Dreamtime Consulting

Regardless of the efforts of our society to selectively forget the sacred traditions which still shape our lives, the echos of the ancient ways are becoming more and more clear to those who attune themselves to them.

For many, the month of August is a time of celebration. Lammas is the season of the first harvest. In the constant climates, such as southern California, these traditions tend to become more nebulous because the traditions of old were based in climates where a distinct season(Winter, Summer) was readily identifiable. Crops now can be grown out of season and it's very few fruits or vegetables one can't find in the warmer regions. However, this is no way negates the power or significance of Lammas, or any of the other celebrations based upon the seasons and cycles of life.

Lammas is not only a time of celebration, but it is also a time of anticipating the approaching fall and winter months. The first fruits, the first new flocks etc... have always had magickal significance attached to them. In Adlerian psychology, as it pertains to birth order, suggests the first born in families are more likely to be found in leadership positions. In times when birth order determined a select vocation, the first born took on the responsibilities of kingship or managing the house hold. The associations with the first born, or first harvest, are associations all pertaining to the most sacred, the highest quality. For some spiritual traditions, it is the time of the Oak King who comes to power and in the cycle defeats the Holly King until Yule arrives and the Holly King is reborn and the Oak King is defeated.

Psychologicly speaking, it would be very healing and therapeutic for us to look at our first harvests. What aspects in our life can we harvest at this time? What important decisions do we make? Here the ancient traditions shine through. In August, school readies for those College and University students, as well as high school and elementary students(those not on a year round system). A new grade or level is started, the first fruits of academic pursuit is to move on to the next level.

Many vacations are taken in the summer months and keeping in mind June weddings are very much the rage, 9 weeks later in August there may be a baby on the way-the first fruits of a new marriage. In the summer months we suddenly find time to reap the rewards of our hard work, tend our gardens, take that needed time out. It is a time to celebrate, to enjoy the fruits of our labor. It needs to be pointed out psychologicly it doesn't have to be August when we do this. What is important is that we acknowledge those times in our life when a first harvest arrives. We honor it with a small ritual, we deserve to celebrate and in our spiritual tradition, whatever that may be we share the first fruits with that which is holy in our lives.

The echos of an older, and wiser world in many ways still creep and influence the way we do things. Fight as we may to negate it, the wisdom of our ancestors still speak to us and guide our footsteps. Many farmers still plant by the phases of the moon, many traditional churches follow a seasonal pattern which has much deeper roots than many realize, or care to discover. The sacred is all around us, and unless we open ourselves to the planting and harvesting of the sacred world, we will surely starve needlessly.