The blade is sharp
Scythe swings in
Flashing arc as
Sheaf of wheat
And apples fall
The Harvest now begun.

Gather the grain
Leave what you must
Fill carefully woven baskets
With the overflowing bounty.

Consume the energy
Swallow the light
Feel the great
Blessing of living grain’s
Sustaining of all life.

No time to linger
Fields are awaiting
The reaping and
The gathering.

Grain man’s sacrifice
Willingly offered
As humanity peacefully
Slumbers sated on sacred
Harvest with warm bellies full.

Today is the astrological date of the first harvest of Lughnasadh on the Great Wheel. This has always been my favorite time of the year. There is a decided undercurrent of chill in the air that bodes of cooler weather, shorter days and the promise of time to spend indoors in reflection. This year, in particular offers up deeper personal insight for me largely because of personal work begun on my emotional self and the re-defining of what I will release and what I will strengthen in those waters. In thinking about what form this year’s sacrifice will be and what the Harvest Mother will call me to release and clear away, this work on self I have begun is the focus I will use. I have learned from the many previous cycles that the choices I make now will be those that connect me more deeply to a state of balance at the equinox and what I will offer to the Crone in final release at Samhain.

This cycle of creation and sacrifice flows as the undercurrent throughout all of our workings and peaks and ebbs in accord with the cycles of the seasons. I think back upon the sacrifices I have made as a Mother. This role is always at the core of my emotions, mind and body. The lessons of putting one’s own needs aside and the depth of connection and care for those whom you love rise to the surface at this time of the year as thoughts turn towards the harvest and the importance of selectively gathering and cutting away.

I am reminded of the story of Tailtiu and her great sacrifice of clearing the forest that she loved to prepare land that would provide food for her people whom she loved more. Hers is the story of clearing away until you have willingly given every bit of yourself to the process. The resultant death is rebirth. It is rebirth to a more productive way of gathering the abundance of what you have sown. Rebirth to a new way of creating and a deeper gnosis of the ultimate release and death of what has been created. This is the death of surrender to what must be to insure that what is viable and of the greatest potential may continue to thrive. This is the sacrifice of service to something more than your own needs and held within the intent of truly being “for the good of all”.

My thoughts turn also to the great sacrifice of her foster son Lugh and the surrender of the Sun God to become one with the earth, enlivening it and standing as the sacrificial grain to continue the process the Harvest Mother had begun. This is the transformative power that takes hold when we act from a place of selflessness. This is the grain of truth that grows and nourishes the deeper hunger of our souls and offers the support, strength and courage needed to continue on. And, this is the lesson of legacy that is left behind when the purity of intent fosters the flaming will of desire to uphold the cycle that has proven its worth.

So, today I call to the goddess as Mother within myself to wield the scythe of cutting away what blocks my clarity of vision. I call to the wisdom of the Harvest Mother to help me choose what will be gathered into the stores of my spiritual reserve and what will remain in the fields as compost so that balance may be restored in preparation for the final harvest of release. I call to the love of the Mother for her son and her community and the legacy of a life well spent and offered up in service. I call to nature and all of life to wrap me in the bounty of the harvest that I may draw to myself the wisdom and blessings of the Harvest Mother as I reap the light filled product of my own creation.

Blessings of the Harvest!

Poem excerpted from my article on WitchVox - The Sacrificial Harvest

Image Credit: Elena Ray