So, if you're ready to dig in, let's get right to it!
Beltane by Kallan Kennedy
When is it? Because Celtic days begin at night, the celebration starts on the evening of April 30th. Now, of course, we're using a Roman calendar and not a Celtic one. The Celts were adept at astronomy, so if you are interested in celebrating "Old Beltane", then look for the sun to be at 15 degrees Taurus (somewhere closer to May 5). Regardless, Beltane signifies the turning of the season from winter to summer (The Celts did not have a "spring" or "autumn").
How is the name derived? Beltane comes from the name of a god Bel, or Bil, and the Old Irish word tene, which means fire (Irish Gaelic-Bealtaine or the Scottish Gaelic Bealtuinn), So, you could say that it is Bel's Fire.
How was it celebrated? In a glossary attributed to him, Cormac (in the early 10th Century), bishop of Cashel and king of Munster, describes how cattle were driven between two bonfires on Beltane as a magical means of protecting them from disease before they were led into summer pastures—a custom still observed in Ireland well into the 19th century. Maypole dances and cutting of green boughs and flowers were also part of this custom. This and Samhain were considered to be the times when the veil between this world and the Otherworld were at their thinnest, and that the Fae in particular would come to visit on Beltane. Of course, there's an element of sex to it.. the phallic symbol of the maypole inserted into the female symbol of the earth.
This festival has evolved and is now celebrated by more modern religions like Wicca, Witches, Neo-Pagans and Druids in various forms. Some newer customs include: "walking the circuit of one’s property (“beating the bounds”), repairing fences and boundary markers, processions of chimney sweeps and milkmaids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword dances, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty." ~Mike Nichols
My family and I will take the branches from our Yule wreaths and greenery, which are now dried and ready to be burned and toss them in the Beltane fires for an abundant autumn yield from all we have intentionally planted, and feast on some of the recipes you'll see further down. We'll jump the fires for luck and health and use the ashes in our Samhain offerings in the Fall. We'd love to hear about your rites and plans! Please do comment and share!
However you choose to honor the day, May your Beltane Fires burn bright and may you reap a bountiful harvest!!
Happy Birthday this week to Lily Shahar Kunning (!!), LJ Scott, Tabitha Cook Hammons, Dana Wright, Dana McKinney (!!!), Susan Yee, Joshua Holcomb, Lugh Samildanach, Tina M. Price, Sue Park and Elise Pettey!! May this be your best birthday ever, and may your next year of life bring you joy, peace, happiness, good health, success and all the very best in abundance!
Pagan Lore with Karen Szabo
Sunday, April 28
In ancient Rome, the beautiful goddess Flora was honored annually on this date. She was a fertility and vegetation Goddess of Springtime and flowering plants. Her three-day festival, the Floralia, marked the beginning of the growing season.
Monday, April 29
Pagan Tree Day. On this day, plant a tree dedicated to your favorite Pagan Goddess or god. For instance: plant a myrtle tree in honor of Venus and Aphrodite; and oak for Demeter, Diana, and Hera; a pine for Attis, Cybele, and Pan; a rowan tree for all moon-goddesses; a sycamore for all Egyptian gods and Goddesses; a willow for Artemis, Brigid, and Persephone; a yew for Hecate and Saturn; etc.
Tuesday, April 30
In Germany, Walpurgisnacht begins at sunrise on this date and ends at sunrise on the first day of May (May Day). Birch boughs are placed on all doors and windows to protect the home from evil spirits and sorcery. Traditional bonfires and torches of rosemary and juniper are lit, and according to legend, Witches can be seen riding across the sky on broomsticks on this dark and magickal night. (If you're ever looking for a book about this special date, check out "Night of the Witches" by Linda Raedisch -- I read it a little earlier this year and it's fantastic.) On this date in the year 1988, the English Witch Alexander Sanders (also known as King of the Witches) died of lung cancer. He was gifted with psychic powers, and was the founder of the Alexandrian tradition of Wicca.
Wednesday, May 1
The Beltane Sabbat is celebrated by Wiccans and Witches throughout the world annually on this date. Beltane (which is also known as May Day, Rood Day, and Rudemas) is derived from an ancient Druid fire festival celebrating the union of the Goddess and the Horned God. It also celebrates the rebirth of the Sun, marking the "death" of Winter and the "birth" of Spring. At dawn, morning dew is gathered from grass and wildflowers to be used in mystical potions for good luck. Throughout the day, Nature is celebrated by feasts, games, poetry readings, and clockwise dancing around a brightly decorated Maypole. In ancient Rome, the deity worshipped on this day was the Spring Goddess Maia, whose divine powers encouraged the crops to grow. The month of May is named after her. On this date in the year 1776, the Order of the Illuminati (an occult sect and secret order dedicated to the study of forbidden books, Tantric mysticism, and ceremonial magick) was founded in Bavaria by Adam Weishaupt.
