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Goddess Speak Sanctuary of Solace Newsletter - July 2021

We hope you enjoy our July issue! ~Sanctuary of Solace~

July Dates of Interest:

  • Sunday, July 4 - Independence Day
  • Friday, July 9 - New Moon in Cancer @ 6:16pm
  • Saturday, July 17 - World Emoji Day!
  • Friday, July 23 - Full Buck Moon @ 7:36pm
  • Sunday, July 25 - National Wine and Cheese Day!
  • Friday, July 30 - S.0.S. Lammas Ritual - a Celebration of First Harvest! @ 8:00pm
  • Saturday, July 31 - Harry Potter's Birthday!

MUSINGS FROM THE DESK OF.......Priestess Novaembre

Novaembre writes:

I thought I was out of sync with the rest of humanity. I thought I must be wrong - but it seemed that around the first week or so of August each year, I felt the season change. It was still hot as blazes - it was August, after all! Everyone knew autumn did not start until the end of September. Still, subtlety, almost imperceptibly, in the first week of August there was a change. The sunlight seemed more golden, the shadows a bit more crisp, there was a sense of poignancy, of sadness, of loss, of anticipation and excitement - there was definitely something in the air. As a child in northern New Mexico I felt it, and when I moved to the Las Vegas Valley, it was still there. I did not then openly define myself as a Pagan, a follower of nature-based religion but when I did, I learned that what I was feeling was what our ancestors in these northern temperate areas had known.

In August the days grow visibly shorter. The astrological point of the change is when the sun is at 15 degrees Leo, but tradition sets August 1 as the day this change in the seasons is celebrated. This date is a power point of the Zodiac and is symbolized by the Lion, one of the four fixed signs of the Zodiac. The Lion denotes strength and nobility, but also generosity and mercifulness. Even the heavens celebrate at this time - the Perseid meteor shower begins around August 11.

If you are lucky enough to find a place away from the bright lights of Las Vegas at night, you can see the fire falling from heaven. ( Click the button below for our events page, Perseid Meteor Party event!)

Modern Pagans call this holiday Lammas, or sometimes Lughnasadh. It is one of the eight sabbats, or spokes, in what is called the Wheel of the Year. Four of the sabbats are solar observations based upon the stations of the sun. These are the two solstices, Yule, the longest night and shortest day, and Midsummer, the longest day and shortest night, and the spring and autumn equinoxes when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal. The other four sabbats observe the seasons of the Earth and all bear difficult to spell and pronounce Gaelic names: Samhain, Imbolg, Beltane, and Lammas or Lughnasadh. These are not human made holidays, they don’t commemorate any historical event. They existed before humans - they are as old as Earth herself.

In the lands of northwest Europe, Lammas was the first of three harvests before winter was upon them. Lammas is the beginning of fall and the ending of summer.

Lammas was the medieval name for the holiday in northern Europe, and in Saxon it means “loaf-mas,” or “celebration of bread” because this was the day that loaves of bread were baked from the first grain harvest. The word comes from the Old English “hlaf” meaning “loaf” and “maesse” meaning “feast.”

In Irish Gaelic, the festival was called “Lugnasadh” and was said to be a Celtic feast to commemorate the funeral games of the Irish sun god Lugh - but this is confusing as Lugh, the god of light, does not really die, at least mythically, until the Autumn Equinox. Digging deeper, it seems that it is not Lugh’s death that is commemorated, but that of his foster mother, who died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. In addition to being a solar deity, Lugh symbolized the grain that is sacrificed with the harvest only to be reborn in the new shoots of spring.

This time of year was also celebrated in ancient Egypt. The days between July 24 and August 24 are called the Dog Days of summer - I thought it was because dogs lay panting in the heat, - but actually it is because at that time Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, or large dog, thus it is called the Dog Star, appeared. This is the brightest star in the sky except for the sun. Sirius appeared just before the Nile flooded, so was a watchdog for the Egyptians, telling them to expect the annual inundation which made possible the planting of crops and the continuance of life. This was the Egyptian New Year, and August 1, was the first day of the Egyptian calendar. It was a time of feasting, drinking and merry making.

The ancient Greeks celebrated this time of the year in the Haloa festival which involved feasting and festivities on Demeter’s threshing floor. This was the time that Peripatta, the local Moon spirit of the “Wandering Steps,” whom the poets renamed Persephone and claimed was wedded to Hades in the underworld, went down into the Earth. This occurred at Eleusis, her home, which was outside of Athens. The foods of this feast were Demeter’s bloodless foods - not even a chicken could be sacrificed or eaten, only grains, fruits, or lentils, and maidens descended into a cave carrying the first fruits for Her snakes.

