Lammas, or Lughnasadh, is a Celtic fire festival that honors the first harvest. We begin the season of fall in the northern hemisphere as the heat is high and the earth has turned from a vibrant green to a brown, crunchy ripeness.
Here, at Lammas we have arrived at the midpoint between the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox.
As a kid growing up in the Mennonite culture and faith in a family of farmers, August was a season of "putting up" the garden, or freezing, canning, and preparing food for our pantries.
The biggest job was canning tomatoes. The "Blosser" tomato is named for my family and we planted them by the dozens. By the time August hit, we had an abundance of the juicy fruits EVERYWHERE, and mason jars of tomato juice lined our shelves.
At the tail end of summer and the beginning of fall, we dig into the work needed to be done yet with our waning energy to have the necessary sustenance for the winter.
In Soul Medicine Through The Seasons, just as we consider what we are harvesting and putting up on the land, we bring the inquiry to our soul journeys of "what am I harvesting in me?
References
The Celtic Wheel of the Year, by Nikiah Seeds
Walking the Wheel of the Year, by Emma-Jane Cross Learn More about the Wheel of the Year
Lewellyn's Sabbat Essentials
I will offer a short ceremony: we will light candles, sing sacred songs, and do a nature-based meditation. In-person gatherings will include a short nature wander.
I will share a prompt for a visual journal practice (sketching and writing) to listen to your inner journey.
There will be an optional sharing.
The suggested donation is $15-40. Click below to signup and receive the link and donation info. Contact Monika Denise with questions at: connect@monikadenise.com.
In this workshop series, Soul Medicine through the Seasons, I will share practices to reflect on how your inner rhythm is moving in relationship to the season of the year through Visual Journaling, an interweaving of a mindful and expressive art process with creative writing.
We will enter into our time together as a space of ceremony. I will guide us in song/chant as we gather. We will have a brief introduction to the season, followed by a guided meditation that will invite you to connect with the more-than-human ones as a part of your process. Following the time for you to work in your visual journal, there will be a time of optional sharing.
Give your soul some medicine around the Wheel of the Year to honor the season in ceremony and listen to your inner wisdom!
There are virtual and in-person (Bellingham, WA) options for Soul Medicine. Be sure to select the appropriate registration when signing up!
There aren't many rules to visual journaling, and you don't need to be an artist--just willing to try the creative process!
The essence of Visual Journaling includes using art processes and materials to intuitively express something you are feeling or want to explore about yourself. This allows access and expression to the right side of your brain. Then, we include creative writing to draw out more from the image that our left side of the brain can understand and make sense of.
These practices are all done in one sketchbook, this allows for you to witness the evolution of your inner process, and give some support and ability to "closeup" something once you are done exploring it for the moment. It can also be meaningful to decorate the cover of your visual journal to fit the chapter of life you're in.
I love how I can quickly release a confusing emotion, get more clarity on my inner longings and wisdom, and meet myself with more compassion through this process!
This process is a beloved one in the art therapy world, and was taught to me by my professors at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2013. You may have a practice of your own very similar!
The Celtic and Norse people, along with many other indigenous traditions, lived so aligned with the rhythms of the year, that they honored the turn of each season. This includes the 4 solar festivals (solstices and equinoxes) and the 4 fire festivals (halfway between the solar festivals).
Living in alignment with the Wheel of the Year is both a physical practice and one of practicalities--eating root vegetables in winter, planting in the spring, harvesting in late summer--and an energetic one--tending our energy in winter, celebrating our achievements in summer.
In our modern lifestyles and from the impact of dominator systems (where land, feminine, bodies, color, queerness and more were feared and hence oppressed), we have become disconnected by what these rhythms mean for us.
As a cultural Mennonite, I am grateful for having grown up with a sense of the impact of the seasons on my life, and more recently, am learning to more deeply align my external life (schedule, choices, lifestyle etc) to my inner rhythm and consequentially, the rhythm of earth. I have gratitude for those who have not lost the connection to earth, despite the persecution for it.
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