The wheel has turned again on this great spiraling path that we walk upon here on earth, our beloved Mother Earth!
This year the 7th of August, marked the midpoint on the solar cycle, between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox. Heralding the beginning of the Harvest season.
For those who have ever worked on the land, know that the beginning of the harvest is a time of great hope and hard work as the next 3 months are focused on bringing the harvest in and making sure the stores are full. A timeless task of huge necessity as we all instinctively know.
The rich culture of story and stone that our land holds here in Ireland is a precious resource, for learning how to live in right relationship with ourselves,the land, and all her sentient beings, for everything is consciousness.
Stories through time
This time, the whole month of august, was known as Lughnasadh,, as far as our stories go back. Which of course is difficult to put a date on, as our written records only go back to the beginnings of Christianity on this island. But the oral stories captured by the pens of monks certainly stretch back through generations into prehistory and the mists of time.
This particular story of Lughnasadh may well speak of the first farmers who arrived here 6,000 years ago,
We hear of this time of Lughnasadh, as the great ‘Aonach’ or assembly, marking the beginning of the harvest season,
Lugh lamhfháda, Samildanach, the god, hero king is said to have inaugurated the Tailteann games, funeral games to honour the passing of his foster mother, Tailtiu, the Goddess of the Fir Bolg.
It is said that she brought the knowledge of farming to Ireland, with her axe, she cut down forests to clear the planes for farming, (sounds like a giantess to me!). She laboured so hard that she fell into a weakness and died of exhaustion.
Painting by Shelley Mooney
“Great that deed that was done with the axe’s help by Taltiu, the reclaiming of meadowland from the even wood by Taltiu daughter of Magmor.”- The Metrical Dindshenchas, 149.
Dying like the Summer season as the Autumn slips in, where all of nature follows suit, dies back into the earth, only to be reborn in springtime. The Earth Goddess sacrifices herself so that we may live on. As many ancient stories from other cultures recount in various versions.
So the beginning of the harvest was about honoring the earth goddess, to ensure that a bountiful harvest will be bestowed on her people.
This ancient story of The earth’s sacrifice is a powerful symbol of our deep connection and dependance on the earth and a reminder of what sustains us!
So, as we cross the threshold into this time of Lughnasadh, the beginning of the harvest,we are called to remember and review what it is that we have sown at Imbolc, February 1st, the time of the first quickenings, what were our intentions for this cycle of growth, what seeds did we set? What dreams have we tended ?
Those dreams and tender shoots that grew throughout the spring and came into flowering at the time of Bealtaine, were alchemised into the first soft fruits at the time of summer solstice. Now, on the annual wheel of the year, as we enter into the time of Lughnasadh, what are we harvesting?
Another interesting date in the month of Lughnasadh,is the 15th of August, Lady Day, (Our Lady’s Day). Here in Kenmare, Co Kerry, this day marks the highlight of the year and we have the biggest fair day of the year.
Lady Day.
It is a very ancient festival day when people would come from all over the countryside to do the ‘rounds’ at Our Lady’s Well, a beautiful spot on the edge of the town. Although I’m told by a friend, who has lived here all her life, that it’s not the original holy well where the monks from the Abbey would cross ‘Cromwell’s Bridge’, to gather their water. The holy well that people visit today is not the original spring well but in fact has been moved, but that’s a mysterious story for another day !
On this day the 15th of August, christians in 45 countries all over the world, celebrate today as the feast day of the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven, honouring Mother Mary, who of course is an interweaving of the great mother though the ages, expressed in many iterations embodiments and stories. In Ireland the occurrence of the feast day of Our Lady, Mother Mary on this day seems to be a crossing point of Mythologies!
Lughnasadh
This ancient story of the festival of Lughnasadh as mentioned earlier, marked the beginning of the harvest festival, and the inauguration of the funeral games of Tailteann, this great Assembly of the tribes, we are told in the manuscripts, lasted for up to two weeks. Perhaps for a week either side of the full moon, to avail of the extra bright nights of the full moon, a great time to gather the tribes. We also know that it was a lunar calendar that was in use prior to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Of course we can’t say definitively but as one who has attended many full moon gatherings its a great and logical time to gather!