As time went on the Haloa evolved into the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries frequented by the citizens of Athens and pilgrims from all over the ancient world, but still held at Eleusis. This nine-day festival reenacted the tale of Demeter and Persephone. I’m sure you remember the story - Persephone journeyed to the underworld and in her absence, her grieving mother, Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, allowed the world to become barren. Upon Persephone’s return, the earth returned to life. It is a “just so” story explaining the seasons. The Achaeans, warrior invaders of Greece, reinterpreted Persephone’s descent as an abduction and rape. In fact, most of the Greek festivals to Goddesses involved going into caves that had sacred serpents in them. Serpents used to be kept in households to safeguard the food supply from rodents. Even today, serpents protect grain crops. Demeter was often depicted with Her sacred serpent. The serpents belonged to Gaia or Demeter and signified regeneration because the serpent sheds its skin and looks new thereafter. The serpent was the symbol of immortality through rebirth. Demeter offered rebirth - that was the mystery.

Festivals at this time of year were found throughout the northern hemisphere - and they have similar meanings. This is when the first crops are cut in the fields, the harvesting of the grain. The grain dies so that the people might live. Eating this bread, this sacred gift, gives us life. Grain has always been associated with deities who die and are then resurrected from the underworld by the Goddess. This was the story of Ishtar and Tammuz, Inanna and Dumuzi, Aphrodite and Adonis, and Isis and Osiris. It is the story of Demeter and Persephone - it is the cycle of the death and rebirth of the grain. When the sacred grain, the gift of the Goddess, has been gathered, when it has been threshed by the flail and winnowed to separate the wheat from the chaff, when it has been ground to a fine flour between the stones of a mill, then mixed with water, the fluid of life, and with a little magic added in the yeast, then baked in a womb like oven, then the sacred loaf will be broken and shared at the Lammas feast. So sacred is the ancient process and the grain it involves, that it was once presided over only by Priestesses.

Bread has long been thought to be the one essential food, the bare necessity, along with water, for survival. It has been the sustenance of prisoners and penitents, sinners and saints. Bread has come to symbolize food itself. Its importance is clear in such expressions as:

  • “earning one’s bread”
  • “taking the bread out of somebody’s mouth”
  • “knowing which side one’s bread was buttered on”
  • “thank-you for our daily bread.”

In English slang, “bread” equals “money” another essential commodity. “Having a bun in the oven” is a marvelous metaphor for pregnancy, the nurturance of life baked in the warm and nurturing womb of Mother Nature. The sharing of bread is associated with peace and the resolving of differences which begins with basic hospitality. Eating a meal together is the most common way people admit a stranger into a relationship. The Egyptian hieroglyph of peace, “hotep,” is a loaf of bread resting on a reed mat.

As a symbol for life, bread represented and was revered as the body of the deity whose gift it was. When the development of agriculture heralded the birth of the Neolithic, it was the body of the Goddess that was commemorated in this way. Excavations in the Neolithic villages of Catal Huyuk in Turkey or in the remnants of Old Europe reveal the sacred connection between Goddess and grain. Later the Canaanites made Cakes for the Queen of Heaven. The Egyptians as well ate their god in the form of bread. Wheat was cultivated on the mummy case of Osiris with which communion cakes were made. Devotees could, by eating them, partake of the divinity of deity, and like the deity, become immortal. The flesh of Adonis and Dionysus was also consumed symbolically as wheaten cakes, and the blood of Dionysius and Bacchus was drunk as wine.”

The sabbats, or spokes, on the Pagan Wheel of the Year, are liminal times, times of change, when one has not quite left one season and not quite entered another. It is like standing on the threshold, not quite in, not quite out - in between. The rites of a threshold are those of entrance, waiting, and departure - rites of passage. It is a place of transition, a mediation point between states of existence, a place from which one emerges transformed.

The mental and emotional indications of the changing season are more visible at Lammas than are the physical ones. Change is in the air. There is anticipation - anticipation of the coming autumn, of going back to school, of cooler weather to come. Anticipation of the fall holidays - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Yule. And because of this anticipation, there is a surge of energy.

The energy of Lammas is the time after the test has been taken, but before the grade has been assigned. It is the moment after nailing the job interview and waiting for an offer. It is putting in a bid for a new home and waiting for it to be accepted. It is the anticipation of success and the fear of failure.

