harvest bounty

The halfway point between summer solstice and autumn equinox is Lammastide. Christians hold church processions to bakeries, where bakers and their crew are blessed by clergy. 

Lammas is the first day of the harvest season, August 2 - and Lunar Lammas on August 9. Ending with the full moon in Aquarius - traditionally called the “Sturgeon Moon.”

the 1st Harvest in the Wheel of the Year

A time to celebrate the earth's bounty and give thanks. It's also a timely reminder to plan for the autumn and winter as it marks the end of the summer season and a return to less sunshine hours. 

Lammas | Lughnasadh | Loaf Mass Day

The 2024 dates for Lammas | Lughnasadh | Loaf Mass Day are August 1 to 12. Many cultures celebrate Midsummer - this week we also mark 8:8:8 Lion's Gate as well as the peak of the Perseids meteor showers.

We are halfway through the summer in all its glory - with its COVID spreading county fairs, backyard barbeques, political rodeos, and Olympic upsets. 

image c/o National Today

At Lammas we honor the past with a feast of bread to celebrate grain from ancient cultures. Because of its association with Lugh - warrior, king, master craftsman, savior - it is also a traditional time of year for craft and music festivals. 

Folks gather and feast as skilled artisans showcase their workmanship and sell their creations. 

an equinox of grace & grief

“Autumn Equinox is a time – a sacred moment – for grieving our many losses, as individuals, as a culture, as Earth-Gaia. At this time we may join Demeter – and any other Mother Goddess from around the globe – in Her weeping for all that has been lost.

The Mother weeps and rages, the Daughter leaves courageously, the Old One beckons with Her wisdom and promise of transformation.” ~ Glenys Livingstone, PhD, “Autumn Equinox: Thanksgiving and Grieving,” Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess

Ninnion Tablet replica

For millennia, in Greece, this Seasonal Moment has been the holy celebration of Persephone’s descent to the Underworld, and in the earliest Goddess tradition, She descends of Her own volition to comfort the dead: the process is one of gaining of wisdom and restoring beauty – She is the Seed planted in the Earth, that will sprout again, grow to maturity and carry life into the future. 

be the change

That famous quote we all attribute to Gandhi, "be the change you want to see in the world," was not what was actually said. What he did say was:

clouds got in the way

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi

cloud illusions we recall

If we want to inspire change in our communities, both showing and telling can matter. People are more receptive to learning their behavior should change when they are being acknowledged.

round & round

Love is the intensive force that drives life - radiant and transformative life force. Tender and fierce. Nourishing and formidable. Unreasonable and unapologetic. 

Painted Wheel of the Year

All the stuff we hold dear and valuable as wonder | wander | women - elemental brujas, Bene Gesserits, wiccan advocates, babaylans. Benevolent conduits of love and light who have inherited a contentious history largely perpetuated by masculine ego and religious dogma. Boo! 

strange cloud patterns & close up of birds

fall equinox

“Autumn’s grain is spring’s seed: paradox surrounds us with ripening wisdom. If we lose hope, remember that Hope has two daughters to support our balancing acts: Anger and Courage. Instead of passive hope, embrace radical willingness.” ~ excerpt by Oak Chezar © Mother Tongue Ink 2019

"Too easily, we lose the path of Beauty and Spirituality."

Winter Ross at Ceremonial Visions

What seeds did we plant in spring that are now ready for harvesting this autumn? As badge carrying rebels, advocates and dissenters wonder | wander | women are actively raising our voices and joining groups and communities that honor and respect the natural rhythms and cycles of our earth.

wanton urban ugliness

It was extremely upsetting and heart wrenching to watch what our little barrio has been up to this whole month. While the rest of the world was more concerned and careful about being better guardians of our land, Union City, New Jersey is chopping down all its grand old trees. 

seasonal sorrows | at the cusp

Switching seasons in a land of four seasons is something our wonder | wander | women tropical genes have yet to get used to. Even after a decade of life in our adopted homelands it still is a challenging shift we feel in every cell of our body.

this side of the pond - Edgewater NJ

Inside and out we feel invaded by body snatchers, violated and abused. Subjected to wild roller coaster rides and loopy loops - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Shifting seasons turn us into a rebelling revolt of massive magnitude.

Mahala & Issa - Chiang Mai, 2007

urban living | nature & nurture

As city dwellers wonder | wander | women struggle as we straddle the divide between our concrete jungles and our love of nature and most things natural.

Summer is always a trial. Blue skies beckon. Warm breeze blows gently. Pulling at every cell and memory in our bodies. Raising our longing for the tropical tidal pools of our childhood beaches.

over the hills and far away

In these days of connectivity and fast travel, a friend leaving the country isn't the end of the world like it used to be.

It still aches though - especially when your friend is an expatriate like you, the two of you bound by a common love of your adopted homeland.

times they are a'changin

For Light by John O'Donohue

Light cannot see inside things.

That is what the dark is for:

Minding the interior,

Nurturing the draw of growth

Through places where death

In its own way turns into life. 

Illumination of Earth by the Sun on the day of an equinox. 

Once again March marks yet another flaming cosmic story in 2016 - a year marred and mired in explosive surprises. 

This year's vernal equinox heralds the earliest spring since 1896. 

Autumn Equinox 2014 - skies above us

NBC News Image

We have come to that time of year when we care more about weather watching and the daily reports.

Living in a part of the world subject to four seasons has its perks and perils.