacred space,
May Love and Peace dwell within this place,
Breath of Light, Heart of Green
Earth and Spirit and All between.


The bees didn't mind that I burned copal resin so close by. I think they're already getting tamer as they rewild themselves back to their true nature. Maybe that's what's happening to me, too. Getting tamer.


I hung the crystal necklace from the Lammas altar onto a little blue spruce branch. I hope to hang more crystals throughout the garden as time goes by.


Green heart stones were laid in the four directions of the space we live on. The green heart bloodstone is in the nettle patch to the east.


I walked around the perimeter of our city lot and placed the stones, tomorrow I will bury them. This green heart stone is near the sidewalk to the south which leads to our front door.


As I walked, I realized that the noises of city living could be viewed as the voice of the Green Woman. The dogs barking, the road work, sirens, all of it. This green heart stone is in the west in an area I am helping to rewild into a wooded pathway.


Our grandmother grapevine climbs on the north fence and before her lies the north green heart stone.

This is a glimpse of my ritual. I had a wonderful time both creating and enacting it. In a few days it will be on a new page over on the sidebar. If you would like to bless your space or name your space, it might be a helpful guide.

Blessings for an abundant first harvest (or a successful first sowing) and Happy Lammas (or Candlemas) depending on your hemisphere.

xo



9 comments:

  1. How lovely...walking through with you and besting your best intentions for the elder dog too...yes, and I ma tamer to and tamer = wiser I think, and easier with reality. Tonight I was at the Zendo sitting with friends there, and a Japanese poem which I can only paraphrase (and forgot to ask the authors name) was read...."Plum blossoms falling all around me on my way home"....speaks to me of the fleeting nature of things and the beauty along the way for those who take notice, pay attention and honor. I've felt Fall in the air - cicadas have begun humming in the parks...And, I find myself thinking about a film and I'm going to include a bunch of Links hoping you don't mind dear Peggy:
    Dancing At Lughnasa
    trailer
    http://youtu.be/fvUeKLY6MQE

    Full film
    http://youtu.be/8OZIa9j4j90

    Lughnasadh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lughnasadh

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  2. Michelle, thank you for going through with me...yes, maybe it needs to be fleeting in order to be considered beautiful. I don't know. Cicadas here too, it's a symphony out there. And I love you leaving me links! Always.

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  3. I especially enjoyed your post. I feel a lot of peace when I read your posts. Thank you.

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  4. Yes, the light has changed...

    Lovely post...

    Thank you.

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  5. What a wonderful ritual. I have noticed a change in the light lately, of course, I see it as leaning towards blue.

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  6. Kathy, thank you so much. Even though August is a busy time, it feels slower. A time of paradox, I guess.

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  7. Luna Crone, thank you -- I love your name.

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  8. Hazel, I smiled when I read what you wrote. Of course it would be blue for you! :) A little cloth hanging on my wall is a beautiful reminder of your blueness.

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