Greetings Dear Students of Beauty,
May Day (Beltane) is upon us. It's typically celebrated on May 1st, but this an imposition of the western mind, which loves calendars that are disconnected from nature. Celestially, Beltane is the time in the earth's orbit when it passes the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. In 2018, the Astrological date of Beltane falls on Saturday, May 5th. I'm not an astrologer, but here is a link to one.
The Celtic world sometimes divides the year in half (sometimes in quarters, sometimes in 8). Right now, we are crossing from the dark half to the light half (in the northern hemisphere). The word Beltane originates from the Celtic God "Bel", ("the bright one") and the Gaelic word "teine" ("fire"). Beltane celebrates the crossing from winter to summer, from the dark half of the year to the light half, the un-fertile, waiting, receptive half to the fertile, pulsing, ebullient, fecund half of the year.
May Day (Beltane) is upon us. It's typically celebrated on May 1st, but this an imposition of the western mind, which loves calendars that are disconnected from nature. Celestially, Beltane is the time in the earth's orbit when it passes the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. In 2018, the Astrological date of Beltane falls on Saturday, May 5th. I'm not an astrologer, but here is a link to one.
The Celtic world sometimes divides the year in half (sometimes in quarters, sometimes in 8). Right now, we are crossing from the dark half to the light half (in the northern hemisphere). The word Beltane originates from the Celtic God "Bel", ("the bright one") and the Gaelic word "teine" ("fire"). Beltane celebrates the crossing from winter to summer, from the dark half of the year to the light half, the un-fertile, waiting, receptive half to the fertile, pulsing, ebullient, fecund half of the year.
|
Here is a link to a page with an utterly charming 17 minute video shot in the 1950's describing the Padstow May Song and celebration of Beltane in Cornwall, England. It contains the Padstow May chant. The page has some cool info about the ritual. The song is well worth learning even just the first verse and signing it unceasingly for the next few days:
Unite and unite, and let us all unite For summer is a-comin' today. And whither we are going we all will unite In the merry morning of May. |
|
By unite, we are talking about the village, one another - let's all celebrate together. We are all humans, so of course we carry wounds and old arguments in us, but right now, this very large thing is going on in nature - we are passing into the fertile season, the time of abundance and joy.
And by unite, we are talking about the marriage of sky and earth, sacred masculine and sacred feminine, for in this uniting, all life moves forward into its next shape. This is why Beltane is often celebrated with lovemaking.
A simple practice (beyond taking your lover "hand in hand") is to do a little wooing of the earth. Go someplace you love, or imagine it, and just woo it. Woo the living daylights out of it. Tell it how beautiful it is, how you love it so much, how you love the curve of its mounds, and radiance of light on its skin, the sound of its laughter. Pour love into that spot on the earth. You might also do this to distressed land (or water). Pour love into it, in order to heal it, for love heals. If this kind of shamanic work interests you, check out Shamanism WIthout Borders.
The western mind (and the Church) likes to have things set on certain days – days constructed by humans and their calendars. But Beltane is a several weeks-long energetic field of "increase." In the British Isles, spring has fully sprung by Beltane, and so it's easy to go out and cut down the newly green sycamore twigs to decorate the village. But a glance out the window in Minnesota reveals that, while "celestial" Beltane is arriving, the Beltane of the landscape is still only just emerging. So, we can celebrate both. Astrologically, you can use these days around Saturday, May 5th to make prayers for your increase, your abundance. In a certain way, you are uniting your prayers to the great energy swelling up all around. It's like tossing a flower onto a wave – the wave rises up and carries the flower along on its power. Let the rising energy of the earth carry your prayer for your own increase.
And by unite, we are talking about the marriage of sky and earth, sacred masculine and sacred feminine, for in this uniting, all life moves forward into its next shape. This is why Beltane is often celebrated with lovemaking.
A simple practice (beyond taking your lover "hand in hand") is to do a little wooing of the earth. Go someplace you love, or imagine it, and just woo it. Woo the living daylights out of it. Tell it how beautiful it is, how you love it so much, how you love the curve of its mounds, and radiance of light on its skin, the sound of its laughter. Pour love into that spot on the earth. You might also do this to distressed land (or water). Pour love into it, in order to heal it, for love heals. If this kind of shamanic work interests you, check out Shamanism WIthout Borders.
