by the Rev. Mark Gallup,
Harvest time has arrived! It is time to celebrate the first fruits of the harvest, the reaping of the grain. My Celtic ancestors celebrated Lammas by baking bread from the freshly reaped wheat and barley and offering it to the spirits of the land, the Fey. Later the bread was gifted to the church and placed upon the altar at the “Loaf Mass” which is where the name Lammas comes from.
Baking bread is a metaphor for creating a life and offering it to the world. We all bring our own ingredients to the baking and blend them together in a personal recipe. For many of us the recipe is always the same with no variation.
At Beltane we gave birth to new ways of thinking and acting. Rather than following the same old recipe, at Lammas we can harvest the rewards of Beltane and incorporate them into the baking of the loaf that is our life. What new ways can you add to the recipe that you live by?
For bread to rise it must be leavened, and there are many different leavening agents: yeast, baking powder, or sour dough. What do you use to leaven your life? Do you use gratitude and compassion, resulting in a sweet savory life loaf as your gift to the world? Or do you leaven with fear and doubt resulting in a flat dry offering?
May the bread that is your life always be savory! May the recipe always improve! And may you leaven your bread with intention and love!
The Rev. Mark Gallup is a Pagan high priest, interfaith minister, spiritual seeker, mystic, and diviner of the Natural World. Mark has been a practicing Pagan for over thirty years. He is a graduate of the College of Wicca and Old Lore as well as being trained in Feri. Mark was ordained in 2013 as an interfaith minister by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine. Along with his wife, Mary Gelfand, he leads Earth-centered spiritual events and serves as an elder for White Pine Programs in York, ME.
