Harvest Of Highest Beauty

ו' בתמוז תשס״ט
Faunus 7

In preparation for sabbat Lughnasadh, the upcoming Celtic fire festival which marks the beginning of the harvest season, I've acquired my first ritual drum - a tunable Celtic bodhrán made with a natural finish mulberry wood frame and a goatskin head. It's an instrument of most high beauty. So simply perfect!

Mulberry corresponds to the magical Ogham letter muin. The associations of muin include:

harvest
highest beauty
celebration and bounty
respite from labor to enjoy the fruits of one's labor
completion
exhilaration and joy
deep mysteries of divine ecstasy
inspiration
communication
release of prophetic power
the throat and the path of the voice
mead (also called honey wine)
in vino veritas (nichnas yayin, yatza sode)

Interestingly, most of last week I was bedridden with a nasty case of the flu, waking up one morning from a dream with a wizard's cauldron brewing up fiery energy in it [1] and feeling like my throat was on fire. The sore throat has since resolved. I am still recovering from the cough and congestion, though those have very much improved such that I no longer feel so weak as to be bedridden. I am healing and more importantly, my throat and the path of my voice have been purified by fire.

This instrument is a gift of Goddess to me.

Footnote:

[1] I didn't eat any of the stew-like concoction brewing in the cauldron, as there was fire in my throat already and the stew didn't appear appetizing to me on account of that. Also in the dream, I threw one of my pearls into a magical pool of magical water. Like Excalibur, only my chosen would be able to go into the magical pool of magical water to retrieve it.