Beltane *REPOST*

May 1st – Beltane

Beltane– the time for change and new beginnings just like the season. As the buds on trees and flowers begin to blossom, we are reminded of fertility and the coming summer. 

On May Eve the sexuality of life and the earth is at its peak. Abundant fertility, on all levels, is the central theme. The Maiden goddess has reached her fullness. She is the manifestation of growth and renewal, Flora, the Goddess of Spring, the May Queen, the May Bride. The Young Oak King, as Jack-In-The-Green, as the Green Man, falls in love with her and wins her hand. 

The union is consummated and the May Queen becomes pregnant. Together the May Queen and the May King are symbols of the Sacred Marriage (or Heiros Gamos), the union of Earth and Sky, and this union has merrily been re-enacted by humans throughout the centuries. For this is the night of the Greenwood Marriage. It is about sexuality and sensuality, passion, vitality and joy. And about conception. A brilliant moment in the Wheel of the Year to bring ideas, hopes and dreams into action.

Several tradition are performed in the season of Beltane:

• Handfasting
  • As Beltane is the Great Wedding of the Goddess and the God, it is a popular time for pagan weddings or Handfastings, a traditional betrothal for ‘a year and a day’ after which the couple would either choose to stay together or part without recrimination. Today, the length of commitment is a matter of choice for the couple, and can often be for life. Handfasting ceremonies are often unique to the couple, but include common elements, most importantly the exchange of vows and rings (or a token of their choice). The act of handfasting always involves tying the hands Handfasting (‘tying the knot’) of the two people involved, in a figure of eight, at some point in the ceremony and later unbinding. This is done with a red cord or ribbon. Tying the hands together symbolises that the two people have come together and the untying means that they remain together of their own free will.

• Jumping the Broomstick
  • This was a common practice for those who could not afford to be married traditionally. It was still locally recognized and the practice would be celebrated by gatherings and food, drink, and merriment. *Mead is the oldest drink known to mankind and also known as the Brew of the Divine, using honey; the most appropriate ingredient for a love ceremony*

• Going A-Maying
  • Couples spent the night in the woods and fields, made love and brought back armfuls of the first May or haw thorn blossoms to decorate their homes and barns. Hawthorn was never brought into the home except at Beltane – at other times it was considered unlucky. Young women gathered the dew to wash their faces, made Flower Crowns and May Baskets to give as gifts. Everyone was free to enact the Sacred Marriage of Goddess and God, and there was an accepted tradition of Beltane babies arriving nine months later.

• The Maypole
  • The Maypole is a popular and familiar image of May Day and Beltane. A phallic pole, often made from birch, was inserted into the Earth representing the potency of the God. The ring of flowers at the top of the Maypole represents the fertile Goddess. Its many coloured ribbons and the ensuing weaving dance symbolise the spiral of Life and the union of the Goddess and God, the union between Earth and Sky.
  • The colours of Beltane are green, red and white/silver. Green represents growth, abundance and fertility. Red represents strength, vitality, passion and vibrancy. White represents cleansing and clearing and the power to disperse negativity.

Egg Charm for Beltane

Think carefully what you wish for! The general rule of thumb is a brown egg for wishes involving animals and white for wishes involving people and plants, for example healing a sick animal, person or plant. 

1. Blow the egg. Using a fat needle, pierce a hole in both ends of the egg, making one hole larger than the other. Using the needle pierce the egg yolk gently and swirl it around to break up the yolk. Place a small drinking straw in one end and gently blow through the other hole to help gravity do its work.

2. Paint Your Egg Talisman. When your egg has thoroughly dried out, place it on top of a little mound of blue tack to hold it in place and you are ready to go! 

Choose a symbol to represent your wish – a heart for love, coin for prosperity, a candle for wisdom, whatever is meaningful for you. Or you can paint the whole egg in a corresponding colour – red for love, green for prosperity, purple for wisdom and so on. Another way to do it is to stick rose petals on for love, or feathers for fertility – again it is what is meaningful to you that is important.

3. When it is ready find a suitable place for it and prepare it for hanging by threading a thin thread (embroidery thread, thin wool) through the two holes and secure it with a large knot, a bead, or even a matchstick at the bottom to hold it steady.

4. Clear your mind and focus on your desire for abundance/fruitfulness and its place in your life:

‘Little charm made of shell as I hang you here may all be well. May all things grow. May all things flow. Blessings for the turning of the Wheel.”

Use these words or any others that you are comfortable with – remember this is all about your intention.

Wish Box Charm

Beltane is a good time for bringing hopes, dreams and aspirations to life, and here is a truly beautiful charm to help you bring these into manifestation.

You will need:

• A small shallow cardboard box. Shoe boxes are good.
• Rose petals
• Sunflower seeds and/or poppy seeds
• Paper
• A piece of willow bark or piece of willow, an acorn or oak leaf
• Something that represents your wish (see below)

Take a piece of paper and write your wish on it while visualizing your wish coming to life and growing. You can do this alone, with friends, or as a family. If you want to, decorate the lid of the box, with a triple moon, pentacle, heart, or any symbol of your choice. Poke a few holes in the lid – this will help your wish/plants, to grow. 