Thursday, May 2
On this date, an annual fertility festival featuring a man wearing the costume of a hobbyhorse, a devilish mask, and a pointed hat is held in England and throughout rural regions across Europe. Ysahodhara, the consort of the great god Buddha, is honored in India with a sacred festival that takes place on this day each year.
Friday, May 3
In ancient Rome, an annual women's festival in honor of the earth Goddess Bona Dea took place on this date. Sacrifices of sows were made to her in order to promote fertility in women, and the unveiling of sacred objects for only women's eyes to see was included in the celebration of her rites.
Saturday, May 4
This is Fairy Day. According to Irish folklore, it is on this day that the mischievous fairy folk emerge from their hiding places. To prevent human children from being stolen by the fairies and replaced by grotesque changelings, an offering of tea and bread must be left on the doorstep for the little people. For protection against fairies while traveling (especially through heavily wooded areas or open fields), wear your coat inside out. This is said to cause them such great confusion that they are unable to cause any trouble.
May your Beltane celebrations be wonderfully blessed! See you next week with another edition of Pagan Lore,
Karen
Beltane Thoughts, 2013 by Karen Szabo
Beltane brings to everyone's mind, as it usually does my own, thoughts of dancing, a beribboned Maypole, flowers in bloom and trees budding, the Earth entering a beautiful, fertile, and colorful time of year, and much happiness and cheer. It's a light-hearted festival and a celebration of all these things and more. We feast, we dance, we sing, we make magick, and we are filled with hope.
This year, things feel a bit different, a bit "off" for me and perhaps for some of you. We have seen so much tragedy here in America in the last several weeks, a kind of darkness almost, around us. My anticipation of Beltane in the light of all this feels a little dampened, almost selfish, with thoughts in my head of the hundreds of people whose lives and families have been unalterably changed in tragic ways. We know that over time all things change, all things cycle, and life goes on, yes, but it's hard to focus on that at the moment.
However, I was recently reading a book about Walpurgis Night, a very old celebration which takes place on April 30, or May Eve. Witches and others gathered in the Harz Mountains in northern Germany at this time, specifically on the Brocken, the highest of the Harz Mountains and one known for the "Brocken Spectre."
Not what you'd naturally assume when you see the word "spectre", it is actually a magnified shadow of an observer surrounded by bands of rainbow-like color and reflected onto the clouds in this highest mountain area at the time the sun is lowering. So there in the dark, mysterious, and to many, frightening Brocken, we also have a bit of hope in the form of those rainbow colors against the clouds, a reminder that even in the dark, there is light, and not all is lost.
My Beltane wishes this year are for all those who lives have been touched so tragically of late, that their "rainbow colored bands of light" come soon and wrap them in the hope of this bright season.
Karen
Sparkle & Shine with Sosanna
Beltane
Beltane is different for each person depending on the path they follow. No different than any of the other Sabbaths. For me, Beltane is one of my favorites, the other being Samhain. I always found it interesting that these are opposite each other in the Wheel of the Year.
As a follower of Hecate, I do not have any specific ceremonial work that is done for her during this time. Hecate is a Goddess of the dark moon so I do much of my work then.
Historically, Beltane is the celebration of lights and marks the start of the summer season. Bonfires and fire jumping were some of the festivities. To me though, Beltane is about primal love. That joining together of souls to be one. We still see that today in many of the May Day celebrations, such as dancing the Maypole. Here couples dance with ribbons around a pole, the pole being the phallic symbol of the God and the earth being the Goddess.
I feel the energy of the fire burning in my body on Beltane. The primal urge to do one thing overtakes most of my rational thought. To the moment of climax is what it must feel like to be completely at one with the spirit world. Some Wiccan Covens replicate this type of behavior in a ritual called “The Great Rite”. I believe that this spirit is not limited by gender. Any persons joined together in a spiritual connection can experience this Tantra.
The connection I feel to the fire is incredible. I stare into the flames and can see each little ember fill with the energy from the fire. I can see them smolder and turn completely to ash. I can hear the crackle of the flames as they slowly burn down to glowing embers. It starts out with a roar and then settles down slowly and drifts peacefully to sleep.
