From the Archives: IT’S REAPING TIME! Happy Lughnasa

Shéa and Amy are on vacation, so we're bringing back one of our earliest (not redited at all) episodes. 

This was originally recorded for Lughnasa 2025. This year (2026), Lughnasa falls on August 1 in the Northern Hemisphere - so I hope you have plans for this weekend!

Pour yourself a glass of wine and settle in for a brief overview of the first of the harvest festivals.

***

Bread recipe (Alas, not the one discussed, but also super easy!): https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe

Seasons of the Witch Lammas Oracle by Juliet Diaz and Lorriane Anderson: https://www.rockpoolpublishing.com/seasons-of-the-witch-lammas-oracle

Watch us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@cliffhangersandcocktails

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Thanks - the Caftan Coven

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, it's editor Amy here. Shea and I are still on vacation. And although I can't speak for Shea, I can 100% tell you that my vacation has been a mix of writing like the madwoman that I am to finish book one in my upcoming Silver City Shifter series. The prequel, Betrayal of the Pack, is out now on my author store. And drinking wine to stay in podcast practice. This week's entry from The Wayback Machine is our 2025 Lunassa episode. This year, Lunasa falls on August 1st in the Northern Hemisphere. Our friends in the Southern Honey, you know, I am never gonna say heavy again. I did not like that. Our friends in the Southern Hemisphere are celebrating Alock right now. I haven't done anything to the original episode other than add our intro and outro music, so get to enjoy the early graphics, sound and editing. Please settle in for episode 10.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Welcome to Cliffhangers and Cocktails Podcast with Amy Cecil and Shay McLeod, USA Today best-selling authors of paranormal women's fiction, among other things. Brought to you by the CalfTab Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Today is our first mini pod. We plan to do several of these short podcasts where we discuss a single topic related to the craft, not the movie, although we will add that in by request. Yes. Oh, I would love to talk about the craft. We should definitely do a viewing party or something. Yeah, for sure. Um today, or for these that we planned, um, we're gonna be talking about craft cocktails, witchcraft, or writing craft. These are great to listen to when you don't have a lot of time for a full podcast to fully like immerse yourself in our dulcet tones. Or if you're really just interested in a specific particular topic. Um, today's topic is Lunasa, which or llamas, depending on where you're from. So um Shea, why don't you tell us a little bit more about Lunasa? Okay, I'll do that.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Uh Lunasa, yes, is a Gaelic festival which marks the beginning of the harvest season. And it is traditionally celebrated in um Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man of all places. It sounds like a terrible place, but I'm sure it's lovely. I'm sure I think I think it's a really beautiful island. Um, but it was also celebrated, obviously, in like England and Wales, but they call it Llamas. But it's kind of the same core thing. And uh it is traditionally held on August 1st, which is the halfway between the summer solstice and the autumn inkwanox.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

And which has nothing to do with that. We struggle, you guys, sometimes with reversing things for the southern hemisphere. Yes, as noted a couple few weeks ago when I called midsummer Christmas for Australians, which is not how it works at all. Um because we're talking about astronomical calendars and seasonal calendars is certainly not the same thing. Not the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

We celebrate Christmas at the same time, but not Yule.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yeah. My child in no way mocked me. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yeah, she is she's such a sweet, uh non-mocking child. You know those teenagers. So sweet unmocking. And apparently the poor, you know, poor Gaelic peoples only had like four seasonal festivals, and all of which a shame. I know. Uh, and they are all been incorporated into the eight summates that of that many witches and pagans celebrate.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

So um how is it celebrated, oh if I were gonna guess and I didn't actually know, um, I would say eating, drinking, dancing, and fire.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Woo! All the best things for any party. And you would if you don't have those things, is it even a party? It's it's not a party. It's definitely not a party. But um there is uh a little bit more to it. Those things were definitely part of part of Lunasa, but um also folk music, which is interesting that they would have folk music in the folky times. But there we go. It's from the faith the fair folk. It's fair folk music. Fair folk music. And and I did not know this one, matchmaking.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Not like making not making matches, like matching people. I guess that's good. Because like when you're pregnant in the winter, being pregnant is super hot.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

I will take your word for that.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

I was pregnant in the winter and I can't imagine having been that pregnant in July. I sat outside in January going, Well, is it so uh I do that with hot flashes. It's like a continual hot flash.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

