Halfway between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, May begins one of the major sections of the year, known by the ancients under diverse names, including Beltane, Floralia and Beltina. In resonance with Sun sign Taurus, it’s a time of providence, when Spring is at its most fertile and the annual season of abundance begins, lasting through fall harvest.
Two of its symbols are fire (which is actually the meaning of the syllable “taine”), and dew, related to Mother Earth’s living essence. The following suggestions can be adapted to your own rituals for May 1:
- In The Pagan Book of Days, author Nigel Pennick says that all fires were put out and then relit from “…local sacred hearths”, which “represented the mystic divine fire at the center of all things, whose spark of life is carried by each of us.” A modern adaptation would be to make a fire with a ritual fireproof dish or container and affirm,
I behold the fire of divine love burning within me and decree (some word associated with fire), and see the spark of the divine burning in all others.
- Dancing around the May pole is a remnant of ancient tree cults. The emphasis wasn’t so much on the dancers, as on doing homage to the tree. Choose a tree to visit, hang ribbons or flowers on it and bless its spirit.
- In adaptation of an ancient Irish practice: light two fires side-by-side, or candles to place on the floor, making a portal to walk through into a season of abundance, under the guardianship of the angels of the earth.
- A particularly lovely ritual can be based on the ancient practice of rising before dawn to bless the earth, collect her dew, and sip it or rub in on oneself, and watch the sun rise. One could use the moisture as a cue to imagine rain pouring down.
The first two weeks of May are the last of Uranus’ transits through Aries, where Uranus has been since 2011, urging us to find a new level of authenticity and free self-expression. Have you heeded the cry? Is there an intention or project related to this urging that you have yet to ground? Go out of your way to act on it before the portal ends.
Uranus’ passage into Taurus will shake up….
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