Lughnasadh Evening

With all the excitement over yesterday's Blue Moon, it's almost easy to forget that today is a very special harvest festival: Lughnasadh (also called Lammas). There are three major harvest celebrations on the Celtic calendar; Lughnasadh is the first, followed by Mabon in September, and Samhain in October. Fitting for this festival of "first fruits," my mother (who is visiting this weekend after having dropped off our eldest daughter from her northern vacation) brought a plastic baggie filled with three red tomatoes plucked from my son Gabriel's tomato plant. He had begun to grow it during his month-long stay with the grandparents earlier in the summer, and just in time for the first harvest, his plant bore him these fruits to share! So we ate them up at dinner last night, and appreciated the rich, sweet, acidic flavor they offered our salad.

I pulled a single card for Lughnasadh: What energy is coming to fruition in my life?

The Fool.

Stone Tarot/A. Stone

After my Blue Moon draw yesterday, the Fool made me smile. On the heels of a reading full of movement and manifestation, the Fool underscores the period of newness and release that is unfolding in my life. The Fool takes risks because she has utter faith that once she steps off that cliff, the universe will conspire to soften the blow of her landing. The leap, at once scary and exhilarating, is the first step of the adventure. It's an inviting and exciting energy to embrace.

We spent the day moving from shop to shop, and at one point stopped at a local metaphysical store where I wanted to pick up a new box of nag champa. As usual, I couldn't stay away from the abundant stone and crystal display, and ended up acquiring a beautiful piece of chiastolite, which I'd not heard of before. The piece I chose shows what appears to be a crossroads of black lines when set in an upright position. I didn't know at the time that this is a key feature of many chiastolite stones, but I was drawn to the symbol of the intersection of spiritual and mundane. Later I learned that this stone is helpful for staying positive while moving through big change, and it felt entirely appropriate both to my life, and to the Fool that I drew earlier in the day.

Chiastolite

It has been a very nice Lughnasadh. A light rain has been falling all afternoon and into the evening. The crickets are chirping, and the warm, earthy scent of incense hangs in the air. It's now time for a cup of oolong tea, and a good book, and the day is complete. Happy harvest!