On this Eve of the Full Flower Moon we are led to the Threshold of Walpurgisnacht - the Feast Day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess famous for battling against pestilence, as well as black magick. One tradition is to light bonfires tonight in order to ward off evil spirits, especially those that would curse the unborn, or come to snatch away infants & children. Many folk make a pilgrimage to Saint Walpurga’s tomb to obtain a vial of ‘Saint Walpurga’s oil’ - which is said to fragrantly flow from the rocky niche where her relics rest in the Eichstätt Church near Bavaria. The healing fluid caught in a silver cup, is distributed among the faithful by the nuns on this day, & is then mixed with May Dew before commencing the Beltane fertility rites on May Day. So tonight let us banish the evil spirits that would steel our future - as we stand on the Eve of Beltane – heralding the lusty month of May – moving us closer in the Easter-Tide toward the 40 days after the Resurrection & the Festival of Ascension –
We can remember that this Cross-quarter time between the Spring Equinox & the Summer Solstice stands opposite on the wheel of the year to All Souls when the veils between the worlds are thin - allowing messages from our beloved dead to enter more easily into our realm. & those veils are equally thin in the Spring when the ‘Fae’ are powerfully surging & stirring in the essence of their various elements - & so it is that now we can be ‘Pixie led’ into their enchanted realms – so be awake in your discernment – for we stand at a liminal Threshold - opening us to the mysteries of rebirth, unborness & the invisible realms that take us thru an infinite portal - Seen from the inside out & the outside in…
Walpurgis Night asks us to beware of the opposite energy of the innocence of Spring – bringing in a stain of the negative side of Halloween - Instead of honoring the ancestors, Walpurgis Night shows the dark counterimage of the corruption of innocence by evil. In Goethe’s Faust we are led to Brocken’s summit in the Harz Mountains of Germany on Walpurgisnacht. At this point, Faust does not know what has befallen his innocent love Gretchen – that she has killed their illegitimate infant - & is about to be executed for murder. We follow Faust & Mephistopheles hiking in a labyrinth of valleys among welling & plunging waters. All the Elements of Nature make Faust feel the tide of Spring in his limbs - So the devil calls in the coldness of Autumn, & even the Full Flower Moon becomes blood red. Mammon, the lewd naked witches, & their pigs fly around on broomsticks - & wicked beings associated with perverted pleasures & blind appetites approach, chanting mocking songs. Mephistopheles says they are “making small worlds inside the great one” The devil enjoys asserting his power over them in this demonic microcosm, but only here - for in truth, in the Divine Macrocosm of the Universe, as Saint Walpurga knew, evil is impotent to do anything but ultimately serve the Divine Will. First the two approach a group of old men who complain that they can’t trust the Government or the People - how nothing’s stable, & how impudent the young have become. The old men are bitter & cynical, & like the devil, they are content to just talk negatively, never acting creatively to actually make the world a better place. Looking suddenly very old, Mephistopheles gets a glimpse of what Judgment Day will be like, when the physical world will be destroyed & the kingdom of heaven revealed. A witch tries to sell him a variety of weapons that have done great harm to society, but Mephistopheles tells her that she is behind the times & should sell pretty novelties which will work better, instead of the obvious. Consumerism which draws the human mind away from higher pursuits, is associated with devilry thru-out the play. Lilith, the first wife of Adam, now a demon-temptress who kills children, is there dancing with the witches. Faust & Mephistopheles join in with them. Faust sings about the apples in Eden, leading to the Fall from Paradise – Lilith is contrasted with Eve & the Virgin Mary, whose son Jesus died to redeem humanity. Faust then sings about the Tree of Knowledge. At this point a sleep-walking mortal who doesn’t believe in ghosts approaches, & says it’s impossible that these supernatural beings should be dancing together - & yet here they are. Faust stops dancing when a red mouse leaps from the mouth of a deathly-pale girl who looks like Gretchen - She moves closer & he sees that she is holding her severed head in her hands. Faust cries in despair. He curses Mephistopheles for letting this happen to “an innocent girl who is given over to evil spirits and to the unfeeling ones who presume to dispense justice!” He is angry that Mephistopheles has hidden her suffering from him. Mephistopheles only answers, “She is not the first.” He points out that it was Faust who wagered with the Devil. Faust begs Mephistopheles to take him to the prison so that he can free her. The Devil warns him that “blood-guilt” still reigns in the city. On the way Faust & Mephistopheles ride horses thru an open field, where Faust spies a coven of witches performing some heinous act on the ‘Raven’s Stone’, where executions normally take place. They are “sprinkling and murmuring spells,” but Mephistopheles tells Faust to pay no attention to them. Faust enters Gretchen’s prison cell with keys & a lantern. He hears her singing a song about a mother who put her daughter to death, a father who “fed” on the flesh of his daughter, & the girl’s little sister who buried her. In the song the girl then becomes a bird & fly’s away. Faust tries to convince her that he has come to set her free. Gretchen tells Faust, “I killed my mother / drowned my child; / was it not a gift for you and me?” Faust begs her to “Let the past be past. / You are killing me!” but she begs him to stay amongst the living so that he can bury her. After continuing to argue, she tells him that she cannot leave because she has no more life. She begs him to save their child, giving him directions to the pond where she threw it in the water. Faust decides to carry her out of the cell, but she tells him to put her down. The day begins to break, & she remembers how May Day “was meant to be my wedding day!” She surrenders herself to the judgment of God. Mephistopheles tells them that they must run away or he will abandon them both, but Gretchen has fallen into a trance, calling for Angels to save her. Mephistopheles pronounces, “She is condemned!” but a Voice from above answers, “She is saved!” Faust awakens from his Walpurgis Night’s Dream to realize that he has committed a terrible sin - By choosing to accompany Mephistopheles, he has damned his love to bear their illegitimate child alone, allowing an invisible hand to kill the child, which leads to Grethen’s death - She becomes the sacrifice for Faust’s chance at enlightenment - his realization that god’s grace comes thru love of another.
Dear friends, let us remember that Beltane is a precarious time; the crops are still very young & tender, susceptible to frost & blight - So lets’ join with Saint Walpurga to do our part to battle against pestilence, & the black magick that would corrupt the innocence of Spring - Sparking up our will to protect the Good that wants to come to life. See you at the Bel-Fire ~hag
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