The western mind (and the Church) likes to have things set on certain days – days constructed by humans and their calendars. But Beltane is a several weeks-long energetic field of "increase." In the British Isles, spring has fully sprung by Beltane, and so it's easy to go out and cut down the newly green sycamore twigs to decorate the village. But a glance out the window in Minnesota reveals that, while "celestial" Beltane is arriving, the Beltane of the landscape is still only just emerging. So, we can celebrate both. Astrologically, you can use these days around Saturday, May 5th to make prayers for your increase, your abundance. In a certain way, you are uniting your prayers to the great energy swelling up all around. It's like tossing a flower onto a wave – the wave rises up and carries the flower along on its power. Let the rising energy of the earth carry your prayer for your own increase.
The first task in making a prayer for your own abundance is to decide what you mean by abundance. It's fine to pray for money, but much of the of time when we are praying for money, underneath we are actually praying for something else: love, safety, calm, recognition, freedom, personal power, confidence, connection with others or connection with Spirit - on and on. We have been trained by our culture to believe that money is the solution to any problem, even though the evidence is overwhelming that this is not true. In fact, when we pray for money without actually discovering what it is that we truly want, we end up creating more suffering for ourselves – even if we get the money! (There are shamanic reasons for this that I can't delve into in this writing.)
So try your best to first figure out what the actual abundance is that you are seeking. The trick is to focus on a feeling, not on outward results. Money isn’t a feeling. What feeling is it that you want to feel, that you are not currently feeling? Just pray for the feeling, and never mind the money, and then watch for the ways it can be delivered.
I am not saying money is bad. I've prayed hard for money many times, so that I don't have to freak the hell out once again at the end of the month. But I've experienced amazing magic when I delve into the scarcity under the scarcity. Here is a sample prayer:
Power of the fertile earth, power of the singing sun, power of new life, power of new beginnings, Spirit of Life, you fill everything with abundance. I bless you and I thank you for your help. I ask you to bring to me the abundance that I've been seeking my whole life, and maybe seeking for many lifetimes. (Name this abundance if you can: love, confidence, freedom, etc…) Bring it to me now, in this lifetime. Show me what life is like with this abundance that I've been seeking. Bring it to me now. Let me carry this abundance in me and use it wisely. Deliver it to me. Deliver it to me. I make this promise to you: I will do my part to open my mind, open my heart and open my body and receive the abundance you deliver. I open myself now. I open myself now.
Those words are just suggestions...don't memorize-- speak from the heart. If you want to visualize, you can see the new summer sun pouring down blessing onto you and into you, or the "power of emerging life" pouring energy up into you.
So, at this Beltane, I wish for you the power to:
Unite and unite, and let us all unite
For summer is a-comin' today.
And whither we are going we all will unite
In the merry morning of May.
So try your best to first figure out what the actual abundance is that you are seeking. The trick is to focus on a feeling, not on outward results. Money isn’t a feeling. What feeling is it that you want to feel, that you are not currently feeling? Just pray for the feeling, and never mind the money, and then watch for the ways it can be delivered.
I am not saying money is bad. I've prayed hard for money many times, so that I don't have to freak the hell out once again at the end of the month. But I've experienced amazing magic when I delve into the scarcity under the scarcity. Here is a sample prayer:
Power of the fertile earth, power of the singing sun, power of new life, power of new beginnings, Spirit of Life, you fill everything with abundance. I bless you and I thank you for your help. I ask you to bring to me the abundance that I've been seeking my whole life, and maybe seeking for many lifetimes. (Name this abundance if you can: love, confidence, freedom, etc…) Bring it to me now, in this lifetime. Show me what life is like with this abundance that I've been seeking. Bring it to me now. Let me carry this abundance in me and use it wisely. Deliver it to me. Deliver it to me. I make this promise to you: I will do my part to open my mind, open my heart and open my body and receive the abundance you deliver. I open myself now. I open myself now.
Those words are just suggestions...don't memorize-- speak from the heart. If you want to visualize, you can see the new summer sun pouring down blessing onto you and into you, or the "power of emerging life" pouring energy up into you.
So, at this Beltane, I wish for you the power to:
Unite and unite, and let us all unite
For summer is a-comin' today.
And whither we are going we all will unite
In the merry morning of May.
RSS Feed
