Essa é uma daquelas canções que a gente ouve muitas vezes aqui em casa, principalmente quando a Lu vai para a cozinha porque ela tem os seus rituais para cozinhar também…

Eu gosto do ritmo dessa canção que parece nos dizer “levante e vá festejar a vida que habita em você”…

Embora seja uma música de Beltane, acho que vale a pena ouvir sempre…
Grande abraço
Marco Antônio

Desta vez o Caer Ynis não realizou cerimônia pública. Juliana e Bach realizaram uma cerimônia nos moldes da OD, nas terras de Koré, sob o olhar da Araucária sagrada em uma bela clareira.

O ritual iniciou com a purificação através da respiração do Awen para harmonizar a mente, o corpo e o espírito. Logo em seguida foram realizadas as preces e convocações tradicionais aos deuses de Celtia, aos antepassados e aos espíritos locais.

Dentro da clareira ainda, montamos uma pequena oferenda de flores para presentear a sagrada Araucária. Foi uma forma de honrar  e homenagear aos Três Povos, agradecendo por todas as graças que alcançamos. Ofertamos também água, numa espécie de sacríficio, pois precisaríamos desta mesma água para o trajeto de volta.

O ritual foi finalizado com uma meditação ao redor da sagrada Araucária, onde pudemos receber a força telúrica que ela e suas irmãs emanavam no ambiente, alquimizar e devolver na forma de energia de cura para o mundo.

Além desse ritual, na noite anterior acendemos o fogo sagrado e realizamos debates ao redor deste a respeito da força e poder do fogo e das transformações que Beltane nos traz.

JP Bach

It was Beltane here in Australia on the 1st.

Beltane is the last of the three spring fertility festivals, the others being Imbolc and Ostara. Beltane is the second principal Celtic festival (the other being Samhain). Celebrated approximately halfway between Ostara (spring equinox) and Midsummer (Summer Solstice). Beltane traditionally marked the arrival if summer in ancient times.

Beltane, like Samhain, is a time of “no time” when the veils between the two worlds are at their thinnest. No time is when the two worlds intermingle and unite and the magic abounds! It is the time when the Faeries return from their winter respite, carefree and full of faery mischief and faery delight. On the night before Beltane, in times past, folks would place rowan branches at their windows and doors for protection, many otherworldly occurrences could transpire during this time of “no time”. Traditionally on the Isle of Man, the youngest member of the family gathers primroses on the eve before Beltane and throws the flowers at the door of the home for protection. In Ireland it is believed that food left over from May Eve must not be eaten, but rather buried or left as an offering to the faery instead. Much like the tradition of leaving of whatever is not harvested from the fields on Samhain, food on the time of no time is treated with great care.

When the veils are so thin it is an extremely magical time, it is said that the Queen of the Faeries rides out on her white horse. Roving about on Beltane eve She will try to entice people away to the Faeryland. Legend has it that if you sit beneath a tree on Beltane night, you may see the Faery Queen or hear the sound of Her horse’s bells as She rides through the night. Legend says if you hide your face, She will pass you by but if you look at Her, She may choose you. There is a Scottish ballad of this called Thomas the Rhymer, in which Thomas chooses to go the Faeryland with the Queen and has not been seen since.

Beltane has been an auspicious time throughout Celtic lore, it is said that the Tuatha de Danaan landed in north-west Connacht on Beltane. The Tuatha de Danaan, it is said, came from the North through the air in a mist to Ireland. After the invasion by the Milesians, the Tuatha faded into the Otherworld, the Sidhe, Tir na nOg.

Beltane marks that the winter’s journey has passed and summer has begun, it is a festival of rapturous gaiety as it joyfully heralds the arrival of summer in her full garb. Beltane, however, is still a precarious time, the crops are still very young and tender, susceptible to frost and blight. As was the way of ancient thought, the Wheel would not turn without human intervention. People did everything in their power to encourage the growth of the Sun and His light, for the Earth will not produce without the warm love of the strong Sun. Fires, celebration and rituals were an important part of the Beltane festivities, as to insure that the warmth of the Sun’s light would promote the fecundity of the earth.

Beltane translated means “fire of Bel” or “bright fire” – the “bale-fire”. (English – bale; Anglo-Saxon bael; Lithuanian baltas (white)) Bel (Bel, Bile, Beli, Belinus, Belenos) is the known as the bright and shinning one, a Celtic Sun God. Beli is the father, protector, and the husband of the Mother Goddess.

Beltane is the time of the yearly battle between Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwythur ap Greidawl for Creudylad in Welsh mythology. Gwyn ap Nudd the Wild Huntsman of Wales, he is a God of death and the Annwn. Creudylad is the daughter of Lludd (Nudd) of the Silver Hand (son of Beli). She is the most beautiful maiden of the Island of Mighty. A myth of the battle of winter and summer for the magnificent blossoming earth.

On Beltane eve the Celts would build two large fires, Bel Fires, lit from the nine sacred woods. The Bel Fire is an invocation to Bel (Sun God) to bring His blessings and protection to the tribe. The herds were ritually driven between two needfires (fein cigin), built on a knoll. The herds were driven through to purify, bring luck and protect them as well as to insure their fertility before they were taken to summer grazing lands. An old Gaelic adage: “Eadar da theine Bhealltuinn” – “Between two Beltane fires”.

The Bel fire is a sacred fire with healing and purifying powers. The fires further celebrate the return of life, fruitfulness to the earth and the burning away of winter. The ashes of the Beltane fires were smudged on faces and scattered in the fields. Household fires would be extinguished and re-lit with fresh fire from the Bel Fires.

Celebration includes frolicking throughout the countryside, maypole dancing, leaping over fires to ensure fertility, circling the fire three times (sun-wise) for good luck in the coming year, athletic tournaments feasting, music, drinking, children collecting the May: gathering flowers. children gathering flowers, hobby horses, May birching and folks go a maying”. Flowers, flower wreaths and garlands are typical decorations for this holiday, as well as ribbons and streamers. Flowers are a crucial symbol of Beltane, they signal the victory of Summer over Winter and the blossoming of sensuality in all of nature and the bounty it will bring.
(taken from an article on witchvox.com)

I didn’t celebrate Beltane in the traditional way. Instead, I honoured myself, and my partner, and our relationship. We had a lot of play, a lot of intercourse, and a lot of fun. Being the last of the fertility celebrations, I thought it was quite fitting.

