Tonight the class joined JaguarMoon and we celerbated the firs of the three harvests: Lammas, the slaying of the Green Man.

My tradition believes that our ancestors saw grain as a manifestation of the Divine and personified it as the Green Man. Growing sturdy and strong through spring into summer, He is cut down by the sacred scythe and sleeps through the winter, to be reborn again the next spring. For us, grain symbolizes our link in an unbroken chain of birth-death-rebirth.

In our ritual, we rub grain (wheat, grass, corn, etc) through our fingers, and connect with our ancestors for a brief moment. We come to know the God and acknowledge how civilization came to us through agriculture. Peace, through the grain. We follow this by savoring a bite of fruit, taking in the knowledge in a visceral way. We connect.

With that, we give thanks for what we have harvested this past year. This is always a bit tricky for the newcomers. For us in the coven, its merely part of our cycle. (We planted this at Ostara and now give thanks at Lammas). We also give thanks to the Earth itself for her continuing fertility. It is a humbling moment, a joyous moment, and we enter it fully.

Here and now, in this moment and at this time, I give thanks for three things: my sweet love who brings me joy each day, my completed manuscript — now wending its way through the mailservice to its publication, and my delightful class.

May the Harvest find you happy, healthy and blessed beyond measure!