Beltaine blessings

It is Beltaine or May Day today and what an incredibly beautiful day it is. I've two posts for you but as they are very picture heavy I'll do one today and one tomorrow.

Yesterday we went to one of our favourite places Conishead Priory to walk in the woods, a tradition for us on Beltaine and indeed woods are the place on all the festivals for me.

 The woods are looking absolutely stunning, the Goddess in all her glory. You can feel the energies and the power of the Lord and Lady at this time.

 I love the priory gardens they are easy to get around but yet you feel as if you are in the first forest it is so quiet and so overwhelmingly stunning.

 Comfrey or knitbone to give it its country name was a big part of my childhood. My nan used to wrap leaves of it around my sore joints to ease the pain. She used to make salves from it for when the leaves were not usable. I had to eat the leaves and drink an infusion as well. Sadly I still have my disease so it didn't cure it but it did help alleviate the pain. Nowadays they tell you not to drink it I think. Didn't harm me though, I'm still here:)
She also made the most foul smelling liquid to use on the garden because comfrey is a marvellous fertiliser. Mr Mog and I tried it several times and the results were great. We stopped after he accidentally spilt some across himself and it took a shower to get rid of the perfume.

 We found out later that there was a better, less smelly way to make it. We had put leaves in a bucket and added water. Don't do that. The easiest way is an upturned pop bottle with the bottom cut off, put the leaves in there with a weight on them. This produces a concentrated liquid that is equally effective. Just add water to it when using.

 So Beltaine, a fire festival and a time of great fertility in the land. What does it mean to you?

 For me it is a renewal of energy, a time of meditation and insights. A time to enjoy creativity for its own sake and not for an end result. A play time. A what if ?time.

 This past two days of woodland and nature have helped to ease the dark winter that still lingers in my bones and in my spirit.It tells me to let go of the past, accept what has been and be thankful for what it has done for me. I may not yet realise all the plus points but they are there. With the longer days and warmer weather the positive elements will come forth.

 This view always reminds me of one of my favourite poems The way through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling where coincidentally? the poem of the day is Puck's song

They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate,
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods.

 Puck's song

SEE you the ferny ride that steals
Into the oak-woods far?
0 that was whence they hewed the keels
That rolled to Trafalgar.

And mark you where the ivy clings
To Bayharn's mouldering walls?
0 there we cast the stout railings
That stand around St. Paul's.

See you the dimpled track that runs
All hollow through the wheat?
0 that was where they hauled the guns
That smote King Philip's fleet.

(Out of the Weald, the secret Weald,
Men sent in ancient years,
The horse-shoes red at Flodden Field,
The arrows at Poitiers!)

See you our little mill that clacks,
So busy by the brook?
She has ground her corn and paid her tax
Ever since Domesday Book.

See you our stilly woods of oak,
And the dread ditch beside?
0 that was where the Saxons broke
On the day that Harold died.

See you the windy levels spread
About the gates of Rye?
0 that was where the Northmen fled,
When Alfred's ships came by.

See you our pastures wide and lone,
Where the red oxen browse?
0 there was a City thronged and known,
Ere London boasted a house.

And see you, after rain, the trace
Of mound and ditch and wall?
0 that was a Legion's camping-place,
When Caesar sailed from Gaul.

And see you marks that show and fade,
Like shadows on the Downs?
0 they are the lines the Flint Men made,
To guard their wondrous towns.

Trackway and Camp and City lost,
Salt Marsh where now is corn-

And so was England born.

She is not any common Earth,
Water or wood or air,
But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye,
Where you and I will fare.

 Primroses are always a surprise flower, they suddenly appear. Have you ever had primrose wine? Gorgeous flavour and brings with it all the magic of the Spring. Whenever I've made it I've only ever taken petals from a prolific area of the flowers and always asked before taking.

 Bluebells here are mainly the native ones, a few Spanish have crept in but not too many thankfully.

 Saxifrage is such a tiny flower you can miss it if you aren't watching closely.
These next 2 pictures are for Leanne She had been searching for hope and look what we found in the gardens there.

 And a close up

 As you can see the day was beautiful

 Carpets of flowers and new leaves in abundance.

 A gateway to a magical world.

Hope you enjoyed the journey and may your Beltaine be full of joy and hope.

Happy Beltaine

Happy Beltaine and I hope that the fire and energy from this festival go with you throughout the year. May you harness the energy creatively and don't forget to pass a little of it on.
Short and sweet but have a great day

Beltaine eve

As the wheel turns once more I feel the drum beat, the heartbeat of the earth.

It is drumming through my feet and rising in a lazy spiral throughout my body.
Rising ever upwards and onwards. As we near Beltaine the beat quickens becoming faster and faster, whirling through me and filling me with tingles of energy.

