Lughnasa Retreat: Replay & Resources
Our Golden Time and Higher View
Hello again beautiful souls,
I woke up this morning to a golden horizon, a golden dawn, and I felt like the sky was softening down and enveloping me with a harvest of blessings—the blessing of being able to share this golden time of Lughnasa with you all. Of being immersed in our collective palette—green, teal, amber, silver, iridescent light blue and green, yellow of the gorse and purple of the malva, a sparkly blue/green like a peacock, pale pink, red, pinky white and gold. Every day, I feel blessed for our little tuath here, please know this.
‘Lugh was the god of the higher view.
He was god of the golden time and the higher view.
And all year long, at home in the lowlands, we would live in the golden time and from the higher view.
The golden time and the higher view, they were our mantras.
Morning, noon and night, we would chant them:
I live in the golden time
The golden time I am.
I live from the higher view
The higher view I am.’
John Moriarty, Invoking Ireland: Ailiu Iath n-hErend
For you lovelies who will be tuning into the replay, here’s a taste of what we covered that was infused with journal prompts throughout:
Breathing exercise with Lugh and Tailtiu to drop into our sacred space
Introduction to Lughnasa from the perspective of the Gaelic agricultural year
Explorations of Lugh as a samildánach god (skilled in all arts; all destinies)
Apollo and the Oracle of Delphi, Lugh and the filí (poet-seers)
Conflict between old and new ways through the lens of the Fomorian king and Lugh’s grandfather, Balor the Evil Eye; the primeval god of the harvest, Crom Dubh; and Lugh’s foster-mother, Tailtiu, Queen of the Fir Bolg
The Áes Dána’s (People of Arts) honouring of two types of creative wisdom and what this could mean for our times
The importance of the kin group (clann or fine) and fosterage in ancient Irish culture
The mentors in our lives who, like Tailtiu to Lugh act as our ‘foster parents’—be they alive, passed over, or in the mythic realm
Letter-writing ritual to honour and thank a ‘foster parent’ in this time of harvesting the gold of our inner landscape