Lammas Reflections

Lammas Reflections July 29, 2016

It’s a little past 8pm and already the sun is down (below the effective horizon of buildings and trees, if not the geographic one). A bit more than a month past the solstice, I can see the days are already getting shorter. Sure, it’s still plenty hot (hotter than June) and a bit of daylight at 8 is still pretty good. But we’re turning the energy here. We’ve gone past the peak of yang, as the Taoists would put it, and now into the time of yin within yang; or in some interpretations of the wu xing, the “Five Elements”, moving from the yang of Fire to the balance of Earth. Either way there’s a bit of a contraction now, as natural as inhaling after exhaling.

aug-2-2016August 2 was the date for Lammas on that “Wheel of the Year” poster I had back around 1990 (just as Imbolc was February 2). And it’s also my mother’s birthday. So I’m not going to argue the date with you — as far as I’m concerned it’s the 2nd, though other sources say July 31 or August 1 and the actual mid-point between the soltice and the equinox will fall on different dates. Nor will I argue the name; in my little circle of Pagan friends we called it Lammas and so it will always be to me, no offense to those who call it Lughnasadh.

It is a bit of an orphan holiday. Yule, of course, has a big celebration in Western cultures, and Samhain filters into Halloween a little. Litha, the great solar day, is near Father’s Day and the last day of school. Beltane gets some love in folk culture (“Hooray, hooray, the first of May…”), and even Imbolc gets Groundhog Day. The equinoxes at least get a mention by TV meteorologists and science popularizes. But Lammas kind of stands alone.

Maybe that’s why I’ve found myself drawn to consider it more carefully the past few years.

It’s time to start gathering in, to prepare for the fall. (Back-to-school sales! Trips to the college bookstore. I kind of miss them.) It’s time to enjoy the bounty of the garden. (I was just gifted with a cucumber large enough to knock someone out with, from a friend’s rooftop garden.)

It’s a time when the energy is still high but past its peak, no longer frantic; a good time for a vacation or a stay-cation, to pause and consider. (I may try to make a day trip to the beach next week as I have the past two years around this time, it seems to work well.) If, perhaps, there’s been a summer romance, it’s time to start thinking about whether it’s going to be something you want to continue in the dark cold of the year. (Nothing to report there…though some magic has been worked.)

So even if you’re not attending a formal celebration of the day, I recommend that take a moment some time over the next few days to consider this. Listen to the lazy drone of the cicadas in the summer heat. Have a beer or a lemonade outside.


I’ll be presenting at the Lovelight Yoga+Arts Festival August 26-28 in Darlington, Maryland.

I’ve got a new book! What Does It Mean For The Gods To Exist? and other essays collects my run on the Patheos Agora blog plus a few bonus pieces. Great beach reading, if you’re the sort of person who reads philosophy, spirituality, and religion on the beach. (C’mon, I can’t be the only one!)

You can keep up with “The Zen Pagan” by subscribing via RSS or e-mail.

If you do Facebook, you might choose to join a group on “Zen Paganism” I’ve set up there. And don’t forget to “like” Patheos Pagan and/or The Zen Pagan over there, too.


Browse Our Archives