August 2023 and the Lammas Super-moon (x 2)
Astronomy, astrology and Tarot
1 August 2023, marks the start of Lammastide , or the season of the “Loaf Mass”, marking the start of the Anglo-Saxon harvest season as first recorded in the 10th century.
Word origins Old English hlaf, ‘loaf’ and mæsse, ‘mass.’ The first loaf of the harvest was taken to the church to be blessed in magical protection of the rest of the harvest to come.
Mice not welcome. Competition! No shops or supermarkets then.
Neo-Pagans and many others see Lammas as being one and the same marker in the calendar as an older pre-christian Celtic festival, Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-na-sa), named for Lugh, also known as Lug, Lugo and Lugus. He was the Celtic god of justice, victory, statecraft, crafts- and the harvest. He has at various times been identified as a sun god, and has also been linked with Mercury or Hermes.
There is archaeological evidence that he was widely worshipped in Europe before the advent of Christianity. The city of Lugo in Galicia in northern Spain is named after him. Below is a map of the distribution of inscriptions to the Lugoves or to Lugus. Via Wiki.
This direct calendar connection of the Anglo Saxon Christian Lammas and the older Lughnasadh seems entirely likely, though there is apparently no known surviving documentary evidence.
We are at the height of summer and now at harvest time we are entering the final stretch, but Haer-fest/harvest was the Old English word for autumn.
August was also known in Old English as “weed month” (Weodmonað) meaning the month of long grasses. This didn’t necessarily suggest unwanted plants, only plants that were wild and uncultivated one, and this time of year is prime growing season as gardeners can attest.
Around 7 August marks the astronomical half way point between the summer solstice and the autumn/fall equinox.
Tarot
The Tarot cards associated with August are Strength (Leo), the Six of Wands, the Seven of Wands (corresponding with the second and third Leo decans), the Eight of Pentacles (the first decan of Virgo) and The Empress, manifesting as Harvest goddess/Ceres/Demeter.
She is the principle of creation. Fertility. She is all things female. She is all mothers. She is Gaia. Mother Earth.
1 August is the first of this month’s two full Moons, and this moon is in Aquarius. We have a New Moon in Leo 16 August which promises to be…lively, and then we have another full supermoon 31 August, this one in the zodiac sign of deepest Pisces. We are dealing with profound changes and unknowns. We may need to withdraw. We may need to look at this from another perspective. We may need to let go of something we used to want, or used to think we wanted.
Not only do we have two full moons this month, so that August 2023 is a Blue Moon month, but these will both be a supermoon, coming closer to Earth than usual, 15 % larger and brighter in the sky.
It has been shown that we sleep at least 20 minutes less on average during a night of full moon, and with 30 % less of that sleeping time spent in restorative deepest sleep, compared with other nights in the lunar cycle. One way to combat this effect is to reduce our exposure to blue light in the evening. Switch off your computer at least two hours before you settle to sleep tonight.
Or don’t. Test it out and see what, if any difference you notice over the next few nights.
Tonight’s moon rise is in the east at a distance of 222,159 miles (357,530km) when the supermoon will be visible shortly after sunset from around 9 PM – if the skies are clear enough. At its furthest point away from the Earth, when it is in apogee, the Moon is about 405 696 km (252 088 miles) away
Let’s call the maximum range a difference of roughly 30 000 miles. But the Moon and the Earth are drifting apart at a rate of about an inch and a half every year. It’s the effect of gravity, it seems a ridiculously small change, and we need not concern ourselves about it personally, but multiply that effect over millions of years and they will become profound.
You can read more about that here.
Saturn
Once a year, Earth flies between the sun and Saturn. In 2023, this will happen August 27. Saturn, old Father time, the astrological planet of law and order, and of discipline and restriction, is also now getting closer and brighter…
Old heads on young shoulders. Wise heads on old shoulders. Money stuff, work stuff, and family responsibilities get serious
Tarot Guidance Full Moon 1 August 2023
Well, what do you know. We have only drawn The King of Swords.
So what?
Tonight’s Full Moon is in Aquarius,and the King of Swords is THE court card associated with the zodiac sign of Aquarius (the major arcana card of Aquarius is The Star and the decan cards of Aquarius are the 5,6 and 7 Swords.
Typical tarot. Real time synchronicity – or coincidence if you prefer.
The King of Swords may be male or female. This doesn’t matter for the purposes of guidance.
