Beltane
Correspondences
Date(s): celebrated: starts on the evening of April 30th, concluding at sunset of May 1st, actual: the date on which the sun is at 15 degrees Taurus. This year-May 4th
Activities and Rituals: fertilize, nurture and boost existing goals, games, activities of pleasure, leaping bonfires, making garlands, May Pole dance, planting seeds, walking one's property, feasting
Colors: Red, White, Brown, Pink, Green
Tools: Broom, May Pole, cauldron
Stones/Gems: Emerald, malachite, amber, orange carnelian, sapphire, rose quartz
Symbols & Decorations: May Pole, fires, fertility, flowers, growing things, ploughs, cauldrons of flowers
Foods: Dairy, bread, cereals
Flowers, Herbs: Lily of the valley, foxglove, rose, broom, Hawthorne, Dittany of Crete, elder, mint, mugwort, thyme, yarrow, almond tree/shrub, clover, ivy, marigold, meadowsweet, rowan, sorrel, woodruff
Deities: Aphrodite, Artemis, Bast, Diana, Faunus, Flora, Maia, Pan,
the Horned God, Venus, and all Gods and Goddesses who preside over fertility.
Animals: Swallow, dove, swan, Cats, lynx, leopard
Other Names: Cetsamhain (opposite Samhain),May Day, Fairy Day,Sacred Thorn Day, Rood Day, Roodmas (the Christian term for Rood Day, Old Beltane, Beltaine, Beltain, Baltane, Walpurgis Night, Floriala (Roman feast of flowers from April 29 to May 1), Walpurgisnacht (Germanic-feast of St. Walpurga), Thrimilce (Anglo-saxon), Bloumaand (Old Dutch)
Ideas and Activites
*** are also great to do with children ;)
***Walk the perimeter of your property to check that everything is in good order. Bring trash bags and do a general clean up of anything that is not where it should be.
Make a miniature maypole for your altar if you can not make a full size version
Get a new mirror, or use one you have already, and decorate it with ribbons and flowers for your bedroom
Fill a cauldron or a large bowl with fresh flowers (wildflowers are best)
***Braid bracelets out of white ribbons and give them as gifts to friends or family
***Make a dish of fruits, berries, nuts and leave in the wood for the animals and fae folk to enjoy
Cut branches of fresh green from budding trees, or make garlands of flowers to decorate the home for this celebration. Hang them on the doors and windows early, so the may sunrise finds them there!
Create a special wreath for the top of the May Pole
***Make "May Day" baskets of flowers and leave on friends and family's doorsteps as a surprise gift. Maybe they'll think a faerie did it!
***Create hair pieces and garlands for decorating your head or around your neck from flowers that are in bloom
***Tie ribbons to trees to celebrate the coming of spring. Make a wish each time you tie a ribbon as it's good luck to wish for things on this day!
Bathe your face in the morning dew to retain youth.
The fair maid who, the first of May
Goes to the fields at break of day
And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree
Will ever after handsome be.
Other sources suggest using the dew found under oaks or on ivy leaves. Make a special wish as you wash your face in it or as you drink from a well before sunrise.
***Dance the May Pole
During the Maypole dance, think about what you wish to weave into, or out of, your spirit. The Maypole is an ancient symbol of the male aspect of the Divine, while the ribbons are strands of life. Have small baskets of goodies around the room to symbolize the coming abundance and to enjoy after the Circle. Magic is hungry work. (from Trish Telesco's Victorian Grimoire)Do a Beltane Day Spell for Health and Happiness
Plant your frost sensitive bulbs now. Use the wonderful Bulb Planting Chant below.
Incenses
By Dawn Thebarge Hill
Beltane
2 parts Frankincense
2 parts Myrrh
1 part Benzoin Gum
1 part Red Copal
1 part Lavender
1 part Night Blooming Jasmine Flowers
1 part Rose Petals
1part Sandalwood
Love
1 part each:
dragon's blood resin powdered
myrtle
rose petals
orris root powder
lavendar buds
4 drops each:
musk
patchouli
grind and mix evenly and allow to dry out for 1 week
Beltane Oil
By Dawn Thebarge Hill
Mix the following essential oils in 2 tablespoons of almond or other light weight odorless oil:
5 drops Rose
1 drop Lavendar
1 drop musk
4 drops Jasmine
Fun for the Kids
***fun for grownups too ;)
Let your child dress up like the May Queen. Make a pointed hat with a large piece of paper rolled, and tape crepe paper streamer from the top. Decorate with crayons, stickers, and glitter.
Make easy wreaths for your head and for anyone who might celebrate Beltane with you.
***Make some lovely garden furniture for the fae folk.
***Try your hand at our Beltane Word Search or read the story of Meagan's Beltane by Kat Dyer.
Crafts
***Make some lovely garden furniture for the fae folk.
Try your hand at a House Happy Charm
Chants Poems Prayers & Songs
Invocation
from A Victorian Grimoire by Trish Telesco
Feathered winds come dance with me
Lift me from the ground.
Join my waltz, my spirit, freed
As we're upward bound.
Tongues of flame come jump with me
Ye purifying fires,
Join my joy, my playful glee
As we move yet higher.
Tears from seas, come sing with me
Roll from out the caves,
Join my verse, my body cleansed
In your healing waves.
Mother Earth come laugh with me
Set aside your toils,
Join my chant of forests green
Secure me in rich soil.
Earth and Air, Fire and Sea
I call you all, come dance with me!
Grant me now a sacred space
While working magic in this place.
In this invocation, each verse is designed for a cardinal point of the altar. At each of these four directions, a candle of the appropriate color should be lit, and a symbol of the element blessed as indicated in each verse. This is meant to be a celebration of life, so dance and sing around your circle. Don't be afraid to get inspired.
