Lammas (Aug 2nd) newsletter
Celebrate Abundance my friends,
August 2nd is Lammas, the first of three festivals celebrating Mother Earth’s bounty. For this first harvest festival, baking loaves from the first grains and offering them at a communal meal has always been central to these gatherings, going back to thousands of years before the Common Era. Harvest festivals celebrate the abundance of the Great Mother.
The Celts called this time Lughnasadh (loo-na-sa), Native Americans called it the Green Corn Festival and in Slavic Regions it is called the feast of the Big Glad Woman. Ireland celebrates Lammas as Big Sunday and farming communities gather at hundreds of traditional hilltop sites to set up craft fairs, feast, play games, and dance. A part of every one of these gatherings is a ceremonial meal where the first fruits of the harvest are shared in gratitude.
I got curious about the deeper meanings of abundance and was surprised that Webster only lists a few things such as ‘amply sufficient.’ The synonyms are copious and plentiful, all of which feel too contained. Mind, heart, body and spirit are the four aspects of our lives; wholeness at its best. I invite you to explore all experiences of abundance and find far richer and nuanced understanding.
Abundance of the MIND is about creative thoughts, free of negative self-talk and prejudices learned from society, religious restrictions, and limiting beliefs we’ve been taught that make us feel small by comparing ourselves to others. When our minds are expanded, our imagination is alive and free to see all things as possible.
Abundance of the HEART is an expansive sense of connection with beloved humans, animals, plants, rocks and all nature. It is tapping into the truth of Love, which is the most powerful energy in the universe. Neurobiology shows us that all life is hard wired to seek connection in order to thrive and in fact, to survive. Once we perceive this, it exposes the great lie of separation.
Abundance of the BODY is freedom of movement as in dancing, yoga, walking in nature, practices such as Chi Gong and others that align and balance us, expanding our ability to listen to our bodies. It’s the knowing that our bodies are the primary sensing source that has wisdom above any thought. Body abundance is listening to our senses and responding to their messages. It is loving our bodies unconditionally and respecting their wisdom.
Abundance of SPIRIT. Spirit encompasses mind, heart and body. However, there is a quality of spiritual expansion that humans have attempted to describe, over millennia. We have all read stories or have seen art depicting moments of ecstatic transcendence. Everything including near death experiences has inspired us to seek connection with that which is greater. The recent upsurge of interest in sacred plants that offer extraordinary moments of awe is really a return to the ancestral memory. Indigenous people have always relied upon visions, ancestral guidance and transcendant connection; It is the deepest truth, the Unity of all life.
Enjoy all these aspects of abundance,
Much Love, Linda
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