A Lughnasadh love note, and cyclical living…
🌾 Lughnasadh greetings 🌾
What’s that all about, you may ask? Well, these days, the Celtic Wheel of the Year honours harvest time. Traditionally marking cross quarter points (those times that fall in between the sun’s main arc and cycle; the solstices and equinoxes) the Celtic Wheel is guided by the stirrings of the seasons here in the Northern Hemisphere,and it honours the in between.
This is no surprise, for a culture or way of living that acknowledges the value of the edge spaces, the cracks in between — one that deeply honours the liminal, and one that saw the Otherworld rippled throughout this one. There is much to learn from such a worldview, a deep invitation to the vast spectrum on which life exists.
At this summer pause, when the sun is still warm and golden in many places, the Celtic calendar denotes Summer as ending, and the beginning of Autumn. Well we may woe the passing of Summer so soon, but this is part of the beauty of the Celtic calendar — it does not venerate the highs, or rush through the lows, rather it sits us in the passage ways!
As the crops begin to come in from the land, we pause to celebrate that bounty, give thanks to the sun and the seeds for this nourishment, and we gather to collectively mark the abundance that it may continue to flow for the remainder of harvest time.
An Invitation …
Whether you are literally harvesting from your garden, from the land, or metaphorically harvesting this last season, the last year or more, Lughnasadh is a warm tender moment. It asks us to pause in this summer bounty, look at what has been, what has thrived, and to begin to gather close to us that which we may need as we begin the gentle transition towards Autumn.
In giving thanks, a note of grief may come.
What has worked?
What has been less aligned?
What are we gathering towards us of the summer sun and outward shining essence that will keep our souls and communities warm and gently aflame as we journey towards Samhain?
Importantly — What is still to be celebrated?
The Celtic Wheel of the Year is always encouraging us to pause, honour, take stock, and ultimately to go forth equipped for the way ahead. Always acknowledging the season that has been, the season that will come. Always acknowledging that these are not static, that they shift and sway (this very fact is the reason for looking to the sun, the moon, the weather, the plants — what are we anchoring ourselves in?) those flowing elements of life that ask our presence and our attention.
Our attention.
Cyclical Living as a skill for Resilience
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Paying attention. Aligning with Life. We will need these skills ever more as we move forward into uncertain times. But we can take the practices of our ancestors with us, knowing that we come from a long lineage of life that has survived. We know that simply because we are here. We are the life that has lived through for millennia, and we are the ones that get to be here.
So, what are we being with, and how are we honouring that?
Cyclical seasonal resonance is a potent anchor point in these times.
Celebrate your summer, faint or bright as it may have been, look at what fed you, or not. Know that the seasons shift and you are held by them.
This pausing, connecting, and taking stock is ever more important in an age where seasonal baselines are literally shifting, at rates far beyond what has been predicted. Our response to such a reality will need to be deep and true, not ones made in haste and panic. As one of my great teachers Bayo Akomolafe says “what if our response to the problem is part of the problem?”. Responding with the same urgency as the growth and accelaration that created this shift will not help us.
What is Nature telling us right now. What is working? What are we carrying forth for resilience within and without?
We will meet balance at the equinox before we gather again at Samhain to welcome the nurturing new beginning and depth of an inward (and hopefully restful) Winter time.
Attention to what is. Resilience for going forth. Gratitude for it all.
🌾🍃🍃🍃🌾
I’m giving thanks for almost a full year on Irish soil, rekindling ancestral relationships, tending new communities, being washed with rain and salt water, growing anew from within in this familiar place.
I am also offering a small number of one-to-one Ecotherapy sessions. These take the form of a ‘Walk and Talk’, in a place that is comfortable and accessible to you, where we can address many themes, from Eco-grief, to personal belonging, connectivity and beyond.
Here is a testimonial from one of my clients;
“Jenny held a very open and allowing space, and I came away feeling so much more grounded and connected than before” ~AK
Also available online for short exploratory sessions to your own eco-awareness.
I hope to see some of you soon, with flames within aglow as we flow onwards with the seasons.
Lughnasadh love,
Jenny
