Austin RCG

"Yet bees were not connected only with life.
Across European folklore, households once practised “telling the bees.” When someone died, the hives were informed of the loss. They might also be told about marriages, births, departures, and other changes within the family. Failing to include them was believed to risk the bees leaving, refusing to make honey, or bringing misfortune upon the home.
The hive was treated as part of the household."

As the first grain was cut and the season of harvest began, bees remained busy among the last flowers of summer, gathering sweetness before the darker months returned.

This made them natural symbols of Lammas.

They represented abundance created through patience, cooperation, and endless labour. Every drop of honey held the memory of thousands of flowers, transformed into something golden that could be stored long after the fields had faded.

Honey was precious.

It sweetened food, preserved fruit, flavoured ritual drinks, and became an offering worthy of gods, ancestors, and the dead. Its ability to resist decay made it feel almost immortal—a substance created during summer that carried the Sun’s sweetness into winter.

Yet bees were not connected only with life.

Across European folklore, households once practised “telling the bees.” When someone died, the hives were informed of the loss. They might also be told about marriages, births, departures, and other changes within the family. Failing to include them was believed to risk the bees leaving, refusing to make honey, or bringing misfortune upon the home.

The hive was treated as part of the household.

The bees knew its joys.

The bees knew its grief.

Their movement between flower, hive, and darkness gave them an otherworldly quality. In ancient symbolism, bees could be linked with priestesses, divine messages, sacred order, and souls travelling beyond the body.

At Lammas, the bee becomes a reminder that every harvest is an exchange.

The flower gives its nectar.

The bee gives its labour.

The hive gives its honey.

And the land gives abundance knowing that autumn will soon ask everything to return.

The bee teaches that sweetness is not separate from loss.

It is what we gather while the flowers are still here.

🌾 CORN DOLLIES, THE SPIRIT OF THE HARVEST 🌾

As we welcome 1st August and the old festival of Lughnasadh (Lammas), you may spot beautiful little creations woven from wheat or barley known as corn dollies.

Despite the name, they’re not made from sweetcorn. In Britain, the word corn once simply meant the local grain, usually wheat, oats, barley or rye.

Across Britain and Ireland, it was once believed that the spirit of the growing crop lived within the fields. As the harvest drew to a close, that spirit was thought to retreat into the very last sheaf left standing.

Rather than wasting it, the final stalks were carefully woven into a corn dolly. It was taken home and kept in the farmhouse throughout the winter, protecting the household and holding the blessings of the harvest until spring. When the next sowing season arrived, the straw was often returned to the fields so the spirit could continue its cycle of growth.

Every county developed its own distinctive patterns. Some were simple, while others became wonderfully intricate, passed down through generations of skilled hands.

Whether you see them as symbols of good luck, reminders of our farming heritage, or simply beautiful examples of traditional rural craft, corn dollies remain one of the loveliest customs of the harvest season.

Do you still have a corn dolly in your home, or has anyone in your family ever made one? 🌾

Shall we make some together? 💛

✨ Blessed Lughnasadh.

Blessings of Lughnasadh or Lammas

Recently, I was a panelist on one of the Maternal Gift Economy Movement's Salons ( #98)

As we concluded, I felt the question about how do we put an end to this devastation of the planet and its life brought on by the belief in scarcity and the behavior of patriarchy was not adequately addressed. Certainly, the work we have collectively done in looking to what we know now that we did not know 50 years ago plays a part, what we have already done with that information is important, and the contributions of women like Heidi Goettner-Abendorf in moving on and gathering contemporary options like Matriarchy Now! offer an exciting contemplation for the future. And, indeed, within RCGI, we have recognized the need to move on beyond Jade's work and do more linking with other similarly concerned organizations, domestically and internationally.

For myself, as a Priestess of the Goddess (Hera, to be specific) I have determined that the most important individual thing I can do is to daily flush the efforts of the media and actions of the powers of the patriarchy to instill fear, doubt, and panic in me, and so maintain a daily practice of self-centering that prepares me to act with courage and authenticity when I am called to do so. To call out the effort to silence us and to challenge the assumption that we can't act. We can and do. It adds up.

I consider that the assault on the planet and our persons has been going on for the last 5,000 years, but we are still lacking in the collective clarity that I feel will be needed to stop it. Just, one day, I believe we will hit a critical mass of consciousness about the lie that is scarcity and the soul destroying practices that are greed and exploitation, and we will just stop.

I believe this understanding will come from women, from the understanding of our nature and our oneness with the planet Earth, which I consider is Deity, a living, thinking, interactive entity whose energy field we are all a part of. Consequently, it is my honor to continue to educate and serve us so that we are not blocked by fear and may be open to a vision of the future, of what could be, so that we do not hesitate to act in really big ways now and when the time is present.

In the meantime, I look, as I have done for the last 50 years, to the poets and writers, the artists and musicians who are the heart and soul of every revolution, who create the visions of the future forming in the moment, to sustain my hope and add to my inspiration.

In short, I do not know HOW, but I know it will happen. We are not going back, I don't care how often or intensely the fear-mongers throw up the illusions that there is no way out. There is, and probably more than one.

Pat Cuney