Prepping for Lammas

It's July and it's hot. It's hard to get our minds around harvest time celebrations, although if the heat is wearing you down, you probably are already entertaining thoughts of cooler days and nights. And since we know Summer will eventually leave us, now is a good time to start thinking about the ritual of our first harvest celebration.

Granted sometimes there isn't much time for ritual prep. I know it's been for hard for me, for many years, to get ahead of the Wheel. Seems we just get over one holiday and the next one is on the horizon. And if you follow the Wheel of the Year, we have eight holidays to prep for and celebrate, which can seem like a lot. Sometimes all one can do is acknowledge the day, perhaps light a candle and blow a kiss. Believe me I've been there. So I am grateful for the times when I can do a little pre-ritual preparing, even if it's only in my thoughts.

Following the everyday calendar, there won't be another holiday until Labor Day in September. It's nice to have the lesser Sabbat of Lammas to break up the long hot Summer. And since Witches are keenly tuned to Nature, we can feel the change coming. As I live in Colorado, the mornings already have a slight chill to them, even as the boiling hot day comes into play.

Llewellyn publishes wonderful resources, books, and hints on how to prepare for the Sabbats. I'm thinking of setting out delicious veggies, plants and flowers. All things which symbolize the abundance of a first harvest, the good stuff the hot Summer days have brought us. We've got a few weeks to go, so of course none of these ideas are set in stone, but it's good to start thinking about it!