Beltane

Beltane is right around the corner: May Eve. Green is everywhere. Plants are maturing as are the animals born in early Spring. We see wonderful signs of sensuality all around us. The air is warm but not stifling yet (well...at least if you don't live where I do in Northern California, but play with me here.). Scents of flowers fill the air. The sun is high in the sky and the nights are still balmy. This is the time to celebrate the budding sensuality of the teens, when we're no longer a child but not yet fully adult with all the responsibilites that time of life requires. It's time to celebrate our bodies, the life force we feel running through us. Time to dance, sing, dress provocatively and celebrate our Orgasmic potential.

This is one of the bawdy festivals we kinda sorta hear about from the olden times when people would dance around bonfires and have tons of sex. Lore has it that children conceived at this festival were considered Holy and the responsiblity of the community because no one knew who the father might be. You don't have to "go all the way" to celebrate the spirit of these times.

We always dressed really sensually with lots of skin showing. Silks, gauzes, ribbons of all sorts, shapes and sizes, jewelry, lots of makeup all over our bodies. Flowers are everywhere around the altar as are symbols of fertility.

I cannot imagine doing a Beltane celebration without a Maypole. Ours were always at least twelve feet high. We used 3" think ribbons of every color and hue. It's lovely when the pole can remain up all woven and be-ribboned until Samhain, when it's taken down at the celebration of Death, but today there is no thinking of that time. It's all about exuberant celebration of the very alive body.

I love the hypnotic energy of the Dance, with people weaving in and out to music. My favorite chant for this:

We are the Flow

We are the Ebb

We are the Weavers

We are the Web

I've found that if we think about what we're doing, the weaving and pattern always get mixed up. But if we let go of our logic minds, look into each others eyes while we sing and play with the un and down motion, it works perfectly every time.

My favorite time doing this ceremony was when I did it with a group of men and women. While the women were all colorful, the men dressed as the Green Man....paint smeared all over their faces and bodies, plant wreathes or leaves in their hair. They were wild with drumming, growling, yelling and jumping around. The pole was hidden. Then they had the women line up in two lines across from each other, creating a path for the men to thrust the pole they were carrying as a group back and forth as they slowly made their way to the hole the pole would go in. As they would pull the pole back they would take a short step back, then plunge forward with a groan out as they moved forward again. We women would be chanting Yes, yes, yes!! with each thrust. As they got closer and closer to the hole, they went faster and faster until they reached the hole, dropped the pole, fell down on the ground and pretended to orgasm. It was really fun.

That day, after doing the pole, we chased each other around the forest and kissed...some may even have completed the Sacred Rite, but if they did, they didn't make an announcement about it.

In the workshop where I made each of these celebrations a day long ritual combined with Tantra, we did a beautiful healing exercise where the women paired up and told their partner their sex history. How did they lose their virginity? How did it affect them then and what were the whispers of it now in their lives? As many women have body issues that stem from this time in their lives, I would also have them break into groups of four, sit nude in their small circle and one by one talk about their relationship with their body from head to toe, focusing on Yoni last. After the talk, the Speaker lies down in the middle of their small, intimate group. The women massage her with all the tenderness of a mother touching her newborn while whispering to her how beautiful she is. They give her healing Blessings that would relate to the areas she may have talked about with shame. Finally, the woman would be held by the others as a group. This is a very profound exercise for a woman. Beyond words.

In all cases, whether a women's group, women and men's or Tantra inspired, the ending, of course is a sumptuous feast. But this time, it's great fun to have it be a feast where you cannot feed yourself- we don't use utensils, we feed each other by hand. It's quite yummy. Especially the chocolate.



Art and Photos Credits:

May Pole from Ellie Crystal's Metaphysical and Science Website

Jeweled foot from Yasmina's Joy of Belly Dancing

Green Man from Spirit Passages

Butterfly from Wild Wall Flowers

Yummy chocolate picture from here