"The moon was created for the counting of days." - Hebrew midrash
I love Autumn.
Pagans are supposed to value all the seasons in their proper time, and I do. But there is something about the feel of Autumn that just speaks to my soul. The season of the harvest, of family, of thanksgiving and the special crossroads of what we've had and what lies ahead . . . it's just my favorite time, and always has been. So it's no surprise that I'm particularly drawn to the moons of the harvest season.
This month, the Wheel takes us from Summer to Autumn (depending on how you divvy up the Gregorian calendar). The moon, as it always does, marks time . . . and brings us tonight to the first of those harvest moons.
This is the Grain Moon.
Read on . . .
The Grain Moon is best seen as a kind of mini-Lammas. A number of traditions, in fact, prefer to hold their First Harvest celebration at the full moon between (or nearly between) the Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox. So if you didn't observe Lammas yet (or didn't observe it as well as you wanted), the Grain Moon is a good time to do it. Even if you did, repeating the food and festivities of Lammas is a good way to mark this moon.
"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization." - Daniel Webster
Agriculture is the first science our ancestors learned. Figuring out the slow and toilsome art of planting, fertilizing, tending and harvesting was the beginning of our long journey into civilization. Farming made us study the rain, the sun, the seasons like we never had before.
Farming required stability. It required knowledge and tools and accumulated skill. It required cooperation. The start of agriculture is the start of society.
"Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation." - Plato
But it's work, pulling crops from the soil. In Gaelic myth, the god Lugh’s own mother, Tailtiu, died from the effort of clearing the land for planting. Across the globe, in poem and proverb, planting and reaping are as universal a symbol of effort as age is a symbol of wisdom.
And by extention, the harvest has long been a symbol of just reward for that effort - for better or worse. Hard work, planning, diligence - or the lack of them - yield results. The cultivated field is an age-old expression of cosmic justice, of karma.
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." - King James Bible, Galatians, 6:7
"He who does not cultivate his field, will die of hunger."
- Proverb from Guinea
These are the simple messages of the Grain Moon - and the harvest season in general. Family and community. Shared effort and shared reward. Reaping the bounty of our labors, and learning from our mistakes.
Thanksgiving - not just the easy enjoyment of what we have in the present, but a deep appreciation for how it came to be . . . and the understanding that it's not just some freebie to be squandered. We remind ourselves, in this time of greatest bounty, that Summer always rolls into Autumn, and Autumn into Winter. Work and planning don't end when the last sheaf is threshed.
"It will not always be summer; build barns." - Hesiod
With rare exceptions, grains are annual plants - they are planted, grow, die and are planted again in one turn of the Wheel. This connects them naturally in our minds to the broader cycles of life and the year . . . and the various gods and goddesses that symbolize them.
In Egypt, for example, grain was associated with the god Osiris - the god of the underworld who was also responsible for the life-giving floods of the Nile. Some depictions show stalks of grain sprouting from the god's mummified body.
Life. Death. Rebirth.
"I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." - New International Bible, John 12:24
The brown, cut stalks of a harvested field, the discarded chaff on the threshing floor . . . these are reminders of death. The bounty of Autumn comes from dying fields, and that dying paves the way for the planting of next year. There's a reason the Reaper carries a scythe - or that he's called the Reaper, for that matter.
It's no accident, perhaps, that the Grain Moon corresponds to the 7th Moon of the Chinese Calendar - the Ghost Moon, festival of the dead. Like our upcoming Last Harvest (Samhain), this month and this moon is a time all across the East for returned spirits, family meals shared with the departed, and offerings meant to comfort, aid or at least placate the dead.
The Grain Moon, as I said, is much the same in spirit and intent as the Sabbat of Lammas. My own coven doesn't mark this one with formal ritual - we gather together and feast. A Grain Moon menu has seasonal recipes - breads, grains, blackberries, tomatoes, eggplant, at least some kinds of squash. Your local growing season may vary - my strawberry season is February, down here. Recipe ideas can be found here and here and here.
Decorate with symbols of the grain harvest - sheaves of wheat or cornucopia. Make corn dollies with the kids, or try your hand at wheat-weaving.
Under the light of the Grain Moon, be together, be thankful, be happy. Winter lies ahead, and who knows what tomorrow will bring? But we can all sit together now - enjoy what we've learned, remember what we've learned, and appreciate the people we wish could always sit at our table.
Blessed Be.