Lughnasadh 2017

Our Pagan festivals are associated with the growing season, although we look at them metaphorically these days. Therefore, metaphorically speaking, I'm going to say that this has been a year of famine. The crops have wilted in the fields, everyone is ill, and a growing sense of desperation has taken hold of the land.

This is a Lughnasadh with a questionable harvest. How are we going to make it through the dark season with what's happening now? What would Tailtiu and Lugh advise us to do?

First of all, we need to share. We need to look out for the less fortunate among us. We need to chide and hold accountable those who want to squirrel away more than they need. We need to respect leaders who show compassion and dignity and ... leadership.

This will be a lean season. Some years are tough. Can't speak for you, but I don't feel like playing games or building bonfires the way I have in Lughnasadhs of yesteryear.

But I do have a burning desire to help the tribe, our whole tribe, the ones I like, and the ones I don't. A famine spreads misery far and wide. We have to help everyone.

A lean Lughnasadh, this one. We'll have to make do. The future of the tribe depends upon it.