The sultry month of August is the perfect time to celebrate a sun god and the harvest and that's what the ancient Celts did each year around August 1st. Sunshine nurtures the oats, barley, and wheat to ripen. Then it’s reaped, prepared, and baked as fresh bread. In the ancient Celtic belief system, Lugh (Lleu in Welsh) transmitted his power of the sun into the grain, and with the harvesting of the grain, he was sacrificed.
The ancient Celts were self-sustainable and fully green. They also loved tattoos, crazy dancing, loud music, and freedom. And believed in treating women equally. They were a lot like us.
Which is why I love to write romance books about them. Each novella of my Druidry and the Beast Lughnasa, which is pronounced (LOO-nuss-uh) takes place in August, to celebrate the first Harvest and to honor me, god Lleu. Food is more abundant at this festival than any other, due to the harvest, so there is a great feast. It is often a time when many couples get married. One Lughnasa tradition is to pick ripe bilberries and string them into a bracelet for your lover.
The British Celts would also fashion a wheel of the year, set it aflame, and the druid, using an iron rod, would roll it down a hill, chanting something like, God of the sun, the wheel has turned, the yearly end of your reign has come. The sun begins its journey, winter nears. The season turns, sun and earth, life to death. Lughnasa, Lughnasa.
wrote a romance set in Wales, 1st AD during Lunhnasa.
The Lynx and the Druidess i
And it's free for July at Smashwords.
Loving a god has its advantages
Lleu, the radiant sun god, crosses between worlds to the Silures village for the fierce and stunning druidess, Wendolyn —a woman worth battling for. He longs to celebrate Lughnasa, the festival that honors him, with her.
Wendolyn is captivated by the striking stranger the moment he wanders into her village. Furthermore, she wants him with a fervor, burning her from within. However, he’s hiding his true identity. When he vows to save her tribe from the Romans marching toward them, everyone, including her dead father in a dream, says he is a coward who has run off.
Lleu is determined to win the love of druidess Wendolyn even if it means fighting the Roman army single-handed by shapeshifting into in his lynx body.
Will her tribe survive the Romans? And, can Wendolyn and Lleu’s relationship survive her tribe’s mistrust of him?
Excerpt:
With her heart hammering, Wyndolen stared with wonder at Lleu’s luscious nude body. She only glanced away long enough to pull a white robe, speckled with gold, out of the chest in the corner. She tugged it on, then fastened a plaid cloak over it with a round silver broach and latched her gaze onto Lleu again while he slipped his clothes back on.
They left the roundhouse and walked hand in hand to Cynfor’s home.
She called out to the woodmaker, “It is time.”
Cynfor stepped out, clutching an iron rod and the wheel of the year coated with gooey tar. As the three walked together to the center of the village, men, women, and children gathered around the druidess, muttering, “Lleu,” and “coward.”
Scanning the angry faces in the crowd, Wyndolen sighed. If only they knew the truth about him. But she couldn’t blame them; she was as guilty as they were. She hadn’t recognized he was a god, even after he’d told her. No, he had to show her his magic spear and reveal his dazzling aura. Now the others needed to learn the truth. Tonight, at his festival, she would announce who he really was. But first, she had to prepare her tribesmen for the news, to lessen their shock.
She held her palm upward toward the crowd and cleared her throat. “Hear me, I have a surprise for all of you. The presence of the god Lleu is here. You do not see him as he is in the guise of one of us. So, take care of how you treat each other, lest you offend the deity.”
Their expressions shifted from anger to shame as they were now all on their best behavior.
With graceful steps, she led all her tribesmen, her chief, and Lleu to a cliff. Their chief proudly carried a blazing firebrand, and Cynfor held the sacred wheel with reverent hands. Everyone grew quiet and gazed down the mountain slope.
Wyndolen announced, “We have gathered this Lughnasa to observe the Wheel of the Year as it turns.” She raised her arms to the sky and smiled at Lleu as she chanted, “The sun burns, yet winter nears. The season turns. Summer comes to an end. Sun and earth, life to death the wheel turns, Lughnasa, Lughnasa.”
She took the torque from Corio, handed it to Lleu, and he lit the wheel of year aflame. Cynfor handed Wyndolen the iron rod. Then, the sun god, Lleu, ran beside her, on the other side of the flaming wheel, as she used the rod to roll it down that part of the mountain slope.
She chanted, “God of the sun, the wheel has turned, the yearly end of your reign has come.”
Smoke rose, as flames ate the wood. The wheel reached its end at the foot of the slope and crumbled into ash and burning fragments. The crowd stopped in their tracks and circled the symbol of the dying Lleu.
And Before August 1, by July 30th drop by Smashwords for thier huge July Sale. All my books are 75% off, meaning most of my novella are free for the entire month of July
Including — The Lynx and the Drruiddes—my Shape Shifter, Historical, Fantasy Romance set during Lughnassah
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