August is the start of the harvest season. It will continue until the coming of winter. The completion of the harvest is celebrated on Samhain, also known as Halloween. As the year winds down and the harvest begins, you don’t have to live in a forest during the Bronze Age to notice and enjoy the changing of the seasons. Everything around you is intensely alive. The trees are dark green, flowers are blooming, even the weeds are growing. Sit quietly for a moment in your backyard, on your patio, in a park or if you are lucky, in a quiet natural setting. The birds are extra busy, as are squirrels and other small animals that aren’t afraid of being seen by you. Winter is coming and everything needs to get done NOW. Animals are storing food. Plants are in a near riot of blooming and getting ready to go to seed.
Do you feel that the idea of being involved in the harvest season does not include you because you live in the city? Go and visit your local farmer’s market. Those apples, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and lettuce are fresh, newly ripe, grown somewhere near you, and taste better than anything you can find in a grocery store. Why? Because they were allowed to ripen naturally, harvested when they were ready and sold quickly to be used. They were not trucked halfway around the world, turning the colors of ripe fruit as they travelled.
Go outside early in the morning and smell the change in the air. Take note that the sun is beginning to go down a little earlier than the last time you noticed. Buy an apple at the farmers market and bite into the juicy ripe tartness. Welcome, you just took part in one of the changing cycles of the earth. It doesn't have to be complicated. Enjoy it.
Ideas for rituals...
If you are planning to honor or petition the Goddess during this full moon, yellow candles are appropriate, as are rosemary and basil. If you have a petition to make and plan to call on the Elements, Fire is especially powerful at this time and red or orange candles are looked on with favor. If you use crystals in your rituals, try tiger’s eye, garnet or red agate.
Plan ahead. The full Corn Moon is on the 16th.
Next time…holidays, holydays and sabbats, part 1
The great photo of a corn moon was borrowed from flickr, no credits were listed.
Good post.
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