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Feast of the First Harvest Ritual

Lammas (The Feast of the First Harvest)

Grounding:

Walking the yin-yang labyrinth in Tom's garden to demonstrate balance, change, the cycles of life.

HP: We are going to walk this labyrinth as a way to ground and center for our ritual. As you walk, think about the yin and the yang, black and white. Opposites, but equal. You know each better by knowing its dynamic opposite. Breathe deeply, slowly, steadily. Think about balance: the balance of walking upright, the balance of going one way and then the other; the balance of accepting opposites and finding a way to incorporate them both at a happy medium. Breathe deeply, slowly, steadily. As you walk, think about the cycles of your life; the ups and downs, how the mountain leads to a valley and the valley always goes back up into the mountains. Breathe deeply, slowly, steadily. Think about the idea that what goes around, comes around; think about the idea that this too, shall pass. Pay attention to where you put your feet; look at the people and things around you. Be aware of you, your body, where you are. Breathe deeply, slowly, steadily. Feel the energy of the Universe in you, around you, above you, behind you, flowing, filling, always in motion yet always still. Breathe deeply, slowly, steadily. Stop where you are. Close your eyes and listen. Take a deep breath. What do you smell? You may open your eyes. As you open them, look around you again with new eyes, being aware of all that is here. Be here, be now. Breathe.

Walk to medicine wheel; others can sit around it. HPS stands in the South, HP at North.

HPS: We, as members of the Universe and children of the Mother and the Father, trust in Their Love. For ours is the Mother, who nurtures and loves Her children, sharing her bounty and joy. Ours also is the Father, who loves and protects His children, sharing in his abundance and strength. Prosperity is not amassing and hoarding a great profusion of assets. Prosperity is having more than what is essential and never having less than what we need. By marking the turning of the Wheel, we understand the abundance and magnanimity of the Universe and celebrate, recognize, and honor this.

At this point in the ritual, the Celebrant usually casts the circle. We’re going to do it a little differently today. We will start today with an acknowledgement of abundance within our own lives. Our sharing will raise the circle for us. Think of this as each of you contributing to the casting instead of just one person doing it. Each word, each sentence that we speak builds the sacred space that we will use to honor the Sabbat.

We have each experienced the fullness of the harvest, the culmination of plans and the satisfaction of achievement after effort. As you are so moved, please share a personal example of abundance in your life.

Thank you. We are now between worlds, beyond the bounds of time, where night and day, birth and death, joy and sorrow, meet as one.

Invocation:

HPS: I greet you in the name of the Goddess of Abundance, the Corn Mother, She who is called Demeter, Feronia, Sifa, Onatah and Cerridwen. She is the Mother of us all and Her generosity pours over us like the waters of the seas. She is with us and She joins with us in our celebration.

HP: I greet you in the name of the God of the Harvest, the God of the Grain, He who is called Osiris, Ceres, Saturn, Adonis, and Wodan. He is the Father of us all and His kindness pours over us like the warmth of the Sun. He is with us and He joins with us in our celebration.

Statement of Purpose:

HPS: This Sabbat is called Lammas, which means “loaf mass”. Since bread was one of the main staples of our ancestors, the ripening of the grain was the cause for great celebration. The reaping, threshing and preparation of these breads spawned great ritual and ceremony to ensure bounty for the following year.

Lammas is a day to give thanks for the cycle of life, which provides us with sustenance for our bodies and spirits. The earth provides nourishment for our hunger, but we must provide ourselves with spiritual fuel as well. At the beginning of every year we make oaths to improve ourselves, and Lammas is a chance to reflect on these promises and see if we have remained true to our spirits.

At this time you should be seeing the efforts of your work beginning to manifest as this is the start of the harvest season. Look at your life and see where you have aimed, and if you are still on target. What have you accomplished that you set out to do? What do you still have to get done? Many times we get bogged down in the day to day details and we forget to take stock and look at the larger picture of our lives. Are we where we want to be? Are we who we want to be? Think about what has happened and how it has been directly or indirectly caused by the choices we have made. Reflect now on those choices, and see where your free will has led you. Are you happy about them? If not, what can you change now?

Because the year is yet to be over, we have time to renew our paths, and begin where we might have left off. We should also celebrate our accomplishments, small and large!

As the sun is waning now, even though the heat has increased, we will be turning more and more inward, until we finish this process at Samhain. This is just the start, so don't be too hard on yourself if you haven't done all you set out to do. There is still time before the winter to get accomplished those things which need the sunlight and summer breezes to grow. Don't let the lazy sultry summer heat sap you of your strength and determination.

In the days of our ancestors, this would mark the beginning of the hardest work they had to do, the back breaking labor of bringing in the harvest. Getting all of it in, and packed, stored, canned, cooked, salted, etc. before the storms of winter set in, was sometimes a race against time. No wonder they needed the help and strength of the Gods, and no wonder they partied so wildly when they were given the chance! Lammas teaches us to live in the Now, as fully as possible, and get done what can be done now; and to plan for the future at the same time. We should share what we have an abundance of with others, and to share the burdens of survival so that the burdens are lightened by many other shoulders.

This is the time of the first Harvest, but before we bring in the new, it is always a good idea to clean house, so to speak, and throw out the old to make room for the new. As in all things, the Sun teaches us that for each new life a thing must die, so now we look inside ourselves at this time and see what there is that we may have sown that was unintentional. See what is there that you perhaps would rather NOT have reaped this Harvest.

We will pass around paper and pencils, for you to write down whatever you wish to purge before reaping in the new harvest. Keep your words few, as the Gods, and yourselves know what it is you mean.

(pass around paper and pencils to everyone, spend a few minutes thinking)

Take your piece of paper and roll it up, then roll it in a corn husk. As the corn is shucked to reveal the seeds and the promise of new life, we cast off the husks that symbolize that which we want to be rid of to reveal the seeds of change and the promise of our new life. We put them into the fire to be burned, purging the harmful energy that they carry in the cleansing cauldron and letting go of them from our lives.

As you put your corn husk into the fire, picture that unwanted thing being gone from your life, knowing that as you will it, so mote it be!

This would be the time for Cakes and Ale, but we share the feast today, so let us thank the Lord and the Lady for their attention and open our circle.

HPS: We thank the Lady for Her presence with us today. We thank Her for Her gracious abundance, so freely given to us and we ask that She be with us always.

HP: We thank the Lord for His presence with us today. We thank Him for His kind bounty, also given without restraint to us and we ask that He be with us always.

HP: Now we will work to gather to open the circle. Just breathe. With each breath in, picture the sacred energy being pulled in. Feel the power of our sharing and being together, feel the joy of celebration. Breathe. Each breath takes in some of the circle until it is all back inside of us, where it came from in the first place.

“The circle is open but never broken…”