Ahimsa Grove

Ahimsa Grove is a resource for vegan pagan living. It will include personal experiences and musings, recipes, shopping tips, vegan ethical and dietary considerations, and ideas for pagan practice including spells, rituals, and herbcraft.

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Lammas: The Ancient Heritage of Grains

The harvest holidays of paganism are great times to celebrate the gifts that plants give to all of us in the ecosystem. Grains have been a mainstay of the human (and pre-human) diet throughout our evolution. Studies of the early populations in Africa as long as 105 000 years ago show a diet sustained heavily by sorghum. Plants have been found on the grinding tools of several Paleolithic excavations. Evidence of starchy grains on the teeth of Neanderthals has been found from the Mediterranean to throughout Europe. There is even evidence that these early proto-humans learned to cook these plant foods.

 

At a 23 000 year old excavation site in Israel, researchers found food evidence in the huts that included wheat, barley, acorns, almonds, pistachios, berries, figs, and grapes. These are only a few examples of archaeology that suggests our very ancient ancestors based their diets on key foods that, depending upon region, included barley, corn, millet, potatoes, rice, and wheat. These starches, as well as things like fruits, nuts and berries, gave ancient humans the same vitamins, minerals, protein, complex carbs, and fats they needed to get the job done; surviving and thriving to the point where all of us exist today!

 

We have the stereotype of these ancients as Fred Flintstone characters, clutching dinosaur (or at least mammalian) flank roasts in their hands, and subsisting almost entirely on meat. In reality, hunting was unpredictable, dangerous, and by no means a sure thing in terms of providing for the tribe. Lots of evidence similar to what I already noted suggests that ancient peoples subsisted on a great deal of plant food. In other words, the “gathering” was at least as important, if not more important, than the “hunting.”

 

Once cultivated agriculture was well established, our ancestors ritualized all the different aspects of the harvest. And so we come to the example most often associated with the Neo-pagan tradition of Lammas. The Celts brought in the first sheaves of grain right around this time of the year, and the first loaves that were baked were used for blessing and celebration.

 

For the Vegan Pagan, Lammas presents an opportunity to celebrate the long-standing blessing of plant-based foods. And surely the Queen of these foods is bread. The Hebrew testaments canonized by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam mention the connection between women and the creation of sacred cakes. Of course in these documents, the mention is a disgruntled and disapproving one. But the pagan religions carry forth innumerable references to sacred loaves, or “cakes and ale.” Liquor, incidentally, is another use for these sacred grains, and is also associated with numerous goddesses, like Cerridwen and Bridget. And most of us in Greco-Roman influenced cultures know Demeter as a goddess of the grain.

 

But as strongly as the goddesses have been linked to grain and vegetation are the “green men” and the dying, resurrecting gods. Osiris is one of the most ancient prototypes, though there are many. In ancient art he was literally green, and he was credited with teaching humans to eat crops instead of engage in cannibalism (which was apparently a problem before he interceded). Of course numerous other gods are associated with vegetation as part of their role in the life cycle. These include Bel, Attis, Ba’al, and yes; Jesus. In all cases of the dying and resurrecting god, including within the Bible, the metaphor of plants like wheat is used. Wheat or corn are great teaching tools for the concept that the god births and rebirths from the goddess. In other words the goddess the life force sustaining All, while the god comes and goes as an avatar who brings us crucial spiritual “nourishment” before dying, being taken back into the goddess (the earth), and later regenerating from her womb. He is like the plant that dies back but has already seeded itself for another incarnation.

 

Having contemplated all this really deep stuff, maybe we should just talk about bread. Vegans usually don’t have much trouble finding bread. At least some varieties of just about everything are still made without animal products like milk or eggs. But we still have to be label readers. Once we find a brand that works for us, there isn’t much of a learning curve. But with specialty breads, it may be hard to avoid eggs. Sometimes looking for Kosher brands will help. I am attaching a link from PETA about finding vegan breads and what animal derived ingredients to be on the watch for.

 

So I will leave you with my best wishes for a happy, well-nourished Lammas. I hope you enjoy this celebration of the wholesome plant foods the god and goddess offer us all.

 

http://www.peta.org/living/food/is-bread-vegan/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Leslie earned her Master of Divinity Degree at Vanderbilt University and is a Wiccan Priestess, Ordained Interfaith and seeking ordination through the Temple of the Feminine Divine in Bangor. Her column in SageWoman, “Child of Artemis,” deals with women and our relationship with animals. Leslie considers herself a cultural worker, dealing with issues of violence and oppression as they impact humans and other species. She has worked at a rural domestic violence prevention program since 2001 and is a board member on VegME, Maine’s vegan advocacy group.  

Comments

  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham Friday, 29 July 2016

    Your mention of sorghum reminded me of traveling with my family as a teenager back in the 70's. We would sometimes stop at roadside attractions that sold sorghum molasses. A few of them even had sorghum stills to show how the stuff used to be made. I know they called the stuff sweat sorghum but I always thought it was rather bitter. Decades later I saw a magazine article; I think it was Natural History, that showed some Mayan Indians using what looked like the same kind of still to squeeze syrup out of corn stalks. So far I haven't seen any articles in Mother Earth News or Organic Living that show how you can do it yourself, either with sweet sorghum or with corn stalks.

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