August is here, and it is marked on the 1st with Lughnasadh the first day of harvest in the Gaelic tradition and a day of feasting and tasting the fruits of the land and our work.
It is a day which honours the sun and marks our summer slowly turning and shifting towards something different, a new shape and energy. This change is marked with a harvest and feast, an abundance of life that reminds us of the abundance of nature. It is a time to feed and be nurtured before we descend into the inner worlds of deep autumn and winter.
At this time the blackberries are beginning to make themselves known, the elderberries are ripening, the fruits are beginning their journey into the world. Apples, cherries and plums are shaping themselves seductively and peaking out through green leaves. The Acorns, Hazelnut’s and beech nuts are coming out and tasting the air, beginning to offer up the trees goodness. Farms are reaping what they have grown and gardeners are seeing the fruits of their labours.
It can be easy to forget how magnificent this time is, when we have supermarkets producing a continuous flow of apples and fruits from all around the world, red and ripe and nuts on constant demand.
This day is and was a celebration for all that the earth, our actions and our hands bring to us in the form of nourishment and medicine.
This day of harvest though, is not just the physical earthy one of fruit and grain and vegetables. It is also a day where begin to look at what we have grown and harvested metaphorically in our own lives.
We are called to see what we are reaping and if we like the harvest we are gathering. For some of us there may be things in our lives that feel good and right and nourishing. But there may also be, amoungst it all, a dark harvest. A harvest of things that do not taste good, that dont feel nourishing to eat and be presented with on our plates.
This is the time to really take notice of what serves, what nourishes our soul, and what, if we are honest, doesn’t serve anymore. For it is when we can be real with ourselves, listening to our truth and our integrity that we can clearly feel what doesn’t work anymore.
And so, as autumn comes, we can work out ways of shifting that dark harvest, of letting it compost down so it can make room and nourishment for the new seeds, the new ways, the habits and growth we wish to have in our lives. We can be supported in the movement of the land itself, and shown that to move forward, to flow with the cycle of life, all our beginnings need a time of shedding, shifting and composting so we can make room for what really does make sense and what will provide medicine and goodness for our life ahead.
Art by Taryn Knight
The seasons around us, tell a story of the not only the land under our feet, but also of the inner landscape within. When we re-wild how we see the seasons, and know them as wise invitations, they show us how we can best look after ourselves, they bring a deeper insight into our inner worlds. These ancient celebrations were not only a way to celebrate the wonderful magnificence of the natural world, but an invitation to also come closer to our own human experience, for we are made of wild nature, and so we are deeply affected by how the land shifts and moves around us. What is outside is also inside. As the old saying goes “As above, so below”
At this time, I start to look into my own life, like looking down at my plate and thinking do I really want to keep eating this, do I really want to keep growing this? And it leads me to look into the garden of my life and wonder what should be pulled up and composted. Sometimes I know the seeds I want to make room for and grow from the compost of the old, and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I just want the space to breathe, a simpler life, so I can hear and feel more clearly what wants to come in time.
Right now I can see there are certain work commitments that I’ve held for many years, they have served me well, they are beautiful jobs. But, if I’m honest, and notice how I feel, they have come to an end, I just dont feel the same love for them anymore. There are other things and work I feel tugging at my heart. I’ve changed hugely from the person I was when I began the work and it no longer fits my life.
Autumn is where I will begin the time of letting it go, shifting away from it and putting in place the plans to create and grow a new path.
I dont want you to think this is sudden decision, this has been with me for a couple of years now. Not all our changes and composting has to be sudden, painful and huge. Quite often things do take time to shift, we need to go slow, one small step, one small breath at a time. But I feel that as long as our bodies and soul know we are working towards something with more integrity, its happy. Whereas when I stay stagnant in something that is no longer in my integrity, without feeling into how I could change things, my body and mind start to go a little crazy. Giving me messages all the time to change, which if I don’t listen to, leads me into finding ways to distract myself away from myself so I don’t hear the messages anymore, which is never a good idea.
And so this is my final summer in the work of which I speak, and it feels good. A little scary, a little shaky, but very good. And I see the fruits the work brings resting on my plate, and although its still lovely, I’ve grown sick of its flavour, I’ve had too much.
So what is your dark harvest? What do you eat from that no longer feels right inside your body?
Resources
Podcast I love:
I adore Glennon Doyle and I adore Brene Brown, so I’m delighted that they are both here together on this delicious podcast.
We can do hard things podcast with Brene Brown
Books:
I have found this book to be a wonderful resource on the energy held in the seasons
Music:
Poem:
Be Gentle -
Be gentle with yourself these days. Sometimes the currents beneath
bring tangles to our hearts. And we don’t notice,
and glide smoothly on but wonder why we are
tired, or angry, or fractious. Sit yourself down,
with your wise grandmother, and let yourself
be a small child again in her arms, and let what comes, come.
And when the small child has done her crying,
set her gently on her feet again and send her softly back out into the world.
And sit as only grandmothers can, calm and grounded,
wise with twinkling eyes, amidst the ups and downs
of this crazy world.
— Rachel Holstead
I absolutely love your beautiful wisdom & deep interconnectedness with nature … I would like to subscribe to more free offerings please 🙏🏼
Love & Light
Penny 🌸🪷🌸
Lovely. Thank you.