Copper Moon E-zine

Lammas Ritual Feast – For a Solitary or Group

By SteelWitch

Lammas/Lughnasadh is a holiday that celebrates the first harvest of the year while simultaneously honoring the Celtic god Lugh, master of all skills.  It is a feasting holiday that celebrates the first harvest with the fruits of said harvest.  It only seems fitting to celebrate the holiday with a home cooked meal that gives homage to the harvest with its ingredients and to Lugh with the skill used in cooking!  We're going to talk about the meal first, then take a look at the ritual preparations.

In most Sabbats you make room to give an offering to the gods, and room to ask the gods for something you desire in the coming months  I decided to do both with the meal.  Enough food will be cooked for all participants plus enough for an offering.  The ingredients chosen will correspond to my request from the gods.  This little piece of kitchen witchery was inspired by the Grocery Store Magick List on page 118 of Silver RavenWolf's Teen Witch.  Unless otherwise noted, all correspondences below are from that list.

The Meal

Step One: Choose your dish.

First thing to do is choose what you want to cook.  What kind of food do you like to eat?  What kind of food matches your cooking skill?  I've decided to make a stir fry for a few reasons. First, I love stir frying.  Second, I got a copper bottomed wok at Goodwill which is an absolute joy to work with.  Third, a stir fry allows for a lot of freedom in ingredient selection.  You can put just about anything in it, from meat to nuts to fruit.  If you're an inexperienced cook, you could make a sandwich instead! You can put almost anything in there, too, and it will taste great.

Another important factor is number of participants.  You need to feed everyone who is participating a full meal with enough left over to give to the gods.  This ritual is especially fun because most of the setup is in the cooking.  Even if you are a solitary with non-magickal friends and family you can still invite them to enjoy your meal!  Cooking for yourself is boring; cooking for others is a party.  Make sure whatever you choose is easily prepared for the number of people who will be eating.  It's generally considered unethical to surprise people with magick food, so be sure to tell them what you are cooking and why before they agree to eat.

Step Two: Choose your ingredients.

Teen Earth Magic—June 2009

By Abel R. Gomez

There is something so magical, so profoundly beautiful about a group of people coming together to sing, connect with one another, and celebrate the cycles of the Earth. Unless you live in an area with a large Pagan community, teens and young adults often miss out on such experiences. In an effort to bridge this gap and to offer teens a space for deep magic and personal transformation, teachers and organizers from the San Francisco Bay Reclaiming community created Teen Earth Magic, an annual five-day retreat for teens in the magical arts.

Group Photo ©2009 Jayda Faye/Reclaiming Quarterly

Teen Earth Magic was held near Nevada City, California at a family owned campsite. Our over two-dozen campers came from all over the US, as did our eight person teaching time. This year’s mythic theme was the Salmon lifecycle.  Together we explored the journey of the salmon through ritual and magic; from birth to their mysterious transformation, their journey through the ocean depths, to their primordial call to return to source. We called upon the spirits of the land, the Salmon, the nearby Yuba river, Mother Earth, and the elements of life as allies and guides in our workings.