Beltane Song
from the Pagan and Wiccan Parenting Page
Good Bye Winter,
Good bye Winter,
Good bye Winter,
Good bye Winter,
We wish you'd leave us now.
(replace the following words for "Winter:" snow, slush, snowsuits, cold wind, and any thing else the children come up with.)
Come back Springtime,
Come back Springtime,
Come back Springtime,
We wish you'd come today.
(replace the following words for "Springtime:" green grass, flowers, birds, and any thing else the children come up with.)
The Beltane Chase
Traditional
Ladies:
I shall go as a wren in spring
With sorrow and sighing on silent wing
And I shall go in our Lady's name
Aye, till I come home again.
Men:
And we shall follow as falcons grey
And hunt thee cruelly as our prey
And we shall go in our Master's name
Aye, to fetch thee home again.
Ladies:
Then I shall go as a mouse in May
In the fields by night and cellars by day
And I shall go in our Lady's name
Aye, till I come home again.
Men:
But we shall follow as fat tom cats
And chase thee through the corn and vats
And we shall go in our Master's name
Aye, to fetch thee home again.
Ladies:
Then I shall go as an Autumn hare
With sorrow and sighing and mickle care
And I shall go in our Lady's name
Aye, till I come home again.
Men:
But we shall follow as swift grey hounds
And dog thy tracks by leaps and bounds
And we shall go in our Master's name
Aye, to fetch thee home again.
Ladies:
Then I shall go as a Winter trout
With sorrow sighing and mickle doubt
And I shall go in our Lady's name
Aye, till I come home again.
Men:
But we shall follow as otter's swift
And snare thee faster thou can'st shift
And we shall go in our Master's name
Aye, to fetch thee home again.
Ladies:
Aye, and I'll come home again.
A General Beltane Blessing Chant
Oak and May,
On This Day,
Will both Heed
Those in Need.
Goddess Bright,
God of Sun,
Bless your Children
'Till our days are done.
Bulb Planting Earth Chant
by Eileen
For all those spring planted bulbs like lilies, oxalis, glads, begonias and such:
breath of the stone is strange to me
i know it lives as i can't see
force of the earth is strong and free
sustenance and beauty be
born of the stars and sprang from the ground
Mother, Goddess all around
Wheel must turn as the seasons show
what lies dead shall surely grow
May Day Chant 1
Here we come a' piping,
In Springtime and in May;
Green fruit a' ripening,
And Winter fled away.
The Queen she sits upon the strand,
Fair as lily, white as wand;
Seven billows on the sea,
Horses riding fast and free,
And bells beyond the sand.
Doreen Valiente; "Witchcraft for Tomorrow"; Phoenix Publishing 1985
May Day Chant 2
The High Priestess and High Priest lead a ring dance around the bonfire. Start out with "A Tree Song" from Rudyard Kipling's "Weland's Sword" story in "Puck of Pook's Hill".
"Oh, do not tell the Priest of our Art,
Or he would call it sin;
But we shall be out in the woods all night,
A conjuring summer in!
And we bring you news by word of mouth
For women, cattle and corn
Now is the dun come up from the South
With Oak, and Ash and Thorn!"
Janet and Stewart Farrar; "Eight Sabbats For Witches"; Robert Hale 1983
Stag Call Chant
The men gather around the fire, next to their partners, and they say in unison:
"I am the stag of seven tines;
I am a wide flood on the plain;
I am a wind on the deep waters;
I am a shining tear of the sun;
I am a hawk on a cliff;
I am fair among flowers;
I am a god who sets the head afire with smoke."
Graves, Robert; "The White Goddess"; Farrar 1970
Maypole Dance Chant
Ann O'Brien 1995
Source: http://www.earthspirit.com/mtongue/chtlib/chtlifr.html
Weave, spin, dance your cares away,
A spirit fire's alive to your entrancing,
Weave, spin, dance into the May,
The earth and sky are wed as you are dancing,
Weave now
Beltane Poem
Written by Lady Lissar, jskolnik@cap.gwu.edu
green
spilt out into the meadows
running into every being
filling us up with spirit
tumbling
the pulsing red life of the earth
in the smoke of the firecircle
i saw my demons scatter to the skies
dissolving into the midnight air
there is nothing but the sun
the moon
in perfect equilibrium
unreal yet grounded
alone in body, full in spirit
love
Dance before the Bonfire (Beltane)
Ashley Ravenwood, finished 3/8/97
Another summer stretches before us,
fertile and heady
The faeries are out to play
dancing along with everything and everyone else
Dance!
Dance before the bonfire
and celebrate the brimming fertility
of another year
Let it spill over
and crackle into the fire
Let us be blessed
and let our fruits ripen and be harvested
(not wither and die
nor rot forgotten)
Let us drink thirstily of the nectar of the gods
and feast hungrily upon food, love, and kindness
Let us also feed our wants and desires today
happily and carefree
Let us celebrate the miracle that is existence
and marvel at the wonder that is life:
remembering that the smallest acorn
can become the tallest tree
Let us dance
Dance!
Dance before the bonfire
Dance around the maypole
Dance together, laughing
Dance through life and death and life again
Dance under the budding trees and around the blooming wildflowers, dancing in the wind
Dance as fawns and baby birds and newborn stars all watch, dancing
Dance as the gods smile down upon us, dancing too
Dance before the bonfire!
Recipes
'But I must gather knots of flowers,
And buds and garlands gay,
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother,
I'm to be Queen o' the May.'
~~Alfred Lord Tennyson
