Jason Mankey
Traditionally Lammas (or Lughnassa) is a celebration of the grain harvest. In Ireland and other parts of the British Isles the first harvest of the year was in early August and generally for cereal crops such as wheat, barley, and oats. An alternative name for Lammas is “First Fruits,” an apt description for the first of the three major harvest festivals on the Wheel of the Year (the other two being Mabon and Samhain of course). While I have never lived in an area where the grain harvest was brought in during the first week of August, I still enjoy celebrating both bread and cereal crops at Lammas, and generally do so by honoring various goddesses of the grain.
Lammas: Goddesses of the Grain
The most famous grain goddess is the Greek deity Demeter. Demeter is the sister of Zeus and one of the twelve (or thirteen) Olympians who hold court upon Mount Olympus. Unlike many of the other Olympians, Demeter is intimately involved with the mortal world. It’s her very presence that makes the earth fertile and provides for the harvest.
But traditionally Demeter is more than just a fertility goddess and the lady of the corn, her influence spreads into nearly every facet of our lives. Agriculture has long been hailed as a civilizing force; large-scale farming requires cooperation and a variety of people undertaking different sorts of labor, making Demeter a goddess of civilization. Because large societies require at least a few rules, Demeter is also a goddess of law, order, and justice.
Demeter is often pictured with her daughter Persephone (or Kore), and together the two goddesses symbolize the grain harvest. In the most well-known tale of Demeter and Persephone, Persephone is abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. Demeter goes into mourning and the earth’s fertility ceases. Eventually Demeter is reunited with her daughter, but for only a portion of the year. When Persephone returns to the underworld, the earth goes fallow as Demeter mourns, and when Persephone returns in the spring, Demeter once more gives her gifts of fertility and abundance.
There are deeper meanings in the pairing of Demeter and Persephone than their most popular myths suggest. Just as Persephone goes into the underworld, the roots of the grain also reach underground. The first grain harvest is generally joyous, but side by side with that joy is death. There is no flour without the death of the wheat, and the crops cannot return again in the spring without the fertility of the soil brought about by decay, rot, and death.
The celebration of the cycle of death and rebirth involving Demeter and Persephone reached its height at Eleusis, a religious site about half a day’s walk from the Greek city of Athens. At the Eleusian Mysteries worshippers mourned with Demeter as she lost her daughter but took solace in the idea that all which dies is born again. The mysteries of Eleusis promised hope in the afterlife and lasted in ancient Greece (and later the Roman Empire) for a few thousand years. The very word “mystery” comes from the Greek word mysterion, which means a secret rite. Every time we honor Demeter and her daughter, we tap into the energy of her mysteries.
In many communities throughout Ireland, Scotland, and England the grain harvest was symbolized by a female figure made from grain sheaves. Today this figure is most commonly known as the Cailleach. Depending on where one lived (traditions varied from village to village), the Cailleach was either seen as a beneficial or menacing figure. If her reputation was positive, she was often given a seat of honor at harvest feasts. If it was negative, she was generally set apart from the proceedings and used as a figure to scare children (Hutton 1996, 337–338).
The varying interpretations for the Cailleach most likely have to do with how the harvest was perceived among various communities. For some people the harvest was a time for unbridled joy—the hard work was done and there was most likely plenty (at least for a time). For others, the harvest was the “beginning of the end,” and they saw it as symbolizing the coming winter. Many Witches honor the Cailleach as a Crone goddess, seeing within her not just the bounty of the harvest, but the intelligence and wisdom needed to take the crops in.
Isis was the goddess of just about everything in the ancient world, and that includes the grain harvest. She was intimately associated with both the river Nile and the fertile soil around it. According to some versions of her myth, it was the tears of Isis that filled the Nile, allowing the ancient Egyptians to partake in the harvest. In other versions, it was her lover, Osiris, who was seen as the waters, while she was the earth. When the Nile overflowed its banks, it was seen as the union of the two deities, a union the crops of Egypt depended upon.
Nissaba (sometimes spelled Nisaba) was one of several Sumerian grain goddesses, but her dominion extended far past ancient Sumer’s barley fields. Nissaba was the goddess of all of Sumer’s grasses, including the reeds which were used to write upon Sumer’s cuneiform tablets. Because of her association with scribes and writing, Nissaba was revered as a goddess of wisdom and learning. As most early Sumerian records were used to keep track of agricultural goods, Nissaba was also a goddess of mathematics, commerce, and accounting.
Asherah was a major Canaanite goddess and was also once worshipped among the Hebrews of Israel (and was possibly even married to the god Yahweh). While Yahweh was worshipped in his large temple in Jerusalem, Asherah tended to be honored among the common folk who would often worship her under a simple wooden pole. To honor Asherah, cakes would be baked in her shape and honor, marking her as a goddess of the grain and the harvest.
If you choose to honor a grain and harvest goddess at Lammas, be sure to thank them for the gifts of the season by name, and to leave them a gift of some sort. Libations of bread, beer, or anything else made from the gifts of the earth are especially appropriate. And don’t forget to invite whatever goddess you invoke to partake in any harvest feasting you might do.
References
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Farrar, Janet, and Stewart Farrar. The Witches’ Goddess: The Feminine Principle of Divinity. Custer, WA: Phoenix Publishing, 1987.
Hutton, Ronald. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Mankey, Jason. Witch’s Wheel of the Year: Rituals for Circles, Solitaries & Covens. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2019.