Beltane is the midpoint between spring and summer.
Earth energies are at their most powerful.
Summer is fast approaching, the earth is blooming, this is the time of fastest growth and expansion.
Spring ’the season we are blessed’ – wishing season, return of the sun, sprouting, spring’ing’
Wishes made in spring are most likely to be successful, it is the seasonal equivalent to just before full moon. Waxing full moon is the time to focus on transformation. Perfect for spells to increase; psychic ability, fertility, wealth, love. A time of strength, love and power.
Beltane is one of the oldest celebrations of the pastoral, semi nomadic early Europeans, it was one of the last to released though, as with many ancient pagan sabbaths it was maintained in other holidays. It was one of the first to be reinstated when the church relaxed it’s stranglehold on the people.
The word Beltane means bright fire from the Celtic God Bel whose name means Bright One and the Gaelic word ’teine’ meaning fire. Beltane marks the time when This was the time cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect cattle, crops and people and to encourage growth.
Bonfires were lit and their flames, smoke and askes were deemed to have protective powers. People would walk around the fire, or between two fires or leap over fires or embers. All household fires were doused and would then be re lit from the Beltane fire.
Hawthorn, Rowan and any blossomming flowers particularly yellow ones are sacred to Beltane. Holy wells and water sources were visited and Beltane dew is said to bring beauty, maintain youthfulness and heal.
Some Sabbaths are celebrated with only men or women, Beltane is a festival that it is essential to celebrate with male and female – although the lovemaking that is an integral part of the worship has never been ruled to have to be specifically hetero or monogamous. Beltane celebrations were seen as decadent orgies by the Xtian church, especially because any children born from the celebrations in the following Yule (or those born from any sabbath gathering) were honored and seen as gifts from the Goddess.
Monotheism seeks to create heriditary wealth and position by instituting hierarchies and landownership over the notion of care and responsibility for the earth. The demonizing of the Goddess (literally creating the devil from the Green man, witches from her crone aspect and demons from the reverence for horned beasts) included insistence upon monogamy, the institution of marriage, changing the meaning of the word virgin from ‘one who is autonomous (of men)’ to a someone who has never had sex.
It is impossible to establish patrilineal dynasty’s when people are not only free but actively encouraged to make love/have sex with whomever they choose up to eight times a year! Matrilineality is obviously the most sensible option for humans especially as even with modern testing fatherhood can never be 100% proven.
The Power Of Three
The number three can be seen to be an integral part in the foundation of life, it is reflected through our physical life, our mental psyche and a basis of our spiritual creation.
Our physical body has: three parts of an arm; hand, forearm, upper arm’, ‘three parts of a leg, ‘three layers of skin’, ‘lower-body, torso and head’, ‘3 layers of the eye’. ‘3 ear bones’, ‘three parts of the spine’, ‘three layers of teeth’, three base pairs in a codon (DNA)’ the list goes on.
We see the number three in literature, science, sport, religion and every day speech; ‘wise men’, ‘strikes and your out’, ‘wise monkeys’, ‘the lion, the witch and the wardrobe’, ‘little pigs’, ‘hat-trick’, ‘rain, hail or shine’, ‘coins in a fountain’, ‘blind mice’, ‘trimesters in pregnancy’, ‘parts of an atom’, ‘The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth’, ‘ready, aim, fire’, ‘Paper, Rock, Scissors’, ‘On Your mark, Get Set, Go’, ‘plant, animal or mineral’, the ‘great pyramids’ at Giza’.
Throughout nature we see the number, in ‘trunk, branches and leaves’, ‘oceans, land and sky’, ‘Earth, Sun and Moon’, ‘waxing, full and waning moon’, and in ourselves ‘body, mind and spirit’.
Women naturally encompass the power of three in our three life phases, ‘maiden, mother, matriarch/crone’. We have the power to work consciously with the number three during each of these phases to create fulfilling, creative and meaningful lives.
Everyone has the ability to work with feminine creative power and the number three to transform their lives from victim, passenger or observor to active participant and/or director.
Females (and everyone else) 28-30th April you have a unique opportunity to apply your manifesting powers and make use of the power of the number three
What are your deepest desires? What would you most like to ‘magically appear’ in your life?
Using The Power Of Three
Saturday – private, Sunday – public, Monday (actual Beltane and Full moon) individual or solitary
On Saturday we construct (private), on Sunday we celebrate (public) and on Monday we set in motion (individual or (for couples) solitary.
In a happy and contented relationship this is an opportunity for gratitude and celebration
The word mate – has many definitions as a noun and a verb.
In the specific context of the coming ritual I’m applying the meanings:
to join, fit, or associate suitably:
to connect or link:
to consort;
to keep company
in terms of creating a deeper/better connection with oneself as well as the idea of a finding/meeting a sexual, social, marriage or business partner
Beltane is the time of the sacred marriage of the God and the Goddess – she is at her most fertile and this magnificent coupling always produces the Yule child
This festival celebrates physical, sexual, sensual, creative human energy and nature The Fe/male bond/energies/existence
Many Sabbaths are celebrated with women only – this is one in which male energy is essential to the process
Saturday evening there is a ritual to celebrate both male and femail energies within the individual and the special, specific and wonderful ways in which they manifest in relationship.
Plighting the Troth – creating and making a promise to be (faithful) ‘engaged'(busy) with each other – committing to exploring/improving/changing/embracing that which makes your relationship special/unique/wonderful
This is an wonderful opportunity for couples to spend time with each other and lovingly examine/explore their relationship.
Hand fasting a statement of commitment/marriage
In both the agreed term is for one year and a day from Beltane which actually falls in 2018 on Monday/into Tuesday 30th April-1st May
2018 the Beltane celebrations at Ruigoord are on the waxing gibbous moon into full moon
This increases the manifesting, energy.
28th April from 12.30 – 17.30 there is a private ceremony for females to connect to your manifesting powers, to focus on, name and create your hearts desire(s) and begin the process of bringing it/them to reality in your life.
It is also an introduction to Journeying the Wheel of the Year. A year course to connect you to your (inner) Goddess and the powers of natures cycles.
At 19.30 is the private ritual, this will focus and connect participants to their own divine spark, their ability to create, nurture, fertilise and to all the beauty within them. It is also to focus and direct the powers brought the fore in the day time ceremony.
The ritual and ceremony will only go ahead with a minimum of 6 people booking and paying their deposit. Please contact info@alwareness.org.for costs.
Heli St Luce
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