Lugh and Tailtiu

The first of the harvest festivals and the celebration of Lugh, bonfires and tests of strength and skill. The first fruits are offered up and given to the fires as a sacrifice. This was also the time when marriages would begin. I say begin because Celtic marriages didn’t work the same way ours do now. Marriages were often made for political alliances, financial gain, tribal status and clan benefits. However women had more rights in ancient Celtic society and had the right to divorce, maintain their own property and such. (1) So even arranged marriages were only required to last about a year, during which the couple would get to know one another and discover if they were compatible.

Initially this celebration is meant not really for Lugh (whom it is named after) but for his mother Tailtiu, who cleared the forests of Ireland for farms and died in the process. Because of this I will be spending the season getting started on my oils and such. I feel it’s an appropriate time to begin as we are heading out of the light half of the year and into the fall season (even if it’s too hot out to actually feel that way) and this is when most people began collecting their herbs and getting supplies together to be dried, preserved and stored for winter.

I have to wonder for a moment what that must have been like. Unlike today where you can simply buy bulk herbs on-line, back then it was a much longer process. You had to plant the seeds, nurture them all through the long spring and summer months, pick them, wait weeks for them to dry, preserve what would could… the entire thing could take up months of time and if there was a mistake during that time you were out of luck! A good harvest meant survival and was so important that the entire community was involved and invested in it’s success. You have to give some consideration to that whole concept and understanding how much more convenient life is for us now.

Although next year I intend to start growing my own herb garden so that my product will be more labor intensive (thus driving my own energies into it on a more intrinsic level) for right now I will be order my herbs on line. Hey we all gotta start somewhere!

I hope to spend the fall and winter not only learning more about this path I’ve set myself on, but really perfecting it by coming up with my own recipes, spells and mixtures. The prospect both thrills and frightens me on a lot of levels. Seriously, I mean if you had any idea how many herbs are poisonous…well…lets just say I research the hell out of everything before I use it.

But anyhow, photos bellow of my celebration to Lugh and Tailtiu.

The cornfield where I did my ritual. It’s Ohio soooooooo yeah there are a lot of these.

 

I love these tiny tassels!

 

 

 

I believe sunflowers are sacred to any solar deity, so I feel it’s important to offer them, their seeds and such during a solar ritual.

 

This is some of the wine our friend bought for us at North Market mixed with some elderflower syrup. I poured this as an additional offering and imbued it with the virtues we associate to Lugh, courage, cunning, wisdom, artistry…

 

I poured the libation onto the ground (after imbibing a small amount to take Lugh into myself) as an offering to his mother Tailtiu, who sacrificed her life to sew the fields.

 

(1)   If you want a GREAT read about marriage and concepts of sex in pagan Ireland, read Sex & Marriage in Ancient Ireland by Patrick C. Power.