“We can begin a new life, one that brings satisfaction and enrichment…
Whether this is by singing, dancing, running through the waves,
walking barefoot on the grass or making love under the stars…
Beltane is a wonderful time for expressing who you truly are.”
Carole Carlton
In Celtic times, 1st May marked Beltane, the time of the Goodly Fire of Bel, the Celtic god of light and the sun. We still celebrate this today by having a Bank Holiday on the first Monday in May.
Since antiquity, people have gathered together from dawn on this special day. With the hawthorn is in full bloom, we celebrate nature as she springs back to life. Flowers return colour to the landscape and new, fresh life force energy is freed. Our wildness rises up like sap inside us. Energised, we are are inspired to follow our passions and dance back into life in a fertile, new beginning.
Image by White Daemon – Pixabay
At Beltane, this new energy is symbolised by fire. In times gone past, Beltane fires would be lit. Once all fires in the home had been extinguished, men and women would jump over the Beltane flames to ensure their fertility. Then the home embers would be relit from the central fire so that blessings would pour into the household from the union of god and goddess, Bel and Danu.
Image by Ricardo Gomez Angel – Unsplash
While for many of us the first May Bank Holiday has been reduced to a mere day off from work, materialism hasn’t quite managed to extinguished the whispers of this magical time of the year. The reminders of fertility and the joining of male and female, god and goddess, are everywhere from our beloved stories of connection such as King Arthur and Guinevere, and Robin Hood and Maid Marion, to May Day frolics. All over the country, May Day is celebrated with Morris Dancing, Maypoles, the election of a Mayday Queen and re-enactments of myth such as The Green Man festival in Clun, Shropshire.
Image by Karl Callwood – Unsplash
Beltane is a time for celebration. It offers us the opportunity to release ourselves from our darkness so we can embrace our light. As we re-unite the male and female within us – the god and goddess – we finally marry our wild side with our wisdom.
If you have any doubts that magic is always around us, just walk out into the beautiful hills of Britain. If you’re lucky, you might even see the goddess in the form of a white mare as she gallops in massive chalk carvings to meet her god…
Image by Getty Images – Pixabay
Wishing you your own glorious union, both inside and out. Enjoy Beltane and the month of May as you go back out into the world and play.
Love Laurelle