But this is also a time of sadness as we realize that the good times of summer will soon be over - and there is haste to have fun before it ends - to make the most of our time. We know one day we will wake up and ask where the summer has gone. We don’t want to miss any of it.

First, there is the idea of harvest. It is a time to look back over the preceding year, especially the time since Yule, but not just that. It is a time to examine your life. You are even now reaping what you have sown. What are you harvesting at this time? What seeds have you planted that are sprouting? It is time to look within ourselves. If you like it, how do you continue it? If you don’t like it, then what needs to be done to change it - how can you cultivate positive words, deeds and emotions for the future? How can you rid yourself of words, deeds, and emotions that produced an ineffective harvest? Now is the time to replace them with ones that will bring success, happiness, health and joy into your life and the lives of those around us. May the good that we have spread be increased and may the pain we have caused be diminished.

Another theme is that of generosity and mercifulness. In times of old families gathered to harvest the land. In good times, food was plentiful, and no one would go hungry. But today in our plentiful society, the wealthiest nation in the world, many of our sisters and brothers go hungry. Lammas is a time to envision feeding all so that no child will hunger. With this first harvest of the season, whether material, emotional, mental, or spiritual, consider what is the best gift you can give the world at this time? What are your unique talents and who helped you to develop them? Will you share your good fortune, your harvest? Will you help those who are in need?

This is also a time of farewells. As summer dies into fall, recount the hopes and dreams you had at the beginning of the year. This is a time for uncertainty and for embracing the unknown as we face the long, cold, months ahead. We bid farewell to the sun, for the lengthening of nights is apparent now. What is passing from your life? What is over? But in the midst of this sadness, remember the mystery of the grain, that what was harvested returned in the spring as new sprouts. This is a season of farewells, but it is also a season of hope for the future.

Regrets at this season are unavoidable. What were the things you meant to do this summer, or this year, or in your life that are not coming to fruition? This is a time to decide what is possible, and what is not. It is a time to tend to unfinished business, to let go of what was not to be, and concentrate instead on what is possible, what is within your reach. John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when we are making other plans.” Cherish what you do have, don’t lose it by focusing on what you don’t have.

And finally, preserves. This is the season for canning and making jam, jelly, and preserves - although most of us don’t do that anymore in the material sense, but in a spiritual and emotional sense, we do. The question is, how can you hold on to what you have gathered this year? How can you continue that which is good and productive? How can you save that, for the lean times?

I want to share with you some thoughts on this time of the year written by Patricia Monaghan, a Pagan writer:

  • Fall -
  • Now comes the time of reckoning, the season of limits.
  • Now is the time to celebrate the plenty that work and time have wrought.
  • Now is the time to feast with friends, share the bounty, toast the work well done.
  • Now is the time of endings. For nothing more is growing.
  • Nothing more will grow this year.
  • The winds of autumn descend to tear seed from stalk, to scatter what has not been captured.
  • Now is the time to decide what will die.
  • Not all of last spring’s calves and lambs and ducklings can be fed through the winter. Some will die, and in dying provide food.
  • It is a season of decisions.
  • And of prophecies: for as other life dies, it foreshadows our own deaths. The taste of death is in the air.
  • On our tongues, too, the taste of death: of plants that give us their seeds, of animals that give us their flesh.
  • Such communion!
  • As we pick the pumpkin from its frozen shriveled stalk, as we press juice from apple’s flesh, as we tear our carrot life by its roots, we taste the deepest knowledge: that we need others to survive.
  • That we breathe only because something has died.
  • That we make our own flesh of the flesh of our world.
  • Never in the seasons of our life do we feel more responsible.
  • As we move through autumn we feel a passionate connection with all life.
  • There is enough of everything - strength, love, passion, lust – everything but time.
  • Time grows short.
  • Nothing seems endless anymore.
  • Life grows full of endings:
  • Parents and friends die, animals we love disappear in a gasp, dreams fade beyond reclaiming.
  • We do not recognize when the deaths start, that fall has begun. But later we remember: that after that one, it was never the same.
  • Time is short, too short to be wasted on things that don’t matter.
  • Time now to make those decision that are necessary.
  • Time to know what you need.
  • Time to store memories, to provide for what is to come.
  • Time to move toward the dream time.
  • Time to recognize the dust of infinity in a windstorm, the fragrance of timelessness in a fire.
  • Time to remain rooted in life’s imminent realities.
  • Time to know and understand the primal knowledge – the knowledge of life and death.
  • Time to embrace life, moment by moment by moment.

