Listen to the Podcast at ‘I Think Speech‘ Greetings friends – Yes that was me out sipping dewdrops from the lilacs at sunrise – just one way to participate in the magical reality of May 1st – the fixed date of what we call the Cross-Quarter on the Wheel of the Year, between the Spring Equinox & the Summer Solstice – called Beltane by the ancients, the Festival of joyful growth & fecundity, heralding the promise of Summer. (The actual cosmic Cross-Quarter date is May 5th this year - Cinco De Mayo AND Orthodox Easter Sunday!)
Beltane is the Festival Season of the ‘Good Fire’ or ‘Bel-fire’, named after the Solar Deity Bel: “Bright and Brilliant Regenerator”, “Protective Shepard”, “The Fiercely Shining One”, & “The Hospitable Boar Chieftain”.
Tradition has it that all hearth fires were extinguished on Beltane Eve, & then kindled again from the sacred “need fires” lit on Beltane Eve. People would leap through the smoke & flames of the Beltane fires, & also drive their cattle thru them for purification, fertility, prosperity & protection. Yes the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg clan had a bonfire last night under the 4th Quarter Pink Moon.
Bel is a Pan-Celtic & Gaulish god of light revered all over Europe. Bel was also known as ‘Bile’ in Ireland, meaning ‘Tree of Life’. Besides being a solar god, Belenus was also known to be a ‘Rainbow rayed healer’ & there are healing springs that are associated with him.
Rudolf Steiner, when lecturing about the Mystery Schools, speaks of this time as being ruled by the healing Archangel Raphael.
In terms of the Archetypal cycle, Beltane marks the union of the female & male polarities, bringing new life to the earth. It is a traditional time for Hand-fastings (a marriage union for a year & a day), & was a time for couples to make love outside to bless the crops & the earth.
Maypoles were often danced around at Beltane to bring fertility & good fortune. The addition of ribbons, which came later, wrapped around the pole by the dancers, bring a further sense of the integration of the complimentary energies, mirroring the union between the God & the Goddess. Beltane is a time to devote energy to growth & integration – a time to celebrate, exuberance & hope, when we can enjoy & appreciate the gifts of nature.
Beltane is a Celtic re-newal of an even older Sabine (ancient Greco-Roman) festival, ‘Floralia‘, which celebrated the goddess Flora & the blossoming of Spring into Summer, especially associated with vines, olives, fruit trees & honey-bearing plants.
Cernnunos, the earthly god-force present at Beltane, is a Triple God who is Green Man, Great Father, & Nature Deity. As the “Antlered Horned Forest Lord”, “Leaf Faced Greenery Father”, & “Primal Landscape Goddess Consort”, he was known by many names thruout the ages on the European continent & the British Isles.
Originally Beltane was a ‘Movable Feast’ gauging the condition of the crops & flowers, under the command of a Sibylline Oracle, with the purpose of gaining from the Goddess the protection of the blossoms.
Festive games, bringing folks out from their winter hibernation, were played in honor of the Goddess Flora; with pantomimes, & street theatre. The people of all classes wore their brightest clothes, all decked out in flowers – even the animals were garlanded. Goats & hares representing fertility were let loose about the village or town. In Piedmont Italy, the Bride of May carries the ‘maggio’, a green branch garlanded with ribbons, fresh fruits & lemons. Rome must have looked particularly beautiful at this time. Gift-giving for the season included vegetables as tokens of sex & fertility. (Use your imagination) In fact, the origins of the ‘Floralia’ are associated in Greece with Aphrodite in her aspect as the goddess of Love & flowering plants, even before the festival found its way to Italy.
Choosing a May Queen & King is a big part of celebrating May Day. A young girl dressed in white represented the Goddess in her maiden aspect. The merry month of May & the word maiden both come from the same source, a word which simply means young. In some English Villages, the young woman is called Maid (or May) Marian & this is considered Robin Hood’s holiday.
Anyone who went out into the woods & found a branch of flowering hawthorn would bring it triumphantly into the village (the tradition of ‘Bringing in the May’) & announcing the start of planting season. But beware – for bringing hawthorn into the house, also invites the fairies in, & some of these ‘little folk’ can be tricksters, so it’s important to have a good intent. Sometimes flowers were given as messages: plum for the glum, elder for the surly, thorns for the prickly, pear for being popular.
In Eastern Europe, a young man would go into the woods on May Eve, dig up a young flowering tree, decorate it with ribbons & colored eggshells, & plant it outside the bedroom window of his sweetheart. In Scandinavia & Germany, May trees are also important for animals, & are set up beside the barn door, one for each baby animal in the stable.
When I was growing up my Italian grandmother on my father’s side would celebrate May Day by tying lemons & ribbons around the flowering branches of the Dogwood tree & the grapevines in the backyard. She would laugh & say “More May wine for the God-Dog.”
