Lughnasadh
This week, our lovely neighbours knocked on the door with a beautiful box of fresh herbs and vegetables. Swiss Chard, carrots, beans and a bunch of lavender, the scent of which filled our home with a light, sweet fragrance - a gift from their first harvest of the year. We were so grateful for these home grown vegetables, everything tasted delicious. The flavours of the carrots were more distinct and slightly nutty. I made a swiss chard salad with pecorino, garlic, lemon, bread crumbs and olive oil. I realised how much I respected the food and didn’t want any of it to go to waste. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I know the people that tended to it and no pesticides were used.
The celebration of food and the land is of particular importance for the pagan festival Lughnasadh, also known as Lammas, which is celebrated around 1 August in the northern hemisphere and celebrates the first harvest. According to the Wheel of the Year, this festival stands opposite Imbolc, and here 6 months on we are starting to see the fruits of our labour. It is a time when the seeds that were planted in the beginning of the year now start to give bounty. You reap what you sow. All the work invested earlier in the year should start to bring results. Karma forces come into play and the threefold law.
A box of fresh lavender and vegatables from our lovely neighbours.
As we see with the name of the festival, Lughnasadh is connected to the ancient Irish solar deity Lugh, who was a member of the Tuatha de Danaan and eventually became their leader. In ancient Irish mythology, Lugh whose real name was Lugh Lamfhada ‘Lugh of the Long Arm’ was of mixed heritage, his mother was Eithne, daughter of Balar of the Fomhoire who were said to be giants or from the sea or underworld, and his father was Cian of the Tuatha de Danaan, also supernatural beings from the tribe of the Goddess Danu. As he came from two different races it was said that he ‘understood the light and dark sides of his nature’. He was considered to be a Samildanach, a master craftsman, warrior king and poet who is associated with sacrifice and rebirth with some pagans believing he is reborn at the Winter Solstice and others at the spring equinox.
Steve Blamires argues in his book Magic of the Celtic Otherworld that the festival Lughnasadh could have originally meant Lugh’s Wedding or Lugh’s Bride, especially as in the ancient Celtic myths the King being married to the land was very significant. Blamires adds further weight to this theory connecting the words commonly found in Irish manuscripts such as ar-nass, which means the betrothing of a daughter) and nassa which means “a girl already betrothed” to the same root origin as the ‘Latin word nexus which means “tying or binding together” a legal obligation. (p277, Blamires). So at the time of Lughnassadh, perhaps the ancient pagans were not only celebrating the first harvest but also the ritual of Lugh wedding the land.
Wheat was of particular importance to the early agricultural societies as it was a key source of sustenance. Early pagans would bake bread or create corn dollies (made from wheat, rye, barley or oats) as it was believed that the spirit of the land resided in the last sheaf of wheat that was cut during harvest time. It was considered sacred and the very act of cutting the last sheaf was ceremonial. Corn dollies were woven from this sheaf with the belief that dollies would offer protection to the home and ensure the spirit of the seed would remain for future seeds planted in the spring.
This earth energy and the celebration of a good harvest can also be associated with the archetype of the Empress in the tarot and female deities such as the ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis and ancient Greek goddess Demeter, who were both Goddesses of motherhood, agriculture and fertility amongst other things. In the Eleusinian Mysteries on mourning the loss of her daughter, Persephone, Demeter stopped the seasons, causing no crops to grow or flowers to bloom, resulting in famine and humanity suffered immensely.
So to honour the spirit of the land at Lughnasadh this year, I decided to make a corn dolly. I did think about making bread but I felt that our flat could do with a little protection piece, especially as the last time I worked with wheat straw was for Imbolc 2022 when I made a Brigid cross when we lived in London.
My first attempt on the left and second on the right. My finished dolly is at the photo at the top of the blog.
The doll I’ve made is partly improvised. If you’ve ever tried to make a corn dolly before, you’ll know they are not easy things to make. For the body of the dolly, I found a tutorial for a Five Straw Spiral on Youtube by Something Corny, which is a channel by straw artist & designer Elaine Lindsay who lives in Scotland (I’ve put a link to the video at the bottom of this post). It's not a tutorial on how to make a dolly but the instructions are very clear and easy to follow as the camera angle is set up as such that you can see her hands weaving. My first attempt is laughable (doll on the left of photo) followed by my second which I think will do. However even my second attempt looks nothing like the beautiful piece created by Ms Lindsey. Mine has no noticeable spiral and it gets a bit messy around the top section which is where I joined together additional wheat sheaves. I didn’t know how to finish it as the video doesn’t give instructions on that so I tied up the two sheaves on either side and decided these could be arms. The core piece that was still visible is the head. To the back there is a little piece sticking out which is quite firm, which I’ll use to hang a ribbon. I didn’t have any red ribbons to decorate the doll so I used some red thread that I had to cover the bits of white thread around the arms, head and the bottom.
For me, I found this method of creating, the repetitive cyclical motion of turning the wheat clockwise to weave another sheaf, gave my mind a point to focus on. Weaving requires that you remain present and focus on the task at hand. You get into a rhythm. I found the corn dolly fun to make. I’ll have to keep working on my skills though if I ever want mine to resemble what the traditional artisan dollies look like!
Happy Lughnasadh!
Sources
Blamires, S. Magic of Celtic Otherworld, Irish History, Lore & Rituals
Eason. C, A Practical Guide to Witchcraft & Magick Spells (2001)
Matthews. C. The Elements of the Goddess, (1997)
Rowan, A. A Guide to the Celtic & Druid Mysteries, The Lore of the Bard
Something Corny, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT_UtCP5EBY
The History and Art of Making Corn Dollies, https://www.clarborough-welham.org.uk/FoBM_Corn_Dollies_TalkReport.pdf
