Practice suggestions for...

Lammas marks the corn harvest and the gathering of the first fruits. Traditionally it’s a time of community celebrations and gatherings and of counting our blessings.

Glennie Kindred suggests taking a bead to represent a blessing and threading it on a thread which can be worn as a necklace or used as a focus for remembering a blessing. At lammas take time to consider the blessings of your yoga practice and if you would like thread a bead to remind you of each one. Who knows in years to come you may have enough beads to make yourself a very personal mala (108 for the full mala but you can also make 1/2 and 1/4 malas).

What ever you do in your practice let it be a celebration of the blessings that yoga brings to you. How about staging your very own Yoga Festival with your yoga buddies!

Meditation

Use natural things like fruits, seeds, nuts and berries to create an earth mandala.  In the well dressings of Derbyshire alder cones are used to outline the designs. Alder is a tree associated with Lammas tide so it would be a nice touch to include some in your design if you can.

In Celtic lore the apple represents the earth mother and her abundance. In her book ‘Earth Wisdom’ Glennie Kindred says:

“The Apple was said to be the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge used to tempt humankind to seek understanding beyond the limitations of blind acceptance and surface reality.”

What a great way of looking at the fall.

Lammas - August 2nd 2009