With roots in the British Isles, Beltane is a celebration that falls midway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It honors spring at its peak and the coming summer. If the spring has been a fruitful one, usually the rains have produced rich and fertile earth with verdant green woodlands. And Beltane celebrates the new life that will emerge during this seasonal transition.
Festivities for the event begin on or near the last night of April and continue through May 1. Observed for centuries in Europe, the celebration is now embraced by pagans, who light bonfires, dance, and perform rituals on the occasion. There is no shortage of ways to observe Beltane, and some pagans also mark the event by paying tribute to their agrarian ancestors who celebrated Beltane centuries earlier. (Source)
Beltane is a good time to practice fertility magic in hopes of producing an abundant crop by the time the harvest rolls around. Don’t forget that the garden can be one of the most magical places in your life. Start thinking about how to plan, create, and grow your magical garden, as well as ways to create specialty gardens, herb plots, and more!
A Beltane Altar
Set up an altar honoring the Beltane season using rich greens and colors reflecting the spring flowers. Incorporate a candle signifying the Beltane fire. Fertility symbols from nature, such as horns, seeds, and flowers, as well as a mother goddess symbol, can round out the altar.
Things To Do for Beltane
- 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.
- 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. (Source)
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. Eggs with white shells are difficult to come by now as chickens are generally given feed which produces the desired brown shell, but in recent years some of the supermarkets are making white eggs available at this time of year so they are worth looking out for.
- 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.
- 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.
- When it is ready find a suitable place for it and prepare for 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.
- 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. (Source)
Wrapping It Up
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I hope the above is useful to you. Let me know in the comments below, and don’t hesitate to ask any questions.
