Today we celebrate the Gaelic festival of May Day. It is roughly half way between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. This is the real mid-point in the seasons and we are well and truly in Spring. Here are some lovely suggestions on how you can seek out pleasure in the season and step into your light.
Beltane is a time when we can feel the evidence of the lengthening days . We can feel the warming of the Earth and can witness the rising energy of nature all around.
This weekend we celebrate Beltane, and in the UK, we enjoy a bank holiday weekend too! All around us nature is bursting into life & colour, as she re-emerges anew, full of possibility.
This is a time to be in 'awe' - to wonder at just how beautiful nature is.
It’s a time of joy and passion. Of new life as we witness the fertility present in nature: from new shoots emerging, our gardens blossoming with colour and the sound of the bees beginning to emerge from their winter slumber. Nature, in her infinite wisdom, is showing us how to come back.
Beltane
Beltane translates roughly as "bright fire" and is a Gaelic festival celebrated in various forms across the British Isles. Fire was used to cleanse, purify and increase fertility. It is first mentioned as a celebration in 908AD when cattle were driven between two bonfires on Beltane as a magical means of protecting them from disease before they were led into summer pastures. Celtic festivals were often tied in with the needs of the community. In Spring, everyone would be hoping for a fruitful year for their families and the fields.
Beltane and Samhain (Halloween) mark the halfway points between Midsummer and Midwinter and were both thought to be critical times when the bounds of the natural and supernatural worlds grew thin. On May eve, witches and fairies roamed free.
Today Pagans believe that Beltane the God (to whom the Goddess gave birth at the Winter Solstice) achieves strength and maturity to court and become lover to the Goddess.
Celebrations
Other traditional festivities included leaping over the Beltane fire to bring good fortune, fertility (of mind body and spirit) and happiness through the coming year. Maypole dances are still seen in villages across the country and the cutting of green boughs and flowers is a traditional way of welcoming in the Spring.
Beltane is a wonderfully heady time to pause and honour the pleasures of being alive.
Rituals
We are not going to suggest you start leaping through flames, but if you would like to mark Spring having sprung, we have put together some suggestions of how to celebrate ...
Take a Walk
Get out for a mindful walk this weekend, drink in all the colours, sounds and textures of life around you. What is happening in nature is happening in you. Now is the time to plant the seedlings of new intentions, to set your sights on what you would like to birth into the world.
How are you blossoming anew?
What are you yearning for?
Find your Pleasure!
Now is the perfect time to indulge in pleasure. Our sexual energy is a creative force that atunes with the power of nature.
Connecting with our own sexuality helps us to connect with the part of us that creates things.
Have sex with a partner or alone! Enjoy = be in joy!
What fills your pleasure pot?
How would you like to play and have fun?
Bring some nature in
Pick some flowers from your garden, forage for nettles, dandelions or fat hen and cook up a tasty treat, decorate your home with fresh foliage. Enjoy the abundance of nature and revel in her amazing capacity to renew herself.
Remember: only take what is in abundance and only take a few
Spring Playlist
Here is a Spring Playlist for you to usher in the spring energy, light and ease....enjoy!
Liz and Susanna's Spring read
I am inhaling Second Spring. I've read it cover to cover over a long weekend, battened down from storm, and it's blooming brilliant! It feels like a warm hug from a trusty friend, or big sister, who has walked this path ahead of me and is sharing the wisdom. I just love the tone it sets, and such good humour - I've found myself laughing out loud often and reading bits to my partner. It's helping me make sense of the phases of the perimenopause transition in a way I haven't grasped before, it really puts flesh on the bones and offers a very real, practical, nourishing way forward in a no messing kind of way. - Susanna