Beltane: Eve of Summer

Beltane (May Eve and May Day, April 30 and May 1) is the fertility festival celebrating the transition of spring into summer, the sexual awakening of the Spring Maiden now crowned as the May Queen, joined in sacred marriage with her bold consort, the Green Man or Oak King of summer. The heat and abundance of summer are now open us, and sun, not cold, is the “king” of the weather. Accordingly, on Beltane fires are traditionally lit in celebration of light. The fire rituals and the name Beltane come to us from Celtic history. (See Wikipedia on Beltane.)

White blossoms, especially hawthorn blossoms, are the traditional flowers for May Day garlands and crowns, along with yellow blooms evoking the sun.

 

Above: Yellow is associated with the third chakra and conscious intention.

This time of wild magic, sexual flowering, and transition from spring to summer is considered most attractive to the fairies, whose revels echo the enthusiasm of nature. There are many tales of fairy sightings and of fairy dances and routs, and many May Day customs (since as tying twigs of rowan over house and barn entrances) are charms against rambunctious or downright wicked fairy mischief.

Above: Aphrodite's Blossom Necklace, for sweet revels and fairy magic.

The energetic but in-between quality of this time lends itself to divination and magic workings. Let the heady freshness of an April breeze intoxicate you with the delight of the spring. Feel the great power that stirs within you, a force more closely linked to wind, birdsong and weather than to your talking, planning mind, but that is nevertheless the tip of the iceberg of your greater being, of that ethereal and elemental collection of earth, fire, and water energies that you really are. There is a deeper self and a deeper knowing that is not divided from you but that you have merely gently turned away from for a little while, that you can turn back to at will.

May your Beltane ecstasy take you to great unfoldings of inner landscape; may mystic colors run through you vision, may you spread your wings in intoxicating freedom, may you be crowned with shape-shift and change. 

As always, my magic amulets are available here.