Today, 1 August 2023, marks the start of Lammas, or “Loaf Mass”, marking the start of the Anglo-Saxon harvest season as first recorded in the 10th century.
Word origins Old English hlaf, ‘loaf’ and mæsse, ‘mass.’
Neo-Pagans and many others see Lammas as being one and the same marker in the calendar as an older pre-christian Celtic festival, Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-na-sa), named for Lugh Celtic god of justice, victory, statecraft, crafts and the harvest. Lugh was widely worshipped in Europe before the advent of Christianity.
This connection seems entirely likely, though there is apparently no known surviving documentary evidence.
The first loaf of the harvest was taken to the church to be blessed in magical protection of the rest of the harvest to come.
Mice not welcome. Competition!
We are at the height of summer and now at harvest time we are entering the final stretch, but Haer-fest/harvest was the Old English word for autumn. August was also known in Old English as “weed month” (Weodmonað) meaning the month of long grasses. This didn’t necessarily suggest unwanted plants, only plants that were wild and uncultivated one, and this time of year is prime growing season as gardeners can attest.
Around 7 August is the half way point between the summer solstice and the autumn/fall equinox.
The Tarot cards associated with August are Strength (Leo), the Six of Wands, the Seven of Wands (Leo decans), the Eight of Pentacles (the first decan of Virgo) and The Empress, manifesting as Harvest goddess/Ceres/Demeter.
She is the principle of creation. Fertility. She is all things female. She is all mothers. She is Gaia. Mother Earth.
Tonight is the first of this month’s two full Moons. Tonight’s full moon is in Aquarius. We have a New Moon in Leo 16 August which promises to be…lively and then we have another full supermoon 31 August, this one in the zodiac sign of deepest Pisces.
Not only do we have two full moons this month, so that August 2023 is a Blue Moon month, but these will both be a supermoon, coming closer to Earth than usual, 15 % larger and brighter in the sky.
It has been shown that we sleep less deeply and that we also sleep at least 20 minutes less on average during a night of full moon, and with 30 % less of that sleeping time spent in restorative deepest sleep, compared with other nights in the lunar cycle. One way to combat this effect is to reduce our exposure to blue light in the evening. Switch off your computer at least two hours before you settle to sleep tonight.
Or don’t. Test it out and see what, if any difference you notice.
Tonight’s moon rise is in the east at a distance of 222,159 miles (357,530km) when the supermoon will be visible shortly after sunset from around 9pm – if the skies are clear enough. At its furthest point away from the Earth, when it is in apogee, the Moon is about 405 696 km (252 088 miles) away
Let’s call the maximum range a difference of roughly 30 000 miles. But the Moon and the Earth are drifting apart at a rate of about an inch and a half every year. It’s the effect of gravity, it seems a ridiculously small change, and we need not concern ourselves about it personally, but multiply that effect over millions of years and they will become profound.
You can read more about that here.
Saturn
Once a year, Earth flies between the sun and Saturn. In 2023, this will happen August 27. Saturn, old Father time, the astrological planet of law and order, and of discipline and restriction, is also now getting closer and brighter…
Old heads on young shoulders. Wise heads on old shoulders. Money stuff, work stuff, and family responsibilities get serious
Tarot Full Moon Guidance 1 August
Well, what do you know. We have only drawn The King of Swords.
So what?
Tonight’s Full Moon is in Aquarius,and the King of Swords is THE court card associated with the zodiac sign of Aquarius (the major arcana card of Aquarius is The Star and the decan cards of Aquarius are the 5,6 and 7 Swords.
Typical tarot. Real time synchronicity – or coincidence if you prefer.
The King of Swords may be male or female. This doesn’t matter for the purposes of guidance.
The Tarot is sensing a collective and individual need to stay especially cool, clear, calm and collected during the next few days.
You do not have all the information you need in respect of critical decision making right now. Seek advice, or further research is required before you make any far reaching decisions or enter into long term commitments.
This king operates strategically and judicially. S/he can be ruthless and intent on conquest, but his primary objective here is to guard and protect his/her space, resources and those things and people s/he holds most dear.
S/he is analytical, forensic, surgical in accuracy. In real life s/he may be a leader, a military person, a judge, a doctor, pilot, IT specialist and so on.
Volodymyr Zelensky is an Aquarius subject. Several people were tragically killed yesterday in his home city in a Russian missile attack, but now the Ukrainian counter offensive is underway and Moscow has finally experienced a taste of its own airborne aggression, although Ukrainian drones have not been targeting residential areas, so far as we know.
There does seem a strong likelihood that the war may achieve some formal ending or resolution before entering its second winter, and this is to be welcomed, but seems almost certain to be brokered in terms which neither side will find satisfactory.
Meanwhile, in general we can achieve a lot this month, with the caveat that we seem best served by staying watchful, keeping a cool head, looking every gift horse in the mouth, separating workable fact from opinion or wishful thinking, and cutting our cloth with care by the light of tonight’s full moon, and its afterglow in the next few coming days.
Clearing, sorting, sweeping clean, ordering our paperwork. We have 5 planets in retrograde by the end of August. Venus, Mercury, Pluto, Saturn and Neptune. This is a time for avoiding random choices , knee jerk reactions or sudden moves. The end of this month is a time for deep reflection, reviewing, reassessment, risk avoidance and judicious, methodical planning.
Till next time 🙂
True Tarot Tales 