Blessed Beltane

Beltane (or May Day) is the last Sabbat of the waxing year. The next holiday is Summer Solstice, the zenith of the light from which the year begins to wane. Beltane is the approaching height of fertility and is a feast of fires and flowers...the Goddess’s and the Earth’s passion to bloom and bear fruit. 


Brightness and abundance are present everywhere at Beltane...in the greening and blooming of the land...the colors of the May pole...the candles and brightness of the women’s clothes. Where Spring Equinox colors were pastels, Beltane’s are rose for new love or primary colors that emphasize brightness and fertility.

Beltane Starts: the evening of April 30th, concluding at sunset of May 1st, Actual Day: the date on which the sun is at 15 degrees Taurus.


Activities and Rituals:
fertilize, nurture and boost existing goals, games, activities of pleasure, leaping bonfires, making garlands, May Pole dance, planting seeds, walking one’s property, feasting


Colors:
Red, White, Brown, Pink, Green


Tools:
Broom, May Pole, cauldron


Stones/Gems:
Emerald, malachite, amber, orange carnelian, sapphire, rose
quartz


Symbols and Decorations:
May Pole, fires, fertility, flowers, growing things, ploughs, cauldrons of flowers

A Fairy Spell for Beltane

In a woodland clearing, spread a clean green cloth. On it place
small cakes or offerings and flowers, especially  roses and primroses, in a circle. Imagine the magic around you and say:


“O Fairy Queen,
Upon your white steed,
Within me plant
A magic seed.
From you may spring
Many new beginnings.
Great Queen,
Accept these offerings.”


Leave the items and walk around the cloth three times, then slowly
walk the path back to your home. Listen for the sound of laughter and bells and know you are blessed. Beltane is the time when fairies return from their winter rest, carefree and full of mischief and delight. 

On the night before Beltane, it is said, people would place Rowan branches at their windows and doors for protection. This is also a perfect time for night or predawn rituals to draw down power to promote fertility in body and mind. 


At Beltane, the Pleiades star cluster rises just before sunrise on the morning horizon. The Pleiades is known as the seven sisters, and resembles a tiny dipper-shaped pattern of six moderately bright stars in the constellation of Taurus, near the shoulder. If weather permitting, watch for it low in the east-northeast sky.. just a few minutes before sunrise.