May your Samhain be bright and your days without strife.

Enjoy the candy!

~~~

(PS: Merry Beltaine to the Southerners)

Em comemoração ao Festival dos Fogos de Beltane, posto dois vídeos que mostram um pouco da maneira como essa data é comemorada na Escócia.

JP Bach

Mmmmm,  a good night!

Loads of people turned up for last nights Beltane bash. When I say loads, I actually mean about twenty, so I guess I am getting a bit carried away – whatever. As usual it was a challenge getting around to talk to everyone but I think I managed it (well, maybe not but I think they will forgive me). And the weather turned out beautiful; cold but clear, with an almost full moon, couldn’t really have asked for more.

My friend Evonne came around early and helped me make the wreaths for everyone’s heads, it’s a fun thing to do together. We had gathered together all sorts of greenery; roses, lily, lavender, rosemary, daisys, jasmine and tons of ivy. Neither of us are great wreath makers, so some of them looked a bit bonkers – witness my wonderful head gear in the photo!

Green Girls for Beltane

The highlight of the night for me was the amazing bonfire my nephew had built. It was huge and when lit it just went mad, spiralling flames, masses of sparks flying up with a backdrop of towering black trees and a high flying moon.

Zabian

Beltane fire

I love Halloween.  In the southern hemisphere, it’s actually springtime, and the days are getting longer and warmer.  In our neighbourhood, kids go trick or treating, even though it’s a USA tradition, and they’re all excited.  We always make sure we have lots of treats.  SO and I actually were out weeding the front lawn this afternoon, so we got to see all the kids go past, which was great fun.  Plus, it made the time pass a bit quicker.  Weeding the lawn is up there with ironing; it’s a boring task that has to be done.  We’re about halfway there, which is good, as SO’s dad is going to spray the lawn on Monday.

I always make a special dinner for Halloween.  For us it’s Beltane, so we always have a celebration of the season.  Tonight I did roast beef striploin, which had been marinaded, for one and a half hours at 180 degrees C, with roast vegies.  It was absolutely spot on, the meat was pink and tender and delicious.  SO cleared his plate without saying a word, always a good sign.  It’s nice when everything all seems to work when you’re cooking.  Roasts of any description are a bit hit and miss with me, I did a lamb roast the other week and SO was not happy with how pink the lamb was.  It was fine, but he didn’t like it, and I hate having to convince people to eat my food. 

Anyhow, today was a good day.  As well as weeding, I returned a heap of stuff to Ikea, Target, Kmart, Spotlight – all stuff I’d bought at different points which had been the wrong colour, size, shape, you name it.  And I managed to get to Medicare to get some money back from my appt with Dr W, which I then promptly spent on some new tee shirts for me, and a new casual shirt for SO.  I also fit in an afternoon nap, always a priority on the weekend.

I picked up the buspirone tablets on Thursday night and gave them a try on Friday.  While the 5mg helped, I can see I’ll need the 10mg dose.  That’s fine, at least I know now what I’ll need.  And the good thing is it really doesn’t impact on anything else.  No side effects to speak of.  I was still alert and didn’t feel nauseous or anything.  So far, I’m liking them.  I even took one yesterday afternoon before leaving work, as I was feeling sick with stress and wanted to help wind down for the weekend.  It definitely helped.  Today, I feel absolutely fine.  Not stressed at all.  It’s pretty clear that work is the issue, but at least I am able to leave it behind on weekends.

As far as I know, no plans for tomorrow, other than more gardening.  I love getting out there, it’s so satisfying.

Happy Hallowmas in the north, and Blessed Beltane in the south!

During this magical time of “no time” on Beltane Eve, when the veil between worlds is thinnest, watch as the Faery Queen rides out, bells tinkling on her white mare’s bridle… as the faeries’ return from their winter respite, full of mischief and playful delight, to celebrate the arrival of the sun’s summer light!

Light a candle, leave out some fruit, dance!…
And let the growing season begin!

www.soul-wings.com

Some things I have learnt today -

CRAFT Syndrome – Can’t Remember a Fecking Thing. Usually related to menopause, aging or to much wacky backy.

Iamrightitis – The belief that one is always right.

******************************

Last night was fun. Went out for dinner with a group of women to farewell Mary the co-ordinator of the Wairarapa Women’s Centre, where I have just started back on the organising committee and where I used to volunteer. It was good to get together, eat good food and talk.

Bracing weather again today. As I sat at my desk at the Information Centre this morning the sound of the rain and hail on the tin verandah roof made it difficult to talk on the phone. It is meant to be perking up tomorrow, which is good because we are having a Beltane get together around at a friends and as we are having a bonfire it would be a bit more pleasant if it doesn’t piss down. Especially when I will be making a speech about it being the first of the SUMMER sabbats.

Also we will have a special small fire built for making a wish and jumping over, so we really do need to be outside. I will be taking along the pot of nasturtiums and calendular, the seeds of which we all planted at the spring equinox ritual. They are little plants now and I figure it will be nice to take them to each celebration and watch them grow over the coming months. With luck the hopes that were planted with them will all come to fruition.

My friend Evonne showed me this YouTube video, and I love it. So here is my Beltane present for you..

At Hallowmas (northern hemisphere) and Beltane (southern hemisphere), Oct 31/Nov 1, the Fae are falling into or rising up from the land – either drawing in or bringing forth deep regenerative powers. Tie strips of cloth (wishes) to tree branches near a sacred spring or well, to either release a burden, or request a blessing, depending on whether it’s Halloween or Beltane where you live.

As the veil thins, much preparation is taking place right now around Mother Earth, including dancing! Vast reciprocal movements are occurring, all upholding the blessed equilibrium of simultaneous Fall/Spring… Blessed be.

www.soul-wings.com

Samhuinn Festival, this weekend

The Beltane Fire Society  is having a procession of the summer and winter courts this Saturday and  sets off from the Castle Esplanade, Royal Mile, Edinburgh — at 9pm.

Samhuinn

From their website:

Overhead 360º view from within the simple swirled crop circle of August 24, 1995 at Culsalmond, Aberdeenshire

Crop circles are not new. The phenomenon is centuries-old, embedded in folklore in South Africa and China, achieving sparse comment from English academics in the 1600s; noted in police records and farming journals in 1890; by military and ‘classified’ sources through the 1950s and ’60s.

It was not until 1980, however, that the general populace began to notice them. Since 1990 size and intricacy have developed, mimicking computer fractals, fourth dimensional reality, esoterica known only to quantum physicists. Nearly 30 years after that Thatcherite time, discussion favours excitement over fear, anticipation rather than suppression, belief more than ridicule. The appearance of upwards of 10,000 reported ‘genuine’ crop circles in 29 countries worldwide has brought the subject into the mainstream. It has become ‘cool’ to talk about what they might mean.

In the English countryside since 2005, designs have become so complex it is natural to speak of codes and mathematical sequences and quantum physics and astronomical numbers. As simple ellipses expanded into trailing solar flares, hypercubes, calendrical geometry and astrophysical complexity, we became mesmerized by beauty in the summer landscape, breathless with anticipation of what would come next.

