Blessed Beltain

Traditional Maypole Dancing

Blessed Beltain - Blessings of love, fire, fertility and passion to you all! 
Beltain or Beltane is celebrated on 30th April - May Eve, often when bonfires are lit and/or 1st May. Traditionally Beltain celebrated the union of the Goddess and the God, their glorious fertility over the coming months seen in the green leafy finery budding and delicate flowers blossoming across the land. A time for animals to mate and for us to revel in our sexuality - the traditional custom of dancing round the Maypole a cheekily phallic symbol of the male form adorned with flowery and leafy garlands representing the female form, the entwining of ribbons around it by 'maidens' revelling in the act! Reflecting the changes in the land around us, this was a time for courtship, with couples sloping off into the woods at the Beltain fires and a flurry of hand fastings or marriages a few months later when the signs of ensuing fertility had come to light! 
It's been suggested that Beltain is named for the Celtic God Bel and the fires 

Glorious Hampshire - Our Setting for
Beltain Celebrations

were a way of marking and celebrating the coming months of sun and the prospect of a good harvest - like so many of the traditional sabbats reflecting the needs and hopes of the farming calendar throughout the year, no doubt these flourished and grew as we became early farmers at the mercy of the elements, Mother Nature and the Goddesses and Gods of the land. Cattle were driven between the fires to protect them from harm and boughs of Rowan were hung over the fire to protect the home and hearth from any form of enchantment and the 'evil eye.'
The Maiden has grown into a young woman, ready to leave childhood behind, full of sensuous longing, yearning for the fulfillment of love, ripe to explore and enjoy her sexuality. What a glorious time!
This time of year has long been a special time

The Wicker Man

for me and one of my oldest friends, my beloved Lu, a very brave women who apart from my first week in the maternity unit, has literally known me and been my friend for the whole of my life! As older adults, we've always marked Beltain somehow, usually by getting up ridiculously early to visit the local stones at Kits Coty, wash our faces in the May Day dew to retain our youthful looks (you'd never know we were 76 and 81 now would you?!) and to prance about with local Morris Dancing groups! Not totally sure why this sabbat is so specifically ours, the only explanation I can think of is that we grew up together, our children have grown up together, 5 generations of our families have been happily entwined over half a century and we are blessed to have each other as a constant reminder of home, childhood and love.

My Request to The Goddess To Be
Taken Up In The Flames

This year I asked if she was game for a Beltain adventure, as long as it doesn't involve climbing hills was the reply! No hill climbing policy in situ, we headed off to Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire, a drive of about an hour and a half from us. Alerted to this by some lovely drumming friends from the fabulous Pentacle Drummers, we found reconstructed Stone Age, Iron Age, Saxon and Roman Buildings and farms, displays of crafts, workshops, reenactments and a wicker man over 30 feet high, that took a month to construct that would later be burnt as an offering to the Gods and Goddesses for fertility and a fruitful harvest. 
After taking part several times in an awesome shamanic drumming circle  in a 'stone age' round house  (we were well away with that!) maypole dancing and experiencing food samples that would have been around at the time, learning that you can get fresh water mussels (and then I found one today!) we headed over to the amazing construction pictured above, added and tied our individual requests and prayers to the wicker man to be sent to the Goddess and God through the flames later that evening. A after quick sampling of the local cider - a mere mouthful

Goddess of Grain - Of Course!

for me as driver, we explored the 'Iron Age' buildings and  both felt at home with their structure, decorations inside and the basic spinning wheels, the actual use of metal becoming vividly apparent and obvious, so much more than we could have possibly learned from a text book or in a class room, seriously take your children there!
Interestingly neither of us felt at home at all in the Saxon House, but enjoyed the Roman Villa, these are based on actual local findings, I found this beautiful painted mural there, of course it's a depiction of a Goddess of Corn/Wheat/Grain! Just goes to reinforce that She is ever present in all cultures, all beliefs and all things. 
More drumming, singing, dancing and eating  - all sorts, including vegetarian, vegan and gluten free and drinking ensued, before as dusk approached we all

