BELTANE
Beltane is the height of Spring.
It is the cross quarter festival that falls between
spring equinox and summer solstice.
So we begin to notice the days getting longer
and warmer, We also see the first sign of summer.
The Earth is in a powerful phase of growth.
Everything is bathed in green.
The focus of Beltane is the fertile land and, in
reflection, our fertile bodies. On Beltane eve,
our wild nature and sexuality are celebrated as
an act of reverence to the earth and nature.
The traditional weaving maypole dances are a
symbol for this sacred sexuality.
This short narrative is published in the Astro Moon Diary. This is a daily calendar offered by AstroCal – www.astrocal.co.uk. You can get the diary in the USA on Amazon.
For anyone looking for ways to observe Beltane, I found this article a few years ago.
Beltane Flower Customs & Rituals
by Selena Fox
Blossoms Walk – take a walk at Beltane time and look for blossoms. Journey around your home area and/or forest, meadow, garden, park, or other place where you are likely to see flowering plants. As you come upon a blossom, pause and appreciate its coloring, shape, fragrance, and beauty.
Flower Meditation – select a fresh flower as your focus – it can be a freshly cut flower, a living flower of a potted plant, or a flower growing outdoors. Using your senses of sight, touch, and smell, experience the flower. Become one with it and experience your own self in bloom. Let this flower communion be healing, renewing, inspiring. Give thanks to the flower. Reflect on your experience and journal about it.
Flowers Planting – plant flowers already in bloom in your garden or in containers in your home. Select flowers suitable for the amount of light and moisture in the location where you will be planting them. Tend them. Meditate with them. Learn about them.
Flower Offerings – place fresh or dried flowers at your home altar and/or other sacred places in honor of one or more forms of the Divine. Place flowers at cemeteries in remembrance of beloved Dead.
Flower Exchange – exchange fresh flowers with others along with words of blessing. This can be done as part of group Beltane ritual or one-to-one as an expression of friendship.
Garlanded Pillars – adorn pillars, posts, walls, thresholds and other parts of your home or other place with strands of blossoms. Cloth crafted flower garlands can be used from year to year.
Flowers Crown – create or acquire a garland crown of flowers crafted from real or symbolic blooms. Wear it at Beltane rites & display it on an altar or other special place when you are not wearing it.
Flowers Wreath – place a wreath of cloth or dried flowers or long-lasting fresh flowers on your front door to symbolize and welcome Springtime and the May.
May Baskets – select baskets or craft some and fill them with fresh or crafted blossoms. Adorn your home with them – use as a centerpiece on your altar or dining table or place on your front door or porch. Gift to those you care about. An old custom is to gift a May basket secretly – placing by the front door on May Day morning, ringing the door bell, & disappearing before the door is answered.
Flowery Circle – place fresh cut flowers or small pots of flowers to mark the perimeter of a ceremonial Beltane circle. This can be done in advance, or it can be done for community building and land attunement during a group ceremony.
Flower Goddess Attunement – imagine yourself in a sacred place encountering the Goddess of Flowers as May Queen. Pay attention to what form She takes. Envision Her presenting to you a basket of flowers of many types, shapes, and colors. Select one as a gift from Her. As you connect with it, pay attention to what message it has for you. Give thanks to the May Queen Flower Goddess. Return to waking consciousness, and then note your experiences in a journal.