Lammas / Lughnasad
+ Fixing by Fire +LAMMAS READING
“Loaf mass, light mass, lughnasad. celebration of light, the sun, the radiant, the outpouring, concentrated fire, the seed, the wheat, the golden, the first harvest, the first loaf, corn ground on the millstone and baked in the sun. celebration of lugh, god of the smiths, the artists and artisans, potters and weavers, those who take material and shape it to vision.”
From The Feminine of History is Mystery, facing page 49
ASTRONOMY
The sun arrives at the moon’s standstill. Days are longer than nights, days grow shorter rapidly.
LAMMAS
The gates open between the worlds. This is the time when a change happens in the material world, analogous to the baking of bread, the firing of clay. We celebrate the first fruits of the harvest, our completions and successes. The original name, Lughnasad, referred to the Celtic god Lugh, God of fire and the arts. Lammas means “Loaf Mass” and celebrates the bread from the first harvest. In our celebration we invite everyone to celebrate what their “harvest” has been this year. Because the sun is in the fixed fire sign of Leo, the image of “fixing by fire” suggests baking bread and firing clay, the time in the creative cycle when the work is finished and ready to be offered to the community.
DANCES WE DO AT THIS TIME
MA(i)ZE – a meditative dance to celebrate the ripening corn
ISSOS – a traditional Greek dance, done in basket hold, our feet make the pattern of a grain of wheat.
CANTIQUE DE JEAN RACINE – a beautiful choreography to music by Fauré. The gestures gather energy into a bud, rise into a flower which opens slowly and falls to start again.
HORA MEDURA – an Israeli fire dance, for the fire sign of Leo
FIRE DANCE/HEALING DANCE – choreographed by Pablo Scornik for a healing ceremony