That sounds really unpleasant. I'm surprised anyone does it.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Well, they don't tell you that part before. I'm just surprised anyone does it more than once. Because children are great.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah, children are good. But it it makes a lot of sense back then that they would have used that time because you know you had a lot of people in a lot of different little towns and hamlets, and they probably would have kind of come together for a big one in a loc local uh central location, and it would have been a good time to meet people that you weren't related to.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

So I love how we both just went matchmaking, obviously means that they're having sex and producing children, not like entering some kind of like Torian romance where they look longingly across the room for three years.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

I don't know. I'm way too practical for that. So I'm like, or maybe I just know history too well. Uh although I suppose there was some chance there certainly was some chance for longing looks across the bonfire. The hands touch as they reach for the potatoes. You said they weren't really potatoes. No, I I I I well, I mean Yeah. Potatoes aren't really part of this festival. No, no, that's true. Uh although maybe they had them, I don't know. But today, some of these festivals have survived or been revived, and they usually have like, you know, music and dance, arts and crafts workshops, traditional storytelling and markets, sometimes like historical reenactments or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Sadly a historical reenactment of Lunasa. I'm gonna tell you right. Should we do one?

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Oh, we should totally do one. That would be fun. We should do one sometime. That way, I I I think we need more research to to figure out like what type of.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

I mean, we know it's drinking, dancing, music, eating, fire.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

We can skip the matchmaking because we can skip the matchmaking because we're all pretty well matched. With other people. Yeah. To be specific. Um yeah, and that's not really a part of modern Luna celebrations anyway. Uh boring. Yeah, I know. We we really got boring with our, you know, no human sacrifices, no matchmaking. What are we even doing? Who even knows? But the really fa interesting thing I found like researching uh Lunasa was that part of the Irish diaspora in the United States is we often see this Sabbat translated into um family get-togethers, like family reunions in August. Um and and that's kind of like it lost the sort of harvest festival aspect, but it still remain family food, possibly drinking. Depends on your family. Depends on your family. And so um I I think it's really interesting that that was that sort of tradition of having a family reunion in August kind of came from the Irish celebrating Lunasa when they came to America.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

I think it's kind of fun to I mean, like that's when we did family reunions where I grew up where there are it wasn't super Irish. Um there was a lot of Scandinavians, um, German um traditions there, uh, you know, some English and Welsh. Uh, but that is family reunion time. And I'm guessing that part of it, and this is probably you maybe where it came from with the Irish, you spread across this spread this tradition, is that it's between planting and the final harvest. Yeah, sweet corn is ready, school is out of session, the days are long, and it's a great time to get together with family.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Absolutely, and feast.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

You can be outside and you don't have to worry about driving through snowstorms, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

You've got long hours of sunshine. My family used to like we always it was always August when we would have our family, either very, very late July. I mean late July, like the last weekend, or first weekend of August usually was when we would have family reunions, and we always had this ginormous pot, like the size you could stick a small child in.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

But I thought you said there was no human sacrifice.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

There well, no, there I mean you could. We didn't. We skipped that part. Uh-huh. We just put lots of ears of corn in there with some water and stuck it on the fire and let it just sit.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

And we have to.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Here you go, Lou. Here's your sacrifice. Gotta sacrifice to Lou. And for witches, it's also a time of gratitude because you know, this it's all about abundance and harvest. And it's a time for community because you know, community is you need a community to bring in that harvest. And people would often, like, if they had extra, they'd share it out with the people in their community. Did you ever make cornhust dolls? Um, I did. Ironically, it was in like vacation Bible school or something.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

I love how many pagan traditions are like, especially harvest ones, I think, got adopted.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Uh-huh. And it's like, we're making cornhust dolls in church. That's fine.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

I've never done it, but I kind of want to try now.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

It's been, I, you know, I it's been so many years. I know there was a trick to like how you had to fold it. It wasn't super difficult because obviously I was a young child, but um but yeah, there's a little trick to how you fold it or something. I'm sure there's like YouTube uh tutorials or something, but yeah, I should probably do one again because it's been a while. But of course, we're talking about corn because corn and bread are the symbols of Lunosa.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

You know, I used to make bread with my daughter every weekend. Every weekend we would make bread together. And then the pandemic hit, and my partner, who you will all meet very soon, mysterious, um lost his job and became a full-time writer and a full-time bread baker. Not like a job that was just a side hobby, I guess. Um, but he made us bread like twice a week. We went through that homemade bread. Like it was like, oh my gosh, so good. It was good. Sourdough starters, but like that bread that he would make was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

It was easy. I was so lucky to be able to taste that bread. It was so good. It was good.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Are you gonna share the simplest?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Are you gonna share that recipe with us so that we can all see how easy this bread is to make?