At the great assembly, Feasts were held, marriages made, great feats were demonstrated at the ‘Olympianlike’ Gaelic games. The manuscript scribes had no idea of how long these games had been going for, but as hinted earlier they may date to the late Stone Age, given that the ancient stories have been passed down word to mouth for countless generations before the Monks penned them to paper and tell of the arrival of farming!
The beginnings of farming in Ireland.
These ancestral stories, recount of the Great QueenTailtiu, who had come with the ‘Fir Bolg’, the men of the bag, via Spain from Anatolia with the knowledge of farming. We have heard how Tailtiu cleared the planes of Brega and after much success and much labour she gets a weakness and dies of exhaustion.
However, this great symbolic act of love and devotion by the telluric Goddess Tailtiu, was for her people, to provide the planes for them to farm. Her untimely death reminding us of the universal sacrifice of the Earth herself who must die back into herself, overwinter, rest, regenerate and renew herself again with the eternal spring of hope.
Her name itself Tailtiu sounds quite telluric and actually in Gaelic the word for the land is ‘An Talamh’ interesting -perhaps rooted connections to be further explored!
The Story
To recap, this story tells of how the festival was named to recount the great Assembly of ‘Lugh Samildánach’, ‘Lámhfhada’, master of the arts of combat, craft and magic, a hero king, of the supernatural Tuath Dé Danann.
Who we are told was so saddened by the death of his fostermother, Tailtiu, that he orders a great mound to be built for the burial of their Queen turned Goddess. This mound was called Tailteann, and the people gathered here for the games and Aonach that were held in her name.
Then, as often happens with the arrival of christianity, the old festivals were given a fresh veneer and just as the games finished or maybe during the games depending on the moon, We have the Christian holy day of the assumption of the blessed Mother, on 15th August. The coincidental placing of this feast day with what would have been the end of the great Tailteann Assembly, feels very significant perhaps as an evolution, an adaptation, an overlay of the Death of the Corn goddess, who sacrifices herself for her people.
Mother Mary who is herself an embodiment of the black Madonna, an iteration of the black goddess of wisdom, Sofia, and the Earth Goddess herself, all of which perhaps represents an incredible interweaving of mythologies from the ancient traditions, through the ages.
But it is worth noting how Mother Mary ascends into heaven as opposed to the earlier Earth Goddess dying back into herself, symbolising how we have become so disconnected from the earth and our dependance on her to nourish and provide everything that we need to survive on this beautiful planet !!
Funeral rites
This year in Ireland and beyond, just as we entered the Calendar month of Lughnasadh, on August 4th we witnessed and participated in one of the most powerful rites of passage that any soul will complete, the transcendence of a soul.
At this threshold moment on the Calendar the world bade farewell to the wonderful musician activist, Glen Hansard, a true embodiment of Lugh, the solar deity of our ancient Irish tradition. Glen Hansard was a great warrior of love and light, who spread his creativity with love and compassionate care, for all who crossed his path.
A light that shone so brightly, that even now though his earthly light has been quenched, his heavenly light continues to shine.
A collective initiation.
As a small nation, we have recently gone through grief collectively through the death of larger than life figures. People who have contributed greatly to the healing of the national psyche such as with the death of Sinéad O’ Connor and Machan Magan.
We’re good at funerals in Ireland, we know how to rally around the family, the community becomes a heaving compassionate organism, stepping in to do those things to support the bereaved family, piles of sandwiches, cakes, tarts, buns, flasks of tea, whiskey, porter etc. arrive to provide for the often 100’s that turn up for the wake.
So this year, just as the harvest Season was beginning, the country was cast into a state of mourning, another great hero had been taken from us, unceremonially, in the early hours, his earthly light quenched as he was snatched through the ethers to take up the noble title of ancestor.
But he was given the most glorious, dignified and elevating Ceremonial funeral. Televised on our national broadcaster RTE this facilitated a national and international public initiation.
