May 1st is Beltane: a time for celebrating the beauty and
sanctity of all life. Today is a moment for reclaiming your power, balance, and
inner strength.
Beltane is one of eight Shabbats on the Wheel of the Year.
The others include the Solstices and Equinoxes, Lammas (August 1st), Samhain
(October 31st), and Imbolc (February 2nd). Beltane breathes renewal into our
cells as we acknowledge the Nature Kingdom and the advent of summer. [For our
Southern Hemisphere allies, the Wheel of the Year is reversed: they now
celebrate Samhain.]
In the West, we have an unfortunate tendency to water down
our sacred days to become mere children's celebrations: Samhain, ushering in the dark half
of the year, becomes a specter of itself as Halloween; Imbolc,
heralding the return of the light on February 2nd, morphs to
Groundhog Day; Beltane becomes a day to dance around the Maypole. Yet the
deeper meanings reflect our lost connection with natural rhythms, with the
seasonal shifts we actually embody.
As Samhain honors the power of death, so Beltane honors the
cycles of life and rebirth. Beltane takes place in Taurus, the zodiac's most
earthy, sensual sign, and focuses on exuberant sexuality: the pollinating of
flowers, the lush cornucopia of fruit-bearing plants and trees, the
reproductive cycle of the entire natural world, from birds and bees to humans.
It's a celebration of fertility in all its forms — and thus we dance in homage
to Aphrodite, the Goddess Herself.
Although traditionally observed on May 1st, astronomical
Beltane arrives about the 5th, a nice sync-up with Cinco de Mayo, giving us an
entire week in which to renew, dance the fire back into our beings, and open
once again to a sacred
reUnion of our masculine and feminine selves. Mythologist Kathleen Jenks
provides a page rich in Beltane
lore from around the globe.
Ignite your Light!
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