September

THE MONTH OF COMPLETION

September is a gleaming month of ripeness when the ripe red apples are ready for picking, branches bending under the weight of their fruit. We collect blackberries and elderberries in the hedgerows, hands sticky with purple juice.  The grapes are ripening on the vine. Mushrooms sprout and fruit under the harvest moon. It’s a busy month of picking and nutting, preserving and storing, cider making and beer brewing.  For the Anglo-Saxons this was Haefest monath (Harvest month), in Gaelic An Sultuine, the month of plenty [1] in Welsh Medi, the month of reaping. [2]

In the modern calendar, September is usually considered to be the first month of autumn, a word that comes from the Latin autumnus, which signified the passing of the year. In Germanic countries, the season was usually referred to by the term ‘harvest’ (Dutch herfst, German Herbst). In America, it is often called ‘fall’, probably referring to the falling of the leaves at this time of year or a contraction of the Middle English expression ‘fall of the year’.  [3] The message is clear – the agricultural work of the year, and the harvest, is almost completed, the days are getting shorter, and the weather is getting colder. The year is in decline.

In modern times, at the beginning of September, the last of the grain is usually cut, though of course, this depends on the weather and latitude. The invention of farm machinery means that the harvest is often gathered in before the end of August, but in earlier times it extended into mid-September in England, and even later in Scotland and northern areas. The Harvest Home festival was one of thankfulness and relief if the harvest had been good, and great joy in all that had been accomplished, as well as one looking forward to a period of rest and release. It was a time to celebrate with festivities and feasts, and was marked with rituals and customs to ensure that the stored harvest would be safe and that life would return to the fields in the spring.

The last sheaf to be cut obviously marked the successful completion of the work and so it was treated special attention. The corn spirit was considered ‘beheaded’ when the last sheaf was cut. The sheaf, accompanied by its cutter and all the reapers, was usually taken to the farmer’s house and made into a figure or doll. These corn dollies were then kept until the following year when they were ploughed into the earth on Plough Monday (January), which marked the new start of the agricultural year. In Wales, the seed from it was mixed with the seed at planting time ‘in order to teach it to grow’.

After the harvest came the Harvest Supper. On a small farm, the feast would have been held in the kitchen or on larger farms in the specially decorated barn. It was viewed as a right by the workers and could be a costly business for the host. In Sussex caraway seed cake was traditional and was served to the workers throughout the harvesting because it was believed that the seed provided strength for them and also increased their loyalty to their employer. After the meal, there was usually dancing to the music of the fiddle, with a plentiful supply of beer and tobacco. Songs were sung and the farmer was toasted.

The Church disapproved of the overtly Pagan and raucous nature of the harvest celebrations. Many churches have harvest thanksgiving celebrations now, but these mostly date from Victorian times. In 1843 the Reverend R. S. Hawker decided to have a special service in his Morwenstow (Cornwall) parish. The idea spread and it became the custom to decorate churches with fruit, vegetables and flowers brought in from gardens (which are later distributed to the poor or used to raise funds) and to sing special hymns written for the occasion, such as ‘We plough the fields and scatter‘.

In the northern hemisphere, the month of September contains the autumn equinox. Afterwards the hours of darkness progressively become greater than the hours of light, with dawn getting later and sunset getting earlier each day – a process that will continue until the winter solstice. The Sun is in decline on its southward course.

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[1] Charles Kightly, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames & Hudson 1987

[2] Nilsson, Martin P, Primitive Time-Reckoning, Oxford University Press 1920

[3] https://www.etymonline.com/word/harvest, accessed 9.8.19

Mercian 23

Another Mercian over for a year! Every Mercian Gathering is different, created by the people who come, the spirits of the land and the other beings around us, all holding sacred space together to honour the Old Gods. We weave together the threads of community, friendship, celebration, shared knowledge, ritual, songs and stories to work as one. It’s not an entertainment, but something very real and powerful.

The overwhelming feedback I had was how relaxed the atmosphere was, how safe people felt, how welcomed, and how at home they felt. For some, this was the first time in their lives.

Beautiful Mercian tribe, thank you so much for being part of it, for raising the energy and connecting with the Gods, for coming to learn and share your own knowledge with others. Thank you to all the wonderful speakers and entertainers, my fellow members of the Hearth of Arianrhod who organise the event, and to our amazing, brilliant volunteers who give their time and hard work freely and (mostly!) cheerfully.

I hope to see you all next year.

Anna Franklin

Black Dogs

There are many of these fairy or phantom hounds all over Britain, Ireland and the Europe. Their appearance is usually an ill omen.

The mud flats of East Anglia, particularly the area around Devil’s Ditch, are haunted by a phantom dogs known as Black Shuck or Old Shuck, a name derived from the Saxon word for an evil spirit, scucca, though he was sometimes described as Odin’s Dog of War. He is variously described as having a single eye set in the centre of his head, or having glowing red eyes, or even as being headless, yet having glowing red or green fiery eyes suspended in front of him. He emerges from his lair at dusk and haunts river banks and lonely roads, sometimes vanishing in churchyards.  When a Black Shuck appears it is generally an omen of death, and in Norfolk it is said that no one can see a Black Shuck and live. People in lonely places have sometimes felt its icy breath on their necks, and in East Anglia, when people are dying, it is said that ‘the Black Dog is at his heels’.  The Essex Shuck is kindlier and protects travellers in lonely places. In Suffolk the Black Shuck is believed to be harmless if left alone, but if challenged will strike and kill the aggressor. The Norfolk Shuck is terrifying, an ebony creature whose fiendish howls can be heard above the wildest gales. The Cambridgeshire Shuck is sinister and may be seen between Wicken and the marshes of Spinney Abbey. His appearance warns of a death in the family. Grendel, the monster of the Old English epic poem Beowulf was described as a scucca and ‘from his eyes shone a fire-like, baleful light’.