I've only ever celebrated Beltane as a solitary. This year however I’ll be headed to join a group for a Beltane festival. I’m looking forward to seeing how others celebrate. I’ll still have that inner fire burning and look forward to the rites that I hold dear, in making Beltane one of my favorite times of the year. Just another one of the many things that make me Sparkle & Shine!
Namaste & Blessed Be
Sosanna
)O(
Beltane with Tiffany Newson
Beltaine is here! One of my favorite times of year. The time for change and new beginnings.
This time of year is a reminder of all the good and bad times in my life. Eight years ago was the beginning of the biggest change in my life. I moved to Georgia at crucial part of my senior year in high school. The move was devastating, emotional and life-shattering. I had moved from all I knew. My mother was going through another episode of panic bipolar schizophrenia unmedicated and I had no one to turn to. I found out I had to attend another year of high school because Missouri and Georgia have different criteria. My mother was making sure I had no way to contact my old friends and turned all her family against me. I was angry. Angry wasn't even the word to describe my emotions at the time.
A few months later, I met the man who unbeknownst to me the gods had put I my life when I desperately needed love. Many people know Beltaine as a time for love and fertility but its completely different when the Fates and gods position a man to love you. Beltaine to me is when I found love and began my journey to me. We met in Mar but didn't officially start dating till May 17th. That day was the beginning of me seeing that I was still lovable I didn't have to be angry at everybody. I didn't need to lash out.
Two years later, I was pregnant with the most precious gift the gods could have given me; a daughter. I was still angry, but I had a family now. She was what I asked/begged the gods for, so why wasn't that enough? I was still carrying the anger I had for my past life. The old me who wanted to be overseas again, making fashion business decisions in a posh London suite. I hadn't let go. I was becoming a mother but I hadn't started mental/emotionally anew.
The following Beltaine, I took a stand. I was determined to release and be renewed in not only my life but being a mother and a better girlfriend to the man who, despite my anger, still loved me. My life became so different...so much more fun, and happy. I was free from my past!
The Beltaine of 2011, and yet again another change was occurring My now fiancee and I were moving into together. Not just into an apartment but we were moving into a house. A place of our own. A place that signified all that we had fought to get to. That same year, we were married.
The next Beltaine, lo and behold, I was pregnant again. Five years later, but this time with a handsome son, and I was/am at peace. I have the family I saw in dreams and the anger I had for my past life was washed away with spring rains.
Beltaine is rapidly approaching and here I stand. Renewed in my love of not one but three precious people. This Beltaine I am celebrating eight years of happiness with the man the gods placed in my life and the approaching birthdays of the two precious gifts that came from that love.
Sunshine's Meanderings with Kathleen Lane
May Day
Are you of an age to remember hanging May Day baskets on door handles, ringing the bell and running away? Or doing May Pole dancing in school? So many of those old and accepted traditions are things of the past. I asked my son's girl friend (in her mid-30's) if she had ever made May Baskets and she had never heard of them. She is from West Virginia so I am not sure if that is a regional thing or just not something that is done now.My Quaker grandmother would have been horrified to know that the spring traditions were based on old PAGAN practices. The idea that the May Pole was actually a phallic symbol would have left her speechless. And believe me, speechless in my family was not something that happened often. The Native American side of the family didn't really celebrate a spring fertility rite. The closest to it is the Green Corn Festival which is celebrated a little later.
Beltaine is a wonderful and joyful and ancient festival. It dates way back under many names, but has always been a fertility rite. Even in this "Christian" country it was celebrated as May Day. Then came the Cold War days and the "Red Menace" and since the Russians celebrated May Day as a political holiday, our attitude started to change. I can remember hearing about the idea that celebrating at the schools was playing right into the "Commies" hands.
Isn't it sad that a lovely rite of spring and new life and fertility should have faded away? Even for people who didn't know exactly what they were celebrating, it was a joyful celebration. No matter whether you call it Beltaine or Walpurgis or May Day, it should be a joyful beginning to summer and a thankful welcome to the new period of growth and warmth.
Uncharted Seas with Cap'n Dave
For many Pagans, the holy observance known as Beltane (Lá Bealtaine in Ireland, Là Bealltainn in Scotland) is a time of joyous frivolity, festive dancing, and other merriment in celebration of the growing Earth. Others engage in more intimate celebrations of fertility, disappearing into the woods, tents, or the privacy of their bedrooms. Still others may relax in meditation, feeling the thrum of the awakened Earth beneath them.
Different cultures, different interpretations, all focusing upon the beauty and fecundity that is at the very core of our being.