I feel the generations of people hearing the same beat and feeling the same excitement
Tasting the fire and the passion.
May and Beltaine are almost here,can you feel the energies rise?
Feel the blood pounding through your veins
Don't waste the moment, be in tune with it
All that energy circling round, take some and pass it on.
Just feel, be in the moment, be part of the rhythm

Beltaine countdown

It is almost Beltaine eve and I can feel the energy rising. The earth thrums with it as I sit among the trees.
Everything is buzzing from bees to new flowers.
The Goddess is awake and we can be too if we tune into the rhythm of the earth.
New babies on the ponds, calling as they swim with their parents.
Barely hatched by the size of them.
Flowers everywhere you look. On trees, in water it matters not they all show the beauty of the Lady
Such vibrant colours to welcome the festival.
Secret grottoes to while away the hours, or to await the sunrise on May day.
More colour everywhere you look. So much joy to be taken from each moment. It just needs a little awareness and open eyes.
My Nan used to call this brides bouquet, she said it flowered in honour of the Lady and her consort. A bridal bouquet for a spring bride.
I used to lie beneath the branches and watch the petals fall softly on my face.
Doesn't it make you smile to see?
We too can honour the Goddess and the Green Man in simple ways. Just being aware is enough.
Nearly Beltaine, how will you celebrate?

Coven or solitary? A musing for Beltaine

In my younger days I followed a free path. I did what felt right and was right for that moment.

From a young child I'd always worked rituals with my nan as she made potions to help people with various ailments. She followed the wheel of the year in a country way, she lived on a farm and nature showed her the path.

You would call her a wise woman or wood witch I guess. I think I spent a lot of time with her because I was ill so much as a child and in and out of hospital. When home she took pity on me and my quest for knowledge and taught me what she knew.

As I grew out of my teens I started to read witchcraft books from the library, Crowley, Sybil Leek and others. I found that my path had a name. I embraced this and wanted to learn all I could of the different traditions.

So then I followed a more traditional route on my pagan path.

I became part of covens, I did a neophyte course with an established coven.

This involved much inner journeying and soul searching.
I suspect any traveller on the pagan path has this journey to make. Indeed I'm still on the path.

At times it felt as though my dream work was done to an established pattern. It is such a time in your learning so your dreams should contain this, kind of thing.

I ignored my inner voice of reason. The one that said this isn't you or what you want.

I was too young to speak up. They had been doing this for years after all so surely they knew best?
Eventually I realised that learning lines for rituals ,that appeared to be mere stage plays, wasn't for me. It wasn't who I am.

Some of that could have been nudged by the HP slapping my hands when I forgot her lines and spoke from the heart.

My path had to be a heart path.

Later coven forays were somewhat better and more spontaneous but still not who I felt I was.
The dressing up in robes was fun but I needed more.

I then began a casual circle. A get together to celebrate the turn of the wheel. Friends and their families celebrating with fun and games and feasting.

Honouring the old ways in a freer spirit.

Egg decorating at Ostara and egg hunts in the garden. Treasure hunts with clues to solve.

Yule tide games and gifts.

A joy for all ages and for me an honest attempt to follow the spiral .

Now I celebrate as I choose.

Free to sit in woods or by water. Free to commune with the old ones in any way that feels right.

I find this path now is far more magical for who I am.

Ritual simplified but none the less effective.

Calling on the elements and the aspects of the Lord and the Lady that are right for this now.

That changes as I change.

The traditional rigid path works for some, indeed for many.
But not for this witch.

I need the flow of energy of the land as it comes on the day.

The old ones do listen if you speak with respect and from the heart.

They hear you without any of the trappings of mask and robe.

Without lines learnt before hand.

Why not try it?
Speak the words in YOUR heart.

You maybe surprised at the reply.

Beltaine approaches

Beltaine is nearly here. Can you feel the energies rising?
I feel it as a pulse within that increases as the days draw nearer.

A drumming within my body that has excitement, energy and heat as part of it.

Betaine is a fertility festival and yes fertility has it's sexual side and that is a good reason to celebrate;)
But fertility can be a creative urge in other ways.
A need to make things, to plant seeds, to open ourselves to the rising energies and to welcome their effect up on us spiritually and physically.

When you see flowers and trees showing the earth's fertility doesn't it make you smile and feel joyous?
It does for me
Everything is awake now, it hears the Goddess calling. Wake up calls come to us as well.
We just have to listen for them.
Can you see the recumbent lady waiting for the Green Man to come and wake her? She has been sleeping away the winter but now is the time to don her spring gown and go out to play.
My favourite musical has always been Camelot and I love the May day scene. A nod to the pagan rites and something that I felt all those years ago when but a child. I knew Beltaine was a special part of me and my contact with the land.
Each time I am within woods or by the sea it becomes a ritual occasion. I can feel the Lady and the Lord around me. I can sense the great mystery and my small part within it.
This past few days have been like a return to the past in some ways. Clear blue skies, not a plane or vapour trail to be seen.

A return to the magic of wood and water, trees and earth.
Skies that go on forever, especially if one is somewhere such as beach or woods.
No cars then, no planes.
Magic is all around and touches us if we stand still for that touch.
If we are in the moment. Not thinking of where we go next or what we have to do.

Just being there, waiting for the magic that is never far away.
I look at the drums I have around me and I want to play loud, throbbing music. Something to try and emulate what is within me.
A slow beat, becoming louder, faster and more insistent.

To try and capture one fraction of what I feel.
I want to be on lonely beaches drumming softly as the tide comes in, barely heard sound, just a murmur here and there.

That is what the tide feels like to me.


I want to be on a mountain top as the sun rises and the breeze swirls around my face. Then I'd drum louder, louder as Sol rises. Feeling the power of the sun, the warmth and the energy.

I know that the mountain top can sadly only be a dream, no way for me to climb such heights now. But in my mind I'm there, I'm drumming and I'm dancing.

Because it is in my mind and not actually happening doesn't make it any less real.

How do you want to celebrate Beltaine?