New Award!!

The rules for the award are (borrowed from Greenwheel):

1. Thank the blogger that gave you the award - Thank you GreenWheel for validating my parking my winding pagan path as seen in my hemisphere of the pagan blogosphere.

2. Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, experience, using 10 words. - I don't like the number 10 so I'm changing this to 5. Although if side comments count, I have 24 :-)
• honest
• refreshing (from time to time)
• imaginative/creative
• insightful
•fun

3. Pass the award on to 10 other blogs you feel have substance. Again, number 10 sucks it so here's 5 fabulous bloggers with substance. In no particular order and without further ado:

1) Rue, over at Rue and Hyssop
2) Bella Foxglove at Memoirs of a Crazy Witch
3) Witchy Mama at Pagan Parenting
4) Jen at Ramblings of a Newbie Pagan
5) One Pink Fish at Perfectly Pagan

A Struggle

I'm not sure how many of you out there know that I am a mother to a child with Autism. My 8 yr old son has Autism and recently has been experiencing some behavioural issues at his daycamp. It is a repeat of things that were going on with him last year at the beginning of the school year. He gets defiant when it comes to activities that do not include water (swimming, sprinkler park, etc) and he has been hitting his camp leaders on the arm. Mark has had a teacher's aide with him at school and at previous camps in summers past has had a support worker. This is the 1st year that he doesn't have a support worker with him at camp. He goes to the facility for his afterschool program and when I registered him for camp this summer, I specified that he would need a support worker with him. Needless to say, he didn't get one. There are 3 other children at this camp with Autism and in need of support and yet only 1 child is getting the support she needs, leaving Mark & the other 2 without.

In the past week, Mark has displayed behaviours that are not very becoming of a boy his age. He is getting aggressive with his group's leader, not listening to instructions and constantly running away from them. He displayed this behaviour last fall at school & was segregated to the Learning Centre until after the Christmas break. Now, he is repeating this behaviour and was sent home yesterday & today from camp. I talked to the camp's director and was given a "choice" I could let Mark have the support worker for a week straight in the month of August & not have him attend camp for the rest of the month OR he can continue with camp without the use of the support worker to assist him.

I put him in the camp because he wanted to go, he knew everyone at the Centre where it was being held and it gave him the opportunity to go places & see things he normally wouldn't get to do. I also work during the day, as does his father, so we can't spend the summer with him. Daycamp provided an answer for Mark this summer. But he is not enjoying himself, he is constantly being shuffled around to different groups when he gets out of hand, or being in "time out" for having actions that he can't control. He is stressing & doesn't know how to cope with whatever is bothering him.

Now, I have a decision to make.

Lammas or Lughnasadh

This festival celebrates ultimate sacrifice. The Goddess gives all of her energy, all of her life, so that the children are fed. The date is August 1, when the Sun is in Leo and the days have begun to shorten. Lammas is a major festival and is celebrated mid afternoon.

The Festival

The world has subtly changed since the verdant climax of Midsummer. At the roadside, the grass is going to seed and no longer looks green. This very thing is happening to many plants, and the colours are changing to beige and yellow and brown. The Goddess is giving us her first fruits, the first harvest of the Year. And at the same time she is still working, working hard and using her amazing energy to ripen the fruit. She surrenders herself to us at this time. And we honour her for it.

Witches and Pagans honour the self-sacrifice of the God, who is the corn. He sacrifices himself in the harvest for the good of the people. That is why very often a loaf of bread plays an important part in the Lammas ritual. The word Lammas also means 'loaf mass'. To me, the corn grows out of the body of the Goddess. She is the Earth and what grows on it.

A Lammas Ritual

Lammas corresponds to the South Western point of the Circle, and that is where I place my altar. On it are symbols for each of the Elements. The focus of the magic is the Lammas loaf this time, and I place it at the centre of the Circle. I cast the circle and invoke Brigit, the nurturing Grandmother for the first time.

My rituals have changed over the last few Moons, turned upside down. I don't raise power straight away, but do the divination for the coming season first. My question is: 'What does the Earth need from me this season?' I have often felt that my magic and my work is too self-centered, and that it is time for me to start working for the outside world. I am convinced that my healing will come if I work to heal the world - or at least my corner of it. I want to give my abundance to the world, like Brigit does.

The answer to my question consists of three qualities I have to work on this season. I go deep inside in meditation and find those virtues within myself (after all, we all already have all that we need present within ourselves). I call upon the spirits present to help me find these qualities.

When I have found them, I raise their energy with a dance and a chant. I direct it into the bread at the centre of the Circle. I then cut a slice of wonderfully crusty bread from the loaf and eat it, taking the qualities I have invoked inside me. I also crumble some bread to scatter in the four directions later, so that this energy is spread into the world.

Then it is time to celebrate, with some more bread and some beer. Beer seems like a more appropriate drink at this festival of the corn. Thanking Brigit, the generous one, I open the Circle. I take my positive energy out into the world with me.

*Note: I got this off a site, but I forget which one. If this is yours, I need the correct URL for proper credit to you.