Fiery Finale..

headed over to the site of the wicker man for the finale of the day. Amidst more earthy and resonating drumming, which you could feel stir the crowd, the torch processed to the wicker man. A lucky raffle winner lit the man shaped bonfire and we all whooped and cheered as the fire took hold, decorating the night sky with flames and sparks in such a primal way. We could see cars lights slowing and stopping in the distance to witness the spectacle. The wind roared and there were showers of sparks that glowed as they flew over the field. What a sight! I can completely understand why our ancestors would have been in awe, captivated by the spectacle - just as we were with our 21st century understanding of the world. We found ourselves worrying about whether or not the direction of the wind would mean that our requests would not go up in the fire, a mild superstition or fantasy compared to the total belief and hope in the way it burned that may have been felt 2000 plus years ago, primal as it sounds it mattered! A completely amazing day and experience.

Have a Blessed Beltain BB x x

A Marvellous Medley

A Surprise Thank You!

Well another week has flown past, another week when a delicious medley of seemingly unconnected threads have magically woven themselves together in the end to make a rich tapestry as the backdrop along my path. 
A beautiful surprise winged it's way to me this week, I came home from work to find this wonderful card and present as a thank you from my lovely circle sister Tina who came to stay with her daughter a few weeks ago and gave my baby kitten some much needed healing reiki. Fabulous CD with songs and chants bringing the essence of Goddess from all around the world and all cultures, a timely message that many paths entwine and blend to make each journey.... Thank you Tina! 
Another beautiful surprise was the gift of these beautiful crystals from my not so 'little' brother Paul and his girlfriend Nikki. Must really be my week for blessings. They said it was a belated birthday present despite sending me a gorgeous flower basket on the day, he said he just saw them and thought of me - the best sort of present! 

Beautiful Crystals

They are all three amethysts  -  the meaning of amethysts varies but usually they are connected with healing properties, meditation, psychic abilities, calm and balance. These have been preloved so I will want to cleanse and energise them before I use them. To do this I will wash them them in water that I have smudged over with sage and then leave them to dry over night on a window sill in the full moon, you could also do this in sunlight if you wanted to. They can then be used for healing, for meditating on or even as a necklace if I get to feeling that arty! I've recently seen them as adornments on staves or  wands too.

Sun and Moon in The Garden

It was great to see a couple of new faces at our Maidstone Pagans Pub Moot who brought some fascinating conversation and presented new possibilities to us, eagerly taken up by myself and my beautiful friend Maria, who calls us onion friends as we have so many layers that we are learning about each other, either that or she means we are Shrek and Donkey in which case we will be having words! No surprise to find that the same things keep presenting themselves to me, especially when I keep ignoring them elsewhere - an opportunity to try past life regression, healing, story telling and treelore... Who was I to refuse such exciting and serendipitously insistent offers that were sent to me?
So on Thursday myself and my lovely onion friend headed off to another local moot the wonderfully aptly named Pagan Pathways run by another friend who just happens to be an expert in crystals, yet another very useful synchronicity! I knew several of

My Budding Herb Garden

the group from the summer solstice camp I attended last year (and have not only been invited back, but asked to do a talk at this year's one on the history of the local standing stones...eeeek!) - I was greeted with hugs as I might have been with old friends, always a good start! We had a fascinating talk on sacred celtic tree lore, complete with healing properties and magical uses, just the perfect subject matter for someone who has been cultivating a little herb garden in my little 'Goddessy' area in our garden, complete with a little Goddess statue. We then had a talk and a mini workshop on story telling, which had us jazzing up the story of the 3 little pigs until we cried with laughter, I'm pretty sure there were some funky steam punk pigs going on in one tale! Yet again timely messages and reminders that weave through my path, re-inspiring me, re-firing my imagination and