SPEAKER_00 12:40

I I will I will do that. I will contact my partner and I will be like, please give me your secret family bread recipe. And he'll be like, I literally found it on the internet or something like that. I will put it in the show notes so everyone can have easy, delicious bread.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

I love making Irish soda bread for the reason that it is not only delicious, but very easy to make.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

I do make Icelandic bread, which is a lot heavier. Okay. Um, and it goes so well with kyotsupa, which is a lamb soup um that has root vegetables in it, like potatoes, which are not part of it, but they are part of every happy day.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Yes, they are indeed. But people are into the root vegetables. So are mine. I mean, I'm Irish. I mean, I'm not a I'm more a corn girl than a potato girl. Like, you know, I like pasta over potatoes, which I don't know what that says about my like Irishness part of me. Nokie. Nokia is delicious, and that involves potatoes. So there we go. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Potatoes are the best individual food.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

They're very existed. They make the world go round.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

So right up there with fat bottom girls.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

That is right, and you better believe it.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

So, in addition to making bread and corn husk dolls, um, it's just it's the gathering, it's the playing of games, it's sitting around the fire um with your community. And that transcends every tradition and every religion and every group is we celebrate with community and sharing food and stories. Um, it's also a really great time of year to reflect on your personal accomplishments um and figure out what you are grateful for that's happened in this year. What have you done awesome besides probably everything? And what do you need to let go of going to the next year? Whether it's a habit that no longer serves you, a relationship, or a person that no longer uplifts you, a job, a country. I'm just saying, I'm moving. In less than a month, I will be I will be in the place.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Amy likes Amy likes to take her lunasa to the extreme. Yep. I'm cutting ties with the country. Um, it's it's also a great time to um have a cinnamon ritual because it's the first of the month. And maybe a kitchen witch, I always do my cinnamon ritual at the first of the month, which is super simple. A little bit of ground cinnamon in your hand, blow it through the front door, along with, you know, you can either say it in your mind or if you have like something you'd like to say, some sort of invitation to invite abundance into the house. And you blow it into the house, not at all. Yeah, no, you blow it into the house because you're inviting the abundance in, the money. I just wanted to make sure I was checking my cinnamon sticks in the right direction. Yeah. So yeah, when you're checking your cinnamon sticks, check them in the right direction. Um it's also like um, you know, in the in the old days, the this would be a time where they would give some of that extra corn and tomatoes and whatever that they had to people in their community who were in need. And of course, in this day and age, most of us don't have massive farms and things like that. You know, we have apartments, but symbolically, we can take part in this by donating to food banks um who serve the community uh people who are in need. And food banks, of course, you prefer to get uh cash money because they're able to um obtain goods for much cheaper than we can. So, you know, uh send a little money to your local food bank to help celebrate Lunasa and thank the universe for the abundance that is in your life.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

It's also a great time, not that any time isn't a great time, to create a personal gratitude uh ritual, um, to express thanks for what you have been given, which helps open yourself up to more binance in the future. If you recognize what you have, it's like compound interest, I think. Yeah. Like I'm not sure if that's an apt um thing, but I think it is like compound interest.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Like you have your you have your your amount of stuff, your capital or whatever of stuff of whatever's happening in your life and whatever is in in your in your life of value. And when you open yourself up and become grateful, you get interest. Okay, total non-financial person here trying to yeah, okay. And we'll but I mean, kind of like once you're grateful for what you have, whatever that is, and you acknowledge how blessed you are, when you're living in that attitude of gratitude, then you're open to receiving more. And then you're gonna just like, hey, okay, have some more.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

And I think it also feels that even like part of it is just like training your brain to look around and be like, this is good shit. Yeah. Absolutely. Not looking at your shortcomings. Yeah. And I think that's kind of real important. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

So that you can see those opportunities rather than dismissing them out of hand.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

So now you you have oh, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

I was just gonna say that it's also a great time if an altar is part of your ritual. Is that what you were gonna say?

