Lammas blessings

Lammas has come and gone and what a harvest it was too this year, coming early from want I can gather in the UK, and here too, on Guernsey, I have been harvesting the blackberries for a few weeks now.

Traditionally though Lammas is seen as the first harvest and the very beginning of autumn, 1 August.

I celebrated with sunrise in a local dolmen, the waning gibbous moon still high in the sky, as the sun rose out to the east, moving now towards the south from its most northerly rise point at the summer solstice. I saw the sun set as well, increasingly to the south too.

There are signs of the seasonal shift as much as we might not want to admit it. Warmer weather is still forecast, but the leaves are already crisping and falling from some of the trees, and the nights are drawing in.

Still, there is much to enjoy and I am certainly excited about the month ahead, my brother and family visiting from Australia and taking a break from teaching group sessions - my last Friday morning class takes place this Friday 7th and the last Sunday morning intimate class on the 9th August.

I’m still offering private sessions during this time - if you can’t see a slot online then email me as I am increasingly taking private bookings, there has been a shift, people are preferring the personal touch again and I’ll always try to accommodate you.

I am hopeful we’ll cultivate more of this personal touch as the divide between the real and the unreal increases with AI making it increasingly difficult to know the truth. At the end of the day, the only truth is within side ourselves and as life becomes increasingly filled with technological distraction, keeping us from this, the antidote of course is spiritual practice, because this takes us deeper into ourselves and away from the noise out there.

I have seen a number of clients this week who have been in some anxiety let’s say about the state of world affairs. I don’t watch the TV, listen to the news, take part in social media, so I’m fairly oblivious to it all. Instead I’m much happier being outside, with the sun and the moon and the trees and the beach and the stars. There is something more real about this. The sounds of the birds, the sensation of sea water on skin, sitting under a tree in the evening, breathing fresh air, practising yoga - regardless of what is going on out there, it doesn’t seem to matter in the present moment of being in nature and in our nature too.

If I have one hope for us all, it is that we increasingly turn away from being online and get inside ourselves instead. I appreciate yoga isn’t accessible to everyone, but Reiki certainly is and I have a sense this can really help to change things for all of us, gifting us the ability to heal ourselves, raise our vibration and open us up to higher states of consciousness. This, I hope, will counter all the human low vibrational noise and fear.

So any of you reading this who are Reiki attuned, then keep practising on yourself and sharing the love with others too. And for those of you increasingly curious, then take the step to become attuned yourself, the planets are certainly encouraging this shift. At the end of the day, we have to be the ones to make the change, by beginning with ourselves.

So happy Lammas - I hope you get to enjoy the abundance of the season, the blackberries are certainly delicious in Saints Valley!

Love Emma x