In 2009 the pick of the crop finished at the end of August. Fields in September were conspicuous by their absence.

They’ve got us where they want us: on the edge of our seats.

In a lull between September’s close and next year’s crop of never-before-seen designs, what have we learned? Why are we being gifted such inspiration?

What associative ideas do they generate? What emotions do they trigger? Where do they mostly appear?

White Horse and Star Guidance sextant Crop Circle, Alton Barnes, Wiltshire

Many delving, however briefly, into this phenomenon would associate the random appearance of crop circles with that other kind of circle: the ancient and sacred stone circle. That the majority of designs in England has focused on the hallowed precincts of great sacred sites like Avebury and Sillbury Hill, Wiltshire, Rollright Stones, Oxfordshire and within sight of ancient burial mounds of Hampshire is no coincidence. The same is true for appearances near ancient ancestral sites in other countries: Holland, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Latvia; even the Serpent Mound, east of Cincinnati, Ohio. In all this exotica, it is easy to miss one particular circle of great simplicity but infinite importance in the farmland of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which appeared at the end of Lammas, 1995.

A little patience and we can find a context, a common link.

First off, like the siting of ancient stone circles, crop circle placement is not random.

Dowsers, diviners, engineers, television cameramen and aircraft pilots can all attest to electromagnetic anomalies occurring in cleared agricultural land where Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers placed their mounds, erected their trilithons, buried their dead. Feng shui proponents, who detect minute variations in electrical body pulses, have commented on the extraordinary fluctuations of energy contained within the relatively small area concentrated on Wiltshire’s sacred sites; Alton Barnes with its twin village Alton Prior rank high on the electromagnetic scale. It is not surprising, therefore, that this select valley houses not only the prehistoric White Horse, but was home to Milk Hill swallow configuration (2008) and multiple 2009 designs in 2009: whirling dolphins, star tetrahedron and the sextant (star navigational instrument) created in three stages; contemporary appearances at Alton Prior include – in perfect timing – the exquisite eight/infinity symbol of 08/08/08 (August 8, 2008) and the swallow with coded tail of June 2009.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to watch your compass needle fluctuate wildly at Yatesbury, Wiltshire; a newly-charged car battery die on the edge of a field at Sillbury Hill, near Avebury or your camera spontaneously recharge in the centre of a newly-laid crop design at Alton Barnes. These magnetic phenomena are commonplace to students of ‘leyline’ energy meridians, with which the Wiltshire basin and Cotswold range are filled. But it is significant that Yatesbury was home to the dragonfly glyph of June 3rd and Phoenix of June 12th 2009. Sillbury Hill has always deviated instruments; its great chalk mound resisting man’s excavations to discover its secret; but it opened its fields to decoration of extraordinary complexity on August 3rd, 2009 when plain swirled circles were found to contain at their centres the intricately woven patterns reminiscent of the medieval corn-dolly craft.

According to a representative of the British Feng Shui Society, an area of Britain ranking second only to the Avebury-Yatesbury-Windmill Hill energy vortex is the largely forgotten agricultural plain of Scotland – lying between the 56th and 57thN parallel – in the counties of Angus, Aberdeenshire and Banff. World attention has focused on names like Bishops Cannings, the Roundway, and Chiselden. But how many have heard of Sunhoney, Easter Aquhorthies, Culsalmond or Old Rayne?

Among the excitement of first circles decorating Wiltshire and Oxfordshire in the 1990s, the contemporaneous appearance of a single swirled design in wheat in Aberdeenshire was overlooked. Yet their locations, within ancient sacred landscape, in proximity to prehistoric ritual sites of previously huge importance to a country population, and the time of year in which they appeared have a common link.

In ancient times, the Celtic calendar revolved round the farming year: birds start to nest at Candlemas (February 2nd), Vernal Equinox fields are prepared for sowing; Beltane (May 1st) held a huge fire festival celebrating the seeded land; fire festivals were perpetuated ritually and with deliberate intent until well after the Reformation. Only then did Church and State combine to desecrate such ritual, relegating it to the realm of pagan superstition (pagan = L. paganus = country-dweller), implication: simple country folk knew no better. Midsummer solstice was a time of rejoicing for the bounty beginning to appear in fruit and crops; Lammas (August 1st) marked the onset of harvest, usually over by autumnal equinox; and the Celtic Year ended and began anew with the festival of Hallowe’en/All Hallows Day. Christmas was superimposed on the earlier festival of winter solstice when the land was in almost total darkness with farming people praying for the return of the Light.

In an abundance of festivals, the greatest for agricultural and rural families was that of Lammas. While its pivotal date was August 1st, the festival coincided in a good summer with the actual harvesting of grain. In most communities it began three weeks before and continued until three weeks after that date – ending around August 24th. Through the medieval centuries, every community in the Land had a Lammas fair dedicated to the local patron saint, a Horse Fair, a fair to compete, display wares, buy and sell food and fruit and harvested bounty.

Annual horse fair and Travelling People's Market, Aikey Brae, Buchan

The stance at Jericho on the Hill of St Sairs has dissolved into the sod of the Glens of Foudland like the tiny chapel to St Sair which used to mark the spot. Even after such fairs were officially banned in 1660, St Sairs was going strong in 1722. Horses were being traded in 1917 on the hill. Change in farm practices and two wars were its undoing.

What is significant, however, is not that great stallions used to parade these hallowed slopes, but that St Sairs happened within a sacred enclave of ancestral ritual circles, burial mounds and avenues just like Avebury and Sillbury Hill. The Culsalmond recumbent stone circle lies buried among the gravestones of the ruinous pre-Reformation kirk; Neolithic carved stone balls were found on the farms of Jericho, St Sairs and Waulkmill within a sacred avenue flanked by three stone circles and two burial mounds. Bronze Age urns from Colpy and Upper Jericho have, along with charred body parts and Neolithic carved stone ladles, found their way into museums in Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh and London. More than one hundred flint arrowheads and several hundred flint implements have disappeared from this ancient place – and the archaeological record.

It was here on the last day of Lammas 1995 that a crop circle sent a reminder – a simple swirled design in wheat – to trigger in this ancient landscape a memory of connection to its agricultural past and, perhaps, if we are listening, the key to our communal future.

So, at Pagan Pride Day, I purchased the CD Crossroads by the ever lovely Jenna Greene. I have to say, her voice is spectacular. It has a crystal clarity to it that resonates strongly with the soul and fills the heart with vibrant emotions.

My favorite of her songs is Spring Love. The lyrics to it are as follows:

~~~

The gray sky is cracked
By the light of gentle rays.
Whispering spring breezes
Tell secrets to the mist.
Melted snow trickles
O’er dark muddled earth.
The trees awake and
Stretch their branches

They wake from their dreams
To find this world enchanted.
Promises of flowers
And newborn hope.
Readied now for the silence to end,
The air is filled with joyous song.

As the birds rebuild their homes
And the faeries dance their rounds,
I journey deep into the mist
And find your love surrounds

You are the newness
Of the green branches
That warms me in the cold
Your are the song that
Fills up my heart
You awaken me and renew my dreams.

~~~

When many people think of life in the early Middle Ages they imagine a life of toil and struggle, long hours of unrelenting back breaking work that yields just enough to survive.

The truth is somewhat different. True, during harvest time rural western Europeans of the early Middle Ages did work very hard indeed – from dawn to darkness, getting in the harvest. But this seasonal work was not the norm. In fact we know from contemporary records that typically people worked from dawn til noon around 200 days a year, both on their own patch of smallholding and for their landlords and church.

This amounts to around 1,200 hours of work a year – a little more than half the amount of work put in by the modern day Brit’ and probably less than half the work of a modern day crazily-workaholic American!

So what did they do with all their free time?

Well they enjoyed themselves!

Of course for religious reasons, Sundays were holy days and a day off from work all through the year.  The pre-reformation Catholic Christian church was the origin of many of the festivals and feast days in the year. So too were more ancient pre-Christian festivals (some of which got co-opted by the church). And the annual passing of the seasons with their agricultural rhythms also added special days for the largely rural population

Let’s take a look at the typical festival and feasting filled year of an early Middle Ages Briton.

The year begins with New Years Day. This was a day of celebration, drinking, toasting and “first footing” (visiting friends).

The holiday from work and winter fun continued right through until 12^th night or the Epiphany on the 6^th of January.

Then it was back to work … up until the first Monday after 12^th night. This was another festival day called “Plough Monday”. The traditional start of the ploughing season was celebrated with processions, candlelit ceremonies, plays and feasting.

The 1^st of February saw the pre-Christian celebration day of Imbolc.  Imbolc is thought to be Celtic in origin and it is certainly true that the celebrations were greater in Celtic strongholds in Britain.  The church kind of took over the celebrations of Imbolc by combining it with St Brigid’s day – and many less-Celtic communities spent their day celebrating St Brigid unaware of the Celtic pagan origin.

Whatever you called it, 1st of February is traditionally party-time.

The next day, 2^nd February is Candlemas, a holy holiday with the associated feasting.

Then of course we have St Valentines day on the 14^th February – this, as today, was a minor festival for lovers to show each other their affection.

7 Sundays before Easter is Shrove Sunday, this is followed by Collup Monday and then Shrove Tuesday (today’s Mardi Gras or Pancake Day). This 3 day festival was a major wild and uproarious springtime party. There were ball games, drinking, feasting and much merriment.  This makes our modern day effort of a few pancakes seem very feeble! This letting off of steam, of course, was before the self-imposed restraint of Lent.

Lent itself was virtually festival free – in keeping with its sombre tone. It also coincided with a period of intensive farm work: sowing and tending the young crops.  The only exceptions during Lent would be for the feast day of “Lady Day” or The Annunciation on 25^th March and for the Irish St Patrick’s day 17^th March and the Welsh St David’s day on the 1^st March.

Much fun would be had every year on All Fools day, 1^st April with many jokes and pranks being played – just like today’s April Fools day.

Easter itself was the major religious festival of the year. In the early Middle Ages in Britain it was forbidden to work for the 2 weeks before and the 2 weeks after Easter.

A 4 week holiday from work! Marvellous!

The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday and traditionally a day for decorating the home and for processions through the streets.

The last Thursday before Easter is Last Supper day or Maundy Thursday and traditionally bosses or landlords would provide gifts for their workers. It was still Lent so the feasting would be kept to a minimum – I’m not sure if this was a stingy bosses trick.

The next day is Good Friday (or more correctly God’s Friday) – a religious day as was Easter Sunday itself. Though on the Sunday the restraint of Lent was broken and the real feasting began. At last!

The next 2 days, the Monday and Tuesday were called “Lifting Days” when parties of young men and women would flirt outrageously with each other and generally misbehave after the Lenten piousness! Woo-hoo!

The following Monday and Tuesday saw the huge climax in post Easter celebrations with the Hocktide Festival. This was a riot of boozing, dancing, sports, hunting, fairs and feasts where traditionally everyone wore their new clothes if they had them. Fancy!

In England we then have the national saint day on 23^rd April for St George – widely celebrated in pre-protestant England. Long before fat, shaven headed, tattooed buffoons started sticking St Georges flags on plastic sticks to their white vans.

On the night of 30^th April there would be bonfires lit for the May Day celebrations. These date back to pagan times when this festival was called Beltane. May Day itself carried on many Beltane traditions: fires, parties and associated fertility symbols made with new green vegetation. The dancing traditionally centred (literally) on or around the Maypole which despite is priapic image has no known links to fertility (or has it? We can only speculate!).

One thing is for certain, that Beltane/May day did herald a 2 week period of bunking off from work, sexual freedom and al fresco love making – where many young men and women would contrive to go out into the newly green and sunny woods to, ahem, “collect greenery”.  Pwoarrrr!

The 6^th Thursday after Easter was another holiday – Ascension Day. This was preceded on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday by the celebration Rogation days where it was traditional to promenade around the parish or village boundary and then have a celebratory blessing and meal.

The 7^th Sunday after Easter is Pentecost or Whitsun another excuse for a religious festival.

It was around Whitsun that it was traditional to have “Ales”. “Ales” were really just boozy local knees-ups. The local community would, for no good reason, decide to organize a “Whitsun Ale” and enjoy themselves. This type of thing still goes on in rural France where we live – and jolly good fun they are too!

The second Thursday after Pentecost is the festival of Corpus Christi. This festival would usually be a mixture of plays, performances, craft fairs and a meal put on by local tradespeople and guilds.

In early June or late May the sheep would be shorn – another excuse for a post-shearing feasting!

