Beltane Sabbat

This celebration signals the time of year when the crops sown on Lady Day begin to sprout, the animals bear their young, and the people begin to get out of their houses. People in northern climes celebrate the marriage of the Maiden Goddess and the Sun God. As one of the four “fire festivals,” bonfires are lighted and activities center on fecundity and procreation.

This sabbat is known as Beltane, the Celtic May Day. It officially begins at sundown on May Day Eve, and marks the beginning of the third quarter or second half of the ancient Celtic year and the witches Wheel of the Year. It also marks the beginning of summer. Beltane is dedicated to the Celtic “Shining One” or Bel. Two large bonfires are ignited and cattle are driven between the fires and into the fields for summer pasturing. This is done to purify them from their long winter confinement. Men and women also leap through the flames for purification at these fire festivals. May Eve is the time when the Sidhe walk the land and mortals must overcome their Otherworldly enchantments and temptations.

Rites such as the now famous May Pole occur in the town squares or in the family’s front yard. The gathering of green branches and flowers on May Eve is the symbolic act of bringing home the May, i.e., bringing new life into the village. The May Queen (and often King) is chosen from among the young people, and they go singing from door to door throughout the town carrying flowers or the May tree, soliciting donations for a merry-making in return for the “blessing of May.” This is symbolic of bestowing and sharing of the new creative power that is stirring in the world. As the young people go from door to door, the May Bride sings to the effect that those who give will get of nature’s bounty through the year commensurate with their generosity.

In parts of France, some jilted youth will lie in a field on May Day and pretend to sleep. If any village girl is willing to marry him, she goes and wakes him with a kiss; the pair then goes to the village inn together and leads the dance, which announces their engagement. The boy is called “the betrothed of May.”

A rowan branch is hung over the house fire on May Day to preserve the fire itself from bewitchment (the house fire being symbolic of the luck of the house).

In early Celtic times, the druids kindled the Beltane fires with specific incantations. Later the Christian church took over the Beltane observances; a service was held in the church, followed by a procession to the fields or hills, where the priest kindled the fire.

In some rituals, a King and Queen May symbolize the male and female principles of productivity. May Day ushers in the fifth month of the modern calendar year, the month of May. This month is named in honor of the Goddess Maia, originally a Greek mountain nymph, later identified as the most beautiful of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. By Zeus, she is also the mother of Hermes, God of magic. Maia’s parents were Atlas and Pleione, a sea nymph.

Beltane (in its most popular Anglicized form) is derived from the Irish Gaelic “Bealtaine” or the Scottish Gaelic “Bealtuinn,” meaning “Bel-fire,” the fire of the Celtic god of light (Bel, Beli or Belinus) or “Shining One.” He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern God Baal.

Other names for May Day include Cetsamhain (“opposite Samhain”), Walpurgisnacht (in Germany), and Roodmas (the medieval Church’s name). This last came from Church Fathers who were hoping to shift the common people’s allegiance from the Maypole (Pagan lingam – symbol of life) to the Holy Rood (the Cross – Roman instrument of death).

Incidentally, there is no historical justification for calling May 1st “Lady Day.” For hundreds of years, that title has been properly reserved to the Vernal Equinox (approx. March 21st), another holiday sacred to the Great Goddess. The nontraditional use of “Lady Day” for May 1st is quite recent (within the last 15 years), and seems to be confined to America, where it has gained widespread acceptance among certain segments of the Craft population. This rather startling departure from tradition would seem to indicate unfamiliarity with European calendar customs, as well as a lax attitude toward scholarship among too many Pagans. A simple glance at a dictionary (“Webster’s 3rd” or O.E.D.), encyclopedia (“Benet’s”), or standard mythology reference (Jobe’s “Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore & Symbols”) would confirm the correct date for Lady Day as the Vernal Equinox.

By Celtic reckoning, the actual Beltane celebration begins on sundown of the preceding day, April 30, because the Celts always figured their days from sundown to sundown. Sundown was the proper time for Druids to kindle the great Bel-fires on the tops of the nearest beacon hill (such as Tara Hill, County Meath, in Ireland). These “need-fires” had healing properties, and sky-clad Witches would jump through the flames to ensure protection. (Sgt. Howie (shocked): “But they are naked!” Lord Summerisle: “Naturally. It’s much too dangerous to jump through the fire with your clothes on!”)

Cattle would be driven between two such bon-fires (oak wood was the favorite fuel for them) and, on the morrow, they would be taken to their summer pastures. Other May Day customs include processions of chimney sweeps and milkmaids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword dances, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty.