© Anna Franklin, The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Fairies, Vega, 2003

Illustration Paul Mason

The Goddess of Sovereignty

The sovereign goddess is a common motif in Celtic mythology. She was sometimes identified with the land itself and everything that happened upon it had to have her approval or it was doomed to failure. In Ireland one of the names of this sovereign goddess was Erin, surviving in the Gaelic name for the island.

In many cultures the earthly king was deemed to rule only through with her authority. His investiture included a symbolic marriage to the sovereign-earth goddess or a real marriage to the queen who represented her. In Irish myth Niall and his brothers were out riding and came to a well with a very ugly hag guarding it. They asked her for a drink, but she demanded a kiss from each in return. All the brothers refused but Niall said that not only would he kiss her, but that he would lay with her as well. He embraced her earnestly and found that instead of an old crone, a lovely woman was in his arms. She told him that she was Sovereignty, and he was confirmed as king of Tara. The goddess of the land often has the dual form of maiden and hag (probably summer and winter).

The name of the Irish goddess Meadhbh or Maeve means ‘intoxicated’ and refers to the sacred drink offered to the king, perhaps from a holy well or spring. After this the king had a special affinity with water. When Cormac left instruction that he should not be buried at Newgrange, but on the other side of the Boyne. His instructions were ignored. The Boyne rose in a flood three times until the body was moved. ^[1]

A horse, as evidenced by the ceremony used to invest an Irish king, often represented the sovereign goddess. The ritual is obviously a very ancient one but survived into the twelfth century CE and the Christian period. Giraldus Cambrensis recorded that the rite began with the king crawling naked to a white mare. ^[2] He would mate with her (probably symbolically), and then she would be killed, cut up and boiled in a cauldron. When the brew had cooled the king would get into it, drink some of the broth and eat some of the meat – the body and blood of the sovereign goddess. He would then stand on a stone, holding a white wand, and turn three times sunwise and three times anti-sunwise in honour of ‘the Trinity’ or rather the Triple Sovereign Goddess. In Sanskrit and Norse sources, the association of the sacrifice of a horse with the investiture of a king is also found: the land is symbolized by the powerful female animal.^[3]       

Macha was the horse and sovereign goddess of the Ulaidh. Her cult site was the sacred mound of Eamhain Macha (near Armagh) where assemblies were held. Macha means ‘enclosure’ and Eamhain ‘tumulus’. An enclosure of oak posts was built around the hill. At some point it was filled with limestone blocks and the walls burned, probably by the invading Celts. There was a central timber post, probably representing a fertilizing phallus. The entrance to the enclosure was at the west, the direction of the setting sun and perhaps symbolizing death and sacrifice. According to her legend she offered her sexual favours to three different kings, but as each approached, she set on them and tied them up, forcing them to construct the sacred enclosure for her.

Her festival was Lughnasa, August 1st, and assemblies were held at her ‘enclosure’. She was described as having golden hair, and this is clearly a reference to the corn harvested at her festival. Horse skulls were often buried beneath the threshing floor to appease the horse goddess of the land who brought forth the corn.

The Gaulish horse goddess was Epona, whose name gives us our word ‘pony’. She was always depicted with horses, either riding side-saddle or sitting or standing between two or more mares. Her horse is sometimes shown with a foal, and she sometimes carries baskets of corn or fruit, linking her with the harvest. She was also a patron of holy wells and streams and it may have been the custom to purify her totem creature, the horse, in her magical water at Lughnasa.

The Welsh goddess Rhiannon is shown as a white mare rising from the sea surrounded by a cloud of birds. She sent seven blackbirds or maidens (identified with the Pleiades) to take Arthur, the dying sacred king, to Avalon (‘Apple Land’). In later legends she became the fairy queen who rides between the worlds and who took Thomas the Rhymer to Elf Land where he dwelt for seven years. When it was time for him to leave she made him bite from an apple which would ensure he could never lie. 

There are several chalk horse figures in England, engraved onto hillsides, the oldest being the one at Uffington in Oxfordshire, dating from 1400-600 BCE. These may have represented the sovereign goddess or spirit of place. For these chalk carvings to survive they have to be regularly cleaned, and it seems that this was a festival occasion in the past. Nineteenth century accounts tell of how a fair was held during the cleaning, which featured such events as cheese-rolling down the hill.

© Anna Franklin, from Lughnasa, History, Lore and Celebration by Anna Franklin & Paul Mason, Lear Books, 2010

Ullustration Anna Franklin, Pagan Ways Tarot, Schiffer, 2015

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[1] This recalls the story of St. Swithin – see appendix 1 under 15^th July

[2] Giraldus Cambrensis, The Historical Works, Ed. Thomas Wright, Bohn, 1863

[3] In other places the king would have to drink milk from a sacred cow who represented the Goddess. The Egyptian pharaoh was depicted suckling from Isis who appeared as Hathor, the cow.