Take your box and sprinkle some earth into it. Put in your paper wishes, wish symbol (see below), and seeds/bark/acorn. Cover with another layer of earth. Mix the rose petals with the seeds and scatter them on top. Cover with a final layer of earth and place the lid on top, leaving enough of the rose petal/seed mixture to scatter on top of the box when you are planting it.

Planting Your Wish Box

The best time for planting your Wish Box is just after a fresh cleansing rainfall as this gives you a bright new start, but if the season is dry just give the earth a good watering the night before. Dig a hole two inches deeper than your wish box and lower it into the earth carefully while concentrating on your chosen wish, visualizing it coming to fruition. Imagine your wish growing with the flowers reaching skyward. As you cover the box with earth say:

“Dream that lies within the earth awaken now. Hope that sleeps awaken now. The stars await as so do I. Grow true, grow strong, toward the sky.”

If you don’t have a garden you can make a mini wish pot that can live on a window ledge and it works just as well. Just replace the box with a terracotta pot – one wish and one symbol per pot following exactly the same instructions as above. Remember that wishes are only to be used for positive motives.

Suggested Symbols For Your Wish Box:

• Love & Marriage – gingerbread
• New Job – copper coin
• Abundance – silver coin
• Difficult Task – glove
• Hearth & Home – thimble
• Seeking the Truth – sprig of rosemary
• Health, Healing, Renewed Strength – blue & green ribbon entwined
• Happiness, Good Luck – cinnamon stick
• Seeking Knowledge – apple
• To Find A Lost Item – feather
• Protection – key (an old iron key is best if you have one)

Beltane Bread

You will need:

• 3 mugs of strong white flour
• 500 mls (just over 2 cups) of buttermilk
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tbs clear honey
• 3 tbs golden syrup
• 1 pack dried strawberries
• 3 drops vanilla essence
• 1 small beaten egg for glazing
• soft brown sugar for sprinkling

Place the strawberries and flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, blended golden syrup, honey and vanilla essence together with a wooden spoon – or your hands if that is better. As you mix, feel the pulsing vibrant Beltane energy and let it run through your hands and out through your fingertips. And as you mix, say:

‘As we light the Beltane flame, I make this bread in Love’s sweet name.

Two halves together bound as one, Beltane’s dance has now begun!’

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and pat it into a circle. With a sharp knife lightly score the bread into two halves to represent The Lord and Lady. Glaze with beaten egg and sprinkle sugar over the top. Bake in a moderate oven for about 20-25 minutes. When the bread is cooled break it into two halves along the score mark. Repeat the words of the charm and tie with purple ribbon. Purple represents the union of red (love in all its forms) and blue (unity and harmony). Enjoy. 

Other Beltane Ideas

Whatever you do, remember this is the Great Wedding! Dress in your best, especially in green, and wear a flower crown.

• Stay out all night, gathering the green, watch the sunrise and make love. Wash your face in the morning dew.
• Conceive a new project, grasp that idea, and get on with it.
• Dress your home and/or altar with greenery – especially with hawthorn, rowan and birch branches. Ask permission from the tree before you take anything.
• Dress a tree. This is the perfect time to go out and celebrate a tree. Especially a hawthorn, rowan or birch – but the tree spirit will welcome you attention whichever kind of tree it is. Sit with it, talk to it, dance around it (maypole), honour the tree and its fertility. Hang ribbons from its branches, each ribbon represents a wish or prayer.

• Flowers, flowers and more flowers. This is the festival of Flora. Make a flower crown to wear – the daisy chain in the simplest of all. Make a traditional flower basket. fill it with Beltane greenery and all the flowers and herbs you can find. Think about, and honour, their magical and healing properties while you do so. Give it someone you love.
• Prepare a May basket by filling it with flowers and goodwill and then give it to someone in need of healing and caring, such as a shut-in or elderly friend. Form a wreath of freshly picked flowers, wear it in your hair, and feel yourself radiating joy and beauty. Dress in bright colors. Dance the Maypole and feel yourself balancing the Divine Female and Male within. On May Eve, bless your garden in the old way by making love with your lover in it. Make a wish as you jump a bonfire or candle flame for good luck. Welcome in the May at dawn with singing and dancing.
• Beltane Fires-Traditionally, sacred woods kindled by spark from flint or by friction — in Irish Gaelic, the Beltane Fire has been called teine eigin (fire from rubbing sticks). 
  •  Jump over the Beltane Fire, move through it, or dance clockwise around it.
  • Livestock was driven through it or between two fires for purification and fertility blessings. 
  • In ancient times Druid priests kindled it at sacred places; later times, Christian priests kindled it in fields near the church after performing a Christian church service. 
  • Rowan twigs were carried around the fire three times, then hung over hearths to bless homes.
  • In the past, Beltane community fire purification customs included symbolic sacrifice of effigy knobs on the Beltane Cake (of barley) to the fire, or, in medieval times, mock sacrifice of Beltane Carline (Hag) who received blackened piece of Beltane Cake; Maypoles in Spain were each topped with a male effigy which was later burned. Contemporary Pagans burn sacred wood and dried herbs as offerings in their Beltane fires.
• May Waters-Rolling in May Eve dew or washing face in pre-dawn May Day dew for health, luck, beauty. 
  • Getting head and hair wet in Beltane rain to bless the head. 
  • Blessing springs, ponds, other sacred waters with flowers, garlands, ribbons, other offerings. 
  •  Collecting sacred waters and scrying in sacred springs, wells, ponds, other waters
• Make some Hawthorn Brandy. You will need a bottle of brandy and at least one cup of hawthorn flowers, plus a little sugar to taste. Mix the ingredients together and leave away from direct light, for at least two weeks. Shake occasionally. Strain, bottle and enjoy. Hawthorn is renowned as a tonic for the heart.

