Queries for Beltane / May Day

I'm facilitating a year-long group, Personal Growth on the Wheel of the Year, from Fall Equinox 2025 to Fall Equinox 2026.  

We're meeting for Beltane / May Day in the northern hemisphere this week.  

It's half-way between Spring Equinox, when the days and nights are close to equal, and Summer Solstice, which is the longest day -- the day with the most hours of light -- and the shortest night -- the night with the fewest hours of darkness.  It can often really feel like Spring is springing forth! 

May Day is also a workers' holiday -- a time of solidarity, and of resistance to exploitation.  Solidarity forever! 

One Beltane tradition is the weaving of the May Pole -- a tall pole we adorn with ribbons which we then weave together, often while singing songs. 

At Beltane in Roses, Too! Tradition, while we weave the May Pole, we focus on what we are weaving into our lives and into our communities, and the small actions we take, individually and together, to resist oppression -- and, especially right now, the rising tide of fascism.  

And so I share these queries for Beltane / May Day:

• What are the markers of Spring you are noticing where you are?
• What are you weaving into your life this Beltane?
• What are we weaving into our communities this Beltane?
• What acts of resistance are we weaving into our lives, individually and collectively?

a tall pole stretching up to the sky, with three sprigs of lilac at the top, and many colourful ribbons -- especially yellow, light blue, and dark blue -- against a sunny blue sky, with tall evergreens in the background.
May Pole from Ravenna Ravine Beltane 2009, (c) Stasa Morgan-Appel

Beltane during stay-at-home

Happy Beltane! 

When we gather in person for Beltane, we often weave ribbons around a May Pole as we weave intentions into our lives, and bless each other's creativity and pay specific attention to what we're experiencing with our senses, this sensuous time of year. 

Some queries for reflection this stay-at-home Beltane:

• What are you weaving into your life? 
• What are you doing here, now, today, that nurtures your senses?  

 [photo by Mike Goren (hi, Mike!), from Bryn Mawr College May Day 2005.  A stone building framed by trees in the background, with three white May Poles on green grass; to the left, the farthest has light blue ribbons, the middle one green ribbons, and the nearest, to the right, has red ribbons (you can see ribbons from the dark blue one to the right, but not the May Pole itself.)  There are many smiling people, mostly women, mostly but not all wearing white and many wearing matching sashes, holding ribbons to the May Poles and dancing around them, as well as spectators watching.]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maypoles.jpg
Album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/celebdu/albums/306062

Beltane on Calton Hill with Beltane Fire Society

Note: This is my write-up from 2013.  - sm

I'm a Pagan and I live in Edinburgh: the big question many people are asking me is, "Did you go to Beltane Fire Society??" 

Yes, I did.  Beloved Wife insisted, of all things; I likely would have done the introvert hermit thing, otherwise.  (Big public ritual performance, eek!)  Instead, we went together, and had a blast. 

Yes, it was fabulous, amazing spectacle.  It wasn't the kind of focused ritual work or spiritual work that I would like to be my only celebration of the holiday, but I had a tremendous amount of fun, it was exhilarating, and I'm glad we went.  It was very well-run and well-organized.  We could tell the crowd was a mix of tourists (of both kinds -- spiritual and geographic) and people for whom this was serious business, and everyone was pretty respectful.

(With a few drunken, or just plain thoughtless, exceptions, but I only had to stifle the urge twice to stifle people I found obnoxious.  "This ought to be free.  It's on Calton Hill, so it ought to be free."  (*eyeroll*  Tickets were £8.50 at the door, and much less in advance; and even at the door, that was cheap for how much it costs to put this on, between security, pyrotechnics, police, etc...)  "Yeah, I went through a period where I was into witchcraft and all that, and my girlfriends and I even had this coven, but it's not like it's real religion or anything..."  (I'll spare you the rest of that overheard conversation.))

We didn't get to see a lot of detail, so for that, I'll refer you to BFS' Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beltanefiresociety/.

But, yes, wow, the organization, the attention to detail, the thought that went into everything, the drama, the pageantry, the costuming, the use of massed drumming, torches, fire, pyrotechnics... 

Heh heh heh heh.  Big public dramatic ritual/ritual drama, all right. 

It occurs to me: some of my Cherry Hill colleagues are writing analytical critiques of Burning Man and such from Pagan/ritual theory/ritual studies/theaological perspectives.  I'd love to see such analyses of any of BFS' big public presentations.

Dancing with the Beloved Dead at Beltane

It seemed like an odd time of year to be thinking about death.

It's spring; life is bounding forth.  It's Beltane, a welcoming of spring and celebration of all the new and returning life in nature.

But two things happened: I was getting ready to go to the semi-annual gathering of the Quaker Concern Around Dying and Death (QDD), and one of my social networking friends shared a new video, from the last week in April, of one of my favorite Samhain songs.


I found myself listening to it over and over.

'Cause when I die
I don’t want to rest in peace
I want to dance in joy
I want to dance in the graveyards, the graveyards
And while I’m alive
I don’t want to be alone
Mourning the ones who came before
I want to dance with them some more
Let’s dance in the graveyards
~ from “Dance in the Graveyards,” (c) Ian Holljes; recorded by Delta Rae on “Carry the Fire,” 2012

Walking the labyrinth at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre just before our gathering started, I remembered the Beloved Dead whom Roses, Too! Coven always honored at Beltane.  Several people we love died just before Beltane, or had special connections for us with Beltane or May Day, and we always named them, and tied a black ribbon onto our May Pole for them.