The festival of Beltane is believed to derive its name from the Celtic belo-tepniâ, which means "Bright Fire" and having its association with the bale fires. In Irish Gaelic, the month of May is Mí Bhealtaine. Strictly speaking, the origins of the word “beltane” cognates with “bale” or the Anglo-Saxon “bael”, meaning “white”; however, a more recent study (Xavier Delamarre's "Dictionary of the Gallic Language, Wandering Editions", 2003) would coincide with a darker aspect to the name, *Beltinijā, the root of which is the Proto-Indo-European gʷelH meaning "suffering" or "death". Why the stark contrast? (read more here)
Beltane Foods
Recipes:
Beltane Wine:
1 bottle of White Wine
1/2 cup Fresh Strawberries, sliced
12 sprigs of fresh woodruff
Pour wine into carafe or wide mouth bottle. Add strawberries and woodruff and allow to blend for at least an hour. Strain and serve well chilled. Garnish with thin orange slice.
Meade
(Note: trying to do this now won't have it ready in time for Beltane, but save the recipe and use it for another celebration or for next year's festivities)
1 gallon Water
4 pounds Honey
6 Cloves
2 Sticks cinnamon
Juice & peel from one lemon
1 teaspoon activated dry yeast
In a large nonreactive pot, add the first four ingredients to the gallon of water. Boil all together for 30 minutes, then strain into a crock that will hold it with a little room to spare. When cooled, add the yeast, dissolved in some of the liquid. Allow to ferment in a cool place - 55 degrees is ideal - until it ceases bubbling and the liquor clears, then bottle, cap tightly and store in a cool, dark cellar. It should not be used for at least a month, and longer is better. This meade, unlike many other drinks, does not improve with really long aging, so it should be consumed within a year of the time it was made.
Meade Recipe 2
from "Dancing with the Sun" by Jasmine Yalenorn
1 cup sweet woodruff
2 bottles rose' wine
4 dozen rose petal ice cubes
1 quart strawberries
1 quart chopped peaches
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup white rum
2 bottles champagne
1 bottle white wine
1 liter lemon-lime soda
Two weeks before serving: clean woodruff and pack into one bottle of wine. Cork and let sit.
The day before serving: make four dozen ice cubes by placing rose petals in the compartments before adding water. Freeze until solid.
Hull and wash the strawberries. Slice. Mix peaches and strawberries. Add sugar and rum. Marinate overnight.
An hour before serving: Strain woodruff out of wine and discard leaves. Mix champagne, all remaining wine, lemon-lime soda, and fruit in a large bowl. Stir.
Add ice cubes 15 minutes before serving. Serves 20.
Farls (Oat Cakes)
Ingredients:
3 cups real mashed potatoes
2 cups dry oats
2 Tablespoons margarine or butter
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pinch pepper
Pinch rosemary
Soak oats in warm water for 15 to 20 minutes until soft and slightly swollen. Mix them with other ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Knead until mixture is like a thick dough. If it seems too thin or moist, add a teaspoon or two of flour. When thoroughly mixed, form small sections into small patties. Fry in hot vegetable oil in a small skillet until lightly browned. Serve immediately.
Fried Honeycakes (a Fae offering)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sweet white wine
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 cup honey
2/3 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Oil for frying
1/8 teaspoon salt
Beat the wine & egg in a medium bowl. Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt & sugar in a small bowl. Stir into the egg mixture. Let stand 30 minutes. Combine the honey & nutmeg in a small bowl.
Heat 1/2-inch of the oil in a frying pan until hot, but not smoking. Drop the batter into the oil 1 tablespoon at a time; fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Dip into the honey.
Yield: 1 1/2 Dozen.
Kallan's Potato Soup
Ingredients
6-8 large baking potatoes (washed well)
Water for boiling the potatoes
1 large sweet onion or 4 scallions (I prefer the scallions) finely chopped
1 large container of chicken broth (vegetable broth can be substituted)
3 cans of canned milk
2 sticks of butter (please do not use margarine)
salt, pepper, spices to taste
cornstarch (to thicken)
Chop the potatoes (you can peel them if you like, but the skins have a lot of nutrients and add to the flavor) into large chunks. Place in a strainer and rinse well. Place in a pot of water on med-high heat to boil. Add onions. Once both the potatoes and onions are tender, turn off the heat. Add broth, canned milk, butter and spices to taste. Turn the heat back on. While waiting for the pot to return to a boiling state, make up a cornstarch paste in a measuring cup- put about 1/4 cup of cornstarch into the measuring cup, then fill it with water and mix until it is dissolved and cloudy. When the soup returns to a boil, slowly stir in the cornstarch paste and stir for about a minute. Remove the pot from the heat- the soup will thicken as it cools.