Mid Summer would be celebrated with another pagan originated festival involving the burning of large bonfires on mid-summers day, June 23^rd. This became enmeshed with the churches’ celebrations of St John the Baptist on 24^th June. Turning it into a 2 day mid summer festival.

Summer was also the time for another round of local festivities called “wakes”. Like the Whitsun Ales these were just excuses to have a good time. Parish wakes became noted for their debauchery, with much fist-fighting, cock-fighting, bear-baiting, gambling, boozing and sex. Many regarded the violence as therapeutic and many wakes lasted for 3 days or up to a week. Local names for wakes included: revels, hoppings and very appropriately: thumps!

The wakes took place during quieter agricultural periods while waiting for the crops to grow and after the sheep sheering.

The end of July would see the harvest of flooring rushes and a “rush bearing” procession and feast would be had.

The 1^st August saw another ancient festival of Lammas or “First Fruits”. This was another bonfire lead party with dancing (it was also a time for paying your landlord his rent, so anything to take your mind off bill paying was welcome!).

At the end of August all the harvesting would be over – this was the time of hardest work in the rural year and was followed by a big party when the work was done called “Harvest Home” – the precursor to our harvest festivals…(once again the church muscles in on the people’s feast!)

Throughout the summer and into autumn many parishes would also down tools, if the workload permitted it ( and for our freedom and party loving ancestors it usually did!), to celebrate key saint’s days. Namely: St Simon June 29^th, St James July 25^th, St Bartholomew August 24^th, St Matthew September 21^st, St Luke October 18^th and St Jude October 28^th.  If the local church’s saint was one of these it would signify a major knees-up.

The major Saint day celebrated in this period was St Michael (not from Marks & Spencer!) on Michaelmas Day September 29^th. This was always a large festival.

Another major celtic festival was Samhain. This falls on 1^st November. It too marked the end of the harvest and the coming of winter. Traditionally it was celebrated on the 3 days before, the day itself and the three days after.  Once again the church incorporated this festival into its festival of All Saints Day (1^st November) and All Souls Day (2^nd November).

On 11^th November is St Martin’s feast day – this was traditionally the time to kill the family pig and preserve its meat for winter. With all that fresh pork, inevitably it turned into a major meal!

Four Sundays before Christmas began the build-up to Yule time. The houses would begin to be decorated and many would start saving up provisions for the Christmas feast.

Christmas Eve would often be a day of fasting.

Christmas day itself, like today, would be a major feast as would St Stephen’s day on the 26^th.

The partying would continue through until 12^th night the following year.

I think it’s a shame that Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth banned many of these festivities. And what was left was almost destroyed by the enslavement and urbanization of the population during the industrial revolution.

We on the Freedom Bus can begin to reclaim our traditional feast days – I’ve just checked my diary: tomorrow is St James’ day and we are off to a party – how great is that!?

Wassail!

By Ian Chamberlain

Walking in the Light of Grace

by Christina Parker

There are times in my life when I feel that everything I do, everything I say, and everything going on around me is exactly what it should be.  When I arrived for the Fires of Venus ritual at the Free Spirit Alliance’s Beltane event in May, I knew this was definitely one of those times.

I could feel that I was about to participate in something different, something special.  The evening ritual wasn’t just preparation for the weekend-long Fires of Venus event, a sacred sexuality fire circle that will be held in September.  This was an opportunity for me to connect with the Divine – a chance to serve, a chance to heal, and possibly a beacon to guide me on my path.

The ritual set in motion a spell to bring Venus (love in all of its many forms) more fully into our lives.  Circled around a flickering bonfire and held within a ring of glowing torches, perhaps a hundred people gathered for an evening of drumming, dancing, chanting, singing, sex, and SM to raise and sustain a sacred, sensual energy for several hours.

There were two main ingredients for the spell: Sacrifice and Gratitude. Every person was invited to commit to a specific personal sacrifice and to acknowledge their gratitude for the blessings in their lives.  Paper and pencils were available for us to write down our “ingredients,” which we took to the Cauldron of Venus where they were “stirred” with the others to begin the spell. The papers are being saved and will be used to light the first fire—and bring our spell to fruition—in September at Fires of Venus.

While the “official ritual” lasted only a few hours, the energy and sacred space remained in place until after the sun came up the next morning.  And the spell that I cast that night to bring love and Venus into my life?  It’s proved to be much more powerful than I anticipated, though it is still a work in progress.

I’ve had an interesting ride so far and I’m sure I’ll have quite a tale to tell when the spell is completed. If you want to see how it ends and hear that tale, meet me at Fires of Venus in September for some show and tell.

Fires of Venus
September 24-27, 2009

Darlington, MD

www.freespiritgathering.org/fov

By Debra Oxenford © 2009

Beltane is associated with romance, and so is the planet Venus which tells the type of love nature a person was born with and has developed with his or her experiences of life.  I will compare my own chart with that of a male friend in my life. 

This chart has Venus in Pisces in the second house and my chart has Venus in Aquarius in the eleventh house.

In the beginning of our lives my friend’s Venus in Pisces gifted him with a true spiritual love for the people in his life and life in general.  My Venus in Pisces was a high vibration but is a humanitarian or human love for friends.  This makes my friend my teacher in the concept of true spiritual love, although I get to teach when he needs filled in on a concept that he missed when he was a Venus in Aquarius.

It is true that this concept of the movement of the planet Venus supports a belief in reincarnation.  It obviously takes more than one lifetime for Venus to move through all the signs, but even in one lifetime, Venus often moves through three signs.  I was once a Venus in Aquarius, but my Venus at a young age moved into Venus in Pisces like my friends.  After about age seven I was learning to experience a spiritual love for life and in my relationships with people.  This concept in astrology is called primary progressions.   You take the birth position of the planet and advance it one degree for each year of life to the present year.

Currently I am learning to love myself, Venus in Aries, this is a lesson that my friend already experienced before me and he is a good teacher.  He is learning the lessons of the sign Taurus and the fourth house and about his feelings.  I am able to help him with the lessons of the fourth house because my chart in other ways has taught me some of those lessons.  We are all teachers and all students when the time is right.  I invite you to take your Venus and progress it to your current birthday to see what you have learned about the very important issue of love in this lifetime or perhaps many lifetimes.

