Full Moon Under Olympic Rings Tower Bridge London
Credit : News Group Newspapers
Full Moon Under Olympic Rings Tower Bridge London
Monthly Archives: August 2012
New Grange
A Shift in Season
Today is the first morning I have noticed fall in the air and in the quality of light. It has been a cool summer, but there is a difference between cool summer air and fall air (today is actually pretty warm– 58 degrees on our thermometer).
Two days ago, I heard a raven. There are few ravens around in the summer. I asked myself: Is fall coming?
Today I have noticed that sounds are different– the small planes and the chickadees sound more descended, more connected to the earth. It is clear that the ascent of the sun is over. It brings its own sadness… in the North these changes happen so quickly.
Entering the Void with the Eyes Open
Do not fight against pain; do not fight against irritation or jealousy. Embrace them with great tenderness, as though you were embracing a little baby. Your anger is yourself, and you should not be violent toward it. The same thing goes for all your emotions.
Lughnasadh
LUGHNASADH was likely the moment when Lugh in Irish myth comes to the door of Temhair and crosses the threshold. Like him, the Roman Mercury and Greek Hermes were also concerned with interchanges, transitions and crossings. Lughnasadh was the point at which the people crossed over from hunger to feasting. Until recently, the month before harvest was a time of hunger for many people in Celtic countries. Even one hundred years ago, July was known as “hungry July” or the time of cabbage because many people subsisted only on old cabbage or wild nettles until the new harvest began. In Irish myth, Eochu Bres takes the throne after the midsummer solstice and, though he is beautiful, he is a miser who serves no ale and butters no bread. Herding communities that relied on sheep’s milk for their summer diet had to cut off that supply by separating ewes from lambs so that the ewes would be ready to breed and start the cycle again. With Lughnasa came fresh, sweet berries of many sorts, new grain for bread, and new potatoes with their delicate skins.Art by Jim Fitzpatrick at http://apps.facebook.com/Mywebees/etsy.com/shop/JimFitzPatrickArtist
The Practices are not the Goal.
Those who think the heart is only in the chest
take two or three steps and are content.
The rosary, the prayer rug and repentance
are paths that they mistake for the destination.
— Rumi
Lughnasadh
Pam McDowell Saylor shared a link via Celtic Mythology.
Omnia – Lughnasadh
www.youtube.com
Album: Paganfolk Release Year: 2006
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Entering the Void with the Eyes Open
The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves “inside the skin” of the other. We “go inside” their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another’s suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, “to suffer with. -Thich Nhat Hanh-
Shared in love and light David.
Shared in love and light David.
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Lughnasadh
From Wikipedia: Lughnasadh (pronounced LOO-nə-sə; Irish: Lúnasa; Scottish Gaelic: Lùnastal; Manx: Luanistyn) is a traditional Gaelic holiday celebrated on 1 August in the northern hemisphere and 1 February in the southern[dubious – discuss]. It originated as a harvest festival, corresponding to the Welsh Calan Awst and the English Lammas.
“Lammas is the celebration of the first Grain Harvest, a time for gathering in and giving thanks for abundance… The word ‘Lammas’ is derived from ‘loaf mass’ and is indicative of how central and honoured is the first grain and the first loaf of the harvesting cycle.
At Lammas the Goddess is in Her aspect as Grain Mother, Harvest Mother, Harvest Queen, Earth Mother, Ceres and Demeter. Demeter, as
Corn Mother, represents the ripe corn of this year’s harvest and Her daughter Kore/Persephone represents the grain – the seed which drops back deep into the dark earth, hidden throughout the winter, and re-appears in the spring as new growth. This is the deep core meaning of Lammas and comes in different guises: it is about the fullness and fulfillment of the present harvest holding at its heart the seed of all future harvest. (It is a fact that a pregnant woman carrying her as yet unborn daughter is also already carrying the ovary containing all the eggs her daughter will ever release – she is already both mother, grandmother and beyond, embodying the great Motherline – pure magic and mystery.)”
~The Goddess and the Green Man
~The Goddess and the Green Man
Artwork: Demeter by Liz Bussey