juliecucciawatts
The Hanged One
Lammas /Lughnasadh
Cross Quarter Day -August 2
Lammas is the day of new bread; bread made from freshly harvested wheat. Another name for Lammas is Lughnasadh. Lugh transliterates to mean “the least”. People who were still living on the food from last year’s harvest looked forward to the first harvest festival because it marked the beginning of the abundant days ahead. Lughnasadh was also the season of handfastings, trial marriages that lasted a year and a day.
The first harvest promised good food and warm weather conducive for gathering people from great distances. This was the perfect chance for young and old to meet with friends from other clans. It took a lot of manpower to gather the grain. There was also opportunity for trade as well as engaging in friendly competitions. The Traditional Highland Games of Scotland where clans gathered their champions to compete, rewarding the best of the best are an example of this sort of activity. This is the time of state fairs and farmers markets when communities still gather. At Lughnasadh the people also knew the end of summer was quickly approaching. Valuable vegetation would soon need to be cut back so the fruits could make the best use of the plant’s limited season, this act was taken literally in the rites of the annual King.
“Lugh was known to the Celtic people as the god of Light, Lugh was injured on this day. One way that this maiming took place was for the king to be tied by his hair from an Oak tree with one foot on a cauldron one foot on his horse. The horse was sent out from under him causing him to be harmed in such a way that he was rendered infertile. This was thought to be an act of love. Fertility at times needs to be stopped to allow things to ripen. Sacral Kings of the ancient Celts were indeed killed but not at Lammas. The death of the annual king would take place three days before Samhain/Halloween. Eventually annual kings were exiled instead of murdered. And images of men made of bread were sacrificed instead.” Clannada na Gadelica Academia Gadelica by Iain MacAnTsaoir2000.
“Woden hanging from the tree of life makes a connection Iberian-Celt Sun- Lugh Llew or Lugos. These people insisted that the alphabet came to them from Greece by way of Spain.” According to The Greek Myths: by Robert Graves Penguin Books 1978:
“Upon learning the alphabet, both women and men turned away from the worship of idols and animal totems that represented the images of nature, and began paying homage to the abstract logos. A god with no face replaces the sacred images…the alphabet people’s god became indisputably male and he would become disconnected from the things of the Earth. He was abstract nowhere and everywhere, at once.”The Alphabet verses the Goddess by Leonard Shlain.
Other Names: Lughnasad; First Harvest; Woden; Odin, Loaf mass, Festival of the first fruits.
Symbols: hanged men, grain gods/goddesses Tree of life
Attributes: Enlightenment; growth; external stagnation; waiting period between two major events.
In a Reading: This card suggests enlightenment, the ability to see things from a new perspective. This card represents a stagnant time between two major events. A time when the external world sees nothing that you are doing but in fact you are making rapid progress.
Lammas /Lughnasadh
Cross Quarter Day -August 2
Lammas is the day of new bread; bread made from freshly harvested wheat. Another name for Lammas is Lughnasadh. Lugh transliterates to mean “the least”. People who were still living on the food from last year’s harvest looked forward to the first harvest festival because it marked the beginning of the abundant days ahead. Lughnasadh was also the season of handfastings, trial marriages that lasted a year and a day.
The first harvest promised good food and warm weather conducive for gathering people from great distances. This was the perfect chance for young and old to meet with friends from other clans. It took a lot of manpower to gather the grain. There was also opportunity for trade as well as engaging in friendly competitions. The Traditional Highland Games of Scotland where clans gathered their champions to compete, rewarding the best of the best are an example of this sort of activity. This is the time of state fairs and farmers markets when communities still gather. At Lughnasadh the people also knew the end of summer was quickly approaching. Valuable vegetation would soon need to be cut back so the fruits could make the best use of the plant’s limited season, this act was taken literally in the rites of the annual King.
“Lugh was known to the Celtic people as the god of Light, Lugh was injured on this day. One way that this maiming took place was for the king to be tied by his hair from an Oak tree with one foot on a cauldron one foot on his horse. The horse was sent out from under him causing him to be harmed in such a way that he was rendered infertile. This was thought to be an act of love. Fertility at times needs to be stopped to allow things to ripen. Sacral Kings of the ancient Celts were indeed killed but not at Lammas. The death of the annual king would take place three days before Samhain/Halloween. Eventually annual kings were exiled instead of murdered. And images of men made of bread were sacrificed instead.” Clannada na Gadelica Academia Gadelica by Iain MacAnTsaoir2000.
“Woden hanging from the tree of life makes a connection Iberian-Celt Sun- Lugh Llew or Lugos. These people insisted that the alphabet came to them from Greece by way of Spain.” According to The Greek Myths: by Robert Graves Penguin Books 1978:
“Upon learning the alphabet, both women and men turned away from the worship of idols and animal totems that represented the images of nature, and began paying homage to the abstract logos. A god with no face replaces the sacred images…the alphabet people’s god became indisputably male and he would become disconnected from the things of the Earth. He was abstract nowhere and everywhere, at once.”The Alphabet verses the Goddess by Leonard Shlain.
Other Names: Lughnasad; First Harvest; Woden; Odin, Loaf mass, Festival of the first fruits.
Symbols: hanged men, grain gods/goddesses Tree of life
Attributes: Enlightenment; growth; external stagnation; waiting period between two major events.
In a Reading: This card suggests enlightenment, the ability to see things from a new perspective. This card represents a stagnant time between two major events. A time when the external world sees nothing that you are doing but in fact you are making rapid progress.