HERFEST
Herfest is the autumn equinox, when light and darkness stand in balance once more, with equal hours of night and day; but the darkness is gaining, day by day, and we are moving towards winter.
Herfest is a dual festival of light and darkness, joy and sorrow. It is a time of abundance when the bounty of the earth must be gathered in and safely stored against the bleak times ahead. It marks the completion of the harvest which began as early as mid-June with the hay cutting. We give the Lord and Lady sincere thanks for their gifts, but recognise that this is the time when the Lord dies and begins his journey through the underworld.
From the earliest times the farmer recognised that he worked within the powerful cycle of the seasons, and the pattern of the year which must be observed. There was a time to plant, a time to weed the growing crops, and finally, a time to harvest and collect new seeds, before the whole cycle began again. Our ancestors sought the help of the gods to ensure favourable weather- enough water to nourish, enough sun to ripen, holding back the winter frosts until the harvest had been gathered. Rituals and observances were performed to ensure such help.
The earth is the body of the Mother Goddess, venerated as the giver of life. If any drink were taken into the fields a small amount would be poured as a libation to the her - a very different attitude to today’s, when pesticides and chemical fertilisers destroy the natural balance to squeeze more crops from ground impoverished by lack of proper management. An old proverb stated that a farmer should live as though he were going to die tomorrow, but farm as though he were going to live forever.
The ancestors marked this time of year with festivals dedicated to the Earth Goddess. In Greece she was called Demeter, whose name means 'Earth Mother’, a goddess far older than the Olympic pantheon in which she is made the daughter of Kronos and Rhea, and sister of Zeus. She is said to have invented agriculture and the arts of sowing and ploughing, so that the fertile earth could be coaxed into bearing abundant harvests enabling humankind to leave behind a hunter-gatherer existence for a settled farming lifestyle, with the development of cities, crafts and laws.
Demeter and her daughter Persephone were often referred to as the ‘Two Goddesses’ or as the Demeteres. The best known story of Demeter concerns her search for her daughter Persephone (“She Who Brings Destruction”) who had been abducted by Hades, the god of the Underworld. Demeter retired into her temple to grieve, and no crops grew and the earth withered. Eventually Zeus sent Hermes into the Underworld to fetch Persephone, but because she had eaten six seeds of a pomegranate while she was there, she is forced to spend six months of every year there. When she returns, the earth blossoms and spring comes. When she goes back into the underworld, we have winter. The burial of the corn dolly which is found sprouting in spring may represent Persephone.
In many parts of Greece the rites of Demeter and Persephone remained orgiastic, but in Eleusis they were celebrated as a spiritual mystery. It is possible that the grain or corn was used as an example of the mystery of death and rebirth, since Demeter gives the living the sustenance they need to survive, and the dead belong to her; the Athenians called the dead Demetreioi, "Demeter's people". Every fifth year, at the autumn equinox, the greater Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated, then October 4th marked the departure of Persephone to the underworld. In September candidates were initiated. According to Cicero:
“Nothing is higher than these mysteries. They have sweetened our characters and softened our customs; they have made us pass from the condition of savages to true humanity. They have not only shown us the way to live joyfully, but they have also taught us how to die with good hope.”
The harvest was fraught with tension; bad weather might ruin the standing crops and the work was long and hard. As late as the beginning of the twentieth century, the harvesters followed customs that would have been familiar to the ancient world. The corn was cut in decreasing circles, the Corn Spirit ever retreating into the remaining ears. There was a reluctance to be the one to cut the final ear and be the captor of the spirit, so sickles were thrown at it from a safe distance. The final severance was called ‘Crying the Neck’ or ‘Crying the Mare’.
These last stalks were woven into a corn dolly or kern maiden, sometimes called the Ivy Girl, which contained the life-essence of the grain and which had to be kept safe throughout the winter so that life might be returned to the earth in the spring on Plough Monday. It was often tied with red thread as a form of protective magic. Sometimes the corn dolly was given a chair of honour at the harvest feast.
Into the 20th century the seasonal harvesters would elect a Harvest Lord empowered to negotiate with the farmer over terms and conditions on behalf of his fellows. As a symbol of his office, he would wear red poppies and bindweed around his hat. He would be served first at mealtimes and addressed as ‘My Lord’.
Farms competed with each other to see who would finish first. The last load was taken home with great rejoicing and was followed by the harvest supper for all the workers with an abundance of good food and drink and was probably the best meal the labourers would enjoy all year. The doors and gates of the farm were decorated with greenery, corn, flowers and ribbons and wreathed scythes and sickles would be placed in the arches of the house.
At Herfest, the expansive, active part of the year is over and it is time to turn inwards. Each festival of the year in its eternal spiral can be viewed as an initiation into a new mode of consciousness. At Herfest we experience the mystery of the death of the God. Through that death comes transformation, regeneration and rebirth. It is only through this process that spiritual illumination comes. The God enters the Underworld, where he will rule as the Lord of the Dead until his rebirth at Yule. For us, it is the time for Otherworld travel and the exploration of the self. In the Underworld we encounter those aspects of the little self that stand in the way of the Initiation process. The sun’s power is waning, but deprived of the external light, we encounter inner illumination.