Lammas | Essential

Lammas is a traditional harvest festival celebrated on August 1st in Pagan and Wiccan traditions. It marks the beginning of the harvest season, particularly the harvesting of grain crops like wheat, barley, and oats. Lammas is a time to give thanks for the abundance of the land and to honor the cycle of planting, growth, and harvest.

Corn Dollies

In the old practices for this time of year, a doll was often made from the last stalks of corn or grain. The dolly was paraded through the village and treated with reverence; for each farm, the corn dolly became the good luck talisman. It was kept inside during the Winter, as a symbol of this harvest, whatever it brought, and offered to the earth with the next planting as an offering. In many traditions, the doll serves as a representation of the self. Yet it's also a symbol of the dual magic of the God of the grains, who offers himself to be cut each year, and the Goddess who bless us with the abundance of growth. Pass the dolly through the smoke of your ritual fire to bless her. Ask her to protect your household from theft, poverty, illness, and disaster. Traditionally the corn dollies woven at Lammas were plowed back into the land at Imbolc, thus symbolizing the return of the Corn Spirit to the earth, in an attempt to ensure a good crop the next year.

Before you make your dolly, say this incantation:

We now create dolls in our image.

These dolls symbolize ourselves, in our many aspects,

and all the things we give up each year,

so that we may thrive and flourish later on.

As you create your doll, energize it with your own personal qualities, your unique soul design. These are the essences of the self that you bring to the sacrifice, so that you may be reborn as the harvest god is each year.

Materials

• Square-cut dried cut husks
• Wool felt in assorted colors
• Yarn or raffia
• Paper towel
• Buttons
• Scissors
• Glue

Instructions

1. Start by soaking the husks in water for 10 minutes, and then blot excess water with a paper towel.
2. Lay four or six husks (always an even number) in a stack.
3. Using thin twine, tie the husks together, about 1 inch from the top.
4. Separate husks into equal portions (2 and 2 or 3 and 3), and fold halves down, covering the twine.
5. Using thin twine, tie husks about 1 inch down, creating the head
6. Roll a single husk and tie at the ends to make arms
7. Position arms below the knot at the neck, between equal portions of husks.
8. Tie waist. For a female doll, trim husks to an even length
9. For a male doll, separate legs into equal portions. Tie at knees and ankles. Trim evenly.
10. To make the hair, glue the yarn or raffia to the heads. Fashion clothes from pieces of felt. Cut rectangles, and snip slits or X's in the center, then slide over the dolls head, and secure around the waist with a strip of felt or yarn. Glue on buttons, and use scissors to make fringe as desired. Create hats and bonnets by cutting felt to fit, and then gluing in place.