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Welcome to Alison’s Alembic! You may have arrived here as a stop on the
Tarot Blog Hop from either Ania M's or Karen Sealey's PureBlessed Tarot blog. Or
you may have found this through TABI’s Facebook page, or though one of the many
wonderful tarot bloggers in the ether... It doesn’t matter – what does matter
is that you’re here!
For those of you unfamiliar with Lammas,
it’s the festival of the harvest. Also
known as Lughnasadh, the cross-quarter fire festival, it’s celebrated on the
evening of the 31 July and on the first three days of August (in the northern hemisphere). More
specifically, Lammas is the first harvest (usually of grain and fruit – the
basic food that sustains us through the winter), when farmers begin to reap the
rewards of their hard work. It’s
associated with baking bread from that first harvest of grain, but has also
been called ‘the festival of gratitude and first seeds’ because the grain is
also the seed that becomes next year’s harvest – a reminder of the cycle of
life.
Lammas celebrates the alchemy of Water and
Fire - we’ve just left the water sign of Cancer and are now in the fire sign of
Leo. The sun still carries enough
energy to help the crops to ripen, but we need rain as well. Lugh,
the Celtic god and Sun King, gives up his power at Lammas, just as the sun
starts to wane and lose its power. We
too need to give up something of our outer selves as we prepare for the inner
journey of the winter. It’s a time for
assessment, as well as celebration.
Lugh is associated with both the Sun and the planet Mercury, so our wrangler for this Hop, Joanne Sprott of
Cosmic Whispers Tarot, has asked us to give us our
take on the Sun or Mercury’s influence in the tarot or an oracle deck. One of the meanings of the name 'Lugh' is 'lightning-flash' and I’m struck (no
pun intended) by the fact that 2015 is the International Year of Light. I’m sure this hasn’t
escaped Joanne’s notice, as she’s into the astrophysical side of things as
well. The UN has designated 2015 as the
year to celebrate the achievements of light science, and to raise awareness of optical technologies and how they contribute to all areas of life on earth (www.light2015.org).
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| NASA images celebrating ILoL 2015. Chandra X-ray Observatory, 22 Jan 2015 |
One of the achievements being celebrated is
the 1000th anniversary of Ibn al-Haytham’s work on optics,
mathematics, and astronomy.
The more I read about this, the more I kept
seeing the Thoth’s version of the Six of Swords in my mind.
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| Six of Swords - Thoth Tarot (trimmed) |
Crowley chose the
word “science” for this card although he didn’t mean it to be confined to the
world of science. The rose in the centre
of the card was intended to represent the “secret of scientific truth”– the analytical
way of thinking that pushes us away from out-dated ideas and beliefs that are
no longer of value, and that allows us to see more clearly new perspectives (Ziegler,
1988).
Crowley drew on the Order of the Golden
Dawn’s astrological associations for his deck – no surprise, at least to me
then, that the Six of Swords is linked to Mercury in Aquarius. Mercury may be a
trickster but he’s also a quick thinker (mercury, the chemical element, is also
known as quicksilver), and in Aquarius his ability to analyse quickly, clearly
and objectively throws new ‘light’ on the situation. Sometimes it might be a ‘trick of the light’
that helps us to see things differently.
As the god of communication (among other things), Mercury helps to
spread the new light and to “bring the rose of realization into bloom”
(Ziegler, again).
Not unlike what Ibn al-Haytham was trying to do, a thousand years ago, perhaps.
Thank you
for stopping off here on your journey through this Lammas Tarot Blog Hop! Please do come back and read some of my other
posts.
The next
stops on the Tarot Blog Hop are - depending on whether you’re moving backwards
or forwards through the list – Ania M’s or Karen Sealey's Pure Blessed Tarot blog . The Master List can be found
here.
Previous | Master List | Next
Thoth Tarot created by Aleister
Crowley, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris, published by US Games Systems, Inc.
I learned quite a bit from your blog. Thank you very much for this. Now I will have to do some research. YAY! :D
ReplyDeleteAlways happy to inspire more research!
DeleteI didn't know about the Year of Light, so many thanks for teaching and sharing. I love learning new things! Well done!
ReplyDeleteMe too, Aisling - there's always so much to learn on these Blog Hops!
DeleteI love this background! My copy of Ziegler is all curled up on the edges from being pawed on. I didn't know Lugh was associated with lightening flashes. I also didn't' know that this year was a celebration of light. I like your wording "trick of the light." Such an informative post.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Siobhan!
DeleteI like the 6 of Swords in general, but the Thoth version really helped organize my thoughts about its core energy, and it's so nice to see it as the focal point here. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Olivia :-)
DeleteOh now this was interesting, weaving Lugh, Ibn al-Haytham and the 2015 Year of Light together in the 6 of Swords. Great read, thank you BB
ReplyDeleteLove this post... science expanded beyond the world of science... that's something you need to keep up with in an ever-changing world...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karen! Hard to keep up sometimes but I try :-)
DeleteWow. I actually hadn't seen thenYear of Light thing for some reason ,even though I keep up with NASA stuff regularly. What great insights in your brief post, Alison. Perfect! And I also enjoyed your integration of Lammas into the theme. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joanne - it was a challenging topic but I really enjoyed the research, so thanks for that. :-)
Delete