The Tarot is sensing a collective and individual need to stay especially cool, clear, calm and collected during the next few days.
This month there will be no escaping surprises, delays and complications in our family lives, in other close relationships and in travel.
You do not have all the information you need in respect of critical decision making right now. Seek advice, or further research is required before you make any far reaching decisions or enter into long term commitments.
This king operates strategically and judicially. S/he can be ruthless and intent on conquest, but his primary objective here is to guard and protect his/her space, resources and those things and people s/he holds most dear.
S/he is analytical, forensic, surgical in accuracy. In real life s/he may be a leader, a military person, a judge, a doctor, pilot, IT specialist and so on.
The Aquarius king cares for Humanity as a collective. The focus here is dedicated but the quality of feeling is somewhat remote; intellectual or ideological, and is centred on the group or the wider collective, rather than the individual. August may introduce us to new groups, political parties, charities or other local or common cause communities.
Aquarius is also represented by the Star card of technology. There may be big news again this month to do with new tech, space tech and social media. Aquarius is space travel, aliens, - and clouds. Here is Cloud technology. Here is nature’s own cloud formation and rainfall.
Image below is from The Legacy of the Divine Tarot.
Volodymyr Zelensky is an Aquarius subject. Several people were tragically killed yesterday in his home city in a Russian missile attack, but now the Ukrainian counter offensive is underway and Moscow has finally experienced a taste of its own airborne aggression, although Ukrainian drones have not been targeting residential areas, so far as we know.
There seems quite a strong likelihood, suggested by cards with timings ranging from Scorpio (late Oct) to Capricorn (Dec-Jan) that the war may achieve some formal ending or resolution before entering its second winter. This is to be welcomed, but seems almost certain to be brokered in terms which neither side will find satisfactory.
It is certainly not a good outcome for Putin’s regime, especially after the shock of the Wagner rebellion. This for Putin was a “stab in the back,” which I had previously forecast and documented online on several occasions and some months previously, as flagged up by the Ten of Swords, illustrated here from the Tarot of The Illuminati deck.
Logically, my first thought was that Prigozhin was now toast. But the cards did not see it that way, and they have been borne out, at least so far.
Putin still has uses for Prigozhin as suggested in the cards because he is a) good for “business” b) he offers good terror value not only to Putin, but to Lukashenko, as an existential threat for the unsettling of Moldova/Transnistria/Poland.
But for the rest of us in general we can achieve a lot this month, with the caveat that we seem best served by staying watchful, keeping a cool head, looking every gift horse in the mouth, separating workable fact from opinion or wishful thinking, and cutting our cloth with care by the light of the full moon 1 August and its afterglow in the next few coming days.
Clearing, sorting, dumping, sweeping clean, gathering, check and filing paperwork.
We have 5 planets in retrograde by the end of August: Venus, Mercury, Pluto, Saturn and Neptune. This is a time for avoiding random choices, knee jerk reactions or sudden moves. The end of this month is a time for deep reflection, reviewing, reassessment, risk avoidance and judicious, methodical planning.
Saturn is serious. Saturn says time flies.
This August is- and this is not necessarily sinister in the slightest, or cause for concern. But we are not sweating the small stuff. That much is for sure. August is not a quiet news month for us personally. This is a time for grownups, or it is growing up time. Especially watch for events around that New Moon 16 August and the Full Moon in Pisces 31 August.
Tweeted 28 July
#Tarot August 2023 General impressions. No specific context. Mood? Navigating deepest waters. So many unknowns (Hanged Man) this month (Strength=Leo) Unsettled mid month but Judgement +8 Pents suggests we cope by keeping our cool with a focus on immediate concerns/tasks in hand.
That Hanging Man card, is I think, picking up on events, news and developments around the second full Moon in Pisces, 31 August.
This is tricky. On the one hand we are swimming in deepest waters this month. Where are we going? On the other, we are keeping ourselves on a tight leash. First, we do no harm. Grace and gravitas. It’s not that we’re going anywhere anytime soon. Nothing to worry about. No need to panic. But we’re feeling that need, sorting stuff out, calling time on what’s weighing on us but sadly can’t be sorted. We may be paying more attention to a niggling health matter, and making changes, setting our house in better order.
Till next time :)
Thank you for this. Last weekend I got a message from spirit telling me to stay home Monday-Wednesday. I’ve done so, and plan to have a chill rest of the month, as much as possible. I will be referring back to this post, I’m sure.