First Fruits

Around the world the first of the harvest was offered to the gods:

“In some festivals … the sacrament of the first fruit is combined with a sacrifice or presentation of them to gods or spirits, …The mere fact of offering the first-fruits to the gods or spirits comes now to be thought a sufficient preparation for eating the new corn; the higher powers having received their share, man is free to enjoy the rest.” [1]

After giving the gods their portion, people were free to enjoy the rest.

There seems to have been a general reluctance to eat the First Fruits until some ceremony had been performed because they belonged to – or even contained – a god. The Bororo of Brazil thought it certain death to eat the new maize until it had been blessed by the medicine man. The Aino called millet ‘the divine cereal’ or ‘the cereal god’, and prayed to him before they would eat the new millet. Estonians would not eat bread from the new corn until they had bitten on iron to protect them from the spirit within. In Sutherland, when the new potatoes were dug, the whole family had to taste them or the spirits in them would be offended and the potatoes would not keep. In the nineteenth century it was customary in Yorkshire for a clergyman to cut the first corn, which was made into communion bread. [2] It was often the case that people would have to fast or even purge themselves with emetics before eating the new harvest and coming into contact with the god within it. Christians still fast before taking the Eucharist.

In ancient Greece, barley was offered as First Fruits to the goddesses Demeter and Kore at the great temple of Eleusis, where underground granaries stored the contributions. Theocritus recorded how in Cos ‘in sweet smelling summer’ each farmer offered the First Fruits of his harvest to Demeter, the goddess who had filled his threshing floor with barley, and whose rural image held sheaves and poppies in her hands.  In Rome each household offered the First Fruits at meal times. 

In Mexico, the First Fruits of the season were offered to the sun while a criminal was crushed between two stones in a sacrifice known as ‘the meeting of the stones’, which presumably imitated the mill stones which would grind the corn. Afterwards everyone feasted and drank.

Several Native American tribes practiced (and some still practice) Green Corn Ceremonies to coincide with the ripening of the crops. It was the central festival of the year and celebrated not only the ripening of the new corn, but the renewal of the annual cycle and the spiritual and social life of the people.  Though customs vary from tribe to tribe and area to area, they are generally concerned with a ritual purification before the renewal of the harvest, sometimes with fasting and even purging with button-snake plant (Eryngium Yuccaefolium). Sometimes ritual bloodletting would also take place. Traditionally, everything would be torn down and replaced. The ceremonial and all hearth fires were put out, and all coal and ash cleaned away. 

There were many dances, and the ceremonial fire was relit. The Cherokees used a branch of wood from a tree struck by lightning, which was lit and used to bless the grounds for the ceremony and then this ‘thunder-wood’ was used to kindle the sacred fire in the pit in the centre of the circle. Amongst the Creek, the sacred hearth was dug out, and the medicine man made an offering of the button-snake plant, tobacco and some of the First Fruits in the hearth pit, which was then covered up with white clay. (Amongst the Creek, the sacred fire is identified with the sun; both are masculine forces and part of the male ritual domain.) A new fire was lit, and an offering of First Fruits was made to the hearth spirits, and the women carried burning brands from it back to their own hearths to rekindle them.[3]

There were rites of passage for youths about to become men, and displays of war-party tactics and virility. Within the dance circle, the dance leader and priest would make offerings to the Thunder Beings and the ancestor spirits as a gesture of thanks for a fruitful corn harvest. As it was a time of renewal and new beginnings, minor infractions of the religious and clan law, as well as debts were typically forgiven. [4]

Historically, even tribes which did not practice agriculture observed analogous ceremonies. Among the Salish and Tinneh of North-West America, before the young people ate the first berries or roots of the season, they always addressed the fruit or plant and begged for its favour and aid. In some tribes regular First Fruit ceremonies were annually held at the time of picking the wild fruit or gathering the roots, and also among the salmon-eating tribes when the run of the salmon began. [5]

The Thompson tribe of British Columbia cooked and ate the sunflower root (Balsamorrhiza sagittata). When young people ate the first berries, roots or other products of the season, they addressed a prayer to the sunflower root as follows:

“I inform thee that I intend to eat thee. Mayest thou always help me to ascend, so that I may always be able to reach the tops of mountains, and may I never be clumsy! I ask this from thee, Sunflower-Root. Thou art the greatest of all in mystery.” [6]

The ancient Canaanites offered the First Fruits of the crop, fire-dried, to the gods. The Israelites followed this custom and according to the Bible:

“Thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy First Fruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of its full ears.” [7]

In Leviticus we read that Jehovah instructed Moses:

“When you shall have entered the land which I will give you, and shall reap your corn, you shall bring sheaves of wears, the First Fruits of the harvest, to the priest…You shall not eat either bread, or parched corn, or frumenty of the harvest, until that day you shall offer thereof to your God.”

