Beltane

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lithiumkat

Beltane

Post by lithiumkat »

What is everyone doing for Beltane?

I want to do Fairy Offerings, Ribbon wishes tied to trees and make Strawberries and cream. I am hoping to come up with another recipe or two that I can whip up without too much difficulty. (I do have a toddler underfoot!)
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Shekinah
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Re: Beltane

Post by Shekinah »

Beltane is all about symbolic mating of the God and Goddess, the fertility of Spring. In my Circle we remember the old tradition of Bel-fires that early Pagans used to drive their cattle between to ensure fertility. We have two candles three feet apart in our Circle between which we ceremoniously walk towards the Altar where we anoint (with a mix of cinnamon and almond oil) our forehead and speak (let my mind be free), heart (let my heart be free), and above pubic (let my body be free). Before we close our ritual we pass the "talking stick" around so all may have their say. (What is said in Circle remains in Circle). We do not condone our members scampering off into the forest (as in days of old) to foster "Green Wood Marriages" :flyingwitch:
Truth and Reality are highly guarded secrets. Nothing is as it appears. "The ONENESS sleeps in the stone, breathes in the plant, dreams in the animal and awakens in man" (Indian proverb)
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Mr Crowley
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Re: Beltane

Post by Mr Crowley »

<We do not condone our members scampering off into the forest (as in the days of old) to foster “Green Wood Marriages.”>

Is this an extension of free spirit?

Is the right to free spirit restricted by which religion one engages?

What happened to it harm none as the only rule?

Is “what's said in the circle stays in the circle” restricting free spirit?

How does follow one's own drumbeat fit into the circle?


My free spirit is non religious, so please explain because I'm always receptive to ways in which I can broaden my free spirit.
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SpiritTalker
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Re: Beltane

Post by SpiritTalker »

lithiumkat wrote:What is everyone doing for Beltane?

I want to do Fairy Offerings, Ribbon wishes tied to trees and make Strawberries and cream. I am hoping to come up with another recipe or two that I can whip up without too much difficulty. (I do have a toddler underfoot!)

It seems toddlers, Fae & strawberries go together. My neighbor's 5-yr old watched every move the year i did ribbon wishes with strips of variegated ribbon that I loop-tied to the chain-link fence along with some shiny bits'n bobs. With a nice breeze It was very lively. Birds used some of the ribbons for nests. I spotted some ribbons high up a tree. Squirrels like shiny things too and every bit was gone in a week. Everybody seemed to enjoy it.

I've got cranberry corn muffins in mind.
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SnowCat
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Re: Beltane

Post by SnowCat »

I have a charity pickup scheduled. It will clean clutter out of my house, and provide usable items to people who need them.
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nightshroud
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Re: Beltane

Post by nightshroud »

hmm I might do a small ritual to honor the holiday
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EveningWithAstaroth
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Re: Beltane

Post by EveningWithAstaroth »

I've started Beltane celebrations with picking the flowers planted by an old neighbor in the garden bed, which I've used in a floral altar display in a new vase I found, to commemorate the beginning of the growing season. For Beltane my plan of celebration involves planting flowers and gourds. I am in hope that by the end of the harvest season I will have been able to grow gourds to try and use for homemade rattles for ritual and ceremony work. And I would like to have the flowers for any spell work that may come up, as well as for decorative purposes for altars and flower arrangements.

My celebration of Beltane will last throughout the full next several months until harvest season ends. Implying that part of the full cycle celebration will involve tending the garden bed, and much work.

My Beltane celebrations for this year I intend to coincide with the end of harvest or Mabon. The celebration for me as the way I did it last year begins May 1st and ends during the time and final harvest of Mabon.

That is to say I do not even view Beltane as a one day celebration- it signifies the beginning of the harvest celebration yes, but I will be attending the garden into Litha, Lammas, and into Mabon until the very last harvest.

Therefore I tend to celebrate my personal Sabbats in monthly increments. I celebrate the very start of Spring Ostara and use yellows, pinks in color for decor, then comes beltane, I add greens and white- or this year this is how I have done it- into Litha I will add light blues, yellows, orange colors, and ect. When Mabon finally arrives I begin to celebrate both "Thanksgiving" and Samhain, and my Samhain rituals and practices requires constant reverence for ancestors as I acknowledge in my own way a "Day of the Dead" Celebration. So I will Celebrate Mabon, Samhain, and Day of the Dead in a three month long period where I will gives thanks for the year and anything manifested and for the good in the year, and will meditate silently throughout this three month period, on thoughts, memories of, and the good times had with friends and family whom have passed. During these three months, my space grows quiet, I do less activities, and I sit in contemplation and meditation. During this time I use the colors red and cobalt blue in my surroundings. I will begin looking for decor that holds these colors in July, because despite not a Sabbat Independence day makes cobalt blue and red very easily attainable for celebrations later in the year.

Essentially I will be celebrating Beltane the same way I celebrated last year- by growing something.

Which I will then nurture throughout the rest of the year, until Mabon- final harvest- where I will then harvest up any last crop/ plants, and then prepare for contemplation and meditation for the last three months of the year- Oct through December.

And then begin devotional offerings again next spring.

Imbolc I go wild. I clean, which I do yearly, but it is Imbolc where I will begin to plan as much I can for the upcoming holiday decorations in line with Imbolc being the time to re-organize and re-arrange.

Those are my Beltane plans this year, as well as my ideas, plans for the upcoming holidays as well. I will offer devotions throughout the year with natural elements obtained in my local area, and allow for the occasional- you didn't think you'd be celebrating this way this holiday did you? Type days that sometimes come up.

My holiday celebrations are subject to change in accordance to the ideas I get for them.

They are subject to change as well from one year to the next.
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