This public rite of passage, presided over by some clergy and many of his fellow musical warriors of light, who took their place around his coffin, in the pro Cathedral in Dublin. A fitting place because he had performed many charitable concerts there to help a campaign close to his heart to support the local homeless charity Simon.
There were many incredible tributes paid. His wife, first and foremost, with such dignity, strength and profound love,
His brothers spoke and sang so powerfully. Particularly poignant was the singing of his brother Gary, who sang of The Mother.
Lisa O Neill sang of the ancestors and those looking on from the spirit world of our ancient tradition.
Damien Dempsey, the great warrior leader., sang us through a… initiation… of strength and courage. And as the coffin left on its final journey. The great, soul master of music and song , Liam ó Maoinlaí, sang us through this most painful, devastating loss. Chief ‘Caoiner’ Soul soother, singing Glen into his immortal glory, forever young.
The embodiment of Soul
The embodiment of soul that was felt through that song, felt like the song of the heart of Ireland, singing the soul home, the soul of Glen, mourned, being Caoined into the next realm. What a glorious, honouring of a bright shining embodiment of the powerful positive masculine spirit, so incredibly courageously honoured in this great public rite of passage, that was experienced by a nation.
It was a huge outpouring of love, compassion and holding, for his beautiful wife and their son, who is too young to comprehend the magnitude of the effect of his father’s passing, but who holds the energy of his father, who will no doubt be whispering his wisdom through his DNA.
You can watch this powerful funeral celebration of life here.
We know we are living in mythological times, when the passing of a great man can evoke archetypal metaphors, like this great solar Son that shone like Lugh. A Sun King cut down like a sheath of ripe corn, on the battlefield of life. Seemingly now Lost to this world.
The Ancestral Realm
But for those versed in our old spiritual ways he has now taken his seat among the great ancestors. Those ancestors who are not lost to this world, but stand at the thresholds, between the veil, egging us on. Caring for us, watching over us, supporting us as we walk through this world. For we are blood of their blood, bone of their bones, sinew of their sinew. We carry their stories, their memories in our DNA, we carry their love, we carry their teachings, we carry their challenges, so that we may evolve the consciousness of our lineages, for we will ultimately join them- We are the future ancestors.
Our purpose here on Mother Earth
As we walk this spiral path, may we hold the gauntlet for our lineages and evolve through what’s asked of us in this lifetime, to reach the transcendence of the soul, evolved to our highest potential.
This is surely why we are here. The work we are each being called to do, to dance through our own shadows, observe and accept and release patterns and behaviours that we carry, so that they are not passed down through the next generations.
We are living in such potent times, the energies seem to be peaking in terms of the light and the shadow, with so much evil perpetrated and exposed for us all to see. It is imperative for us to come back to the heart, observe our own heartbeat, our own frequency, for this is our fundamental offering to the world, the only way we can effect change is to elevate our own frequency.
So as we move through this time of Lughnasadh, we are called to the harvest. To reap the fields of all that we have sown since spring time, to gather the experiences and the teachings we have lived, to distill and ferment all that we have learnt to assist and expand our soul’s growth.
In my practice it is the Goddess Tailtiu that I turn to in this season of first harvests, for calling in wisdom, it is she who worked so hard for her people, a fertility goddess, she who was known as the gentle mother, whose love was so great that she exhausted herself in her labours. What a powerful lesson for us to distill deep into our own holy waters, the knowing of when we have given enough, when it is time to take a break, rest and regenerate.
Radical Rest
Something that the frenetic pace of life in modern cultures all around the world frowns upon. But maybe the tide is turning, for so many who have and are experiencing burn out, there is a great wave arising of the feminine wisdom of knowing that deep rest is a radical act!
So as you toil in this season of the harvest, allow the whispering of the great earth goddess who sacrifices herself each year for us, to remind you, to learn to mother yourself, for how can you take care of your work, your family or your wider community if you have allowed yourself to burn out by giving too much. Self care and self awareness are the gifts of these teachings, learning to mother ourselves is the revolution that will bring us back to our hearts and maybe even save humanity !!!
Drop me a message if you’d like to explore my work more to assist you in coming back to this place of the heart, deep rest and regeneration.
