PLANETARY ENERGIES

Beltane: Symbolism & Rituals

Beltane, May Eve, is the most glorious of the ancient fire festivals and persists to the present day as May Day or the Spring Holiday. Historically the largest festival of the ceremonial year, Beltane was the time for celebrating the blossoming of spring, and the fertility of land and livestock. The name Beltane is thought to have meant bright or sacred fire, (bealltainn in Gaelic) and on this night the hilltops would have been ablaze with huge bonfires, and the woods and fields ablaze with the fires of love.

Beltane is usually celebrated on either April 30 (May Eve), or on May 1. Before there were calendars, Beltane was signaled by the blooming of the hawthorn (also known as the may). Beltane occurs exactly at the opposite end of the ceremonial year to Samhain/Hallowe’en, and celebrates life as Samhain honors death. Beltane is the time of conception, of the physical beginning of new life. It is the most physically passionate of the ancient festivals.

Beltane is one of the four cross-quarter days of the year, traditionally seen as the most potent moments for transformation. The cross-quarter days were celebrated when the Sun was at 15 degrees of the fixed signs. Beltane falls under the fixed sign of Taurus, ruled appropriately by Venus, the goddess of love, fertility, and abundance. At 15 degrees of Taurus this energy is ripe and charged for activation.

Like Mardi Gras, Beltane functioned as a ritualized antidote to the rules and laws of relationship and sexuality that keep society well-ordered. These rules, if adhered to rigidly, can cause depression, aggression, and general malaise. At Beltane the rules were lifted, in honor of the burgeoning, expansive energy of springtime, and the primitive need to ensure the fertility of the fields by sacrificing the individual personality to acts of sacred, impersonal sexuality. Children conceived at Beltane were considered to be special, produced from the union of two people meeting the god and goddess within each other, and not just the temporal man and woman.

Beltane is a time when new bonds can be formed as inhibitions loosen, inspired by the blossoming, heart-opening atmosphere of full spring. Beltane/May Day is the juncture of the year hardwired into our DNA as the strongest moment of life-giving lust.  The Maypole is more than just a phallic symbol: the twining of the ribbons around the pole evokes the DNA spiral, and symbolizes the eternal round of life.

May Day is still a festival in many countries in the world, and often associated with freedom and with labor (this was the time when hands would have been hired to work in the fields). Beltane coincided with the moving of livestock to summer grazing areas, an activity that took people out of their homes and into the woods and fields. Modern day equivalents for this include planting frost-sensitive flowering plants and crops, moving winter clothes to the back of the closet, buying new furnishings after the Equinoctial spring clean, and spending as much time as you can outside in the countryside.

Here are some ritual ideas for a modern day version of Beltane, taken from old ceremonies: Light a fire/candles, and let the smoke purify you, (you can also use sage or incense for this). Dance clockwise around the fire, praying for fertility (of body and/or mind). If you are attracted to someone, this might be a good time to talk to them about your feelings and see if they are reciprocated. Whether your relationship is new or old, it’s a great time to go with your beloved into the countryside for a day, or better still a camping trip that allows you to sleep outdoors and perhaps build a campfire. And this is an ideal time for a party and general merry-making.

Beltane This Year

This year the Beltane cross-quarter day falls on May 6, and this is an alternative to May 1 as a time to celebrate Beltane. The Moon is full the next day, on May 7. When the Sun is in Taurus, the Full Moon is in Scorpio, so this year the passionate and intense aspects of Beltane are more to the forefront. (Last year Beltane fell close to the New Moon so the emphasis was more on planting and beginning). This year’s Beltane is about intimacy big time, and having the courage to merge with another, to enter whole-heartedly into the sacred realm of courtship and union.

Venus and Mars

This year the mating, merging aspect of Beltane is emphasized by the current movements of the planets. Venus and Mars are doing a rare, closely-related, back and forth dance, being exactly conjunct on April 22 and June 21, and from April through August mostly in the same sign. Between April 12th and July 13th these two planets are never more than 8 degrees apart, the usual orb of a conjunction. So they are effectively conjunct for three months, which makes this a potent and relatively lengthy window for beginning and deepening sexual and romantic relationships and creative partnerships of all kinds.

Symbolically and probably energetically, Beltane is the high point of this three month period. At Beltane, Venus and Mars are at 2 and 6 degrees of Aries respectively, so for people born in the last week of March or with planets or angles at 0-8 degrees of Aries, this is an especially powerfully erotic and creative time. 

Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron

The other big astronomical event this spring is the upcoming Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron three-way conjunction on May 27. This lends the energy at this year’s Beltane a particularly spiritual and collectively transformative cast.

Jupiter conjunct Neptune is a time for dreaming big. Try to keep your feet on the ground nonetheless! Grounding practices (good diet, physical exercise, working with plants, with the land and with earthy materials, paying homage to common sense) help balance the intense spirituality and ethereal quality of Jupiter/Neptune. But don’t have feet of clay when there is a moment to fly! Let your imagination be influenced by the new sparks of inspiration being born by the uncertainty of our times.

With Chiron added into the mix there is an element of sacrifice and healing. The way forward is to let go of what we no longer need, to allow the purifying fire of transformation to proceed without sentimentality or holding on to what is past and no longer serves. Change always comes with a cost, and learning to let go and move forward is a primary life lesson. We’re living in a time in which collective attachment to a surface kind of security is being exposed as just that, only a surface. It’s time to talk about what real security means and how we develop it.

On the outer level real security comes from valuing and caring for each other and stewarding our environment responsibly, from paying attention the greater good. But where does an inner sense of security come from? All of the above, but with something else, something that is sometimes hard to pin down but everyone knows it when they connect with it. Crudely put, this inner sense of security and stability stems from living out our destiny whole-heartedly, through finding ways to express our inner soul dream. It’s an individual matter with universal ramifications.

I’ve been heartened by the number of programs in mainstream media lately about the topic of dreams and how to live them. We’re living through a collective shift to embrace the concept of destiny as opposed to fate; to examine what is truly possible when we apply our imagination and courage to life, rather than to accept closed doors that we never tried to open. This is why Susan Boyle has become such an instant hit — her courage to stand up there in front of millions of people and sing her heart out is a classic case of Jupiter/Neptune/Chiron inspiration.

And it’s an old myth: The Ugly Duckling, Cinderella and countless other tales describe the radical transformation that emerges from the unobstructed flow of nature aligned with the courage to believe in a new, as yet unseen, future, at certain magical times. We are living through one of those magical times right now.

Have a fabulous Beltane!

love and blessings,

Lara