Lammas Crafts

Wow! It's almost August 1st! That is the day that the ancient Celts marked the First Harvest of the fields. This day is a sabbat called Lammas, celebrated by Pagans around the world. Of course, the first harvest has been celebrated by the earliest civilizations who planted grains, dating back to the Sumerians.

There are some traditional crafts and offerings that you can make for this sabbat.

~Baking bread is probably the original offering made, as it is one of the oldest skills of civilization. Ancient breads were unleavened, with the addition of yeast to the process coming much later in history, probably in Egypt. The process of harvesting and grinding the grains is representative of the Death of the God, or if corn, the Corn King. It is wise to include some freshly sprouted wheat in the bread recipe. This would be the resurrection of the God. If you bake bread, carve a pentacle in the top before baking with your athame.

~Making a corn dolly is another craft that represents the growth of the grains and the life that they offer thru the hard Winter ahead. The dolly represents the Mother Goddess, or in the Celtic traditions, Bride or Bridget. You just take the corn stalks leaves and weave them into the representation of a woman's shape. Mine see to all look like the traditional woman wearing a dress shape. Well, sometimes they just look like a blob of cornstalks tied together! I then put this on my house altar.

~Weaving onion (and garlic) braids are also good crafts for this sabbat. Onions are multipurpose, in that they store well for Winter food, and they can be charged to help as a charm of protection for your home. If used for this purpose, they can be hung anywhere, although if you do this ,I wouldn't eat them. Onions absorb negativity, including that from illness. The diagram below is from Wheel of the Year, by Pauline Campanelli.

These are just a couple of things you can do to help celebrate Lammas! Of course, all the harvesting you do can be done with a feeling of gratitude and the thanks to the Gods & Goddesses that you follow. I used to have a very large vegetable and herb garden. I know that when I was done with my canning, freezing, and drying, I felt safer in the knowledge that I had food in the pantry to get me thru the Winter. for the sabbat, I used to bake bread with some seeds from the garden plants such as dill, included in it. This helped make the offering more personal, since I didn't grind the flour myself.

Blessed Lammas!

Making a Spirit Box

Making a Spirit box or jar is a great way to have some fun and make a useful magickal item. A Spirit box is a place for you to put your problems and fears, to give them up to the Goddess, God, Universe, or however you refer to your higher power. If you have a problem that you can't solve or a fear that is holding you back, write it out on paper, fold it or tear it up, and put it into the jar, and put the lid back on. You are giving this problem to your higher power to deal with, for the best possible outcome. For this to work, you really have to trust your higher power. Do you?Really? I have found that putting my problems into the Spirit jar to be quite freeing. It also serves to help me keep the faith, as it were. The photo is of my own Spirit jar.

This really doesn't take a long time to do! This is a fun craft to do with a friend.

To make a Spirit box, get any box with a separate lid. It can be as large or as small as you like. You just need to make sure that it can hold several pieces of torn or folded paper at a time.You can also do this with a jar. You should decorate the box, but feel free to use any/all materials you wish. It can be simple or quite elaborate. If I'm using a paper box, I decorate both the inside and the outside. To do a jar, I just do the outside. I use paint, rubber stamps, glitter (always glitter!), cut out pictures from magazines, printed tissue papers (especially for the jars). I might glue on beads, ribbons, feathers, shells, and/or acorns. There are no rules or right way to do this! The goal is to have fun, and not stress out about the results!

For adhesive, I recommend using Mod Podge. You can also use white Elmer's glue, thinned out a little. Mod Podge is nice because you can seal your work when you are done by brushing on a coat all over the box. It also comes in a sparkle version. If you want to pile on beads or other attachments, Golden Regular Gel Medium is good. You can press the beads into it and it will harden nicely. There are lots of different craft glues on the market, so you can just use your favorite. Let the whole thing dry overnight, keeping the lid separate until it's dry.

So, you've just made a Spirit box! To use, just write out your problem on paper, read it out loud, and ask your higher power for help in solving it. Put the paper in the box and put the lid back on, and forget about it! I keep my Spirit jar on my altar. It's good to occasionally clean out the box. Don't go back thru and read everything! Just dump it! I burn the contents of mine outside in the fire pit. I hope you have fun making your Spirit box! I'd love to see photos of yours when you get done!