And finally, Lammas, on the first day of August, opens the month of “August.” August. The word was first used in the Roman Republic to refer to the Goddess Juno, whose oracles were the augustae. It was later applied to priests, then to emperors. An “august” person was one who was filled with the spirit of the goddess. August, then, has two definitions - one referring to the month, a noun, and the other an adjective, meaning “inspiring awe, reverence, or admiration, of supreme dignity or grandeur, venerable, sacred.” In this month of August, we can become august indeed - wise and generous and noble, each in our chosen paths. We can hone our skills, how our row, and carry our load. We can break bread together. We can feed the hungry. We can reap what we sow.

Priestess Novaembre (Photo by Candace Kant)

Dear Mother of creation:

by Richard Melchizedek and Jessica Rosalie

We ask you to hold and nurture our planet Earth.

We ask you to keep her safe and warm as she nurtures and grows.

She is coming into her adolescent years of creation and it is time for her to give birth to new life in this cycle of love.

We ask for her to feel supported and to flourish within the constant dreams of love purity consciousness.

You are a child just as I am, and we ask for your love just as I offer mine back.

We are creating together in this moment a New Earth.

We are creating a New Earth that supports herself and her family and we are supporting you as we support our family.

We are ready to come together as humanity to be a loving sacred child of creation.

We are ready to be the custodians of the mother planet.

We ask her to forgive us for all of the sadness and destruction we have created on her.

We are ready to let go of all that we have done which has damaged her, injured her, hurt her, and misused her.

We are asking for her forgiveness from the deepest levels of her heart of creation.

We are asking her to assist us together, as one, birthing a New Earth of the highest level of unconditional love as this will be our frequency and we will remove all that does not love.

We are open to receiving your love and we are open to giving you our love.

We ask you to take your rightful place among the creation energy and birth a new sovereign nation of the Kingdom of Paradise, fully restored.

We ask you mother, to forgive your children and to let them go if they still do not understand as this is a time of mass healing and we are awakening with you during this monumental great shift.

We know you have been waiting for this prayer for some time as we had forgotten about you on so many different levels.

Now is the time we stand with you as fellow children of God, fellow children of One, and unified within the First Eternal Love Field of Creation as we are here to call back all power and light to you fully restored as the Sovereign Queen that you are.

You are a birthing mother of creation and it is time for you to birth your next life of love for all to feel your dynamic kindness and support as this is changing all of existence as we are all connecting through the unified field of One Source Living Light.

We ask you now Mother to heal, to heal your love of humanity and we ask humanity to heal their love with the Mother.

It is time for the Mother and the Children to come back together as One and all rejection will be transmuted into divine light and love of Pure Source Consciousness.

I ask you to bring forward the New Earth now.

Mother it is time.

We love you.

We honour you.

We fulfill your need for being heard and we honour and accept you for who you are as a beautiful divine creator of life.

We love you inside and throughout, we are you inside and out.

Mother we love you.

Aho, Namaste, and blessed be.

We honour all who walk upon the Earth and we honour all as the Earth. We are one.

Artwork by: ORUPSIA

~July Spotlight ~

Artwork by: witchywords.blogspot.com

July's Full Moon

WHEN TO SEE THE FULL MOON IN JULY 2021

July’s full Buck Moon will rise after sunset on Friday, July 23, reaching peak illumination at 10:37 P.M. Eastern Time that night. Look towards the southeast to watch it rise above the horizon.

WHY IS IT CALLED THE BUCK MOON?

The full Moon names used by The Old Farmer’s Almanac come from a number of places, including Native American, Colonial American, and European sources. Traditionally, each full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred, not solely to the full Moon.

The Buck Moon

The full Moon in July is called the Buck Moon because the antlers of male deer (bucks) are in full-growth mode at this time. Bucks shed and regrow their antlers each year, producing a larger and more impressive set as the years go by.

ALTERNATIVE JULY MOON NAMES

Several other names for this month’s Moon also reference animals, including Feather Molting Moon (Cree) and Salmon Moon, a Tlingit term indicating when fish returned to the area and were ready to be harvested.

Plants are also featured prominently in July’s Moon names. Some of our favorites are Berry Moon (Anishinaabe), Moon When the Chokecherries are Ripe (Dakota), Month of the Ripe Corn Moon (Cherokee), and Raspberry Moon (Algonquin, Ojibwe).