Shavout, the Festival of Weeks – also referred to in the Bible as Hag HaBikkurim (Festival of First Fruits) – is the Jewish festival that commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. It also celebrates the beginning of the harvest when the First Fruits were bought to the Temple in Jerusalem to be offered to God. It falls around late June or early July, earlier than Lammas, but the crops ripen earlier further south. One sheaf is taken from the standing crops and brought to the priest:

“…and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted: on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” [8]

It is customary to decorate synagogues and homes with flowers and greenery and eat a celebratory meal comprised of new fruits, vegetables and a dairy dish.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church the offering of First Fruits begins on the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6th), with the blessing of grapes. In localities where grapes are not grown, other early-ripening fruits such as apples may be offered. In French churches of the Middle Ages, new fruits were at given seasons presented at Mass for blessing. The blessed fruits were kept by the church and divided between the clergy and the poor. Similar customs during the Middle Ages could be found in all European countries.

In Russia Yablochnyi or Medovoy Spas is a cross-quarter holiday between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. Also known as ‘Apple Honey Saviour’, it celebrates the start of the harvest when fruit and honey are ready to be gathered. The beehives would also be blessed and horses purified by swimming them in rivers. The festival of Zaziuki is celebrated on or about the seventh of August and may have originally been part of the same holiday as the Yablochnyi. The first sheaf of corn, the zazhinochnyl or zazhinnyi, was taken into the farmhouse and threshed separately. In some areas it would be blessed and mixed in with the seed-corn.

The peasants of the Lublin region of Poland gather together a week before the harvest celebration, or Dozynki, to make the przepiorka, a three-dimensional wreath decorated with ribbons and flowers. This wreath is then presented to the owners of the land, known as ‘the revered Lord and Lady’. The Lord oversees the progress of the harvest and is hailed with chants “That he may live and prosper for a hundred years!” A female harvester is then chosen to become the Przodownica (Harvest Queen). She is selected on the basis of a combination of beauty, hard work and eloquence. The Harvest Queen is encircled by the whole of the community and honoured with a crown made of wheat, rye, oats, and wild flowers.

The Dozynki celebration itself is held on or near the Feast of the Assumption, August 15th. The harvesters dress up in their traditional ornately embroidered Sunday clothes and march in a procession to the farmhouse, singing “Plon mamy plon, ze wszystkich stron” (‘we have gathered the harvest for you from all sides of the field’). The Harvest Queen removes her crown of grains and flowers, gives a speech in praise of the workers, and bestows a blessing on the Lord and Lady, offering her crown as a symbolic sacrifice. The fruits of the new harvest are then presented including bread made from the fresh wheat, wine from the new grapes and baskets of fruits and vegetables. The Lord and Lady offer vodka and other drinks to celebrate the occasion, and are thanked for their hospitality and goodwill. The festival continues until the early hours with traditional music, dancing and songs.

The last sheaf (the dozhinochnyi orotzhinnyi) would also be decorated with flowers, ribbons, or women’s clothing and placed in the entrance corner of the home until 1st October, when it would be fed to the cattle. Sometimes this ceremony would be combined with that of a small patch of corn, which was left uncut. The spirit of the harvest was said to hide from the reapers in this uncut patch of wheat, which was known as the ‘Beard of Velos (or Veles)’. Velos was the god of animals and wealth. The uncut sheaves were decorated with ribbons and bent towards the ground in a ritual known as ‘curling the beard’; the harvest spirit was believed to be sent back to the earth to ensure fertility in the following year. Bread and salt, the traditional symbols of hospitality, were left as offerings.

© Anna Franklin, from Lughnasa, History, Lore and Celebration by Anna Franklin & Paul Mason, Lear Books, 2010

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[1] James Frazer, The Golden Bough, Macmillan, London, 1976

[2] James Frazer, The Golden Bough, Macmillan, London, 1976

[3] James Frazer, The Golden Bough, Macmillan, London, 1976

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Corn_Ceremony

[5] James Frazer, The Golden Bough, Macmillan, London, 1976

[6] James Frazer, The Golden Bough, Macmillan, London, 1976

[7] Leviticus 2:4

[8] Leviticus 23:9-14

Corn Dollies

It was once believed that the Spirit of the Corn had to be preserved from one harvest to the next to ensure the success of the crops. The cutting of the final sheaf was particularly dangerous, because it contained the life spirit of the corn, which had retreated and retreated into the final stook. Sometimes the harvesters would approach it reverently with the call ‘the neck’ or sometimes ‘the mare’ and cut in a single stroke with the cry ‘I have the neck’. This was then carefully woven into a corn-dolly or kern-baby, which would preserve the corn spirit safely until the next year. It would be kept in a place of honour until the spring, when at Imbolc ears of corn would be taken from the doll and ploughed into the fields to bring them life.

The earliest recorded instances of corn dollies date from the eighteenth dynasty of the ancient Egyptians (1570-1320 BCE) and represented Osiris. The last sheaf was often plaited into a vaguely human shape or a more abstract and symbolic representation of the corn spirit. The British Celts called them sanct ffraid ys ydd or ‘holy bride of the corn’. In Welsh the word for religion is crefydd from crefu to implore for, and ydd, corn. Each locality developed its own variations on this basic theme; there are dozens of different traditional designs such as the Durham chandelier, the Northamptonshire horns and the Suffolk horseshoe. The ribbons that bind it are significant in their colours, yellow for the sun, red for sacrifice, blue for love, green for wisdom and white for strength.

