Beltaine

May the Fires of Your Creativity and Passion Burn Bright!

Welcome to this edition of Liminal Walker Musings!

If you are a new subscriber, a special WELCOME! I follow the Pagan/Celtic seasonal wheel of the year, honoring and participating in each Sabbat. The wheel has turned, and today I am exploring Beltaine, a time of fertility, creativity and new expressions of life. Enjoy. Love to you all!

Thanks for reading and please comment I would love to hear from you. And if you feel inspired, please consider becoming a subscriber or even a paid subscriber. Either way you are deeply valued and appreciated.

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Welcome to Beltaine

Ahhh the peak of springtime! Magic is in the air. It’s like I have been adorned in a pair of multi-color faerie wings, then shrunk down so I can alight on every flower and plant. Life is buzzing right now. Pollination, sex, conception, and birth is what’s happening. After a hard winter, my body and soul feel this freedom. A wonder around being with these numerous emanations of new life! These verdant greens and vibrant purples, blues, yellows, reds, pinks and oranges. Each time I visit the garden, growth is expressing itself right before my eyes! Life is literally popping out of the ground. Serenaded by the sweet music of birdsong that welcomes each new day and continues on as part of their fertility cycle.

Here in the northern hemisphere, it is the midpoint between the Spring Equinox & the Summer Solstice, known as Beltaine (Beltane). A celebration of the fiery aspects of life like creativity, passion, sensuality, and sexuality! Not something to be ashamed about but rejoiced in and celebrated! Our core is this fire of vitality. A sacred marriage of entanglement we have with our environment and landscape. Open to your wild side and listen closely, Gaia is singing, asking us to see this true union we all are together.

In the southern hemisphere it’s Samhain. May your fires warm your hearts. And may your connection with the other side be a healing.

Beltaine

My Altar 2024

In times of old, the Celtic people lived not on the land but were interwoven with the earth, the ground they called home. Their lives literally depending upon it, along with the shifting patterns of the weather and seasons. They knew their life and death were tied to these natural rhythms and cycles. Beltaine (bright fire) was a significant juncture marking the beginning of summer, occurring between what we call the spring equinox and summer solstice.

Bonfires (Teineigens) were created in honor of this sabbat. And were believed to bestow protection and blessings upon anyone who came in contact with the smoke or heat from their flames or embers. Cattle and other animals would be brought between two of these fires, in the hopes that the smoke would affirm their fertility and health. Handfasting was another common activity. Couples would jump over the embers symbolizing and declaring their vow to be together for a year. After which they could either peacefully end their promise or continue to marriage.

Fires would burn bright all night long, with feasting, dancing, and merrymaking. Celebrating the land’s potency and promise for a prosperous summer. A traditional food for this occasion was bannock, a cake made from eggs, butter, oatmeal, and milk. Offerings of its ingredients were given to the ground and to the faeries in thanksgiving. At the close of the festivities people would take a spark of the sacred fire home with them to ignite their own hearths.

MAYPOLE

There isn’t a lot known about what maypoles meant to the Gaelic and Celtic cultures of the past. What has been gathered is probably mostly conjecture. However, villagers did celebrate and dance. Poles back then most likely would be a decorated tree. Its phallic shape signifying the male and adorned in flowers, wreaths and ribbons denoting the feminine. Bringing them together in marriage, the union that is honored during this time of fertility.  

Today’s poles are erected with colored ribbons, people dancing in opposite directions each holding an end of one ribbon, weaving and spiraling around the pole. It is a communal gathering of fun. A collective creation, symbolically showing us how we are woven together as life.

FAERIES

Beltaine is another sabbat like Samhain where the veil between the worlds is thin. During Samhain it’s more about honoring our ancestors and connecting with those that have passed on. Beltaine is where the veil between our human world and the realm of fae is permeable. Faeries are guardians of flora and fauna, and are quite mysterious and wild. During this period of fecundity, opening to their presence activates the mystical and magical quality that is inherent during Beltaine.

Offerings can be made to the faeries, desires wished for, blessings requested. But be careful and make sure you are sincere, for their proclivity for mischief is well known, and they will know if you’re not earnest! To appease the faeries a libation of gratitude like milk or something shiny or colorful, can be placed by a tree or a plant. Any location that feels like a portal to realm of the fae.

THE MOON

Currently Beltaine occurs on May 1st. On this day the moon has waned into its last quarter in the sign of Aquarius. The actual cross-quarter date is May 4th at 3:00pm PST. However, before calendars, Beltaine was celebrated on the second new moon after the equinox. Astronomically then, Beltaine is on May 7th, in the sign of Taurus.

On May 1st the moon squares the sun. This may signify an awkward time, but this is because Spring is all about change, so is Aquarius. An opportunity to dance to a different drummer.

The new moon acknowledges new beginnings, again like Spring! In Taurus we are invited to see the value of what we are and what life is! Ruled by the planet Venus, Taurus and Beltaine become all about love! Enjoying the sensual and tactile nature of life and each other.

Celebrating Beltaine

There are many ways to celebrate:

• Create a Beltaine altar. 

• Gather flowers and place them around your home.

• Bake bannock cakes.

• Take a bath in flower petals and herbs.

• Clean your house and purify it with an herbal smoke-cleansing.

• Leave a gift outside for the faeries.

• Make love.

• Do an oracle/tarot reading. (If you like you can use the questions listed below.)

• Take a walk in nature.

BELTAINE MEDITATION

Please join me and take a journey into Beltaine.

PRAYER AND BLESSING

May this time of Beltaine be a burst of new creativity,
showering you with fresh blossoms of inspiration.
May you be rejuvenated by the warm fires of aliveness,
opening new portals of passionate discovery.
May you be kissed with faerie dust
and may its magic be a wish fulfilling adventure.

For our world, may we realize that each of us are one thread
interwoven in enchanted and sacred ways with every other colored ribbon.
May we come to truly understand that we are more powerful together
than we can ever be apart.
And may we live from our inherent connection to natures rhythms,
dancing with every breath and pulse of life.

Blessed Be.

Questions for you, to use in a tarot reading or to contemplate:

• Divine Feminine, what is moving within?

• Divine Masculine, what is moving outward?

• What is burning away and what is transforming?

• Where is abundant showing up?

• What union is being created?

Would love to know your thoughts and feelings. Let’s have a conversation…

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