Rituals to Embody the Harvest Season

Gleaners, by James Tissot. Public domain.

Let's go beyond "grateful" decor or compulsory gratitude lists this harvest season, shall we? In a world infiltrated with attention economics, it can feel difficult or even unsafe to savor the fruits of your labor, but the truth is, we really need to (I’ll share why later.) Whether it’s your garden or a new endeavor, each harvest season grants you a sacred pause to evaluate what goes into the compost and what you want to harvest. But, with harvest comes responsibility. If the harvest goes untended or forgotten, it will undoubtedly rot.

In this post, you'll learn what the harvest season means and its importance. You'll also find a card spread and ritual to help you embody what you're harvesting this season that goes beyond a basic gratitude list. 

What is the harvest season? 

For many witches and pagans, the Autumnal Equinox sits in the middle of the harvest season, beginning with Lugnasadh or Lammas on August 1 and ending with the season of Samhain, which starts on October 31. These seasons were associated with harvest, celebration, satisfaction, and gratitude themes. But what happens if your gratitude remains on the surface and doesn't have space and safety to permeate through your body as deep satisfaction? 

Many of our ancestors' harvest seasons were labor-intensive and celebratory. The harvest moon, the full moon closest to the Autumn Equinox, was given this name because it provided additional light for our ancestors to harvest into the night. The harvests during this time were of utmost importance because their livelihood depended on it for themselves and their communities. It's why so much lore and magic is associated with grain, crops, and livestock during the harvest seasons. For example, making apple magic, making corn dollies, baking bread with the first harvest, and running cows through smoke to protect them over the winter. 

“Wholeness” Original artwork copyright Cassie Uhl 2023

For many of our ancestors, it may have been easier to feel grateful and satisfied amidst a harvest season because their lives depended on it. Today, in many ways, we're set up for failure around feeling a true sense of gratitude and satisfiability within a season of harvest. With the ease of grocery stores, 2-hour delivery, and advertising that aims to prey on our attention just enough to distract us toward the next shiny thing, it's not surprising that many of us have been groomed into a cycle of lack where it can feel difficult to access a sense of satisfaction. I'm undoubtedly guilty of succumbing to the immediacy of consumerism only to miss the delectable fruit right in front of me. 

Why it's time to embody your harvest!

By design, the dominant culture seeks to separate you from an embodied sense of gratitude. When you're satisfied and deeply grateful for what you have, you become useless to capitalism. 

There is also immense pain and sadness in the present moment. With multiple genocides occurring and ecocide at all of our doorsteps, it can make feeling satisfied not only difficult but unsafe. It requires immense bravery to feel deeply satisfied while also being alive to the pain in this world.

Image: Grain Harvest in Bulgaria. Public Domain.

The misalignments with the gratitude platitudes displayed during this season are easy to spot. Why? If you are brave enough to embody, savor, and feel the depth of whatever you're harvesting this season, it will undoubtedly be followed by aligned action. Yet, this year (2024) we reached Earth Overshoot Day on August 1 (coincidentally the beginning of the harvest season!), which, according to overshoot.footprintnetwork.org, "marks the date when humanity's demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year." OOOF. Yes, I know, that's a lot to stomach. This is where the need for all of us to lean into a deeply embodied sense of gratitude comes in. 

Ritual to Embody Your Harvest this Season

For this ritual, you'll need the following: 

• 20-40 minutes

• A fruit, grain, or vegetable in season that you have access to and would want to eat (think apples, grain products, squash, or root vegetables)

• Pen or pencil and paper

I will encourage you to recall something you harvested this season. It could be a vegetable crop, making new friends, attending your first protest, or picking up a new painting hobby. I'll invite you to sit with your harvest, think about how different parts of the process made you feel, and take slow, intentional bites of your food as you consider how this harvest has shaped you and those around you. 

1. Prepare your materials and space in a way that feels good to you. Consider lighting a candle or incense and calling on any benevolent guides or ancestors to assist you. 

2. Spend a few minutes writing about what you're harvesting this year. It could be a physical harvest, like fruits, vegetables, or flowers from your garden. Or, it could be a hobby you picked up, a project you finished, a goal you accomplished, or a new way of being. This could be from any point in the year or something that isn't finished. For example, if you've been practicing reading tarot cards, what can you celebrate that you've learned so far? 

3. With your harvest written down, hold your food item in your hand and remember what it felt like when you started this new path or project. Remember how it felt in your body, take a few breaths with that memory, and take a bite of your food item. 

4. Think about everything that happened before you started that path or project that led you to that moment of starting. Notice what comes up in your body, and take a few breaths here. Give thanks (aloud or in your mind) to those past parts of yourself and your life that lead you to start the new path or project, and then take another bite of your food. 

5. Think about how it felt to engage in the new path or project. How did it go, or has it gone up until now? What has it stirred up for you? What did you learn? Sit with these questions, notice what comes up in your body, take a few breaths, and take another bite of your food. 

6. Come to the present moment with your harvest. How does it feel today? What are you grateful for right now? What is there to celebrate? What is there to grieve? How has this harvest affected those around you? Notice what comes up in your body, take some breaths, and then take another bite of your food.

7. Continue this for as long as you'd like. When you feel complete, and if it feels aligned, leave some food to return to the earth as an offering for holding you in this ritual. You might even consider burying your written harvest with the food in the earth. Be creative. There are many beautiful ways to complete this ritual. 

8. Thank any guides or ancestors you included in this ritual, and close your space in a way that feels good. 

Embodying the Harvest Card Spread 

Try out this four-card spread with your favorite tarot or oracle card deck to help you work with what you're harvesting this season. If journaling is your thing, these questions can be used as prompts.

1. What from this harvest season is ready to be put into the compost?

2. What from this harvest season is ready to be savored and embodied? 

3. How can I better savor and embody this harvest? 

4. How can this harvest nourish me, my family, or my community? 

Each harvest season is an opportunity to release what's no longer serving and harvest what is. But remember, harvesting comes with the responsibility to savor and embody the fruits of your labor. I hope this harvest season ritual and card spread help you feel more satiated this season in all you have accomplished this year. Click to learn more about the harvest season, which includes Lughnasadh, the Autumn Equinox, and Samhain.