by Thorn NightWind (c) 2009

Other than Midsummer, Beltane is my favorite Wiccan Sabbat.  As the wheel of the year turns this beautiful April evening, I long for the fun and frolic of Beltane! 

So much goes on the weekend of Beltane. I have three Beltane rituals to attend and also planning a trip to the May Day Fairie Festival at Spoutwood Farm.  It reminds me of my college days when I would go out and about and experience all that the Pagan community had to offer.

Whether I have the “free” time or not, it isn’t Beltane without at least spending some time outside.  I look at Beltane as the force of renewal …. Only fully experienced!

Some of my most memorable experiences are from Beltane gatherings or time well spent with friends over Beltane.  Whether we are dancing the May-Pole, attending a festival or hanging out on someone’s back deck drinking some mint iced tea; the most of May is my favorite!

By Celestia DragonLove
copyright 2009

The Path of Focus

Beltane is near. The festival of passion. A celebration of fertility. A time of the chaotic wild energy – a time when focus is essential to the magick of the Season.

Okay, this one is easy. Take a deep breath and exhale. Now close your eyes and I want you to think of nothing. Simple, right? Wrong. Thinking of nothing is utterly impossible to do. You might have closed your eyes and thought of your breath, or the day’s events or even flashed back to a happy memory, but nothing? How do you think of nothing? Excellent question, let’s see if I can help you out with that!

Throughout your travels of working with meditation, you will find many different avenues ranging from Eastern belief systems, religious doctrines and even healing techniques. All of these have one thing in common, their goal, which is the ability to focus. Focus is attained when your mind simply concentrates on one thing at a time, without the side trips to “I wonder if I remembered to put the dishes away?” or “Wow, my back really hurts today!” The human brain is a wondrous machine that is constantly moving and processing even while we are in a state of rest. Therefore it is only through practicing the conscious effort of intentionally focusing on one thing, even for mere seconds, which moves our path forward. Take your time. Do not judge yourself. Enjoy the time spent in visualization, in your story, without worry. Just simply be!

God Pan Meditation
Meeting and understanding the energies of this Ancient God of Music and Mirth
Celestia DragonLove 2005

You are standing on the edge of a forest. An old dirt path winds its way into the wood, twisting and turning out of sight. You begin to slowly walk along, observing the huge, ancient trees that mark your way. The damp smell of moss tickles your nose. As you walk along, you are awestruck at the primeval wood that stands before you. These trees have been standing for thousands of years, untouched from the world outside. Deeper into the wood you stroll, admiring the ancient, dripping moss that hangs from the trees, creating curtains throughout the forest. Sunlight streams in and scatters on the forest floor, but as you move ahead, you notice that it appears darker. Looking up, you see a swirling ethereal mist winding through the branches. As it begins to fall around you, you see it sparkle and twist, winding its way down the path that you are walking. The mist seems to beckon you forward, glittering and swirling away. You follow the mist, inquisitive as to what may lie ahead.

The forest is growing darker and denser as you move with the mysterious mist at your feet. You feel a sense of urgency now, and you quicken your pace. The wood feels quieter, calmer, and while you feel completely at peace, you can’t help but feel the butterflies of excitement beginning to flutter in your belly. As you scan your surroundings, you see that huge ferns have grown up here. They tower over you, luscious, deep green fans that completely protect and cover you as you walk along.

Suddenly up ahead, you hear the rustling of something moving. Stopping, you peer ahead, but see nothing. The silence is so loud it is almost deafening. Shrugging to yourself, you continue on, but notice that the ethereal mist has all but disappeared. Ahead, there is a little whirlwind stopped and spinning. You move toward it and as you do, something runs across the path. Stopping, you still see nothing. You hear nothing. You feel the heavy quiet of the woods around you. Your heart is beating very fast and heavy in your chest. Gathering your senses, you kneel down, and peer under the fern growth. As you part the growth, you see a tiny, hidden path leading away from the main path. Standing, you know you must follow it, that it will take you where you need to go. You push the ancient ferns aside, take a deep breath and step onto the well- hidden path.

You walk as silently as possible, trying very hard to melt into the noises of the forest. As you move deeper down the path, you notice the wood is much noisier here, birds singing, animals purring, insects playing and trees rustling. The odd thing is there is no wind, but yet it seems the ancient wood is dancing and swaying to an unheard rhythm. The forest around you is completely alive and moving. Everywhere you look, there is movement. The huge curtains of moss, swing and glitter. The immense trees bend and sway creating a whistling in the air around you. The crickets play their violins, the little woodland creatures frolic and play, chirping and talking. Ahead of you, you suddenly hear water falling. Concentrating on moving ahead, you pick up what sounds like voices drifting on the air. Slowly moving forward, you crouch down and part the last of the ferns that cover the path. Peering through, you see a huge, aquamarine colored pond with a fountain of water in the middle. To your astonishment, you also see 6 beautiful women, splashing and playing in the beautiful water. They are made from the glittering water itself, and they frolic and play dancing under the fountain. You stare in awe, entranced as they dance. You feel complete happiness and peace descending into your soul. These are the Naiads, the water spirits of this forest, they represent laughter, happiness and merriment. Their translucent bodies shimmer and dance around, laughing and singing. Suddenly, their song and dance stop, and in the passing of a second, they bubble and disappear back into the waters surface, leaving no trace of their merriment. Saddened, you walk forward and bend down to touch the waters edge. Staring at your reflection in the pure, blue water you smile, thanking the water sprites for the happiness they have left you.