Over the years the ritual significance of the corn dolly decreased, and making corn dollies became a widespread rural craft and folk-art, with the designs becoming increasingly elaborate and varied. Corn dolly making is still a popular hobby, and nowadays there are hundreds of different types of varying levels of complexity. Enthusiasts often spend many years collecting and learning new designs. Corn dollies are woven into representations of a wide variety of traditional symbols-bells, cornucopia, crosses, horns, horses, horseshoes, human figures, spirals, stars, and sun wheels.

The modern Pagan can relive something of the spirit of the harvest by making one of these ancient designs each year.

© Anna Franklin, extract from Lughnasa, History Lore and Celebration by Anna Franklin & Paul Mason, Lear Books, 2010

Orion – Mobiliser of the Harvest

We generally think of Orion as a winter constellation, dominating the sky as soon as it gets dark till late evening. It gets lower and lower in the sky as spring comes, appearing for a shorter and shorter time, and is last seen in the west after sunset in late April. First it loses two large southern stars (the feet), then the belt of three stars sinks in the same day, and finally the last signs of the constellation disappear from the sky for seventy days until early mornings in mid-July, when it rises in the east with the sun, followed by Sirius some days later.

The whole cycle of the harvest (in the northern hemisphere) appeared to be mobilised and controlled by the movements of the constellations Orion and Canis Major (particularly the Dog Star, Sirius). There is increasing evidence that many ancient temples and monuments were orientated to Orion and Sirius. At the spring setting in the west of these constellations, the seed was planted. For their seventy days absence from the sky, the seed in the ground was invigorated by the god in the underworld. Then the constellations rise with the sun in the east (called a helical rising) and it was time to begin the harvest – as evidenced by some of Orion’s names such as the Old Germanic ‘Rake’ and the ‘Three Reapers’ – while Sirius provided the extra heat (it was believed) to dry the grain.

For the ancestral Hopi, Orion was an important star marker for seasonal activities. Planting occurred when Orion departed for his seventy-day sojourn in the underworld and harvesting when he re-appeared at the Niman Ceremony.  He entered the underworld at the same time as the seeds, and his influence there caused the spirits of the corn to rise from the earth and enter into the sown seeds so that they would germinate and quicken. In an identical fashion, the Egyptian Osiris entered the Duat (netherworld) and invigorated the seeds there for seventy days before his rebirth – in ritual imitation it took seventy days to prepare a mummy for resurrection into the afterlife.

The Egyptians identified Sirius with the goddess Isis, the chief mourner for her husband, the vegetation god Osiris (the constellation Orion), whom she brought back to life with magic. In Upper Egypt, on Orion’s first heliacal appearance over the eastern horizon he seems to appear feet first, as if he is a corpse lying on his back. By the time Canis Major is fully visible, Orion has become upright, as though Isis has resurrected him.

To the ancients of an overwhelming number of cultures, the constellation of Orion, the giant man in the sky, was of prime importance, associated with important gods. Orion has one upraised arm which, according to Homer, holds an unbreakable bronze club. A large number of gods are shown in this exact pose, holding variously clubs, maces, spears, bows, lightening or lightning bolts, and this may identify them with the constellation.  It is possible that here we find our Llew or Lugh the Long-Armed, who in later myth seems to have taken over the roles of Lud or Nuadha the Silver-Handed.

When Orion disappears in late spring and goes into the underworld he goes feet first – he has been lamed and then he dies. When the god in the sky became lame, he was forced to go into the underworld and ruled the sky no longer.

Likewise, if the earthly king became injured in any way, he was forced to give up his kingship. In myth, the rightful king is often described as lame or as being lamed before he dies. Other kings-to-be appear wearing only one sandal, and presumably limping, a hint of their destiny as ruler and eventual death. In the story of Lugh, when the high king Nuadha lost his right arm, he could not rule because he was maimed. Bres (‘Beautiful’) became king of the Irish, but he proved to be a bad ruler, and was ‘crooked’ in a different way.

Gods of the underworld were often referred to as lame or crooked in some way. Priestesses in Greece wore one sandal when invoking them. The Irish Crom Dubh is the ‘Black Crooked One’ or Cenn Cruaich (‘the Bowed One of the Mound’) and his importance may be discerned from the fact there are far more stories of Crom Dubh connected with Lughnasa than there are of Lugh. According to one legend Crom Dubh was buried up to his neck for three days and only released by Saint Patrick when the harvest fruits had been guaranteed. In other words, the god who had been in the underworld brought the harvest with him when he returned but had to be cajoled into giving it up. There is a recurring theme of battles surrounding the Dog Days and the Lughnasa period, with heroes and saints fighting the forces of cataclysm and wresting the harvest from the underworld.

In Greece the smith god was lame Hephaestus, who plays a significant role in Orion’s story, helping to restore his sight after he had been blinded (Orion had set in the west) by sending him to the place of the rising sun in the east (Orion’s heliacal rising and restoration). Hephaestus was given several epithets, including ‘the lame one’ and ‘shrewd, crafty’ or ‘of many devices’. As underworld deities, smith gods were generally lame. According to one story, the goddess Athene refused to marry him because he was crippled. He tried to rape her, but she managed to escape his clutches and his ejaculation landed on the earth, impregnating Gaia the earth goddess, who subsequently gave birth to Erichthonius (‘Sorrow of the Earth’), which recalls the Irish name of Lughnasa, Bron Trograin or ‘the earth sorrows under its fruits’.  By the forging of ploughshares, scythes and sickles, smiths play their part in forcibly taking the harvest from the earth, which might be seen to pain her.