In Italy, my Strega Nona told me, Maypoles are called ‘alberi della cucagna’ (trees from the land of milk & honey) there were no ribbions, instead folks would have prosciutto, mortadella, cheeses & money dangling from the top. She told stories of how when she was little the men of the village would try to get these prizes by climbing the pole which is greased with lard. Eventually the grease wears off & someone gets the prize. A similar custom is found in Wales. In English villages, the Maypole is often decorated with a broom or bush & brought in from the woods with girls riding astride it.
In ancient Ireland, where my Mother’s people are from, I’ve heard tell, there was a ‘Sacred Tree named Bille’, which was the center of the clan, or Tuatha. As the ‘Irish Tree of Life’, the Bile Pole, represents the connection between the people & the three worlds of Bith: The Skyworld (heavens), The Middleworld (our world), & The Netherworld.
The more modern Maypole circle dancing is more about bringing the social realm together with the sacred. The weaving in & out of the colorful ribbons, plaiting as they go – helped people flirt & mingle socially – & also raised energy in a patterned & focused way.
Even today in some towns & villages a ‘mummer’ called Jack in the Green (drawing from the Green Man), wears a costume made of green leaves as he dances around the Maypole. The role of the Green Man is the re-greening of the world –
He also represents –The Fool – another archetype of Beltane – a symbol of the beginning of beginnings, & the ever present help of the spiritual world, which comes to those who have a clear head, as well as the idea of the emergence from the void of nothingness (winter)
In England, May Day was all about Morris Dancing & Mummer’s Plays -The larger-than-life leaping of the Morris dancers serve as charms to show the crops how high to grow (similar dances were done in early Roman times) & the clashing of their sticks represent a ritual battle between Winter & Spring.
The mummer’s plays feature interesting characters like: Green George, & there’s always a hobbyhorse, cockhorse (or dragon), a male dressed as a female, a jester & sometimes chimney sweeps with their brushes. I remember hearing a storyteller speak about how the hobbyhorse has coal under his skirts, with the goal of running after the young women who were eligible maidens, to mark them with the coal. Only those marked can dance around the Maypole. Sometimes when the play portrays a battle between the Seasons, Spring squirts Winter with water & seizes the garland from Winter & presents it to the May Queen.
We have to remember that Beltane, is a precarious time; the crops are still very young & tender, susceptible to frost & blight. The folk in those days, being close to the land, felt strongly that the Wheel of the year would not turn without human intervention; So they did everything in their power to encourage the Sun & the elemental powers, by acknowledging & working with these energies.
Besides Fire, Water too has special properties on May Day. A Mother Goose rhyme tells us:
Other Celtic stories suggest using the dew found under oaks or on ivy leaves. Folks would make a special wish as they washed their face in dew, or as they drank from a well before sunrise. The first Sunday & first Monday in May are traditional days for ‘dressing’ – decorating & honoring the local wells or water source. This is an important association of Beltane, for water is rejuvenating – vital to life. It is said that if you bathe in the dew gathered before dawn on Beltane morn, your beauty, health & happiness will flourish thruout the year.
Another way to bring in the Fire element is to make May wine flavored with herbs, berries, fruits or flowers. I remember a friend who always made a traditional May wine with sweet woodruff.
At Beltane the Pleiades star cluster rises just before sunrise (during wintertime the Pleiades rises at sunset) This cluster of seven closely placed stars, the seven sisters, is in the constellation of Taurus. Spiritual Science associates the higher astral aspect of the bull with the Dove or Holy Spirit.
And right now we can see Mars & Saturn before dawn in the morning sky.
Look for the Eta Aquariid meteor shower - Before dawn 5-6 May. The radiant point is in the constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer. On 5 May Bella Luna reaches perigee - the closest point in its elliptical orbit around Earth - We start a New Moon cycle 8 May.
And on 9 May, Mercury reaches its greatest elongation from the morning Sun.
Friends, as we stand on the Greening Earth, bringing our prayers & intentions for new growth into our actions, we can also rise in our thoughts to meet the cosmic forces – the inspiration & origin of our fertility… See you in the sacred grove ~hag
Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimagewith Mysteria Mystica Americana (MMA) Saturday 18 May 2024 Noon – 1:30 PM Central TimeCreating Sacred Space on Zoom ID: 705 017 4041 - Passcode: MMA https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041?pwd=j1AkESGygaKVFaD0T7r2lfV533BWfm.1&omn=87316485500 w/ Richard Cloud, Hazel Archer, Lisa Loving Dalton. And friends: Alexander Torrenga, Jeffery Levy.
Greetings Friend, you currently a free subscriber to Cognitive Ritual. Thank you for receiving my workings freely offered. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. ALL donations go to support Zinniker Farm - The oldest Biodynamic Farm in America! Together we can spiritualize the Universe. XOX ~hag
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Wednesday, 1 May 2024
Dew
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