Hello, friend. And Happy Lughnasadh!
Today marks the Celtic festival of the first harvest - and, to be honest, when I hear the word “harvest” all I feel is cozy + home-y + warm inside. While I am admittedly not ready for vacation to be over + for summer to end, there is something about this time in-between the height of summer and the height of autumn that feels so good to me. So grounding and calm, even if the busy-ness of work life will begin to resume.
These next 5-6 weeks are a glorious, slow, transitional time of abundance, golden sun, and waning energy. It is definitely the season where it is not yet autumn, but it is also not still summer. However, it is time to begin to shift. It is time to slowly begin to gather what we have grown + settle into the medicine of coming home to harvest the lessons of our soul.
In the Celtic seasons of the year, today is first of three harvests that will take us from August 1 all the way through the Autumn Equinox in late-September to the celebration of Samhain/Halloween in the end of October. Instead of flitting about, wild + free as we did in July, August invites us to begin to come home again. We gaze westward, toward the horizon, where the sun sets earlier and the nights grow a wee bit longer with each passing day. And from deep in my soul I hear the quiet whisper of Mother Nature, “It’s time to begin to turn homeward. There is work to do, gifts to reap, harvests to share.”
But, this season is not only the hard work of the beginning of the harvest. It is more like a slow transition - meant to be savored, enjoyed, celebrated as we do the work of gathering in all that we have grown within ourselves since the beginning of the year. It is an active, yet reflective, time. A time to soak in those last golden rays of summer and to celebrate with festivals that honor the bounty of the earth. Here in my city, we have a big August festival that stretches over 4 days + nights. Food, music, culture, local handmade crafts.
Look around your area… are there apple festivals or other end of summer celebrations happening? If so, perhaps plan a visit to celebrate the end of the growing season and to have one last big blast before the heart of autumn + the quiet of winter settle in.
As for gathering our harvest, most of us do not live on working farms and do not celebrate this season that follows Lughnasadh in the same way as ancient peoples did. I do not live quite as close to nature as those who first celebrated the first harvest. But, that doesn’t mean that my soul + body do not need and want to follow the same rhythms.
There are many spiritual ways to tap into this transitional, golden, homecoming, harvest-filled season. As we turn homeward and slow down after our wild, carefree summers, we can also take measure of our talents + gifts, of the ways we have grown this year. What dreams or ideas or intentions did we plant back in the darker seasons? How have they grown? What have we learned?
No matter what, as we have cycled through the year, we have evolved + matured. As we enter the first harvest, it is time to begin to reap what we have sown in our hearts and souls. It’s time to gather in all that we have. But, not only to keep for ourselves. This season offers us a chance to share our bounty with others. To invite others to join us in celebrating the end of summer + the beginning of autumn. To not only begin to come home, but to invite others into our hearts + home, with the idea of sharing all that we have gathered, grown, learned, and harvested.
This August, I’ll be pondering a few questions as I begin my own personal harvest. And I thought I’d share them with you, just in case you want to spend a little time in the golden, waning sun thinking about your own harvest.
What talents, gifts, knowledge, inspiration have I found/developed during this growing season/year?
Am I in a position to pass on what I have gathered? If so, how can I share it?
Am I willing to share my fortune + harvest? If so, who/where may need what I have?
What is the best gift that I can give the world at this time?
It’s time, my friend. August is an ending, but it is also a beginning. We’ve matured, the earth has matured, and we are invited to continue to follow the cycle of the seasons + rhythms of the earth. But, it means that we are slowly entering a time of release, surrender, and letting go. Hard work lies ahead - both in our souls + in our busy, everyday lives. For now, though, even as we slowly begin the work of harvest and the surrender of autumn, we also can soak up the last bits of warm, golden, sun and those long nights that will get us through the darkness that lies ahead.
So, celebrate each waning summer day. Prepare for your return home. Share your first harvest. Bask in the first cool breezes. Welcome the darkness as she slowly creeps in. And feel the last warm rays of the golden sun on your face.
Welcome to the blessed season of Lughnasadh!
xoxo. liz. 🌻
Music of the season
A playlist for the setting sun, those last summer days, and the first ceremonial harvests. It is not yet autumn, and not still summer. So, it is time to begin to gather + settle into the medicine of coming home to harvest the lessons of our soul.