SPEAKER_01 18:38

That was what I was gonna ask because I know you have a beautiful altar in your house.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

I do have a beautiful altar in my home. It's less beautiful now because I'm in the process of packing. Um, but it's a really great time to refresh your altar. And I do that every Sabbath, um, or like sometimes as the mood takes me. But uh we didn't really talk about Lou.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

We have we didn't talk about Lou because he is the one, he's a god. I was just gonna mention him, and I'm like, wait, we didn't even talk about him.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

And and he is what Lunasa is named after, uh, the god Lu, who is he's uh the sun god for this tradition, um as well as a warrior and I think a craftsperson. Um he doesn't make bread. No, but he eats bread, I guess. He's the sun, he's the sun god, so he is the one bringing the harvest. And so we honor him with the harvest. It's like um it's kind of like a sacrifice, but not like Shea's younger relatives who got thrown into the boiling pot. Um, but so he's the sun god and responsible for the harvest, not responsible for the harvest, but like is there this is his time of ascendancy at the beginning of the harvest season. Yes. Um so when you refresh your altar, you can do so with images of the sun to honor Lou and the coming harvest season because this is the first of three harvest rituals.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Um, and this so this is the early harvest when it's just beginning. And the is turning golden and all that.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

And you might not want to put like fresh corn on your altar because corn and bread are the symbols of Lunasa. But Lou, his symbol, interestingly enough, is a snake. Don't put a fresh snake on your altar. Don't put a fresh snake on your altar, but like you could put snake symbolism on your altar. I thought you were gonna say can't put fresh corn, but go ahead and put a fresh go ahead and put a fresh snake.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

You don't have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

No, start bot is fine.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Um, also fresh greenery. Um that's very seasonal. Um, one of the suggestions is mint. Um, I think you could this is a little bit more later in the season, like dried corn. But since we're using the husks to make our corn husk dolls, adding some dried corn on your altar would, I think, really be a great way to honor Lou as well. And the whole season.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Um, it's also this is a really good thing, and you can do this by yourself or like with your coven or your family, is to hold a twilight harvest meditation. And this kind of goes into that whole thing of of considering the abundance that has been brought to you, also considering the things you need to let go, and then writing your intentions for the harvest season ahead. What are you going to let go? What do you want to come in? And then um you can do whatever uh ritual with that. Uh typically people will keep that maybe in a box, like maybe on your altar, or if you have um, I have a witch box where I keep things like that. Um, and at the end you know at the when you get to our last harvest festival you can go through and kind of reassess and and take stock of what you have whether you know the those intentions that you set at the beginning of harvest.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

And I think everybody obviously there's no one path there's no one true way. So you can't do it wrong no generally speaking unless you're putting live snakes on your altar. That's probably not wise. I mean I guess if that's your thing. Yeah but make sure everyone in your house is okay with it. Also it's not gonna stay on your altar you guys.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Anyway wait where was I going um oh everyone does stuff different there's no one pass you can't do it wrong right it's all about intention intention intention intention that's the biggest part of magic so I like to write my intentions at this first harvest and then I keep them like Shaya suggested I don't have a special witch box well I can show you my all of a sudden I felt like that was something dirty um no see here is my little jealous of your witch box you know you can get them on the river or you know for not very much money. They're not buying any more stuff Shaya well once here in Portugal um but yeah they're real it's they're technically I think it's a like a tarot deck box or something like that. And um they're just little lovely I think this one was made in India and um or something like that. Yeah made in India. Um and it's just beautiful and um I don't have an altar I have lots of little I have things scattered all over the place. So I don't have a central altar.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

So that becomes I I burn it. Yeah oh that's great prayers up into the air prayers I'm s intentions. Intentions it's the first it's the same com see cum sa um all righty all right so we have another special special thing that you're gonna do right now right that's right at this point everybody has got to know about my extreme passionate love for Juliet Diaz's Seasons of the Witch Oracle decks and the last ones are out now so all eight all eight Sabbaths are recognized. So I just got my llamas deck and that's what this one is called and and I just opened it and this is the first time you guys you guys are the first people Virgin deck virgin deck card words you scared me with virgin deck um so I have already shuffled because cards are real stiff um when they're virgin so I'm gonna go ahead and cut oh wait wait wait wait here's the cover so pretty of the duck so pretty um so kind of bright orange sun sunflowers and poppies and golden wheat in the fields there's birds flying around the sun looks kind of pissed off though she's got a little red lipstick and great makeup but she can't she's like side eyeing us I don't know um and then the woman on the cover is a a brown woman um she's got white hair with flowers um braided into it a full red skirt a white tank top she's got wheat sticking out of her cleavage and um she's got a snake wrapped around her arms well there you just I guess there goes my advice to not put snakes on your altar.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

