Postcards from The Hedge - Dispatch 7
Dancing as if language had surrendered to movement - as if this ritual, this wordless ceremony, was now the way to speak, to whisper private and sacred things, to be in touch with some otherness. Dancing as if the very heart of life and all its hopes might be found in those assuaging notes and those hushed rhythms and in those silent and hypnotic movements. Dancing as if language no longer existed because words were no longer necessary...”
- Brian Friel , Dancing at Lughnasa
Welcome to our seventh dispatch of Postcards from the Hedge. This month's care package has been prepared by our founder Kathy and Dolores Whelan.
Dear Ones,
Lá Lughnasa Shona Daoibh
Today is the Festival of Lughnasa - a time of great celebration and thanksgiving for the ancients of this land. We are taking some time to pause, give thanks, rest and reflect for the month of August/ Lughnasa here at The Trailblazery HQ and will return with some BIG news in September. Watch this space.
Lughnasa is one of the four great fire festivals of the Celtic year, celebrated with plenty of special Lughnasa rituals and symbols. We are delighted to welcome trailblazer, educator and spiritual guide Dolores Whelan who is a great keeper of the Celtic Wisdom Tradition to share the gifts and lore of the harvest season with us here today.
“The festival of Lughnasadh (which occurs in early August in the northern hemisphere) is one of the most joyful celebrations in the Celtic year calendar. It marks the beginning of the harvest season. This festival and its rituals celebrate the successful outcome of the tribe (people) working with their land since the beginning of the year at Samhain. A good bountiful harvest is of paramount importance to the tribe because this ensures that the people and all their animals will have the resources they need for the coming winter season. As with all tribal and indigenous people, their connection with the earth is of primary importance and underpins all of their relationships.
At Lughnasadh the tribe celebrates the harvest of dreams seeded and nurtured in the darkness of wintertime, the tenacity of seeded planted in early spring, the joy of life bursting forth at Bealtaine as thousands of life forms create an intoxicating landscape in gardens and countryside. The crops ripen further as the year moves through Summer Solstice and on to the beginning of harvest at Lughnasadh.
The season and Festival of Lughnasadh is named after the Tuatha dé Dannan God Lugh who was also known as the Samaldanach or the many gifted one because he embodied so many different skills and talents (and often referred to the champion of the tribe)
At Imbolc, Brigid brings in the creative energy needed to bring forth new life and it is Lugh, the craftsman, who knows how to shape this energy into the appropriate form. In this we see how the roles of the feminine and masculine are required at different stages of every creative process.
In order to embody all his giftedness the God Lugh had to face and defeat his adversary Crom Dubh, whose energy does not wish to yield the harvest. In this mythology Crom Dubh represents our shadow self and the resistance we have to expressing our unique gift in the world.
A less known aspect of Lughnasadh is revealed in another name of this festival Bron Trogan, which loosely translates as the sorrow of the earth. This name refers to the fact that after the harvest is completed, the earth must move toward a period of letting go of what has been achieved and embrace the inevitable emptiness that follows in the waiting space that precedes the arrival of new dreams, new possibilities in the dark season of winter. There is a huge correlation here with the journey that we humans and our society must make many times within our lives.
The celebration of Lughnasadh involved the communal enjoyment of the first fruits of the land. Gathering the people together on this day of the Tribe’s victory led to a consolidation of the inner structure of the tribe and a strengthening of the solidarity between Tribes’ members."
Dolores T Whelan
Lughnasadh 2021
*See more resources from Dolores below
May the Force be with you
Celtic mythology centred on the dance of opposing forces – light and dark, good and evil, birth and death, planting and harvest. The story of Lugh is an archetypal myth that has cropped up in many modern stories; probably the best known version around today is the original Star Wars film. George Lucas, was inspired by these opposing forces in Celtic mythology and morphed the Sword-of-Light-wielding Celtic warrior Lugh into the light-saber-wielding Star Wars hero Luke Skywalker.
Dancing at Lughnasa
George Lucas is not the only writer who has been inspired by the importance of Lugh in Irish folk tradition. On April 24, 1990, Dancing at Lughnasa premiered at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Written by Brian Friel, the play summons back the memories of the end of the summer of 1936 on the eve of the celebration of Lugh, the god of light and fire and music and dance, the women of the house share strong bonds of love and courage in moments of joy as well as loss that the memory of them.
A special Gift from us to you.
