Wow! It’s already more than a month past the Summer Solstice and it’s apparent the days are getting shorter. We are at Lammas, celebrating the first harvests, the bounty that follows the fertility of Oestara and Beltane. This is a perfect time to make a corn husk dolly to celebrate this abundance. You can find our collection of articles for this early August holiday on our Lammas / Lughnassad page.
Farmers’ markets are operating, within constraints of COVID physical distancing. If you’re a gardener, you’ve been busy and hopefully are harvesting the rewards. In some parts of the country (not here in Colorado!) you might be getting sick of tomatoes.
A Lammas ritual logically centers on this bounty, with your own or at least locally grown fresh veggies adorning the altar and anchoring the post-ritual feast if you are having one. A small group like the Crow Women can meet outside with appropriate distancing. Inside would be more iffy.
Finding corn husk dolly information
I priestessed a Lammas ritual a couple years ago at my house. We made corn dollies. We were inside, because it was too hot to be out in the sun in early afternoon; but if you have a shaded outdoor space, do it there.
Google “making corn dollies” for instructions. There’s no shortage! It turns out a lot of corn dollies are made with wheat, and they can get very elaborate. Only some are actual dollies. My intent is an actual corn husk dolly made from corn husks
I found a nice video that pretty much reflects the instructions I have. It uses dried husks that apparently have been soaked in water so they are pliable. Using those could eliminate the shrinkage issue I refer to later. The video was posted by “Sabbat Box”, which has some very interesting products.
The instructions I used originally were from snowwowl.com, a Native American educational website. Yes, 2 w’s. The corn dolly directions page is here, and there’s lots of interesting information on Native Americans and corn on that site. For corn dollies, they specifically call for green husks. The good part of that is you get to enjoy the corn on the cob as part of the deal, and early August is prime time for corn on the cob. Save the husks in a plastic bag in the fridge until the ritual.
Materials
- The husks of one cob of corn per person
- embroidery thread or thin twine
- scissors
Instructions
I suggest you take four husks and arrange them to the four directions. Say a blessing and draw the energies of the elements into your sacred craft project before you commence. Making a corn dolly is a magical act!
Gather the husks in your hand, two facing toward you and two facing away. My experience is the concave inner sides should face outward at this point. The flat end of the husks is the top. An inch or so from the top, tie them together as tightly as you can. Trim the tops if needed.
Then turn this upside down and pull the husks down over the tied part, inverting the husks. This creates a head. Tie tightly to create the neck.
Take another husk. Flatten it and roll it into a tight cylinder with the veins running longwise. Tie each end about an inch from the ends to create arms and hands. Insert this into the body just below the neck. Then tie the waist.
You could call it good there if you wish. Or, you can dress your doll. Drape another husk around the “back” of the “neck” and forward over the shoulders, down to cross in front at the waist. Tie there. This makes a shawl or bodice. Then take three to five husks with the straight edges on top, arranged around the waist to create a skirt. Tie at the waist again.
You can elaborate as your creativity guides you. For example, if you want to add hair, it works well to secure some corn silk under a hat made of a piece of corn husk, with a straight pin to hold it in place.
You might like to leave the ends of the skirt rough. This gives an organic and fanciful look.
Some people prefer to trim the bottom of the skirt even. This does make it easier to get the dolly to stand up straight. The Crow Women leave our dollies’ faces blank, but if you feel called to draw on eyes and mouth with a sharpie, that works, too.
As an alternative, you can make handkerchief dolls. Our instructions for that are in this blog post.
Corn husk dolly Lammas ritual
Start the ritual as usual with cleansing your sacred space, casting the circle (maybe using a zucchini or an ear of corn!) and calling the elements/guardian spirits/directions. Each participant should bring a harvest item for the altar.
The ritual leader welcomes the garden/ harvest spirits such as the Green Man or Corn Mother, then says something like, “At this time in the Wheel of the Year, the fertility of the land comes to fullness.” Direct participants to draw energy through themselves and direct it into the foods on the altar, then recite or sing a harvest song. This is one I wrote. We haven’t recorded it yet, but the lyrics make a fine prayer, read aloud by one of the participants. Or better yet, split it up into 8 lines or 4 couplets and include more people as readers.
Thanks to Gaia and the Green Man, thanks to the blessed land.
Lammas Song, unpublished song by Carole McWilliams (c) 2019
Tend the garden with rakes and hoes, the Lammas basket overflows.
We rejoice in the peas and ‘taters, the zucchinis, beans, and ‘maters.
Seeds we planted in hope and trust, gifts of the Gaia nourish us.
Colors touch the grapes and plums, we give thanks as sweetness comes.
The harvest is a joyful deed, the start of luscious wine and mead.
Green Man raise the golden grain, a signal for the summer’s wane.
Gather and grind for winter’s bread, the promise that we will be fed.
So mote it be!
Now for the corn dollies as a way to memorialize our gratitude for the bounty of summer. Aside from your altar, you’ll need a table at least card table size. Probably more than one table, depending on the size of your group, for COVID separation. Have the instructions at the ready. Have a BIG bowl full of husks for each table, a lot more than you think you’ll need, especially if several people are participating. Each person should have their own string or embroidery thread and scissors on hand. Proceed according to the instructions. Tie each place as tight as you can. They will shrink as the husks dry out. You might need to add new ties later if the initial ones get too loose.
When everyone is finished, hold the dollies up. As inspired, participants may speak with the voice of their dolly, giving a blessing on the participants or the harvest season or Mama Gaia. Each person can visualize these blessings being concentrated within their own dolly. After the ritual, everyone will carry home these blessings within their dolly, bringing the joyful energy of Lammas into their homes.
After the dolly blessings, celebrate with an appropriate seasonal song, such as Alane Crowomyn’s song At Lammas, available on the Crow Women’s Seasons album. For background information about this song, have a look at its page on this website. A few other chant choices are discussed in this blog post.
In your vines (at Lammas)
music & lyrics © Alane Susan Brown (ASCAP) 2017
Oh Father God (what we’ve sown)
we rejoice (now we harvest)
From your fields (at Lammas)
Oh Mother God (what we’ve sown)
We are fed (now we harvest)
In your arms (at Lammas)
Oh Father God (what we’ve sown)
we are safe (now we harvest)
By your hands (at Lammas)
Oh Mother God (what we’ve sown)
We are healed (now we harvest)
It ends quietly and gratefully. Dismiss the directions and open the circle. Then…
Harvest feast!
A harvest celebration obviously needs a feast, with COVID precautions. There are issues, but the Crow Women did ritual this summer outside for Litha. Carefully. Each participant was advised to bring food to share, but bring your own serving spoon, no shared spoons, and your own plate, utensils, and cup or goblet. Or it could be just bring your own food without sharing, and utensils.
No, I don’t like that either. Sharing is part of what we do, but so is honoring our bodies and doing what’s needed to stay safe. We didn’t have any bad results from an outside Litha ritual with distancing, or the shared meal, eating outside with distancing. But keep up the precautions.
Support each other and be safe. Blessed Be!
