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.
The Sidhe
~In Irish mythology, the SĂdhe are a powerful, supernatural race comparable to the fairies or elves. They are variously believed to live underground in the fairy mounds, across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans.~
The words “Sidhe," (roughly pronounced and sometimes spelled “Shee”) and “fairy” are almost interchangeable. Mainly it could be said that the Sidhe are fairy or fey but not the tiny winged creatures most associated with the term fairy. Instead the Sidhe were thought to be tall, fair, and other-worldly. That is, when they were not frightening, misshapen monsters. There seem to be two categories of Sidhe... the general, lordly, spirit-like beings that are very much like humans and the rest.
Under the rest falls the Leprechaun, the Phooka, the Merrow and the Banshee. The Leprechaun is probably the most well known of all of these, although it’s mystery and behaviors have been watered down quite a bit... these fairy cobblers are now simply tiny green wearing men who guard the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
The origin of the Sidhe myths are closely tied to the ancient history of Ireland. The story goes that the Fir-Bolgs, a relatively uncivilized people and the Formorians were in control of the island until the Tuatha De’ Danann (the people of Danu) landed. The Tuatha De’ Danann brought with them technology and culture far beyond the Fir-Bolgs, which made up for their fewer numbers, and they were able to gain control of Ireland.
Perhaps because of the gap in sophistication between the Tuatha De’ Danann and the other populations, many legends and superstitions began to spring up concerning the newcomers. They could only be hurt by weapons of iron, it was said and they possessed artifacts of great and wondrous power, such as the Caludrun of Dagda, which could never be emptied of stew.
The Tuatha De’ Danann were eventually defeated by another group, the Miesians. Of course, the Tuatha De’ Danann were so infused with myth and power that they could not truly be defeated and so the legend goes that they left Ireland by slipping into another time and space, to rule the Otherworld.
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