Create some special time to honour the abundant fruition of the seeds you've planted and the endings taking place at this festival of Lughnasa. By clicking the button below, you'll receive access to a very special Journey into the portal of Lughnasa led by Kathy. This experience is 26 minutes long. Find a comfortable space to lie down, relax and receive.
Journal Prompts to inspire you at Lughnasa
What are you harvesting?
What are you releasing?
What are you amplifying?
What are you celebrating?
Enjoy these golden days - may the light be yours.
Beannachtaí
Kathy and all at the Hedge School
Hedge School Highlights
Put on the kettle, make a cuppa and watch some golden moments from our Hedge School musicians and performers who remind us to mind ourselves, each other and this place we call home
Recommended Resources
Here are a few watching and listening pieces inspired by the Hedge School to mind you in the days ahead:
Lughnasa Traditions
Of the four great Celtic festivals - Samhain, Imbolc and Bealtaine, Lughnasa was the most joyous. It was a great tradition for entire communities to gather at a chosen meeting place in the hills, by a river or lake, or perhaps at a holy well to celebrate the fresh abundance of a new harvest with joy and enjoyment. People gathered to celebrate the bonds of community through social mixing, and to strengthen and honour the bonds between the people and the spirits of the land and the gods through decorating wells and standing stones, the re-telling or re-enactment of mythological tales, acts of blessing and ritual.
Herbs and Plants of Lughnasa
All Grains
Wheat, barley, oats, rye, all representing both fulfilment and potential.
Wild Berries
Blueberries, Bilberries
Meadowsweet
Also known as Queen-Of-The-Meadow, Bridewort and Bride of the Meadow. One of the most sacred herbs of the Druids, this was often worn as a garland for Lammas celebrations and was a traditional herb for wedding circlets and bouquets at this time of year. Also used for love spells and can be strewn to promote peace, and its heady scent cheers the heart.
Mint
Mint is another of the three most revered herbs of the Druids (vervain being the third, according to Grieve). Its magical properties are both protection and healing, and at this stage in the year, its properties of drawing abundance and prosperity, are most appropriate.
Sunflower
We take sunflowers for granted, they are perfectly named and loved by children of all ages. By this stage in the year the flower heads are full and heavy with that wonderful spiral of seeds and they spend the whole day gently turning their heads to gaze at the sun. In the Aztec temples of the sun, priestesses carried sunflowers and wore them as crowns. They symbolize the fertility of the Solar Logos.
Calendula
Little suns, pure joy, in all their shades from deep orange to pale yellow.
Yarrow
Yarrow has taken on different meanings and symbolism throughout the centuries. It’s been known to be a herb that casts away evil spells and hexes. People believe that stringing it across the doorway will prevent evil spirits from entering their home. To use yarrow in your own Lammas practice, place it around your neck as a form of protection.
♪ Listen: For you ears
A Journey through the Celtic Year
Dolores Whelan Recording that speaks of the wisdom held within the Celtic year | Home
✦ Smell: For your Nose
The following Essential Oils are often used for anointing oil blends for Lughnasa: Cedar, Frankincense, Juniper, Myrrh, Pine, Sage, Sandalwood, and Thyme.
✯ Watch: For your eyes
Watch Dolores in episode #5 of the Live Irish Myths in Conversation series, Anthony Murphy of Mythical Ireland chats with Dolores Whelan, author of Ever Ancient, Ever New, educator and proponent of Celtic wisdom.
Watch the screen adaption of Brian Friel's 'Dancing at Lughnasa' led by Meryl Streep. Women are at the very heart of this much-loved play, set in Co Donegal in 1936 during the Celtic harvest festival of Lughnasa. Famously, Friel dedicated it to his own aunts, “those five brave Glenties women”. Here is a peak at the trailer.
❤ Read: For your heart
Ever Ancient Ever New by Dolores Whelan
The Celtic spiritual and wisdom tradition is a way of perceiving reality and a way of being in the world. This book emphasises the need for modern humans to inhabit those dimensions of reality that once created the world of the Celtic people.
The Festival of Lughnasa by Máire MacNeill
The Seminal guide to this season Available through Libraries
Celtic Rituals by Alexei Kondratiev
This is a wonderful resource on the essence of the festivals and the rituals on the Celtic year
Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel
The play debuted in 1990 and received many accolades, including several Tony Awards.
✬ Connect: For your Soul
The Perpetual Celtic Calendar created by the late Cynthia Mayti and Dolores in 2011 can also be purchased on Dolores' website
You can visit Dolores’ website www.doloreswhelan.ie to purchase products and learn about upcoming courses and workshops.