5 Ways to Work Magic on Lughnasadh

Here Are 5 Rituals and Spells You Can Do on the Ancient Pagan Holiday of Lammas.

In the Northern Hemisphere, Lughnasadh is August 1st.

Lughnasadh, also known as Lammas, is the first of the Wheel of the Year’s three harvest festivals, and is considered the festival of first fruits and grains. Lughnasadh is named after the Celtic god Lugh. According to Judika Illes in Encyclopedia of Spirits, “Lugh, Lord of Craftmanship, Light, Victory, and War, is a master builder, harper, poet, warrior, sorcerer, metalworker,  cupbearer and physician. It’s hard to envision anything at which Lugh does not excel.”

Lammas, this sabbat’s alternate name, comes from the Germanic hlafmaesse, which means “loaf mass,” indicating this holiday’s significance as a celebration of sustenance and the grain harvest.

Here are 5 ways to work magic on Lughnasadh.

1. Cast This Abundance Spell 

As a celebration of the wealth of the harvest, Lughnasadh is related to green and growing things, as well as the earth and the sun. This makes it an appropriate time to work magic related to financial blessings and increase such as the following Lughnasadh spell:

Hold a small clear quartz in bright sunshine. As you do so, imagine that it is a money magnet, drawing wealth to you from all directions. Feel, imagine, and sense the earth and sun conspiring to bless you with continually expanding riches. Then place the stone near the base of an edible plant, such as a potted tomato plant on your patio or a fruit tree on your property. Even a potted herb in your window will work. Tend to the plant or tree lovingly, and whenever you eat from it in the future, give thanks to the plant and the earth, and feel that you are internalizing the energy of wealth and increase.

2. Create a Lughnasadh Crystal Grid

A crystal grid is a mandala created from stones and possibly other natural items, infused with a specific magical intention. Once you create a crystal grid, it holds the vibration of your intention, and emanates that vibration into your home.

For Lughnasadh, it’s a good idea to create a crystal grid with the intention to feel and express gratitude for the earth and for all that you have. This, in turn, will help magnetize even greater abundance.

To create your Lughnasadh crystal grid, gather stones you’d like to use, as well as grasses and flowers from outside. Other appropriate items might include dried grains, beans, or nuts. Cleanse and purify the crystals before you create your grid by placing them in the Lughnasadh sunlight for a minute or two. (If there’s no sunlight, you can cleanse them in smoke from sage or incense.) Then, on a flat surface, focus on your intention while creating your grid. Take your time until it feels just right.

3. Make Barley Water Potion

Barley water is an ancient beverage that, in addition to being magical, is delicious and refreshing when served iced on hot summer days (like Lughnasadh). Here’s a recipe for it. Before drinking your barley water, hold your hands over it. Feel golden earth energy coming up through your feet and golden sun energy coming down through the crown of your head. Imagine these energies meeting at your heart and moving down through your hands and out into the barley water. Sense the water being filled and surrounded with golden, abundant light. Feel grateful for all your blessings and send that gratitude into the water as well. While drinking your barley water potion, ruminate on the magic of the harvest and the unending bounty of the earth.

4. Align with the Power of the Earth with a Food Ritual

It’s amazing how many magical things we can take for granted. Case in point: food – the delicious bounty of the earth that continually nourishes, heals, and delights us. Lughnasadh is a wonderful time to remind yourself of this everyday magic. Doing so will align you with the power of the earth and in turn boost your health, wealth, and happiness.

If you grow food of any kind, and if it’s possible, prepare a meal that contains some of what you’ve grown. If you don’t grow food, do your best to obtain local ingredients and prepare a meal with those. But if neither of these are possible, simply prepare a delicious meal with the reverent awareness that the plants you’re using were gifts from the earth. You might also like to marvel at the many contributors to the existence of the plant ingredients, such as farmers, farm workers, bees, sunlight, and water.

Say a blessing of gratitude over the food before eating it. If you can, eat it outside, barefoot, with your feet touching the earth. Sense that you are bringing the power and magic of the earth into your body as you eat, and savor each bite.

5. Share Food

In the ancient world (and essentially to this day), food was wealth. And when you share wealth with a generous and open heart, wealth comes back to you multiplied.

If it feels comfortable for you to do so, consider donating any amount of money to a local charity that provides food to people in need. Perhaps you have an abundance of (let’s say) avocados because you have an avocado tree in your yard. If so, you could share avocados with friends and neighbors. If you love baking, you could bake a bunch of muffins and deliver them to friends. Or, you could round up canned and packaged food that you know you’ll never eat and donate it to a local food bank.

Simply sharing food may not sound like a spell, but if you begin by feeling gratitude for all that you have, and then if you give with an expansive feeling of love in your heart, you will be setting in motion a wave of prosperous and joyful energy that will not fail to come back to you.

Did this post inspire you? Are you going to try one of these Lughnasadh spells? Or do you have another magical Lammas ritual you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you: please comment below.

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