YOU WILL NEED
Two small handfuls of corn stalks
Green and yellow wool or cotton
Trailing greenery (ivy or grape vine are ideal)
Appropriately coloured ribbons for the ritual
(e.g. red or orange for Lammas)
METHOD
✤ Take one handful of corn stalks.
✤ Just below the top, bind the stalks with the
yellow cotton, tying securely.
✤ 3–5 cm underneath, bind the stalks again; this
forms the head of the doll.
✤ Carefully divide the bound bundle into four
strands. (The outer two will form the arms,
the middle ones the body.)
✤ Gently bend the stalks which represent the
arms and bind carefully with the yellow
cotton.
✤ Bind the two middle pieces together, crisscrossing the cotton to create a body
approximately 10–15 cm (4 in) long.
✤ Use the green cotton to bind the two middle
lower sections to represent legs.
✤ Ask for a blessing from an agricultural god.
✤ You might say:
God of plenty, bless now this image of your
fertility.
✤ Decorate with the ribbons and trailing
greenery
To represent a feminine deity, leave the bottom section
free so that it looks like a skirt. The representation of
the male god can also be used at the time of Mabon –
the Autumn Equinox – or at Saturnalia in December.
Here is a simple technique for your own use,
which commemorates the Burryman and
shows you how to make use of a corn dolly.
Ideally at Homstrom you would be getting rid
of an old dolly, simply by burning it. Lammas
would be the time to make a new one for you to
keep over the winter.
