With the ancient festival known as Lammas (or Lughnasadh) coming up on August 1st, I’ve been thinking about how one might lay out tarot spreads, not just for purposes of prediction or tarot spells, but as focal points for commemorating the cycle of seasons on a celebrational altar. (Note: Lammas is a cross-quarter day, because it is halfway between the summer solstice and autumn equinox.)
“Lammas” is from an old English word that means “loaf mass,”
so it is very much a celebration of the wheat harvest. (Here in Michigan, the wheat harvest runs
from mid-July to early August.) Wheat
was genuinely held sacred in many European cultures, and they had many
different types of ritual festival breads and pastries. This is also the time of year when many local
fruits and vegetables are coming into season, so that we can enjoy fresh,
locally grown produce. We will also soon
be entering the wine grape harvest season, (which runs from late August through
October in Michigan).
So, I have been going through my collection of tarot decks to
see if their graphics lend themselves to colorful harvest images for a Lammas
celebration, and have scanned these three cards from the Tarot of the Golden
Wheel by Mila Losenko, (published by U.S. Games Systems), which draws from Slavic
folk culture.
The Sun card is featured because Lammas is a solar festival, (and August is the height of summer’s heat). Combined with The Empress card’s image of an Earth Mother sitting in a field of wheat and holding up a sunflower as well as a cup of wine, the two cards evoke the union of Sun and Earth that brings forth a plentiful harvest. Note the graphic resonance between the images of sunflowers in both cards; sunflower seeds are also an important nutritional source for Slavic peoples, (and sunflower seed bread is my favorite.) The Nines are cards of multiplicity, so the Nine of Wheels, (Pentacles in other decks), shows a woman--perhaps a farm wife—enjoying the material rewards that a generous harvest makes possible.
By the way, if you are planning
a Lammas celebration, you might want to look up my article on the Animal Cracker Oracle. This is an article about old Prussian
festival customs that were practiced at Christmas and New Year, but the Animal
Cracker Oracle itself is very appropriate for Lammas as a celebration of the
grain.
Also, check out Margie McArthur’s
blog, “Brigid’s Hearth,” which has an article on Lughnasadh, http://www.brigidshearth.org/seasonalhearth-autumn.htm,
which is the Celtic cross-quarter festival that coincides with Lammas.
