Beltane

Time of the Rose

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen;

I wish you a happy day;

I'm come to show my garland,

because it's the First of May.

— English traditional spring carol

Once upon a time we marked time with our awareness of what was happening in the natural world. Beltane is the time of the Rose:  Blackberry, Hawthorn, Strawberries, Raspberries, and of course, Roses bloom near this time.  Their energy is the energy of abundance and love.  We are reminded to open our hearts and celebrate love in all its forms. One of my earliest memories was of the roses in my childhood backyard.  They bloomed at the very start of May, often on May first.  My mother would help us cut several to put in small vases and bowls of water, before her statues of Mary mother of Jesus, and on the table.

They featured in processions of Mary in my very Catholic neighborhood, which were followed by crowning the Queen of the May with roses, a tradition held over from Old Europe, and not Catholic at all — and we would take baskets of them to neighbors.   Now at the halfway point between Spring and the start of Summer, I am again watching the rose buds, and waiting for them to bloom.  Some of them already are. 

I’ll come back to the energy of the Rose in a minute, but I want to turn attention for a moment to the Wheel of the Year.   It can be helpful to consider our own choices and dreams in terms of the cycles of seasons, because there is often a rhythm to the way we set our intentions, and bring them to fruition as the season go by. 

Seeds and Flowers

To frame this magical time, I want to refer back for a moment, first to autumn.  At Samhain, in the end of October, we entered the dark half of the year.  As the seeds of plants fell to the ground, so perhaps at summer’s end we considered the seeds of our own hopes for the year to come, that would rest with us in winter.  At Winter Equinox we stood between the long dark and returning light; potential and manifestation, and in quietude, perhaps nurtured the seeds in our hearts, as we considered our purpose and path in the year to come. 

About three months ago in the cold of Imbolc, at  the start of February,  new life emerged under dry grasses and leaves, and intentions we set in the winter also took on urgency with the promise of spring to come.  Just six weeks ago the equilibrium of dark and light at the Vernal Equinox brought to us the shimmer of early spring, that has turned to a rich green, and we know summer is coming, as the days lengthen. At Beltane we step fully into the light half of the year that is ruled by the Oak, and Beltane is the season of the Rose. 

Beltane stands opposite to Samhain in the wheel of the year, and like that gateway, is a portal guarded by fire; but Beltane holds the energy of flowers, rather than fallen leaves.

The seeds that carried life through the winter are now in blossom, in our gardens, and in our spirits. We are not merely bodies with a soul  hidden somewhere far inside, where we can’t find it.  We are divine beings who have come to dwell in a body, and at Beltane the fire of Spirit seems to be bursting out.    

In the expansion of light at this halfway point – between the first day of spring and the first day of summer, Beltane sings to the senses and calls us to fully embody the flame of Spirit within us in deep feeling, pleasure, joy and play.   We came here to give a vessel to Spirit, and to incarnate into matter.  In the Goddess faith, the Charge of the Goddess, in the context of “Harming None”, states: “All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals”.  So…  sensual love, yes!  Bathing in rose petals.  Yes!  Laughing in glee at the westering sun peeking through a rain cloud and turning the grass all to diamonds.  Yes!  Beltane is a time to revel in sensual, embodied joy.  It is a time when Spirit and Embodied Form elevate each other. 

Sacred Union

Secondly, we  celebrate the sacred union of the Masculine and Feminine energies in Nature, in each other, and within ourselves.  This is a time for transformation, and awakening to the divine within us.   The arrival of summer birds, butterflies, the fragrance of flowers carried on the breeze and the sneezy, gritty feel of pollen-filled wind are hallmarks of this season too, and all of nature is making love!  

Beltane heralds a loud chorus of abundance, and life bursting into creative expression.  The time of the seed is well over, and all of nature sings.   Along with the plants, it is a time for our creativity to flower.  The plans and hopes that we nurtured in the dark of the year are brought into light, and watered now, to burst into fullness as the rest of the year opens before us.

Song of Nature

You may sense that there is a special shimmer to the light now. The veil between worlds is thinner at Beltane, as it also is in the gateway of Samhain that lies halfway across the wheel — the Autumn Gateway.  But at the Autumn Portal, the wisdom whispered to us was from the Elders, the Ancient Ones, our Ancestors; now it is from the devas of Nature that give rise to her forms, as the earth births itself anew.   We tend to hear the wisdom of the plants most keenly in the bright time of the year when their energy soars — from now and through high summer most of all.    We are very much connected to this world, and in forgetting that connection, we are damaged; we are diminished.  

Now when the lingering, late cool has given way to frolicking animals, rainbows, and flowers, it is a special time to sit with the plants, and listen.  There are whispers in the green places, and we can deepen our connections with both the natural world and our own spirits as we listen to them.   As the flowers beckon, I am listening much to rose.

This plant comes into her glory now,  just in time to crown the Queen of the May, or fill a ceremony with fragrance. It is associated with many divine beings of love and beauty, including Mary of the Christian pantheon, Aphrodite and Venus of the Greeks and Romans, Lakshmi of the Hindus and Isis of ancient Egypt among others.

Sarah Liberty cc by 2.0

Strength and Love

She is a plant of initiation — bringing us intoxicating scent, and thorns (usually)...   Roses are not all sweetness and light, and like all gateway herbs and guides to transformation, she holds a suggestion of trials in the journey, and moves us to attend to power-within. Rose claims her own space,  and is a mistress of shielding her delicate beauty, even as she shares it.  We must enter her space with respect and be mindful of her authority in it, whether we are using her gifts  for inner work,  or to heal the body.

Rose is a healer of both the physical and emotional heart, and calls to us to unburden ourselves from wounds of the past,  so that we can live with love.  I call upon this ally often in my practice, for these gifts.  Her thorns suggest she is also a guardian of the boundaries of the heart, helping us connect with our own deeper selves, while holding the door against those who would enter with force.   A cavalier encounter with this teacher will get you stuck, and her thorns are very sharp!

This offers us a lesson, as we take our gifts out to the world.  We must guard our hearts and our spaces with discernment and wisdom, and ask, “What is worthy to be let in?”  We cannot help others if we do not keep our own house intact, creating a safe place to work from.  The Rose knows this.  And she shares a final lesson. 

Though boundaries are critical, and can ward off what might harm us, it is gentleness, not force that will heal us, says Rose.  Our greatest power is rooted in love.  Beltane is a weaving of fire, air, flowers and love.   In this heart clinching, challenging moment of the world, that is also so very brimful with possibility – the abundant life energy of spring is magical, and can pour through us. 

Even as we wisely guard the boundaries of our hearts with discernment and wisdom, we can open to love what is worthy, what is beautiful, and what nurtures life.  In the midst of change, even when the world seems dangerous,  Love, most of all, is a balm to overcome world-fears,  and a magnetic force to help us create the world we hope for.   Even in these times.  Especially in these times.  When we are tempted to react with dismay to news of the world, what can we do instead, if we powerfully build with love?