Friday, August 01, 2008

Lughnasadh 2008


Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored" on Lughnasadh, 2008! Let all disturbing thoughts be set aside!

August is a month in which many praise and worship teams of the northern climes celebrate harvest by setting aside a holy day. We thank the gods and goddesses for creating bounty. And if the harvest is slim -- if there's been dark weather or disaster, or even rising gas prices -- we politely request the help of our deities to see us through the dark times.

Harvest in the apparent world means fat tomatoes off the vine, big ears of sweet corn and bulging ripe watermelons. It's time to can peaches and make jam and freeze pints of blueberries for the winter.

But harvest is also a metaphor. Have you stored enough wisdom to see you through rough patches? Have you canned enough patience to last out an illness? Have you saved all the love you'll need to shower it abundantly on the people who mean the most to you?

If so, blessed be! Advance to the dragon-tossing round! Let the Lughnasadh Games begin!


If not, pray for rain on that dry old ground you call your life. Don't be too proud to petition a deity for Her or His help. If you were sitting around with not enough to do, and you saw your neighbor struggling to get the lawn mower started, wouldn't you go and help out?

Well then, why are you hesitant to ask Mannanan MacLir to send healing rain? Why would you not swim in the pool of the Salmon of Wisdom until you filled the gaps in your learning? Why not put your parenting issues before Danu and Bile, your mercantile concerns before Queen Brighid the Bright and Cernunnos? Is your life in peril? Surely The Dagda and Morrigan will walk with you.

One of our least appreciated harvests is the abundance of bored deities among all the peoples of the world. Deities, bursting out of your shrubbery at a moment's notice -- not with terrible swift swords, but with the Divine Wisdom of the Ages. Ancient Ones who were sacred to your ancestors. Go chat with them. Can't hurt, unless you're afraid of someone who's smarter than you are.

Bored Gods, give us rain on this dry old ground. Water the tomato and the termite alike. Make us wise, patient, and loving. On our part, we'll try to put your names out there, where they deserve to be ... in big, bold lights.

FROM ANNE
THE MERLIN OF BERKELEY SPRINGS

10 comments:

Raevyn said...

As always, a brilliant post :) A very blessèd Lughnasadh to you and your family!

Anonymous said...

Great post, Anne. Thank you! Wishing you many Lughnasadh blessings.

yellowdoggranny said...

goddess bless you

Anonymous said...

A wonderful post! You touched my heart and brought mist to my eyes. I find myself too rarely asking the Gods for help, no matter what's going on in my life.

I needed the reminder that that is exactly what they are there for.

Blessings to you and your on this the first harvest

Alex Pendragon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alex Pendragon said...

I wish atheists could understand the kick we get out of our Gods, as irrational as that might seem to them. They should be grateful there are as many of us out here communing with the bored Gods as there are.....we could otherwide be part of the legend of nasty Jesus lovers who don't love atheists. Wait, I'm sorrry.....love them but would kill them anyway.....just to save them.

My harvest included a job which has become MUCH, MUCH better to be at, including my wife's.

Anonymous said...

Blessed Lammas to you, too! I set out berries and milk for my land-spirits, as is our custom, and later I saw a very happy squirrel gnawing on a fresh blueberry.

I think that means they approve. :)

BBC said...

August is a month in which many praise and worship teams of the northern climes celebrate harvest by setting aside a holy day.

Really? I don't worship anything. And I don't pray as if I think some being out there is suppose to favor me.

Well, I would worship sex but I'm not getting any. Ha, ha, ha.

Anne Johnson said...

Maybe you should pray for sex. I suggest the Goddess Aphrodite. She might help you find someone you'd enjoy both inside and outside the sack.

Anonymous said...

Lovely post. As one who is rather newly arrived in the pagan world, I'm always eager for insights into the Wheel of the Year events that take them beyond their historical significance and make them meaningful to my life. Thanks!
-Sabrina