Naturalistic Paganism
No Nonsense Paganism: Lughna-say-what?
In this series, “No-Nonsense Paganism”, I have been striving to strip Paganism down, take away its ancient or faux-ancient terminology, its mythological and legendary pretensions, its foreign (to wherever you are) folk practices, its superstitious and pseudo-scientific justifications, and its esoteric ritual structures, and get down to the phenomenological core of pagan experience: our interaction with the earth and the other-than-human beings who we share it with. You can check out previous posts in this series here.
Autumn in Summer?
Today, many Pagans are celebrating Lughnasadh, also known as Lammas. Many call this day the “first harvest”. Mike Nichols begins his much-quoted article on Lammas this way: “Although in the heat of a Mid-western summer it might be difficult to discern, the festival of Lammas (Aug 1st) marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall.” Have you ever wondered why it seems like nearly every description of a Pagan sabbats begins with a disclaimer like this, explaining why it’s not really the season that we are celebrating?
Read MoreHappy Summer Thermstice/Lammas!
Celebrations
Heat! Productivity! Success! Growing Darkness! These and many other themes join with the baking of bread and early harvest celebrations of Lunasa. Maybe a good theme for this year’s Lunasa is our moon. It brings us a wonderful full moon to coincide with Lunasa this year – as if to join in the celebration of the fullness of productivity and life – and then this same moon graciously steps back just in time for the Perseid Meteor shower!
Also very fitting that the Oppenheimer movie came out within days of Lunasa – I’ve often linked the power of atomic explosions to the power of Lunasa in presentations, because they both feature power, and happened in August.
Some of the ways many of us are celebrating were recently published (along with many online rituals you can join, some of which are still ahead of us). For my family, celebrations with our annual Lunasa blueberry harvest, baking bread, and evening ritual are coming up! As a special Lunasa treat, check out this Lammas music from Bart Everson, and – like on every Sabbat – the additional music published on this blog, here on the practices hub page (simple page down to the Sabbat you want). It could be part of a ritual, solitary observation, or just having around now.
For some of us, the celebrations will be later this week – the actual midpoint between the Solstice and the Equinox is August 7th. However you are celebrating (including Imbolc celebrations in the Southern Hemisphere), may your be celebration be blessed.
What the Perseids (just a few weeks away, Aug 11-13!) Taught me about Parenting, by Starstuff, Contemplating
This a favorable moon phase this year, so this may be your only chance for many years to see the Perseid meteor shower! Your life could change before the next chance in 2026 – and if you have kids, this is your only chance to share it with them when they are their current ages. Here is how my kids taught me this:
My sons a few years ago, as we planned for that year’s Perseid Meteor trip:
K: Next year the Moon will prevent our trip, but the Moon is perfect this year, it could be an awesome show – maybe like the year we watched by Lake Michigan!
R: Yeah, and the bulldozer we saw there was kinda weird.
K: No, not then. That show was good, but nothing like the Lake Michigan year.
R: But that was a lot of meteors!
K: Yes. It was cool, but not as many meteors as the Lake Michigan year…..
R: But we’ve never seen them over Lake Michigan!
K: Yes, we have. We were out on the sand for hours!
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The Summer Cross-Quarter (Summer Thermstice) Approaches (+ online Lunasa Rituals)!
Lunasa is the start of the prime campfire and stargazing season – bringing the unique combination of both warmth and longer nights “Sunlit Summer”, see the 8 season names here. Lunasa arrives again, but it’s not like last year, nor the year before. Why not? Because the many nested and interwoven cycles of our solar system make each stargazing season unique, and hence make every Lunasa unique! Last year the moon washed out the Perseids. This year, it looks like we’ll have a wonderful Perseid show, with the moon mostly out of the picture – August 13 – 15! Plus, here are a half dozen online Lunasa ritual opportunities!
Meeting the Meat: An Animal Initiation, by Mark Green
We are reasoning Pagans. We revere the Earth and Cosmos without gilding the lily with the supernatural.
We are poets and singers, dancers and artists. We paint the sky with our pigments, our tones, our voices, the products of our loving hands.
And under all that, all that lovely amazing late-evolution neocortical creativity and executive function, there is The Animal.
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
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