Standing up, you turn around to head back to the main path, and lying against a huge cedar tree, is a man. As you stare in awe, he is playing a flute, although you cannot hear his song. Tiny horns spiral up and poke through his long, wavy brown hair. His eyes closed, he continues to play his flute, completely entranced, he doesn’t even take notice of your presence. You stare in awe, his legs are not human, they are the brown fur of a goat, cloven toed and beautifully groomed. His chest heaves and his arms flex as he continues to play his silent song. As you continue to watch, entranced, he opens his eyes, removes the pipes from his lips and smiles at you. His smile melts away every negativity that you’ve ever experienced in your life, leaving complete peace in its wake. You are completely drawn to his huge, beautiful brown eyes, that glitter and dance with amusement. ” Good afternoon!” He sings out in a booming voice. “You cannot hear my song? Come hear child and dance with me and my family.” You walk over to him, and in a fluid gesture he touches your forehead, and a bright white light blinds you. You stumble backwards, stunned, but you quickly regain your balance and at that exact moment you hear a haunting noise. It is a sound you’ve never heard before, light and haunting that seems to drift on the air around you and enter deeply into your soul. Opening you eyes, the ethereal mist that brought you here begins to dance all around you again, and you know now that it was this music that had drawn you here. The Naiads begin to form and dance again, awakened by the beautiful, eerie notes that flow endlessly from the pipes. They beckon to you and you move toward them and begin to dance in the water with them. Complete harmony and peace descend around you and you begin to laugh, dancing and singing with your watery partners. You dance and spin, swirl and laugh, merrily moving and enjoying the happiness and peace that surrounds you.

Finally, you move out of the water and head back toward the man that plays the flute. You sit in front of him, resting on the soft lichen and moss that cover the ground here. Still floating , you stare in awe, and watch his soft expression as he plays his music. He pulls the pipes from his lips and looking down at you he smiles. “I am Pan, the God of Music and Merriment. I brought you here to share with you the peace and happiness that dwells in all living things, for you only need to listen and you will hear. You may come and join me anytime you wish, only close your eyes and listen.” He begins to play again, and laying back you melt into the soft ground, and rest completely.

When you awaken, you are against a different tree at the edge of the ancient wood. You stretch and stand, and looking down, you see a smaller version of the ethereal Panpipes that the Great God played for you. You pick them up and as you do you hear the last of the notes floating toward you from deep in the forest. Smiling, you tuck your newly found present into your pocket and head back home knowing you can hear the happiness and peace anytime you wish.

By Linda Monsees Stump © 2009

“Shed not a clout till May be out”…When I first heard this as little girl, I wasn’t sure what it meant.  My mother explained that it was an old folk saying from England and Scotland that meant you shouldn’t shed any of your outerwear until May was out.  Still puzzled – since we were living in Southern California and it could get quite hot by the end of May – I thought it was very silly that one should have to wait until June to put one’s winter coat away!  Mum laughed and said it didn’t mean the month of May, but referred to the time when the flowering May – or hawthorn – was in full bloom, signifying that summer had fully come. 

In the Celtic lands, May Day or Beltane, was the official beginning of summer and the solstice – or Midsummer – referred to a time when the summer was at its peak.  The word hawthorn comes from the old English word “haw”, which means “hedge”; therefore hawthorn is a thorny hedge.  The hawthorn is considered an emblem of hope.
Medicinally, hawthorn berries were used for treating heart disease and lowering blood pressure.  Generally the berries were simmered in water or used in a tincture.  Hawthorn was considered effective for curing nervousness and insomnia and to prevent miscarriage.  You should always consult your doctor before using any herbal remedy. 

In Celtic lore, the hawthorn was used commonly for rune inscriptions along with yew and apple.  In the Ogham, it is referred to as huath, and is inscribed as below.

Not surprisingly, given the origins of its name, hawthorn was considered a tree of protection; the leaves can be used in protection sachets and combined with other protective plants such as lavender, woodruff, elderflowers and cedar.  In Ireland, the red fruit has been called the Johnny MacGory, or Magory.  Perhaps because of its use in treating heart disease, hawthorn was said to be able to heal a broken heart.

Long ago the flowering branches were used for decorative purposes on the first of May, however only out of doors.  It was considered bad luck to bring the flowers into a house as it was supposed to portend death.  Hawthorn was known as a faerie tree and is commonly associated with May Day or Beltane.  Since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the hawthorn is rarely in full bloom in England before the second week of May.  And in the Scottish Highlands, the May blossoms have been seen as late as mid-June. 

In Scotland, the saying is “Ne’er cast a cloot till May be oot.”  Interestingly, a “clootie” or “cloot” in Scots (which is a form of English, not Scottish Gaelic, by the way) is a strip or piece of cloth, and can also refer to a rag or item of clothing.  “Clootie wells” are wells or springs in Celtic areas where pilgrims leave strips of cloth or rags tied to trees or bushes nearby, usually as part of a healing rituals.  Generally the cloths have washed a diseased, ill or disabled part of a body, and it is believed that when the cloths dry, the body part will heal.  There are other customs that say you should hang a rag at the clootie well on May Day to ward off evil spirits.  Known clootie wells are located in Munlochy in the Black Isles and at Culloden Moor.  Some believe that if you look into the water of a clootie well you will see your own reflection, your face as it will appear on your death, or the face of your life love.

A traditional Scottish dessert pudding is called Clootie Dumpling.  Recipes vary from region to region and sometimes include a golden syrup or treacle. 

Clootie Dumpling

1 lb. self raising flour
1 teacup white breadcrumbs
1 teacup shredded suet
1 teacup sugar
1 packet mixed spice
half pound currants
three-quarters of a pound of raisins/sultanas
half pint of milk
1 grated apple
1 dessertspoonful treacle

Sift flour and spice together and mix with sugar, breadcrumbs and dried fruit.  Cut in the suet.  Dissolve the treacle in the milk and add this to the flour mixture.  Mix to a dough.  Scald a pudding cloth, dust with flour and turn mixture out onto cloth.  Tie securely, leaving room for the pudding to swell.  Place an upturned plate in a large pot with sufficient water to half cover the pudding. Allow the water to boil then place the pudding in the pan. Cover and boil gently for three and a half hours. The pudding must boil continuously. Top up frequently with boiling water. Remove from pan, unwrap cloth gently and dry off pudding in a warm oven for 20 minutes.  Pudding can be served with custard if desired.

Lady Walking Turtle – Copyright 2009

Once amidst the wonder of a very special May night, several soft teal blue breezes encircled the bountiful milkweed along the forest floor.  As they wafted silently between the furry plants and spiraled to and fro, the Moon sprinkled Her thoughts upon their joyful dance.  A nearby delegation of the Fey who had gathered within a clearing were witness this night to a young woman who lay dreaming.   The mortal’s dream however, was so saturated with awe that it was soon lost to conscious thought as swiftly and effortlessly as it had arrived.  By sunrise the wondrous vision had been forgotten, and the forest yielded little hint of the magick it still held within.

