A Bitter Harvest for Lammas

A Bitter Harvest for Lammas 

Today, August 1^st, is the pagan Sabbat of Lammas, known as the first harvest.  It is a bittersweet Sabbat, a time to give thanks for abundance while also acknowledging sacrifice. Grain must be cut down just as it ripens. Every loaf of bread carries that paradox: life transformed by death.  “Corn and grain, corn and grain, all that falls shall rise again.”

My teacher Athena says Lammas is when you look around at your crops and orchards and assess how the year has gone. It’s a spiritual accounting, a time to reckon with what you’ve sown and what you’re reaping.  .  

Well.  Look around at America right now.  Tribalism has reached murderous levels.  The ecomony is in the toilet.  The world is shunning America: see the empty sidewalks of the Las Vegas Strip.  It’s hard to feel much joy in this harvest. One man’s brokenness is wrecking the whole country. We’ve tied our fate to someone fundamentally unfit to lead, and the results are everywhere: fear, cruelty, decay. It’s always easier to destroy than create.

Lammas doesn’t let us look away from that. It says: here is your harvest. This is what comes of the choices we’ve made, the power we’ve allowed one man to hoard. The weakness of our institutions.  

For years Lammas was my absolute least favorite day of the year.  Because it is the festival when it is evident the year is more than half over.  It arrived every year with a sense of panic: the year was almost gone! And I hadn’t done what I wanted to do!  

When I retired and turned to writing as my main pursuit, I no longer felt that panic.  Because I was doing what I intended.  Writing is what I wanted to do, even if every day is a struggle. 

I do feel panic when I think about the state of the country. But I feel that every day.

So let us remember, Lammas also points forward. It is a time for gratitude.  For those who resist.  For our many friends around the world who are praying and hoping for us.  For those things we still have and must protect: free speech and freedom of assembly.  

The second harvest hasn’t happened yet. There’s still time to tend what’s left, and to decide what to plant for next year.  What sacrifices we’re willing to make so that there will be a next year worth living in.

I hope you all have a bountiful Lammas. and a more bountiful one next year.