It's always Lammas

[sabrinamari]

Since it is once again almost Lammas, I thought I'd share a thought that came to me---I think last Lammas, although it could have been the Lammas before. It's about the Lammas sacrifice. I was thinking hard about what I was going to sacrifice, and what I thought the meaning of sacrifice was in a Pagan context: something you give up to gain transformative, higher level understanding and growth. Something given for the greater good...yours and others. That's why it's the first harvest festival---you offer up the first fruits in gratitude to the gods, before you can accept the whole harvest. Same principle as the libation plate, really.


So then I thought, hey, wait a minute. It's always Lammas here. Everything that can be reasonably sacrificed to the dissertation process/full time job combination (and some that is not) is being sacrificed and will be sacrificed until the process is over. Everyday I wake up, and it's Lammas. And the next day I wake up, and it's Lammas again. Now mind you, I have become addicted to this Lammas in a kind of unhealthy, workaholic kind of way. I understand that I am getting a very sad rush from this lifestyle, and that I learned this lesson from my mother, who taught us that it was Lammas everywhere, all the time in our family. She learned it from one of her grandmothers, and it has been dogging our lineage ever since.

So, I was thinking, given this, what I am going to give up for Lammas?

The answer is, I am going to give up Lammas.

After I mail out the diss.

Comments

Lammas

[ingridsummers.livejournal.com]

No, give up Lammas at Lammas. Be willing to be open to what that means about the dissertation. Perhaps the ending will be something that doesn't feel like a sacrifice, more like a joyful celebration. Be adventuresome!

Or, not! After all, my advice could be perfectly pathetic.

sacrifice

[tiperlegba.livejournal.com]

i always saw sacrifice as not giving somethin up in the sense that it left your life, but giving something up as in passing on the reigns to the higher powers ... sacrificing, "making holy", an aspect of something or an element of life has always meant to me that you offer it to the God(esse)s so that they can do with it what they need to, and herein lies the transformation ... there have been plenty things in my life that are out of my control that dont necessarily ever intend on leaving my life, somethings without and somethings within ... so giving up Lammas to me means giving up the chance to let the higher powers help to bless things in your life that arent quite under your finger but that still effect you in great ways ... or giving up the chance to offer an action or an event as a channel for divinity to enter the world ... or something like that ... just my random thoughts, the peanut gallery has spoken

Re: sacrifice

[oaktavia.livejournal.com]

I like this perspective... I'm gonna ruminate on this a bit and see how I can incorporate this in my Lammas, thanks!

Re: sacrifice

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

I like this idea, and I think it might apply to my case more readily if I were giving up Lammas forever. But after a long period of major sacrifice, it doesn't feel as though I am giving up the whole tradition of sacrifice. Instead, it feels as though I am embracing the transformation at the culmination of the process. For me, at this time, that means walking away from sacrifice-as-a-lifestyle and embracing the fullness of the harvest, celebration, pleasure---the end result, the changed me and the changed world that has emerged as a result of that long sacrifice.

I think I've been unbalanced, pouring out for along time in place of receiving back. Too much of anything is a problem, and too much giving out has certainly created a strain both for me and for those who love me. And now it's almost time for the pendulum to swing back towards receiving, celebrating and entering a new phase of my life. Blessed Be----jiggly dance of joy! : )

Re: sacrifice

[tiperlegba.livejournal.com]

sweet. I get it.

Sacrificing LLamas!

[methastra.livejournal.com]

I can't believe your planning on sacrificing Llamas!

I thought you pagan types were above all that sacrificing animals stuff!

- Brian

Re: Sacrificing LLamas!

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

[Bleets of outrage and anguish in the background]

"Come back here, you dang...oh, rats! You've kicked me in the...damn it all to hell you evil beast!"

[More plaintive bleets. More expletives. Lots of flinging mud and clatter.]

Silence.


[A long bleet of triumph and the silent sound of human blood slowly seeping into the dirt.]

Never underestimate the sacrificial power of Llammas!

Re: Sacrificing LLamas!

[methastra.livejournal.com]

ROTFL! :-)

But seriously, folks...

[methastra.livejournal.com]

I believe the concept of sacrifice is often misunderstood. It is often thought of as "the giving up of something you want or need".

Sometimes, it is in fact the giving up of something you don't want and/or don't need.

For example, if, as you described, your Diss has consumed your life, perhaps it is not worth giving your life to.

I'll state up front that I don't know your personal agenda with your diss or what you plan to do with it later, so I will state that this is a purely hypothetical case made slightly personalized by the small amount of details I know about you.

An admittedly small number of people I have met have persued their Ph.D. because it was the next step on their way to... they didn't know what. But they had been in school for many consecutive years, and it was the next thing to do. They did not know what they were doing it for, or why they were doing it other than simple progression.

In a case like theirs, a sacrifice could be to sacrifice their "routine" and stop and look at what they were doing, why they were doing it, and if they truly wanted to do it.

The true point of sacrifice is not to give or lose something, but it is to allow yourself to step outside your comfort zone and make you look reality in the eye. The shepherd doesn't sacrifice sheep on a personal alter to God because "God wants more sheep" but because it causes him to step outside his comfort zone and force an examination of his life, his spirituality and his committment to his beliefs.

If you are a shepherd, sheep are pretty much IT to you. They are your living, your source of money, food, clothing and pretty much everything else (I'll assume he is happily married, so he doesn't need them for THAT ;-) ). To give up a single one of them requires a pretty big reason, as you are threatening your earthly existence with that act. To do it voluntarily, as an act of faith with no expectation of direct reward is not something you take lightly. It requires really looking at yourself and your relationship with God and seeing if you are really up to making that committment. That sacrifice. And having made it, it firmly (at least for a while) cements you to that sacrifice, either in confidence or in doubt, depending on how connected you are with the reason you performed the sacrifice in the first place.

The sacrifice is not about what is received, it is about what is given.
The sacrifice is not about who receives it, it is about who gives it.

Hmmm. Guess I'm going to have to go and write an article about this up on aPath.org. It's the second time it's come up recently. :-)

It's late, hopefully that made some sort of sense...

- bg

The Short Version:

[methastra.livejournal.com]

To sacrifice is to give of yourself.

To truly sacrifice is to give those things that are NOT "of yourself", so that you can "be yourself" in a purer state, uncluttered by carrying things that you do not need to have or be.

- bg