Hawthorn Brandy

How to make Hawthorn brandy

• 1.5 cups brandy
• ⅔ cup haws
• 1 cup sugar

Clean the haws and dry them

Add haws and sugar to a sterilised jar

Pour in the brandy and shake vigorously

Keep warm and shake daily for 1 week

Shake weekly for 2 months

Decant liquid into sterilised bottles and enjoy

Warning

A few words of warning and rules:

• Some plants and fungi are poisonous, so if you are not 100% certain that your identification is correct – DO NOT EAT IT.
• Avoid foraging where agricultural sprays or vehicle pollution may have contaminated produce.
• Always stay on Rights of Way unless you have the permission from the landowner to leave them.
• Picking nuts, berries, leaves etc. is permitted on Rights of Way, but the uprooting of any wild plants is illegal without the landowner’s permission.

Trees of Beltane

Hawthorn

• Hawthorn is a deeply magical tree and is one of the three trees at the heart of the Celtic Tree Alphabet, the Faery Triad, ‘by Oak, Ash and Thorn’. Traditionally Beltane began when the Hawthorn, the May, blossomed. It is the tree of sexuality and fertility and is the classic flower to decorate a Maypole with. It was both worn and used to decorate the home at Beltane.

Birch

• Birch is regarded as a feminine tree and Deities associated with Birch are mostly love and fertility goddesses. It is one of the first trees to show its leaf in Spring. Eostre/Ostara, the Celtic goddess of Spring was celebrated in festivities and dancing around and through the birch tree between the Spring Equinox and Beltane. Birch twigs were traditionally used to make besoms (a new broom sweeps clean). Maypoles were often made from birch and birch wreaths were given as lover’s gifts.

Rowan

• A tree of protection and healing. Branches of Rowan were placed as protection over the doors of houses and barns at Beltane to protect from increased Faery activity as they woke from their winter slumber. Sprigs were worn for protection also. Rowan berries have a tiny five-pointed star on the bottom reminiscent of the pentagram.

Beltane Recipes

Ares’ Asparagus Soup

While you prepare this dish, repeat the following. Repeat again as you serve.

I summon and invoke the bold and virile Aries

The Playful, unencumbered sentiment of faeries

The liberation from a cold, barren winter’s end

To practice sex as sacred is what I intend

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped chives
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 cube vegetable bouillon
• 3-4 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 12 spears asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• Salt and pepper

In a small saute pan, saute the chives in the butter for 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a large pot. Add 4-6 cups of water, depending on your preference for thicker or thinner soup. Add bouillon cube and bring to a boil. Add potatoes and asparagus (and water, as needed), reduce heat to medium. Simmer until potatoes are soft. Transfer to food processor or blender and blend until smooth, Salt and pepper to taste.

Beltane Oatcake

Oatcakes are served as a representation of the sun, whose return is marked by the Beltane celebration. The cakes are not only eaten, but thrown into the traditional bonfires as an offering to protective dieties.

Begin by saying the following prayer of gratitude”

We are each a part of the joyous circle of love.

As we cast the bread into the fire,

We fuse together into the One Being.

That always was, and always will be.

Ingredients”

• 2 tbsp vegetable shortening
• ⅓ cup boiling water
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 tsp minced, fresh sage
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. In a small pan, heat shortening and water until shortening is melted. Remove from heat and let cool.

Mix oats, sage, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Mix the cooled liquid and the oat mixture, adding water if necessary, to maintain a dough like consistency. 

Pat the dough into a circle, about 8 inches in diameter. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Cut into 8 wedges. Let cool on wire rack.

Yield: 8 cakes.

Zucchini-Chocolate Muffins

Yield: 1 dozen muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 ⅓ cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 ½ tsps baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup lowfat sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsps vegetable oil
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups loosely packed shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 400.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a small bowl, mix sour cream, egg, oil, and vanilla. Add in zucchini being careful not to overmix. Carefully combine mixtures.

Fill each muffin tin ¾ of the way full and bake for 20 minutes.

 *All recipes from The Wicca Cookbook, 2nd Edition by Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldr*