Harvest time

The First Harvest: A Lughnasadh Tarot Spread.

Lughnasadh—celebrated on August 1st in the Northern Hemisphere and February 1st in the Southern Hemisphere—is the first of the year’s three harvest festivals. Also known as Lammas, it is traditionally a time to celebrate the earliest fruits and grains of the season.

Whether you grow your own food, buy it from a farmer down the road or simply revel in the bread, corn, tomatoes, peaches and squash this time of year offers, you are benefiting from an entire cycle of tending, patience and hard work finally coming to fruition.

And that is really what Lughnasadh is about: pausing long enough to notice what is ripening in your life—both literally and energetically.

Every celebration on the Wheel of the Year carries its own psychological and spiritual themes. At Lughnasadh, we are invited into gratitude, abundance, growth and reflection.

This simple four-card tarot spread will help you connect with those energies and explore how you can honour and nurture them in a way that is uniquely suited to where you are right now.

You can do this spread on Lughnasadh itself or anytime during the fortnight before or after it. The Wheel of the Year is generous like that—it does not slam the door at midnight because you were busy, tired or had other things to do.

What You Will Need

You only truly need:

A tarot deck
A notebook or journal
Something to write with

You may also wish to light a candle, burn some incense or sit beside your Lughnasadh altar—if you are feeling fancy and want to bring on the full harvest shenanigans.

Begin With The Empress

Find The Empress in your tarot deck and place her face up in the centre of your reading, as shown in the image.

She will act as your significator, representing your fertile creativity, embodied wisdom and ability to receive and enjoy the abundance you have helped create. She is a reminder that you do not have to keep striving every blinking moment. Sometimes your sacred work is to recognise what is already here.

Now settle yourself. Take a few slow breaths, relax your shoulders and allow your mind to grow quiet.

Invoke the Divine, Spirit or whatever sacred presence you work with in the way that feels most natural to you.

Set the intention to connect deeply with the ancient energies of Lughnasadh. Ask to be shown what would most benefit you to know about your own first harvest.

You might also ask:

What is already ripening in my life?
Where am I being invited to recognise my growth?
What accomplishment or change deserves to be celebrated?
How can I become more open to receiving?
What will help me create a healthier, more abundant relationship with life?

Conjure the feelings of confidence, gratitude and abundance that you long to experience. Try them on like a glorious hat. Imagine that these qualities are already fully present within you.

Breathe deeply.

Let yourself smile.

Then shuffle your cards, stopping when you feel intuitively guided to stop. Cut the deck once or twice, if you wish.

Take the top four cards and lay them face up around The Empress, following the image:

Reflect — to the left
Celebrate — above
Savour — to the right
Manifest — below

Card One: Reflect

Gaze at the first card and allow yourself time to really see it.

This card offers insight into how you have evolved since Lughnasadh last turned on the Wheel. Perhaps you moved through heartbreak, transformation or wild success. Perhaps you experienced all three before breakfast.

Your growth may have been gloriously obvious, or it may have happened so quietly that you barely noticed it at all.

With kindness and self-compassion, allow this card to illuminate something significant about your journey.

Using the card as your lens, write about how you have changed, what you have learned and how your values or priorities have shifted over the past year.

If you become stuck, begin writing without a plan and continue for one full page without stopping or editing. This is a glorious way of reaching the wisdom you carry but didn’t realise you knew.

Card Two: Celebrate

The second card asks you to acknowledge your triumphs.

It may represent a challenge you overcame, a victory you experienced or something you finally dared to begin. Your success might be practical, emotional, creative or spiritual—and it does not need to look impressive to anyone else to be worthy of celebration.

In your journal, list every success you can remember from the past year, both large and small.

Include the visible accomplishments, but don’t forget the quiet ones: a boundary held, a truth spoken, a difficult day survived, a new skill learned or a moment when you chose yourself.

Then brainstorm a few delicious ways to honour what you have achieved. Celebration does not have to be extravagant. It simply has to feel meaningful to you.

Card Three: Savour

As the first harvest festival, Lughnasadh asks us to stop working for one blessed moment and enjoy the sweet fruits of living.

Look at the third card as you take stock of the delightful and precious things already present in your life. It may point directly towards one of your blessings, or it may reveal a pattern preventing you from receiving or enjoying that blessing fully.

You have worked hard in so many areas of your life. What sweet rewards have you earned? What goodness is available to you right now? And are you actually letting yourself enjoy any of it—or are you already charging towards the next thing?

Consider how you can savour life’s sweetness more consciously, not only at Lughnasadh but throughout the year.

Card Four: Manifest

Lughnasadh is a lush and fertile season of natural abundance, making it a potent time to consider what you wish to cultivate next.

The fourth card offers insight into how you can welcome greater prosperity into your life. It may reveal a practical step to take, an obstacle to address, a belief ready to change or a blessing waiting to be received.

As you contemplate its message, remember to consider both sides of the golden coin: the inner and the outer, the spiritual and the practical.

Abundance is not only about money. It can appear as time, energy, friendship, creativity, opportunity, support or a deeper sense of enoughness. But money matters too, so there is no need to become terribly spiritual and pretend otherwise.

Ask yourself:

What is this card inviting me to believe, receive or do so that greater abundance can take root?

Gathering the Reading

When you have explored all four cards, sit back and look at the reading as a whole.

What story do the cards tell together? Is there a repeated symbol, suit, number or feeling? Which card feels affirming? Which one makes you wriggle slightly in your chair?

Finish by writing one clear intention for the coming season:

I recognise what has grown, I celebrate what I have created, and I welcome the harvest still to come.

Then thank your cards, your sacred allies and yourself for showing up.

And please—before racing towards the next seed, goal or glorious idea—take a moment to enjoy what is already in your basket.

Minions, Memories, Grief and The New Moon.

Jenny Heston · 11:11 pm ·

Happy Magnificent, Magickal, Moody, Melancholy, Manifesting Monday! Here we are in Leo Season with a New Moon on Thursday.

This is a longer post as we have a couple of things to explore this week, two sides of the coin so to speak. Thus, if you aren’t willing to come and play in the messiness of human life, which can be real and raw, I highly suggest you skip this section. We are melding Grief, Memories and Lughnasadh (aka as Lammas) – which is about abundance and harvest, and the New Moon.

Yup I did say Grief out loud, something that is often classified as “taboo” in our Western Culture. As most people don’t know how to deal with it.

Let’s be honest, over the last few years with the lovely pandemic, war and massive climate upheaval, many people have experienced loss on so many levels including people transitioning and them not being able to be there when it happened.

Which got me thinking a lot about how we’re all just muddling through life. Honestly, it’s a wonder that any of us have the energy to reach out to others when we all have such complicated dramas playing out in our own lives. Add in the overwhelming stress of losing someone we love, and the volume gets turned all the way up.

The trouble, of course, is that as humans we’re not meant to be isolated. We are built for community, so even though it would be easier to wrap ourselves in cotton wool (or perhaps a duvet) and hide when we’re hurting, the real healing happens in relation to other people. This has been a huge challenge for many of us and this is something that I do struggle with in the month of July.

Three years ago I spent the month of July in the UK helping my big sister and best friend Fi to die. It was the toughest thing I have ever had to do so far in my life.

To watch someone you love so dearly in pain and being given one drug so the body will digest food, another drug so that the body will evacuate, another drug, another drug – it was inhumane and heart breaking.

To be with her 24×7 in the last week and witness the physical body shutting down and to hear the death rattle was almost more than I could bear.

Fi was one of my touchstones and I soooooooo didn’t want her to leave at all, but she did. It was transformative, painful and powerful all at the same time. And it fucking sucked!!!

When I returned back to Canada, numb and empty I struggled as all I wanted was to be alone. It felt primal. I wanted to wear soft clothing that felt cosy against my skin, I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to sleep and curl up, eat comforting food and drink hot tea. As after all it is difficult to be our most raw, broken selves in public.

