Happy Life and Light, May Day, Beltane, the beginning of summer. Strange since the good old US of A seems to name the beginning of summer, not on May Day nor on the Summer Solstice, but on the Fourth of July. But then again, our culture and society is ruled by materialistic greed with little thought to neither the cycles of nature nor the progression of the heavens. So for the ones reading this, whom I would assume do not buy into that dream, or is that the great American dream, of the 21^st Century Capitalistic society, I’ll briefly talk about Beltane, a fertility festival—a Celtic Fire Festival.

Interesting enough, the month of May is named for a Greek Mountain nymph named Maia. She is also known as the most beautiful of the Seven Sisters—the Pleiades. The Pleiades, a cluster of seven stars in the constellation of Taurus and known as the Seven Stars of Life and Death, figure prominently in the celebration of Beltane. They rise just before the sun on the morning horizon announcing the arrival of Beltane. However, true Beltane seldom occurs on May 1^st. Old time Beltane or Elder Beltane happened when the sun was at 15 degrees Taurus, many times around May 5^th.

Taurus, ruled by Venus, emphasizes the fertility and the earthly sexuality of the evening star phase of Venus, thus the joyous expressions of human passions and the fertility rites that would occur during the celebration of Beltane. Of course, Beltane was also about celebrating the end of winter and the beginning of summer. This was a time to honor the return of life from the void of nothingness—winter. But the shade of winter still hung over the people and the creatures of the earth. At anytime winter could still reach out it’s frosty hand and destroy the fruitfulness of the earth. In their belief, the only way to prevent winter’s lingering presence was to give honor and respect to the Sun God—Bel.

As an invocation to Bel, sacred fires were lit to bring his blessing and protection. These fires would also provide the community with their healing and purifying powers. And many times the ashes of these sacred fires were smudged on the faces of the people and spread over the fields, a blessing to the people and a blessing to the earth.

There was another Bel besides the Celtic Bel. An Elder Bel, as the Greeks wrote, worshipped by the Babylonians as one of their supreme Gods. Could both of these Sun Gods come from the same source? And could this source be a root people that survived the last great earth changes? And could the original celebration of Beltane, which may seem needless in our materialistic greed-driven culture of 2003, be a memory of these earth changes?  And what does our future hold?

During this month of May, it is the perfect opportunity to not only celebrate the fruitfulness of the earth and the life-giving powers of the sun but also to recognize and honor the spark of divinity in the earth and all the creatures of the earth. Take this time to be ultra aware of the divinity of creation while honoring and respecting all things in their divinity as well as their intrinsic power and identity. I leave you with the Celtic Lorica of the Welshman Patrick:

For my shield this day, I call

Heaven’s might,
Sun’s brightness,
Moon’s whiteness,
Fire’s glory,
Lightning’s swiftness,
Wind’s wildness,
Salt sea’s depth,
Earth’s solidity,
Rock’s immovability.

June 2003