Lammas ('loaf-mass') was an annual Catholic holiday, drawn from an older Pagan celebration, known to the Celts as Lughnassadh (literally, "Assembly of Lugh," and pronounced 'Loo-nah-sah'), the feast of the Celtic deity Lugh of the Long Hand, known as Llew to the Welsh.

In ancient times, this was the feast of the corn-god, the life force of the crops who was slain at harvest time and dwelt in the underworld (often in the form of buried wine-jugs!) until his rebirth at the winter solstice.

The holiday is celebrated by modern Pagans, often with offerings of bread and beer. You can read about one such celebration: Rites of Summer

Today is also the birth anniversary of Edward Kelley (aka Ned Talbot), the sixteenth century lawyer, knight, alchemist, and seer. Kelley is often regarded by historians as a charlatan, and indeed, Kelley did end his life in infamy, dying in an attempted jail-break. Kelly did leave behind a body of serious alchemical and magical work, but is best known as the scryer whose collaboration with Dr John Dee laid the foundations for centuries of ritual magic. Kelly's work as a medium laid the foundations of so-called Enochian or 'angelic' magick. Kelley's final communication with the spirit world came in the form of a communication reminiscent of then undiscovered Gnostic texts:

"I am shadowed with the Circle of the Stars and covered with the morning clouds. My feet are swifter than the winds, and my hands are sweeter than the morning dew. My garments are from the beginning, and my dwelling place is in myself. The Lion knoweth not where I walk, neither do the beast of the fields understand me. I am deflowered, yet a virgin; I sanctify and am not sanctified. " The Daughter of Fortuitude

See also:

The Stone of the Philosophers

The Theatre of Terrestrial Astronomy

Public domain images