Serves 8.
Spring Salad with Maple Vinaigrette Dressing
Salad
12 cups spring greens
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3/4 cup caramelized pecans
1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
Vinaigrette
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
In large salad bowl, toss spring greens with feta, pecans, and strawberries. To prepare the vinaigrette, mix together all ingredients except olive oil until will blended. Add oil in a slow, steady stream until mixed.
*To carmelize pecans: spread pecans on baking tray and roast for 2-3 minutes at 350º until just starting to turn brown. In small bowl mix 2 tbsp melted butter with 1-2 tbsp sugar (not too thick) and 1 tsp salt. Toss toasted pecans. Return to oven for 2 minutes, being careful not to burn.
Berries for Beltane with La'Trice Lott
Ingredients:
1 pound of fresh strawberry, cut quarters
1 lrg jar of strawberry jam
1 mixing bowl of whipped cream or 2 tubs of your favorite whipped topping
1- 9 x 12 pan of brownies or pound cake
Instructions
Prepare brownies/cake according to your recipe, let it cool completely and break into bite size piece.
In large bowl pour in the jam and stir to loosen. Add the strawberries, and mash to combine.
In a trifle bowl or other large glass bowl layer ingredients as follows: brownie/cake, stawberry mixture, whipped topping. Continue until the bowl is full, end with the whipped topping.
Garnish with a whole strawberry. Chill for at least 1 hour. Then enjoy.
Blessed Beltane to all.
Beltane Crafts
How to Make a Maypole Centerpiece
How to Make a Hair Wreath with Fresh Flowers
How to Make a Hair Wreath with Artificial Flowers
Kallan's note: You could also make life easy with a hair wreath and simply wrap the artificial or fresh flowers around a headband ;)
For the Kids: Pooka Pages is a free publication for Pagan parents. The Beltane Issue is here with stories, crafts, and coloring pages for the wee ones.
Special Beltane Announcement from Author Samantha Curtin
It's official! My full length horror novel, Summer's Hollow will hit bookshelves and eReader Devices on Friday May 3rd! It will be available in both print and eBook format. Print version will be $9.99 and eBook will be $3.50. Below you'll find a synopsis of the plot! Can't wait for you to all have it in your hands/on your devices!
Rylie is like any other high school student. She attends school, hangs out with her friends, crushes on one of the basketball players at the school, helps out on her Dad’s farm, and in her spare time loves to read. Her genres of choice: horror and the occult. This is only perpetuated by the fact that she lives in the town of Summer’s Hollow which is infamous for the execution of the witch Mary Pascal. The town even has its own holiday, deemed “Bloody Friday” in which all the kids love to journey to the Pascal estate and see how far they can get to the door before running to the hills. That is until the year 1999 when all hell breaks loose on this specific Bloody Friday.It begins with Rylie finding a locket in her barn. The locket bares a phrase in Latin which her best friend and farm hand Andy decides to decipher by reading out loud, three times. Since three is the magical number the spirit of Mary Pascal is released back onto the town. As a result, murder and mayhem ensues.
- Summer's Hollow, Copyright © 2011 by Samantha Curtin
To get information on where to purchase this coming Friday, come visit Sam's Author Page on Facebook!
Song of the Week with Kestril Trueseeker
I'll be in my bunk. Meanwhile,
Keep dancing,
Kestril
This Week in Astrology
 |
| Josephine Wall |
May 2, 2013 7:14 AM Sun Square Moon (Last Quarter Moon)
May 5, 2013 Sun reaches 15 degrees Taurus (Cross Quarter- Old Beltane)
Weekly Horoscopes with Darkstar Astrology
This Week's Void of Course Moons
Featured Tarot Card: Beltane
 |
| Fairy Ring Oracle |
This particular card heralds mighty forces of strength, blossoming, flourishing, growth, happiness, love, marriage, new relationships, virility, energy and fertility... these are my wishes for all of you at this joyous time.
Sláinte!!!
In the News
North Atlantic Books’ Cave and Cosmos by Michael Harner, the follow-up to his 1980 bestseller, The Way of the Shaman (over 600,000 sold), sold out of its first print run in advance the April 9 release and gone into a second printing. It is #1 on Amazon’s Paganism bestsellers list and #3 on the Shamanism list.
Witch Killer Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison
TOC-R Bishop Stripped of Title for Practicing Witchcraft
Two Malawian Men Jailed for Hacking Old Woman over Witchcraft
Nephew Killed Aunt for Witchcraft
Attacks at Pagan Author's Home Raise Concerns
That's it for this week's special stew. Mull. Digest. Enjoy!