Another pagan holiday is coming up!
Before I go into Beltane Fire, here is your reminder that I am giving a workshop on Money & Writing, Supporting Your Dream & Making it Pay at Vintage Books in Vancouver, WA on Sunday, May 6, 3-4 PM
Hope to see you there, Portlanders!
Beltane! May Day! Fertility! Lust!
Lots of things going on at the moment, both in the world and in my life. You, too? Must be the turn of the Wheel… 😉
With the celebration of Beltane, I want to bring up the wild orgies of nature: bees and buds and fawns and ewes. And people.
There is nothing wrong with sex. It is the force of creation! But for a lot of reasons, our culture has been obsessed with making it secret–shameful, even. I’m trying to let go of that part of me.
I am ritualizing this different understanding of healthy living through my pagan celebrations. Beltane is about fertility and new life. And human! Sexuality! Is natural! (Sorry if I seem shouty. I’m countering lots of old Voices.)
I love the way that the pagan Wheel of the Year is rooted in cyclical changes of the earth. There is always something new coming, and something old fading away. There are always opportunities to reflect, and recommit, as my friend Elizabeth from Washington County Writers reminds me.
As a writer, I end up needing a lot of creative Fire. Since Beltane focuses on fire for purification and health, I’ll share a meditation from Green Haven Tradition to invoke the energy of the elements–for whichever type of fire you feel the need of.
“I call upon the East and
the Fire that lives in Air,
the starfire that shines beyond
the atmosphere that shelters us.
Join us in our ritual now;
hail and well met!”
“I call upon the South and
the Fire that lives in Fire,
the quick tongue of the balefire
that cleanses with its blazing light.
Join us in our ritual now;
hail and well met!”
“I call upon the West and
the Fire that lives in Water,
the bubbling cauldrons of hot springs
which boil away all contamination.
Join us in our ritual now;
hail and well met!”
“I call upon the West and
the Fire that lives in Earth,
the magma that builds the stone
which becomes walls to protect us.
Join us in our ritual now;
hail and well met!”
Image available as a print! via Goddessandgreenman