The years that followed this extraordinary dream brought with them many curious concepts as the woman’s life moved forward in due course.  Youth, for example, appeared to have dissolved in a heartbeat.  Motherhood arrived just as abruptly, and proceeded on as a series of fleeting moments constantly contemplating the ideal of maturity.  The transition between middle age and becoming a crone seemed frighteningly seamless, and her ‘later years’ appeared out of nowhere somewhere between a blink reflex and chronic indigestion.  It was only now, just as the woman had become comfortable with her aging years, that a flicker of a distant memory began to stir.  Something familiar, yet not quite tangible.  The memory remained annoyingly just outside of conscious reach.

Curious also, was that for each of the past five years as the month of May and the Beltaine celebration approached, the woman had become increasingly uneasy and more introspective.  She found herself examining things that were usually taken for granted, such as the lines on her face she had worn with pride and grace throughout the years.  It was very interesting indeed that they would only now herald to her the finite reality of time.  Although it had always been effortless to ignore moving slower with each passing year, along with the little aches and ailments that seemed to pop up without invitation, this particular season she felt somewhat challenged within her physical world.  She contemplated the natural bone density loss on her Cat Scan and finally succumbed to the fact that her will could never overcome the effects of gravity upon her figure. 

Instinctively, she retaliated by taking  long walks along the trails and paths of her beloved woodlands, and focused on those things that brought her peace and pleasure.   The more she was haunted by something she couldn’t put her finger on, the more she plunged herself into what she most enjoyed doing; concepts she had avoided making the time to experience for most of her life.  The more she embraced that which brought her happiness, the easier it was to once again ignore the obstacles that attempted to clutter her forward motion.

A strange phenomenon began to develop with each layer of reality the woman was able to accept and move beyond while attending to the nourishment that her spirit now required.  There appeared a new found freedom of imagination that could weave itself into her dreams, bringing with it the sleep of joyful abandonment once lost somewhere within her youth.  Tiny slivers of memories began to visit her each night, and she awoke each morning with the hope of unearthing an experience she now knew had been lost.  On the very night that preceded the Beltaine celebration the most wondrous dream once again enveloped the woman in awe and joy!  It was so familiar that it seemed almost not a dream…
   
The girl had awakened within a wooden clearing that seemed to be lit entirely by the  light of the most brilliant Moon.  The light however, seemed as blue as the cornflowers in her field; almost the color of the night time clouds.  As she observed these exceptional colors vibrating, they seemed to change just as quickly as she would attempt to identify them.  While she pondered how this could possibly be she noticed they also wove rhythmically between the flora and fauna of the woods.  And were the colors singing?  How odd!  Every muscle of her body had relaxed in total acceptance however, and there was ecstasy within her heart…

She noticed that several beings also seemed to flicker from one side of the forest to the other.  Were those wings?  No, they couldn’t be…perhaps they were merely translucent floating creatures that her mind had conjured up in her sleep!  She was certain however that they did indeed glide on the warm breezes, and that their voices sounded much like the perfect chorus of crickets!  Just as she began to understand the words within their singing, one of the shimmering beings began to walk towards her…

When the female being spoke, it was as if by way of the winds.  Refreshingly cool and calming, but saturated with information.  

Hecate has a contemplation about being grounded in one’s land, climate and weather.  It relates to what this blog, at least in its original conception, purports to be about, that is the mystical connections we have here in the Hudson-Mohawk Valley to the land and its seasons and climate. 

It occurs to me I’ve not really blogged much about the last two windows of the Wheel Year – i.e., Ostara and Beltane.  In thinking about them as windows, I have even gone so far as to refer to them as the Ostara-Beltane and Beltane-Litha windows, s0 that people understand the period of which I speak, though Ostara and Beltane do tend to tend to be enough of a shorthand for most paganfolk. 

[After having finished this posting, I realized that a subtitle for it would be "Frostwolf's Personal Creativity Throughout the Year."]

Ostara in this region is a burgeoning time as it is most places.  For the most part, it’s pretty cold here, and not much appears to be happening on the surface.  Somewhere in April, we start to see the crocuses and daffodils.  Toward the end of the season, as we get to Beltane, we start to see the tulips, which are really harbingers for the emotional summer that May Day symbolizes to me.  The transition from Imbolc to Ostara and the first part of “Scientific Spring” (the equinox is referred to as Midspring in the pagan year) are personally quite treacherous for me.  And I’ve certainly blogged about that before.  The transition from Ostara to Beltane, in contrast, is much more joyous and hopeful.

Here in the H-M Valley, Beltane is perhaps the most resplendent window in the regional wheel year.  It certainly pops us out of the morass of winter that we have endured since Samhain.  (Along those lines, the last few years, the Samhain window has been fairly mild, though the post-Thanksgiving sub-window of 2008 was particularly brutal, what with the ice storms we had.  The Yule window and the Imbolc window I personally experienced as fairly run-of-the-mill–not that I’m saying they were mediocre.  Just not wildly different from other years.)

For me, the past two Taurus-Gemini periods have been about doing shows.  I was in a play and directed and acted in another last year, and this year, I directed a play, and I’m acting in and producing another now.  My personal Beltanes are about creativity and expression, it seems.  (Next year, I’ll be utilizing my Imbolc and Ostara for that, and gearing up to direct King Lear over the summer, provided the wheels of the vEmpire still chug away like they do now–hard to say whether that will be the case.)

In looking at my history, I realize that most of my post-teenage summers have had some theatrical component.  Litha and Lammas both have portended some sort of theatrical engagement.  Over the past 3 years, the border between the two has been the culmination of a project.  Hm.  I’ve had some pretty joyous theater times during the Lammas come to think of it. 

My late Lammas and all the way through into Yule appear to be the time when I am most fertile for writing.  And my fallow period starts around my birthday, mid-Imbolc. 

I’d love to manifest responses to this post.  Care to make any?