Thunder Moon (Western Abenaki) and Halfway Summer Moon (Anishinaabe) are alternative variants that refer to the stormy weather and summer season.

JULY MOON FACTS:

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to step foot on the Moon. He also placed the U.S. flag there.

On July 31, 1999, the ashes of astrogeologist Eugene Shoemaker were deposited on the Moon.

Adapted From The Farmer's Almanac https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-july#

“Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

Julys's Full 'Buck' Moon Magic

Adapted from: https://www.thepeculiarbrunette.com/july-full-buck-moon-spiritual-meaning-symbolism-and-how-to-celebrate/

The July Full Buck Moon, spiritual meaning and name are attributed to the velvety rack of a buck forming into impressive antlers and viewed as a symbol of fertility.

Not only are the buck antlers growing and thriving right now, but so are we! The buck energy brings spiritual themes of strength and ambition into this season of abundance.

Use this energy to help fuel your goals and intentions, now is not the time for procrastination. Do your best to avoid distractions. Ask yourself what small goals can you let go of, so you can prioritize and focus on accomplishing your bigger priorities.

Correspondences:

Buck Moon Spiritual Meaning and Intentions:

  • Abundance
  • Self-reflection
  • Passion
  • Strength
  • Honesty
  • Vigor
  • Leadership
  • Dreamwork

Colors:

  • Green
  • Gray
  • Blue
  • Gold

July Full Moon Journal Prompts:

  • Take a moment to congratulate yourself on any achievements you’ve had recently! Make a list and bask in the happiness and pride in your hard work.
  • Write about how July’s Buck Moon makes you feel. What are your favorite ways to celebrate?
  • Name a book or movie you’d like to read or watch before the year ends. Why?
  • How can you be more intentional with your time?
  • What are some magical spaces in your local area you love to explore? Go visit this space and write about it in detail.
  • Keep a journal next to your bed to record your dreams. This will be a wonderful reference for you to refer back to and interpret later on.

Garden Green Magick:

July’s Full Moon is also known as the Wort Moon which refers to plants and herbs used for medicinal purposes. If you’ve got a garden of your own, use this as an opportunity to harvest some herbs for tinctures, extracts, salves, spices, or hang upside down to dry for a homemade smoke cleanser. Don’t forget to cool down with a run through the sprinklers!

This is also a wonderful way to give back to your garden by weeding. If you don’t have a garden of your own, maybe you can volunteer your time to a loved one by helping them with their weeds or outdoor chores. You can also give back to Mother Nature by picking up trash and garbage in your local area.

~The Kitchen Witch's Cauldron~

Blackberry Cobbler

National Wine and Cheese Day

July 25, 2021

Although we aren’t currently sure when National Wine And Cheese Day was started, we’re pretty sure it was started by someone who enjoyed this food combination on a regular basis. With that having been said, we would like to talk about the history of wines and cheeses. Since wine is the youngest of the two items, we’ll start there.

Most historians agree that wine originated somewhere in ancient China approximately 7,000 B.C. It was also found in Persia 5,000 B.C., and in Sicily 4,000 B.C. Many of these early wines were fermented from rice or from rice and grape juices combined.

Cheese and cheese making began even before written history began. Many historians believe that cheese was first developed somewhere from 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, and it may even be older than that. According to popular belief, the first cheese was made when milk was stored in an animal’s stomach. As the milk soured, it mixed with the animal’s digestive juices, and rudimentary curds and whey developed.

Wine Facts:

  • Italy, France, Spain, and the United States are the top wine producers in the world.
  • Also in the top ten of worldwide wine producers are Argentina, Australia, South Africa, and Germany.
  • The top imported wines into the U.S are Yellowtail from Australia and Cavit from Italy.
  • The Top U.S wine-producing states are California, Washington, and New York.

Cheese Facts:

  • On average, it takes 10-pounds of milk to make just one pound of cheese.
  • About a quarter of all U.S cheese is manufactured in Wisconsin.
  • Brie de Meaux, Reblochon, and Valencay are cheeses that are illegal to sell in the U.S due to safety concerns.
  • There are four pounds of cheese in storage for every American man, woman, and child.
  • After Reagan signed the 1981 Farm Bill, American storage of cheese soared from 590 million pounds up to 1.2 billion pounds.
  • Most of the cheese that was stored during the 1980s was stored in Missouri caves.

Please drink responsibly.

July Laughs:

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