The Autumn Quarter of Lughnasadh

Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo’nassa) begins 1st August to 31st October.

The Autumn Quarter of Lughnasadh and to some extent Winter is my favourite time of year. It’s when I feel the pressure of having to be outside begins to relax a little. The gradual descent into the darkest part of the year is a slow exhale. A outward sigh of letting go and embracing the cosy comforts of hearth and home. It is also a time of preparation.

It’s a time of harvest, not just of fruits and vegetables but of those metaphorical seeds planted earlier in the year, our life harvest. There might be a need to prepare fallow areas ready to reseed. To clear the fields of overgrowth in order to establish and nurture new things? This season with the most visible outward sign of change has always coincided with the greatest changes in my life.

It has to be the most colourful time of year as the woods and hedgrows don their finery. Their final encore before exiting stage left. Bright jewel coloured berries glisten with spider webs before hungry creatures devour them.

In the human life cycle Lughnasadh is the mature adult. That time when a sense of dependability and responsibility has been established. It brings the gift of maturity.

As you travel the land of autumn, some of its themes and gifts are:

Maturity, harvest literal and metaphorical, preparation, celebration, gathering in, stability, steadyness, responsibility, guardianship, changes, clearing, contemplation, assessment, inspiration, letting go, courage, transformation.

Song of Lughnasadh

I am the sovereign splendour of creation,
I am the fountain in the courts of bliss,
I am the bright surrender of the willpower,
I am the watchful guardian and the kiss.
I am the many-coloured landscape,
I am the transmigration of the geese,
I am the burnished glory of the breastplate,
I am the harbour where all strivings cease.

Caitlin Matthews