© Anna Franklin, extract from Lughnasa, History, Lore and Celebration by Anna Franklin and Paul Mason, Lear Books, 2010

CORN

In the Old World, corn refers to any grain crop, including wheat, barley and rye etc., unlike in the New World which confines the term ‘corn’ to one grain only: maize, unknown in the Old World until the discovery of the Americas, and which we call ‘sweet corn in the UK, because it was sweeter than the corn we knew.

All cereals were originally domesticated from wild grasses. The practice of cultivating plants became established in the Near East and Europe about 6500-3500 BCE, in Southeast Asia about 6800-4000 BCE, and in Mesoamerica and Peru about 2500 BCE. Most areas where cultivation began were located in river valleys, as in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamians raised wheat and other cereal grains, and domesticated the camel, donkey and horse. Their goddess Inanna was called ‘the green one’ and ‘she of the springing verdure’ after the rippling green corn that was her mantle in spring.  The rainbow was her necklace and the lunar horns were on her head.  She was queen of the earth, goddess of grain, vine, date palm, cedar, sycamore, fig, olive and apple trees. One of these trees was always planted in her temple as a symbol of her power.  A kind of bread was baked on her altars, called the ‘baked cakes of the goddess Inanna’, symbolizing the body of the goddess herself feeding her children.

The Indus Civilization of northern India, which existed from about 2300 to 1750 BC, raised wheat, barley and rice. Farmers used ploughs, designed effective irrigation systems and built large granaries.

Egyptians irrigated land to ensure large crops of wheat and barley, which, along with flax, provided the basis of their agriculture. It is said that the god Osiris taught the Egyptians to grow wheat and barley.  As the corn, Osiris was called ‘the great green thing’ and as the power in earth, ‘the great black thing’. When the first ears of corn were cut there was weeping and wailing as Osiris was becoming dismembered, and Isis was invoked to lament with the reapers.  As the oxen threshed the barley, it reenacted the beating of Osiris by Set.  Isis collected the remains of Osiris in a winnowing basket.  A pyramid text compares the king to Osiris, as the grain that flies to heaven in the clouds of chaff that rise when the grain is winnowed. When waters pour out over the earth they cause the seed to grow and the sprouting is the uprising of Osiris’ soul.

The raising of the Djed pillar from the horizontal to the vertical position was the culmination of the rites of Osiris on the day before the New Year began.  Its uplifting meant that the god had endured over the forces of decay that lie lifeless on the ground.  The spirit of the corn had not been killed by its cutting but Osiris is everlasting, so the corn would grow into the light again. 

Wheat was a significant crop since it contains more gluten than other cereals and can be used to make raised bread, unlike any other grain. Many non-wheat-growing cultures have never known bread. Bread making seems to have originated in Egypt.  Archaeologists have found pieces of bread that show clear evidence of leavening action in deposits dating from about 3500 BCE.  By the dynastic period, loaves of special shapes and sizes were made for religious purposes and for consumption by different social groups.

The Greek goddess of grain was Demeter, symbolic of the fullness of the earth. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Persephone and Demeter seem to be personifications of the corn. Persephone spends three (or six) months of every year with the dead underground and the remainder of the year with the living above ground; in her absence the seed is hidden in the earth and the fields lie bare but on her return to the upper world the corn shoots up.  The corn seems to spring to life as if from the grave of the earth.

In the Golden Ass of Apuleius, the chapel of Demeter is described as having sheaves of corn, hooks, scythes and sickles laid about.  She is the corn mother, goddess of the harvest, while Persephone, her daughter, is the corn maiden. Demeter is usually depicted wearing a wreath of corn ears and holding corn in her hands, just as the Neolithic goddess of the grain was.  Food was called ‘the groats of Demeter’ and her blessing was invoked at harvest and seed time.  Her festivals were celebrated in spring and autumn at the dying and rebirth of the grain. 

She is said to have taught her mysteries to the king of Eleusis, and the great mystery rites at Eleusis were always conducted by the priests of Demeter. The central part of the worship was apparently built around the viewing of corn and the life cycle of the corn, with its growth, death, burial in the earth and rebirth. The initiates believed strongly that they too would enjoy a life after death because of their initiation into the mysteries.

Demeter’s daughter Persephone is often called Kore, which means ‘maiden’ and is also the feminine form of Koros, which means ‘sprout’.  She is the seed that splits off from the body of the ripened grain, the mother, sinks beneath the earth and returns in spring as a new shoot.  Persephone means ‘she who shines in the dark’, suggesting the seed does not actually die but continues to live in the underworld even though it cannot be seen above.

Demeter’s Roman equivalent was Ceres, of whom Ovid said:

“Ceres was the first who invited mankind to better nourishment and exchanged acorns for more wholesome food.  She forced the bulls to offer their necks to the yoke, then for the first time, the overturned soil beheld the sun.”

The corn goddess may be echoed in the Northern Tradition by Sif the golden haired, in Ireland by Macha and in Wales by Rhiannon.

The productiveness of the harvest was usually seen to reflect on the worthiness of the king. Homer speaks of a ‘blameless king’ one that fears the gods and reigns amongst many men and mighty, and the black earth bears wheat and barley and the sheep bring forth and fail not and the sea gives store of fish and all out of his good sovereignty.

Female saints took the place of the grain goddess and many were acquainted with the miraculous growth of grain.

© Anna Franklin, extract from Lughnasa, History, Lore and Celebration, Lear Books, 2010

Marymas

In more northerly latitudes the harvest is later, and Marymas, rather than Lughnasa, marked the start of the harvest and was surrounded by its own customs, many of which survived well into the nineteenth century. [1] Marymass is the Scottish name for the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on 15 August. Mary seems to have absorbed the harvest deity attributes of earlier goddesses. The assumption of Mary into heaven is said to have taken place at Ephesus, a famous sanctuary of the goddess Artemis who was represented there by a many-breasted statue, symbolising the productive and nurturing powers of the Earth.

The start of reaping was a day of celebration and ritual. Whole families would go to the fields dressed in their best clothes to hail the god of the harvest. The father of each family would lay his hat on the ground and face the Sun. Taking up his sickle he would cut a handful of corn which he passed three times around his head whilst chanting a reaping salutation. [2] The rest of the family would join in, in praise of the god of the harvest who provided bread, corn, flocks, wool, health, strength and prosperity.

The Lammas bannock (a traditional Scottish loaf) made from the new wheat would be dedicated to Mary Mother of God, and elaborate rituals surrounded its preparation.  Early in the morning the people would go out into the fields to pluck the ears of the new corn. These would be spread over rocks to dry and then husked by hand. After being winnowed and ground in a quern, the flour was mixed into dough and kneaded in a sheepskin. It was traditional to cook the bannock over a fire of rowan, then the father of the family broke it into pieces to be shared with his wife and children. They would sing the Ioch Mhoric Mhather or ‘Paean of Praise to the Holy Mother’ whilst walking in a procession sunwise around the fire with the father in the lead and the rest of the family following in order of seniority. The family then proceeded sunwise around the outside of their house, and sometimes around the fields and flocks while reciting a protection charm. [3]

© Anna Franklin, extract from The Hearth Witch’s Year, Llewellyn, 2021

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[1] Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1928

[2] Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1928

[3] Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, Floris Books 2001

The Cult of Lugh

Lughnasa is one of the eight festivals of the neo-Pagan year. It takes its name from Gaelic and means the násad (games or an assembly) of Lugh.  Lughnasa was recorded in Mediaeval times as one of the four festivals of the old Celtic year (the others being Samhain on November 1^st, Imbolc on February 1^st and Beltane on May 1^st).  In modern Pagan literature, Lughnasa is usually described as the festival that marks the start of the harvest. While it is clear that Lughnasa coincides with the first cutting of the corn, the legends of the god Lugh seem to have no immediately obvious harvest connections apart from the fact he is said to have instituted funeral games in honour of his foster mother Tailtiu, who died clearing a great plain.

In Neo-Pagan literature, Lugh is often described as a pan-Celtic deity and identified with the continental Lugus, Lud in England and Llew or Lleu in Wales. Many place-names throughout the central and western parts of Europe contain the prefix Lug – Lyons in France was once the capital of Gaul and was called Lugdunum, ‘ the Fort of Lugus’, while Carlisle in Britain was Caer Lugubalion. It is even possible that London, the capital city of England, was ‘the Fortress of Lud’. Other examples include Leiden, Laon, Loudon, Leiden, Laon, Lauzun, and Liegnitz – all meaning ‘Fortress of Lud’. [1] In the Celtic world a fort may indeed be a fortified place but can also refer to an earthwork, mound or hill associated with otherworldly characters. There is a Ludgate Hill near Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London where, according to one tale, the god is buried. [2] There are some inscriptions to Lugoves, a plural of Lugus, which may mean that the god occasionally appeared as a trinity.[3]

Lugh’s name has presented enormous difficulties for scholars and commentators. Robert Graves believed that it was connected with the Latin lucus meaning ‘grove’ or lux meaning ‘light’. [4] The Proto-Indo-European root word *leuk means ‘white light’. [5] The derivation of Lugh from this is unlikely, since the Proto-Indo-European *k never became *g in Proto-Celtic, but remained *k, as in the name of the Celtic lightning god Leucetios. Another possibility is Proto-Indo-European *leug meaning ‘blackness’, ‘dimness’ or ‘darkness’ or even the Latin lugubris meaning ‘mournful/ pertaining to mourning’, from lugere ‘to mourn’ (from a Proto-Indo-European base *leug denoting ‘to break’).[6]

The name is more probably related to the Proto-Celtic *lug– meaning ‘oath, pledging, assurance’ on the one hand and ‘deceive’ on the other (from the Proto-Indo-European *laugh – ‘avowal/ deception’).  Dr. Daithi O HOgain argues that the name relates to the Celtic word lugio meaning ‘oath’ [7]  while Ronald Hutton suggests the meaning of ‘justice’ or ‘judgement’, which he claims might make the various forts of Lugh places where justice was handed out and law administered. [8] Hutton proposes that Lugus may have been a Spanish god of justice and Lugoves collectively the ‘gods who gave justice’; with Lughnasa nothing more than the festival where legal cases were heard. [9] The mediaeval Irish text Renne Dinsenchas does record that the festival of Lughnasa was named after the god Lugh, but by this time the Christian mythographers had lost touch with their ancient language and may have been inventing explanations.[10]

For the earliest account of Lugh we have to turn to Julius Caesar who, writing about the Gauls circa 52 BCE, identified Lugh with the Roman god Mercury:

“The god they reverence most is Mercury. They have very many images of him and regard him as the inventor of all arts, the god who directs men upon their journeys, and their most powerful helper in trade and getting money.” [11] 

In this account there is no identification of Lugh either with the harvest or as a sun god, or Caesar would have him called him Saturn or Apollo.