Blue Bells Courtesy of the
Lovely Claire Hayward

reaffirming my belief in my slightly mad at times journey!! 
Literally just as I have written this, as if to completely reinforce what I have just typed, my lovely friend Claire has messaged me with a memory of us walking through bluebells last year and sent this gorgeous picture of some bluebells she saw today and thought of me! How fabulous a blessing is that? Not merely the photograph, but to be remembered  and associated with fondness by such beauty..... Thank you!
Following a wonderful workshop yesterday on Traditional Witchcraft that I need time to digest and do justice to fully, so will have to leave until next week, I dragged himself off for a drive to the

Beautiful Beach at Whitstable Harbour

coast for some proper seaside fish and chips. We strolled along the pebbly beach at Tankerton watching a group of people readying themselves for a BBQ party on the beach, watching some children blowing and chasing bubbles and dogs bravely running in and out of the water as it lapped against the wooden breaks. We sat admiring the sun play out a dramatic game of hide and seek with the clouds and then drove along to Whitstable to walk through the Harbour, watched the sunset - a fiery red sun melting, seeping into the land and glowing in windows across the bay. We ate our chips on a picnic bench on the beach, a perfect table for two with a view. Such a beautiful view, such a blessing.

Have a Blessed Week x x x

April Blessings

Tiny

Sunny April Greetings to you all! 
Been a bit busy round here, I've been too busy dealing with life and then living it to the full to sit down and write much about it! My family has seen too much of hospitals the last two weeks but we're all home and in one piece, so all is good. Makes you count your blessings though.
One of our blessings is that Tiny Tim the little runt of Sylvie's litter is finally putting on weight after a very dicey start and much bottle feeding, here he is pictured receiving some Reiki treatment from my lovely circle sister Tina, the weight started going on the next

Tiny Bottle

day, so never say never.. I have to say it has been like having a baby in some ways, feeds during the night and wandering round with a small snuffling thing clinging on to my top and getting milk in my hair! 
His bottle was as big as he was, I have left it on my altar next to a tealight to show you the scale. Reiki and a place on my Goddess Altar appear to be providing strength and his birth weight finally doubled. Although the others are already treble his size and much stronger, he's finally getting there - thankfully!

Sunset Seagull

Both myself and Mark had our birthdays last week so took ourselves off out for the day to Brighton, such a glorious and beautiful sunny day, a real treat in April. A walk round the Brighton Pavilion, a fantastic ostentatious folly, through the famous back streets of shops - The Lanes and along the seafront and iconic piers -old and new. Sitting with a number of other photographers we waited for the sun set to catch the perfect shot.... This sea gull decided to photobomb my sunset shot of the old pier, no doubt improving it - what a great picture. 
You can see all the detail in the feathers as it is silhouetted against the sun. 
Earlier when looking for somewhere to have lunch out, we came accross a lovely old pub called the Druid's Head, so named as apparently it was built in the site of an old stone ring, allegedly placed there by Druids.
Hmm, not sure how many Druids in ancient times hot-footed their way to

A Druidic Abundance...

Brighton or built stone circles,but seeing as I was that child who argued that dragons must have existed as there was a word for them, it was good enough for me. Amazing Veggie Fish (Halloumi) and Chips, and more Green Men and/or Druids than I could shake a stick at, should I have wanted to.

They seem to be everywhere I am at the moment, I seem to be finding them without even looking, there is obviously a message in them for me - reflecting the fertility of the season and the promised abundance no doubt. I wonder what my Goddess will have to say about that? Why are there practically no green women? Interestingly in Churches, a surprising but very common home for them, Green Men are often partnered with Sheela-Na-Gigs - carvings of naked women showing their exaggeratedly large vulvas....

A Not So Pink, Full Moon

Meanings and representations include fertility, abundance and renewal of life and land.
Finally to top of this display of fertility and fullness I snapped this glorious photo of the full moon, long associated with fertility and a constant reminder of the cycles though flow in and around us. This April full moon is most commonly known as the Pink Full Moon, looked far more blue from where I was hanging out of a window! A bit of an odd mixture this week maybe, I'm sure they are all connected, they flowed in my mind at least - and the Moon in the Tarot does come with confusion and illusion...

Have A Blessed Week x x