You just you put them on your bury them and you stuff shoes of wheat down your down your boobs. I like this this is a new fashion thing that sounds so itchy.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yeah it really does because yeah all right here's the card okay okay okay okay poetry invoke your words for good and use them to uplift yourself and others so here's the card for people who can actually see this which is covered many yeah it's a young white woman um I noticed that the woman on the cover of the book on the deck and the woman in this one both have very thick eyebrows um neither here nor there she's sitting at one of those um old secretary writing desks reading a book of poetry on the floor there's a rabbit there's sunflowers there's a duck she needs an exterminator um and there's a crow on a bookshelf by the window there should always be a crow on the bookshelf by the window and on the wall like there's dried flowers and a mirror um and then you can see out the window and it's like rolling green hills and golden wheat fields. So now we are going to go to the book to the book to the book to the book come on come up come on okay so the keywords for poetry are value of words self-expression and giving voice to feelings so this has appeared to remind us to use our words for good do not give in to your desire to spread gossip or speak to yourself or others poorly a little criticism can appear harmless but you never know which word could be the breaking point. It could be the thing that sends someone over the edge on a day that was just a little too difficult to bear. And your words can be just as harmful to you. You may tell yourself things like you aren't pretty you're too fat you're not good enough you're basic and while it may seem like such a small thing today one unkind sentence said once a day for years can add up to hundreds and now you're bullying yourself and you've internalized all this negative self-talk.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

So I think it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Yeah and that becomes your reality then you keep telling yourself telling yourself telling yourself and that becomes the reality that you live in um I you know it's so easy to say I'm not gonna say bad things about other people um sometimes I still do because there's bad people in the world um but I try really hard for most people um but it's such a different thing to remind yourself that you are people in this thing you don't like um I don't I was don't know if I was reading a book I maybe I wrote it in a book I don't know anyway somebody said something negative about themselves and their friend said hey I don't let people talk about my friend that way and I'm like oh that's great I don't under people have written that in books I do that to my boyfriend in real life because he'll say negative things about himself he struggles with anxiety and depression and things and he will say really negative things about himself and I'm like excuse me stop right there I don't allow people to talk shit about my boyfriend and I like get all up in his face about it too.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Right. And but it is really hard it's even harder to do that with yourself though because you could just like you trip and drop something oh I'm such a klutz or you forget something and you're like oh how stupid am I you know it seems like nothing but it is like so so negative and it just sort of drills its way into your little brain and then it's not good.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

That doesn't happen to me. So anyway moving on you never trip no and I never call myself clumsy or no negatively about myself when it comes to my gracefulness. So moving on writing a poem is an excellent way of expressing yourself and your emotions. It allows you to express your truth and helps you uncover hidden stories within yourself that would otherwise remain buried. If you're writing a poem for self-expression focus on the topic you're exploring whether it's joy or sorrow or longing or hope. Choose words that resonate with your heart and your feelings take your time with each word phrase verse stanza and remember it doesn't have to be you know your poet laureate material because we're not talking negative about ourselves right now. And as 16 year old Amy can tell you poetry does not have to be good to make it into your beautiful book of poetry where it's really great and not emo and weird at all. So don't worry about the output worry about the the feeling your feels go into it feel these emotions find these images and it can help you like find like let go it can help you release things that are painful and that goes so well with what you're talking about in terms of letting go of things that don't serve you this is a good way to delve into how you feel and let go of those things that don't serve you.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Exactly together love it love it when a plan comes together if you said that I'm Mr T How are you Mr.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

T I don't know how to answer that so confused it's because of my bling oh your bling yeah okay I'm not the crazy one no never said that nobody has nobody knows what we're talking about. Go watch the A Time A Time A Team do do do do do thank you so much for joining us for our first mini sale oh yes thank you thank you be sure to smash that like button share with your friends rate review subscribe subscribe do all the stuff and check the show notes for information about our tech um and the recipe for the bread that I have to get from my partner so coming see you next time