The first harvest and the dark harvest
Full moon Journaling prompts, a brief outline of an activity and an explanation on the dark harvest.
We are approaching Lunassagh, the first day of harvest. This is a day in which people would start to see the benefit from the hard work that has been created by their heart, hands and the earth.
Lughnasadh is a Celtic/Gaelic festival where the first fruits of the harvest are celebrated on the 1st August, it is named after the Celtic Sun God Lugh.
This is when we get to taste our first blackberries, the wild raspberries, the crops we have tended, the seeds of the land and the grain faithfully grown.
This is such a beautiful time of celebration and gratitude for all that the earth does in supporting and nourishing us and the wider more than human community as well as a time to see what magic happens, when we partner with the earth in order to grow, self sustain and look after our bodies by growing food. This is the time to lovingly and full heartedly thank all life for playing their role in the creation of our natural foods.
This tradition of the Gaelic Lunassagh is an ancient one, and just like all the old festivals of celebration and ritual, they focus around understanding and a deep gratitude for where the earth is at in their cycle, and how that influences our lives, our psyches and our bodies.
There is another, lesser known tradition that comes at this time, it is one my grandmother used to talk to me about and it is called ‘the dark harvest’ This is where you pay close attention to what you are reaping, and how it feels in the body, how that first harvest tastes to you and the visceral sensation you get when you see it on the plate of your life.