In the words of Witchcraft writers Janet and Stewart Farrar, the Beltane celebration was principally a time of “…unashamed human sexuality and fertility.” Such associations include the obvious phallic symbolism of the Maypole and riding the hobbyhorse. Even a seemingly innocent children’s nursery rhyme, “Ride a cock horse to Banburry Cross…” retain such memories. The next line “…to see a fine Lady on a white horse” is a reference to the annual ride of “Lady Godiva” though Coventry. Every year for nearly three centuries, a sky-clad village maiden (elected Queen of the May) enacted this Pagan rite, until the Puritans put an end to the custom.

The Puritans, in fact, reacted with pious horror to most of the May Day rites, even making Maypoles illegal in 1644. They especially attempted to suppress the “greenwood marriages” of young men and women who spent the entire night in the forest, staying out to greet the May sunrise, and bringing back boughs of flowers and garlands for the rites of the “blessing of May.” One angry Puritan wrote that men “doe use commonly to runne into woodes in the night time, amongst maidens, to set bowes, in so muche, as I have hearde of tenne maidens whiche went to set May, and nine of them came home with childe.” Another Puritan complained that, of the girls who go into the woods, “not the least one of them comes home again a virgin.”

Long after the Christian form of marriage (with its insistence on sexual monogamy) had replaced the older Pagan hand fasting, the rules of strict fidelity were always relaxed for the May Eve rites. Names such as Robin Hood, Maid Marion, and Little John played an important part in May Day folklore, often used as titles for the dramatis personae of the celebrations. Modern surnames such as Robinson, Hodson, Johnson, and Godkin may attest to some distant May Eve spent in the woods. These wildwood antics have inspired writers such as Kipling:

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
Or he would call it a sin;
But we have been out in the woods all night,
A-conjuring Summer in!

And Lerner and Lowe:

It’s May! It’s May!
The lusty month of May!
Those dreary vows that ev’ryone takes,
Ev’ryone breaks.
Ev’ryone makes divine mistakes!
The lusty month of May!

It is certainly no accident that Queen Guinevere’s “abduction” by Meliagrance occurs on May 1st when she and the court have gone a-Maying, or that the usually efficient Queen’s guard, on this occasion, rode unarmed. Some of these customs seem virtually identical to the old Roman “feast of flowers,” called the Floriala, which consisted of three days of unrestrained sexuality beginning at sundown on April 28th and reaching a crescendo on May 1st.

Due to various calendar changes down through the centuries, the traditional date of Beltane is not the same as its astrological date. This date, like all astronomically determined dates, may vary by a day or two depending on the year. However, it is calculated easily enough by determining the date on which the sun is at 15 degrees Taurus. British Witches often refer to this date as Old Beltane, and folklorists call it Beltane O.S. (“Old Style”). Some Covens prefer to celebrate on the old date and, at the very least, it gives one options. If a Coven is operating on “Pagan Standard Time” and misses May 1st altogether, it can still throw a viable Beltane bash as long as it’s before this date. This may also be a consideration for Covens that need to organize activities around the weekend.

SIMPLE BELTANE RITUAL

If possible, celebrate Beltane in a forest or near a living tree. If this is impossible, bring a small tree within the Circle, preferably potted; it can be of any type. Create a small token or charm in honor of the wedding of the Goddess and God to hang upon the tree. You can make several if you desire. These tokens can be bags filled with fragrant flowers, strings of beads, carvings, flower garlands; whatever your talents and imagination conjure.

Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle. Recite the Blessing Chant and Invoke the Goddess and God. Stand before the altar and say, with wand upraised:

O Mother Goddess, Queen of the night and of the Earth,
O Father God, King of the day and of the forest,
I celebrate Your union as nature rejoices in a riotous blaze of color and life.
Accept my gift, Mother Goddess and Father God, in honor of Your union.

Place the token(s) on the tree.

From Your mating shall spring forth life anew.
A profusion of living creatures shall cover the lands,
And the winds will blow pure and sweet.
O Ancient Ones, I celebrate with You!

Celebrate the Simple Feast. Release the Circle.

Weaving and plaiting are traditional arts at this time of year, for the joining together of two substances to form a third is in the spirit of Beltane. Foods traditionally come from the dairy, and dishes such as marigold custard and vanilla ice cream are fine. Oatmeal cakes are also appropriate.

Beltane Marigold Custard

2 cups milk
1 cup unsprayed marigold petals
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 to 2-inch piece vanilla bean
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp rose water
Whipped cream

Using a clean mortar and pestle reserved for cooking purposes, crush the marigold petals, or crush with a spoon. Mix the salt, sugar and spices together. Scald milk with the marigolds and the vanilla bean. Remove the vanilla bean and add the slightly beaten yolks and dry ingredients. Cook on low heat. When the mixture coats a spoon, add rose water and cool. Top with whipped cream and garnish with fresh marigold petals.

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