Now we make our way back around the wheel of the year into the harvest festivals. Lammas is our first sabbat after the wheel tips back in toward darkness, taking place on the first day of August. It is also the first harvest, the time of year for harvesting early crops such as grains.
The first sheaf of grain was ceremonially cut and made into bread which was sacrificed to Mother Earth and her creatures in hopes that no harm would come to the remaining crops. The last sheaf of grain was made into a corn husk doll to represent the grain goddess of the harvest. When planting the next season’s crops, the doll was then buried in the fields as an offering to Mother Earth in hopes of assuring an abundant harvest.
With the first round of harvesting finished, it was time to celebrate with plenty of alcoholic beverages and baked goods, games and feasting. Share your abundance with others and it will come back to your threefold. You may notice many of the plants that correspond with Lammas are for prosperity, love, luck, and protection for this reason.
Plants that Correspond with Lammas
Basil: love, prosperity, protection
Blackberry: healing, protection, prosperity
Corn: fertility, protection, luck
Cornflowers: acceptance, healing, awareness
Goldenrod: love, prosperity, luck
Heather: protection, prosperity, luck
Mint: protection, abundance, healing
Peony: protection
Potatoes: protection, healing
Queen Anne’s Lace: love, fertility
Sandalwood: protection, purification, meditation
Vervain: love, protection, purification, prosperity
Wheat: fertility, prosperity
How to Work with Your Herbs
Lammas is the kitchen witch’s favorite sabbat. It’s the perfect time to bake some bread with fresh herbs and make herbed butter for your potatoes and corn on the cob. Blackberry pie is traditionally baked on this sabbat to commemorate the harvest as the beginning of the descent into the death half of the cycle. Here are a few more ways you can incorporate these herbs into your magick.
Lammas Tea Cocktail
For this sabbat that’s all about the bread and the beer, we’re going to make a cocktail with some iced tea. Beat the heat of late summer and indulge in a simple pleasure during this first harvest celebration!
You’ll need:
2 bags of your favorite black tea
1/4 cup sugar or honey
2 ounces of your favorite bourbon
4 dashes bitters
1 lemon
Fresh mint to garnish
Start by brewing the two tea bags in two cups of boiled water. Stir the sweetener into the hot tea. Meanwhile, cut two round lemon slices from the middle of the lemon and set aside, saving the two slices and ends for later. Fill two separate glasses with ice and pour the tea over the ice after it has slightly cooled, splitting it evenly between the glasses. Add one ounce of bourbon to each glass. Juice the remaining lemon between the glasses and add two dashes of bitters to each, stirring gently. Serve with fresh mint and lemon slices.
Loose Incense Blend
Awareness, protection and healing become important as the wheel turns into the darker half of the year. Burn this incense while you’re drinking your tea cocktail with friends, pulling tarot, doing a prosperity spell, or performing a sabbat ritual.
2 parts red sandalwood powder
1 part cornflowers
1 part blackberry leaf
Visit The Green Witch Living Herbal Apothecary for herbs, resins, and apothecary tools.
Wishing you all a blessed Lammas!
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