Beltane, Exploration & Experience
A Beltane Invocation
Beltane is here, and we welcome the time of fertility.
We greet this season of fire, love, and passion
with open arms and loving hearts.
We come together to create life
to honor the Divine union between masculine and feminine
from which all life flows.
As the Earth grows and creates life, we shall grow and create life.
Amen, Aho, and So it is.Sit in meditation. Ask yourself and your guides what it would look like for the garden of your soul to burst fully into bloom, a thousand of your dreams like flowers spreading their glorious multi-colored petals. Visualize your fire and your blooming in as much detail as possible, and then take the actions needed to bring those visualizations into reality. ~ Dr. Athena Perrakis
Beltane, a brief history
Beltane (meaning bright fire) in the Celtic Wheel of the Year is a fire festival marking the halfway point between the spring equinox (the balance of light and dark) and the summer solstice (the longest day, an extreme). Traditionally, it is viewed as the start of summer and of the crop and pasturing season.
Beltane is the time of increasing light. In the modern age, we typically think of the summer solstice as the "first day of summer" because the weather in July and August fits our notions of what summer is like. This happens because there is a lag time between the long days of May and June, filled with ever-increasing hours of daylight, and the warming of the earth and rise in temperatures. But once we reach the summer solstice the days begin to grow shorter through July and August as we move to the autumnal equinox.
Ancient Beltane customs included jumping the fire, where folks would literally jump over a fire saying prayers for protection, abundance, and blessings on home, family, crops, and livestock. In some places the custom was to walk around the fire in a sun-wise direction three times. A hint of this custom is hidden within the nursery rhyme, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick. Livestock were often walked between two fires to purify them and bless them before they were brought to the high summer pastures. It turns out this may have actually had the effect of fumigating them, smoking out insects and pests that accumulated in their hair or fur during the long winter in the barns.
Beltane, sometimes known as May Day, is a cross-quarter holiday in the Celtic Wheel of the Year. The four cardinal holidays are the two equinoxes and the two solstices.
On the wheel they form a cross pattern, creating four quarters.
The Cross Quarter days form an X dividing the circle again into four more parts. Beltane is the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.
Beltane is a fire festival that celebrates the height of spring, the birthing of summer, and the flowering of life. But at its heart it is about the union of opposites, and that is where we will focus our attention.
Feminine & Masculine
The feminine principle is known as The May Queen or Flora, while the masculine principle emerges as the May King or Jack in the Green.
The traditional Maypole dance represents their unity. The pole symbolizes The May King and the ribbons that encompass it are representative of The May Queen.
Beltane is a festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight. The earth has come alive again, fertile fields are plowed and sown, bees pollinate flowers, and animals find mates. Life has returned and will go on. With any luck, the crops will grow, and food will be plentiful.
The goodness and beauty of the earth are dependent upon the union of the opposites of masculine and feminine.
On May 1, offerings were made to Bona Dea (Mother Earth) and Maia (Goddess of Increase), from whom May gets its name. In Roman Catholic tradition statues of Mary are crowned with flowers on May 1.
“The Crowning of Mary,” said to have been instituted by St. Philip Neri in 16th century Italy, after which it quickly gained widespread grass-roots popularity. After Mary is crowned, a litany is sung or recited in which she is praised and called the Queen of Earth, Queen of Heaven, and Queen of the Universe, among other titles and epithets. As a matter of psychology and religious history, however, the May crowning ritual emerged organically as one of popular devotion on the date of more traditional May Day celebrations, to which the Church reacted with formal declarations in order to more formally Christianize and legitimize it. This ritual also has non-Christian roots in traditional May Day mythology, floral rituals of spring, goddess veneration, and the crowning of the May Queen. In particular, psychologically speaking, in part it is a later iteration of the perennial early-May goddess traditions in which elements of the mother archetype are expressed in terms of the fertility and fruitfulness of springtime in full swing (see Jung, pp. 81-82), which accounts for why this ritual and the Mary figure in general have stood the test of time: She touches something deep inside our psyche. Calling Mary “our mother” reflects an instinctive and universal identification with her as an archetypal figure. ` excerpted from May Day Myth and Ritual: The Virgin Mary as the May Queen by Arthur George
Fire & Water
In ancient times Druid priests lit bonfires at sacred places. In later times, Christian priests kindled bonfires in fields near the church after a church service. Rowan twigs were carried around the fire three times, then hung over hearths to bless homes.
Fire was used for purification. Animals were led between two fires, where the smoke would rid them of fleas and other pests before they were brought out to the summer pastures. As part of the celebration, people jumped over the Beltane fire or danced sun-wise around it.
Opposites and Integration
The Earth Mother or Mother Nature archetypes hold this type of integration of opposites. Nature is always seen and known as both a creative force and a destructive force. We are sometimes flummoxed because we see how animals will often show amazing abilities to work together for the good of the community, foster the young of another species, and protect the vulnerable. But we also witness aggression over territories, mates, and resources.
The earth itself provides beauty and bounty but also unleashes earthquakes and storms that destroy. Yet, underneath the dismay, we sense intuitively that all of this is necessary, even essential, for the health and well-being of the whole of nature.
So it is within ourselves. Those movements, and parts we call shadow need to be brought into relationship with the whole self, integrated in other words.
When that happens we activate change and bring into being an entirely new way of being, that third way, that signifies growth and greater wholeness.
Creating Sacred Space
A personal home altar or sacred space is a beautiful way to bring the energy and symbolism of the season into your life.
Choose a space—tabletops, mantles, and counters are all good choices. Set your intention to make this a sacred space for the season.
Orange, yellow, and green are the colors of Beltane, so you may want to begin with a cloth that includes those. Fresh flowers, beeswax candles, and a small pot of honey would be perfect additions. Your altar could also include figurines, statuary, stones, a bowl of water, crystals, photographs, your own artwork, journals, or other creative expressions.
Create Beltane Art
You may want to celebrate the arrival of Beltane and mark this turn on the Wheel of the Year by creating some art (on any surface and in any form) that celebrates some of the Beltane themes. This should be delightful, fun, and celebratory, a way to mark the new season.
fire
flowers
sacred waters (springs, ponds, vernal pools, wells)
delight
sensuality
bees
pollination (literally of plants or metaphorically of ideas)
youth (remembered, lost, reclaimed, re-imagined)
The Greenman/The Green Lady
blooming
soul mates
The Good Mother archetype
rain blessing your head
What is becoming clearer to you in this time of increased light?
As you move through the season of Beltane, as the light increases and brings you to the time of extreme light on the summer solstice, where do you need to be focusing ever-increasing energy and attention?
What needs purification? Are there things that need to be smoked out? Are there small obstacles and irritants, disorganized ways, that bite like mites and fleas making you miserable? What can you do to clean them out of your life so you experience greater ease in your day-to-day life and work?
Is there a blessing of fire that you need right now? Fire blessings, like jumping the fire, require a bit of courage to ask for. They can be dangerous. You might get singed, but ultimately, you are cleansed, purified, and ready for the ease and abundance of the summer season that awaits you.
Making Beltane Your Own
As you learn about Beltane's ancient history and the many, many variations that have evolved over the years, please take what resonates as yours, work with it, and leave the rest. This is always your journey of self-discovery, connection to the turning of the wheel of the year, and awareness of the seasons and cycles of the earth.
Beltane Guided Journey to Restore, Renew and Envision
Beltane is a beautiful season filled with newness, growth, and blooming. Its fresh energy enlivens and vitalizes, bringing optimism, healing, and hope.
Use these materials to guide you as you live into this moment in the year, as you deepen your connection to the earth and to your inner being.
Beltane Blessings!