The central part of Lugh’s story is the rivalry between him and his grandfather Balor and the battle for supremacy and kingship between the Tuatha de Danaan and the Formorians.  The pattern of Lugh’s tale is a common mythic theme and begins with a prophecy that the grandson (or son) of the king will overthrow him. The king takes the precaution of locking his daughter up in a tower, but she manages to meet a lover and gives birth to a son. The king then sets his daughter and grandson adrift in a basket or chest in a river or on the sea, expecting both to die. However, the two are saved and after some time in exile the young prince returns to overthrow the old king.

There appears to be little convincing evidence that Lugh was a sun god, as is often claimed in modern Pagan literature. In two mediaeval epics Lugh was described as having a brilliant face, and the idea of him being a sun god was extrapolated from this only in the nineteenth century. It is more likely that the adjective may be applied in the same way that Taliesin was the ‘radiant browed’, referring to his intelligence and accomplishments. Lugh is titled Samhioldánach (‘equally skilled in all the arts’), a supreme craftsman, the foster son of a smith. The Welsh Llew is called ‘the one with the skilful hand’. Hutton suggests that Lugh may have been the patron of the Aes Dana (‘People of Knowledge’) or craftspeople who travelled around Ireland freely offering their services, though there is no direct evidence of this.[12]

There is more evidence that he was connected with lightning. One of his titles is Lámhfhada (‘long-armed’) referring to his magical spear, which flashed or roared aloud when it was used in battles. According to one Irish saying during thunderstorms:

‘Lugh Long-arm’s wind is flying in the air tonight

Yes, and the sparks of his father Balor Béimann.’

The spear was one of the four treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan, though its actual use is not mentioned in Lugh’s stories. The Welsh Llew was equally called Llaw Gyffes or ‘accurate arm’. It is just possible that this would equate Lugh/Llew with a number of other sky gods who are armed with thunder and lightning and who fertilise the Earth Mother with their summer rains.

The cult of Lugh was a latecomer into Ireland, introduced by Gaulish or British refugees fleeing from the advancing Roman armies. The name Tailtiu is not Irish in origin but from the Welsh telediw, which means ‘well-formed’. It is possible that the Welsh version may be closer to the original mythic theme than the Irish version, where the hero Lugh has been slotted into an earlier pantheon. There are more obvious Pagan and seasonal themes in Llew’s tale than that of Lugh. Some modern scholars argue that Lugh and Llew may be two entirely separate deities and though there are differences between the Welsh and the Irish accounts they do have many very obvious themes in common. Lugh is the grandson of the Irish mother of the gods Danu, the wife of Balor, while Llew is the grandson of her Welsh equivalent, Dôn, the wife of Bile. Lugh’s mother is Eithne, the sister of Goibniu the smith and Llew’s mother is Arianrhod the sister of Govannon the smith. Both Lugh and Llew have to be hidden away from close relatives who will do them harm; both are fostered by mentor-figures who teach them a wide variety of skills. Both are connected with sovereign goddesses: in Lugh’s case his foster mother Tailtiu or the queen in the underworld, and in Llew’s case his mother Arianrhod, who names and arms him, and his bride Blodeuwedd who represents the earth itself. Both have an epic encounter with a deadly opponent, and both are wounded in the thigh, and both are connected with silver-armed kings.

© Anna Franklin, abstracted from Lughnasa, History Lore and Celebration, Lear Books, 2010

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[1] Ronald Hutton (Stations of the Sun) argues that it is possible that the word lud had another significance to the Celts, and that these cities were not named after the god at all. He contends that the worship of the god was probably not so widespread and it was a variety of local gods that were associated with Mercury.

[2] David Clarke, A Guide to Britain’s Pagan Heritage, Hale, 1995

[3] Peter Beresford Ellis, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Constable, London, 1992

[4] Robert Graves, The White Goddess,  Faber, London, 1961

[5] It is also found in the Proto-Celtic *lug-r? meaning ‘moon’ and the same root is the basis of Old Irish lug or ‘lynx’, perhaps denoting an animal with shining eyes.

[6] cf. Greek lygros ‘mournful/ sad’

[7] Dr. Daithi O HOgain, Myth, Legend & Romance, Prentice Hall Press, New York, 1991

[8] Ronald Hutton, The Festival of Lammas, The Cauldron no 113, August 2004

[9] Ronald Hutton, The Festival of Lammas, The Cauldron no 113, August 2004

[10] Ronald Hutton, The Festival of Lammas, The Cauldron no 113, August 2004

[11] Julius Caesar, (trans. S.A. Handford ), The Conquest of Gaul, Penguin Classics, 1951

[12] Ronald Hutton, The Festival of Lammas, The Cauldron no 113, August 2004