Grief, to me, felt like having a limb chopped off. How was it possible that my sister – my best friend – was gone from the world in such an irreversible way? The shock of her absence followed me around for months, like an empty space where my shadow should have been.

And dealing with other people! Oh my Goddess – I had to remind myself that other people were trying their best. Even when they seemed to say or do precisely the wrong thing.

So when the first July came around I didn’t realise how it would gut me. To remember that on her birthday, July 28th, she started leaving us and died 3 days later. Staying with her 24×7, the candles, the music, the stories that I would tell her in the hopes that she would open her eyes and would be totally fine. It knocked me for seven to be honest.

The second year wasn’t much better, although being a bit wiser I made sure to clear space and time to feel all the feels and take myself off into the woods and be alone.

This year I’ve been handling July – okayish so far, but I can feel it all burbling and needing honouring. So I’ve been asking myself if being alone to mark her birthday and her “death day” (as I’m not too sure what to call it) is the only way, or could I hold the space for others?

So I am striking a compromise. On her birthday 28th, (New Moon), I am going to play, take time out and pause, invite her to the ocean, into the woods and into a lovely Leo New Moon ritual, as she was always telling me – pause, breathe, check in and set your intention.

So with the Leo New Moon being one of the sweetest New Moons we have experienced in a while, that makes total sense.

This Leo New Moon carries the vibration of abundance, joy, and creativity. It is a beautiful New Moon for checking in with the flow of our lives and if we are where we want to be.

Some days, life tends to pass in a blur. We get caught up in the rush and swept up in the flow of our past actions and beliefs. But July’s New Moon is a good time to pause and consider the direction of our lives.

Are we moving in a direction that feels good? Are we taking actions each day that fill us with joy and inspiration, or are we living merely out of habit?

To really make the most of this energy, bring your attention to your heart centre under this New Moon. Listen to your heart, what whispers does it share?

One powerful and quick exercise you can do to connect with your heart is to close your eyes. Take three deep breaths, and then place your hand over your heart. From this place, ask your heart what it needs the most right now, and then trust the feeling or message that arises.

Yes, grief does lessen – in other words it doesn’t walk with you every day, but when it floods up it is as intense as it ever was.

Then on Sunday – her death day – I’m going to hold a wee celebration of life with my family and close friends, instead of running to the woods on my own. It will be hosted in the garden, there will be Minions (as she loved, loved the minions), cake and tea, great music, bubbles, stories and wee little origami boxes with ladybirds – to be released into the garden, each carrying a blessing.

All the things she would have loved. I’m trusting I will keep it together lol.

And as a gift to all you wonderful beasties, on Thursday (if you are part of our email community) and in honour of my most magickal, wise, amazing sister there will be a glorious Lughnasadh bundle available for free. Why?

On August 1st (Monday) Lughnasadh or Lammas happens, it is the first of three harvest festivals. A time of appreciation, gratitude, abundance and it is a time of awareness that the strength of the Sun (Lugh) is beginning to wane and there is a shift and change afoot. Active growth is slowing down and the darker days of winter and reflection are gently and slowly raising their heads.

I love Lammas as it’s such a glorious celebration of food, first harvest and gathering. All things that Fi loved and understood.

You may not think you have anything you are harvesting in your life. You may not be able to name what, exactly, you’ve been growing & tending this year. BUT I PROMISE YOU, simply being a human being living through the uncertainties & upheaval has caused you to stretch & grow in ways you may not realise yet. And that growth is GOING TO bear fruit in some way.

One of the most beautiful lessons Lughnasa/Lammas teaches us is to TRUST.

So make sure you snag the Lammas bundle when it’s released this coming week. It is filled with lore, stories, rituals and glorious things to make and do to honour YOU. (Yes You!) And how wonderful you are and all the ups and downs, the hiccups and the accomplishments you have experienced.

Now enough chuntering from me, let’s crack on with the reading. When I went to the cards to ask who would like to be present this week it made my heart smile to see who showed up. The amazing Faery Blessing guides were most adamant. As after all, who doesn’t need a Blessing?

Now if these guides are new to you, please let me introduce them as it would be rude not to.

Faeries are present in every droplet of water, every blade of grass – they are everywhere there is a trace of nature – thus every field, flower, and forest is theirs. They inhabit the wild rainforests and the old castles; they dance within standing stones and burial mounds; they are on the top of mountains and within the grove deep in the valley; and they appear in the cracks in the pavement and beneath the cities in the old, tangled tree roots. Faeries are part of this world, and they were here before we were born into this world, and they know us better than we know ourselves.

For humans, many of us have lost our sense of play, our sense of relationship with nature, our courage to be ourselves – as well as our hope, creativity, and personal power. We have looked outside of ourselves and nature and the sacred ones for answers, and in doing so, we have become quite lost. The blessings of the faeries can bring us back into relationship with ourselves, back into relationship with the elements and the elementals, so that we can become more at home within the world, while creating a personal world which supports our dreams, our wishes, and our purpose.

Yes! Positively perfect!

So gorgeous one take a breath. Just a normal breath and then as you carry on breathing allow it to slow down. Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Allow in your mind’s eye a gorgeous rainbow swirl to form, this pattern is made of loss and abundance. It holds any grief you may feel about a person, place, situation or thing and it melds with the abundance and appreciation of who you are. As you breathe just let it swirl, you don’t have to control it.

Then with this energy pick the card or cards that call to you. What Blessing is for you this week?

Did you remember to pick?

Shall we go look?

A BLESSING FROM QUEEN MAB

The Faery Gift of Being the Ruler of Your Own World

With this faery gift from the formidable and enchanting faery queen, Queen Mab, comes the blessing of being the owner of your own life. This is a powerful blessing indeed, for with this blessing comes the most precious gift of all, that of knowing that your life is yours to live.

With this blessing, let you now take up the reins of your life, let you decide what it is you do, and who it is you are, and who you are now becoming. It is your life, this wild and sweet thing, to be lived only once, and it is rare and priceless. You shall no longer be owned, nor forced, nor pushed, nor pulled, for with her gift comes the solidity of determining your own fate – for you are a being who has often been pressured to give away the crown that declares that you are the sovereign. With this blessing, it is returned to you.

Let yourself be a queen, a king, and know your world is as great as any other person’s. Your life is a jewel, and no more shall you spend it pleasing others. When this blessing comes to you, all who you know you will love and support you, and you will now take back the power that you gave away. You will climb the stairs to your throne and look upon your world and know that you will be a strong leader of your own soul. And you will inspire others to do the same.

With this gift from Queen Mab will come the sure knowledge of what is wise for you to do, and what would be foolish, and to know the difference between pleasing others and doing what is in the very best interest of the path of your soul.

You faery friend, are a magnificent being, and your life, your world, and your very being are royal. Be most loyal to your ownself, and know now the gift of great and deep self-respect, and of choosing what is right for you.

Blessings of the great and good Queen Mab to you, friend.

BLESSED BE

A BLESSING OF A FAERY GUARDIAN

A Faery Gift of Magickal Protection and Lifelong, True Loving Care.

At your birth into this world, human child, a faery came to you and offered you the blessings of your soul. For each of us, this blessing will be unique, created especially for the journey we are destined to take in this lifetime. So, with this blessing, may you know again the beauty and sweetness of your own faery godmother, your faery guardian. For she is still with you, helping to ease the way and remind you, as often as she is able to pierce the veil, that you are her charge, and she will remain with you all the days of this life.

May you now feel the presence of her love; may you feel that sense of being looked out for, that there is one being from the elemental world who works with your soul and helps you at all times.

When this blessing comes, tune in to her presence and know that all about you there is comfort, and goodness, and a way to move through all difficulties. Yoru faery guardian has always been with you this lifetime, and will remain until you have journeyed on. Know you are her most precious charge, and when times become troubled, and life seems bleak, know there is a being whose duty it is to bring you back to hope, to optimism, to the sense that you are a gifted, cherished being. Feel now the love of the faery guardian, your own faery godmother, and believe again in your own blessedness.

BLESSED BE

A BLESSING OF CLEAR FORESIGHT

The Faery Gift of Knowing what is likely to come from the dimension we humans call the future.

A gift is given this day to you, a blessing of the faeries true. This gift is that of the long vision, the ability to see the consequences of actions taken in the present and, indeed, the outcome of decisions of the past. With this blessing of clear foresight, may you be blessed with the ability to see the lasting influence of what it is you choose to do – what will you be granting to the future of this world, to the children, to the ones who come after.

May you understand, therefore, what would be best for you to do, not only for your own self – though it is good and right for you to think of yourself – but of what is best for those you love and for those who come after us all. For the faeries love long, and see many a human unable to contemplate beyond their own needs – and, in that moment, unthinking of consequences, create a future they do not wish to inhabit fully. With this amazing faery gift, this enchanted ability to see further into the dimension of time, you will make the best decision for yourself now and for the future and the future of others. Time unfurls before you, a green scroll unwritten upon, but one upon which you can see what could come.

Take this blessing and use it wisely, for the fae, for the human children, and for the betterment of your own precious self.

Faery blessings of the long foresight to you, friend.

BLESSED BE

And so it is. May your week be filled with Blessings galore. If you are walking with Grief, please know that you are not alone – I see you, I hear you and you are so loved. I won’t tell you it will pass, as it doesn’t – but the gap where your shadow would be does lessen. To celebrate you and the fact that you are here, muddling through life and doing your best, do make sure to grab the Lammas bundle when it comes out on Thursday. Happy New Moon and Huge Blessings and I will see you in two weeks as I’m taking my time to feel all the feels and not dumb it down.

Happy Post Equinox and Welcome to Fall! Weekly Reading September 25th.

Jenny Heston · 3:09 pm ·

Happy wonderful Monday delicious lovely and welcome to Fall! Yes it’s here (unless you live wayyyy South and then it’s Spring!) I have to admit my two most favourite seasons of the year are Spring and Fall, the colours, the smells and the energy that each season brings. I noticed when I went into the woods today, some of the leaves are starting to gild themselves with gold and orange, the squirrels are most certainly getting cheekier with their gather and hoard and there was the very first V of Canada Geese flying overhead.

Whether we like it or not things change and are cyclical, so it’s about how to use that energy for your best and highest good. Personally, I have been getting outside as much as possible and harvesting fruit and veggies like a machine! Soon it’s time to dry all the wonderful herbs from the garden for winter and make gorgeous bundles of lavender that get tucked in the boys sox drawers when they aren’t looking (as they can often have stinky soxs!) This weekend we had a glorious time of celebrating birthdays and Mabon, it was fabulous as well as some gorgeous hikes into the deep woods and rock hopping through the babbling creeks. (The hounds were in piggy heaven to say the least). One of the things I love about celebrating Mabon is it is an incredible time to release so I gave myself the gift of time and sat and wrote down everything I do not want in my life. I know that sounds negative but it actually isn’t, if we really know what we don’t want then it is so much easier to flip it and know what we do want. Which is exactly what I did. So now I have a very succinct list of the habits, the ways of being, living and moving in this world that I really value and appreciate. Try it, it’s pretty fun.

I received a new Oracle deck last week and in usual style she has been cleansed, blessed, consecrated and given a mission and I was thrilled to see her jump off the shelf today and most appropriate too I think. She is The Faery Forest, An Oracle of the Wild Green World. She is filled with lovely characters who want to guide, support, kick your arse and help. When I went to ask which crystals wanted to come play a delicate whisper from outside told me I was looking in the wrong place. What? When I went out to the garden the fruits and veggies called out loud and proud, as after all Mabon is the second harvest festival, the festival of fruits. Ergo, we have fruits and veggies that insisted on coming to play. A couple of deep, deep purple plums, an apple from a tree I planted last year and gorgeous little bumblebee tomatoes. What can I say?

So let’s just rest and pause for a moment. As you gently slow your breathing down I invite you to think about all the glorious moments, thoughts and things that you have harvested in the last while and all the ones that are coming to you. On your next exhale just release, release and relax. Breathe in your golden harvest and breathe out the release. That’s it. Keep breathing and when you are ready open your eyes and pick the card or cards that resonate for you.

Shall we go have a look?

THE HEDGEWITCH

You are being asked to consider herbal forms of healing – working with what is in-between, effective and yet natural, available to and yet still hardly acknowledged. Changing the foods you eat to include more greens and herbs to boost energy and health, and begin to pay very serious attention to the quality of the foods you eat – again, with a very close focus on the world of herbs and plants.

You can at this time adjust the way you eat and feind essential oil blends which assist with sleeping, with becoming calm, with dissipating anger, increasing self-love and deepening your wisdom. Explore growing your own flowers, vegetables and herbs.

When you begin to consider the truth that why you ingest becomes the very molecules of your body, and you may decide at this time to reduce additives, sugar, GMOs, and various forms of meat, too. You now begin a journey into health and wellbeing, and eat what is good and wholesome for you. The Hedgewitch is the messenger guiding you to this path of nourishment and well being through the plant world. Nurture and nourish yourself so that you continue to grow and glow.

THE ANCIENT

The Ancient is so old she is almost beyond time. She is able to speak the truth without compromise – as are you, when this card comes to you. She is so old, has experienced so much, learned and taught so many lessons, that she has become powerful and influential, just as you are becoming too. So too are you growing older, coming into wisdom. She knows that while others are now going to come to you for advice and guidance, she sees your humanity – your faults and your flaws and your feelings of unworthiness. She wishes to reassure you. Others will come to you, seeking knowledge, awaiting a blessing, an initiation, and oblivious to the consequences of the path they wish to walk. Wisdom, true wisdom, understands complexity, and you have developed this quality. The Ancient is honorable and human, and yet more than human, and she is courageous and has made sacrifices – as have you. She sees straight through comforting illusions – as you do.

She represents ancient tradition and the challenge of defining the self, yet remaining within a tradition that you value – and this too is one of your challenges. So take responsibility in your life. You will face the battle of choice, and will be the antidote to gurus and dominant personalities who claim to have all the answers. The Ancient recognises the challenge of being a teacher.

This immersion in a world to learn the ancient arts and venerate wisdom and old ways can be expressed in many forms, but everything you are now learning has value. She is the repository for ancient secrets and the contact between worlds. She is wise – and has learned to consider every word that falls from her lips, even as she longs to call out for freedom. You don’t need another course, degree, or certification to share the wisdom that perks and lurks inside you. You just need to be willing to share.

THE LIFE BRINGER

About you now ideas and projects are gestating, constellations of ideas are birthing, your creativity is flowing from within, and ideas are developing in an easy, organic flow. For a time, you will be rich in health and love and in physical beauty. While there is much that is new about your, what has already been developed within your world can now be brought to greater fulfillment – so children may begin to mature and grow older, and your ambitions and your dreams may need support to move from their beginnings to become truly established and make their presence strong and unshakable.

Your accomplishments will now be acknowledged, respect will be given as it is overdue, and your contributions and your work will now receive the value and recognition they deserve.

This could also mean you are able to ask for more money in exchange for your services and seek investment to develop your business. Your influence, power, and reputation are all growing in healthy, inspiring ways. You feel good in yourself – a loving relationship with your body now develops, and you accept and receive loving support from others.

No more will you receive disrespect – unkind words about yourself or your ventures will no longer be tolerated. You are growing in stature – finally, the world sees you for who you are, a successful being who has followed their dreams!

So there we go glorious one. Interesting how the cards reflected nourishing yourself, embracing your wisdom and then watching the respect come in! Whoot!

I wish for you a stupendous week, glorious harvests and big releases. Let me know what you think of this new deck! See you next week!