Walking the labyrinth, Spring abundant around me, I was also reminded that at Beltane and Samhain, the veil between the worlds is thinnest.  And while we may not expect visits from the Beloved Dead at Beltane, death and life are part of each other, and if the dead come calling at Beltane, let us dance in joy with them, around the May Pole and in the graveyards.  

Is your spiritual path a labyrinth?

First off, yesterday was Beltane and I was somewhere warm.  That was wonderful.  (What's "warm"?  Er, 15 C / 59 F.  My, how my standards have changed...)

Yesterday afternoon I was walking an outdoor, grass labyrinth (in the warm sun, mmmm).  There was a moment when its path took me very close to the center.  But suddenly, it changed direction and took me back much closer to the outer edge.  Dramatically. 

I was very much struck by the example of the labyrinth as spiritual path. 

Right that moment, following the path took me physically further away from the center.  Yet at the same time, it took me closer towards the center in terms of the process of the labyrinth, the path of the labyrinth.

I feel like this describes an awful lot of life.  And an awful lot of spiritual life.

Also: this labyrinth was generously dotted with goose poop.  I got to decide to step on it or around it. 

Does your spiritual journey ever feel like a labyrinth?  Does it ever feel like a labyrinth dotted with goose poop?

May all the goose poop in your life become fertilizer. 

A spiritual check-in at Beltane

At 9:30 tonight, it was not yet fully dark, and the sky was an amazing deep, bright color, somewhere between deep turquoise and indigo. 

Where I live, the Sun set today at 7:48 pm.  And tomorrow, there will be four more minutes of daylight than there were today.

Tomorrow is May Eve, when some traditions celebrate Beltane; others wait until the following day, May Day itself. 

Happy Beltane!  Happy May Day! 

What is happening in nature where you live right now, this time of year?  What animals, plants, flowers, insects do you see?  How is that different from what was happening in mid-March?

What is the Sun doing where you live right now?  Has its angle in the sky changed since Spring Equinox?  How much longer are the days than they were in mid-March?  (For some help with this one, see this nifty set of tools at the US Naval Observatory: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/.  You don't need to be in the US!)

What do Beltane and May Day mean to you?  Are they the same, or different?  

Weaving a May Pole is common in many cultural and religious traditions this time of year.  What are you weaving into your life now for the next year, over the next year? 

Ravenna Ravine May Pole, 2009.  (c) Stasa Morgan-Appel

Weave, weave, weave, weave

Women weave the web of life

Sisters everywhere are weaving

Goddess every one.  

~ (c) Roses, Too! Tradition; to the tune of "Rose, Rose / Dear friend"

Welcome, Spring!

An explosion of light

One of the things for me about living someplace new is learning the cycle of the seasons in the new place.  The rhythms of the light, the plants, the animals.

My first winter in Edinburgh felt longer and harder than I expected.  I know one of the medications I'm on completely messes with my thermo-regulation, but still!  I thought I was reasonably cold-hardy, after some of the places we've lived during winters in the US.  Hah. This winter made me feel like a cold wimp.  Winter in Edinburgh is cold, damp, raw, and dark.  At Winter Solstice, there weren't even seven whole hours of daylight. 

And then, about a week after Brigid, there was a sudden explosion of light.  It wasn't just that the days were longer and I noticed it, it was that Wow, there seemed to be so much more light! 

Beloved Wife and I have been noticing a similar change again starting right around Beltane.  Wow!  Once again, there is so much more light! 

I first noticed this when I woke up one morning to use the bathroom and it was not just light out, but bright.  Usually when this happens, it's about 6:00 am, and I have just enough time for a snooze before the alarm goes off.  I looked at my watch.  5:00 am.  5:00 am??

Unfortunately, the cats noticed the sun was up, too, and they thought it was a fine thing...

We've started closing the shutters when we go to bed, to block the morning sun so that we might actually sleep until the alarm goes off. 

Then we noticed the light in the evening. At Beltane, sunset was a little before 9:00 pm, and it was dark enough by 9:30 that the Beltane Fire Festival folks started their pyrotechnics then.  Now it's still fully light at 9:00 pm. 

This is delightful.  But confusing to my inner clock.  Yay, vitamin D!!  But it is hard to convince myself it's time to start winding down and getting ready to bed when it's still bright out, or cloudy but fully light.  Things will be interesting come Summer Solstice, when the days are really long.

For now, I am reveling in this delightful explosion of light and in getting to know this time of year in this place.  Blessed be.

Happy Beltane! Happy May Day!

What do Beltane and May Day mean to you?

For me, connection -- to the past, to the future, to community around the world, to social justice and collective work, and to the land, what's happening in Nature.

It's also about those who have gone before -- loved ones who have died near Beltane, especially those who loved May Day or Beltane -- and those who will come after -- young ones I have watched growing up dancing around the May Pole, or eating strawberries and cream for May Day breakfast. 

It's about faithfulness -- about weaving a Maypole every year, heeding that inner prompting, even when I don't fully understand why it's there, or why doing so is important. 

Weaving connection, weaving community, weaving justice, weaving spring and life's continuation.

I grew up with May Day as a welcome spring holiday and as a workers' holiday.  I went to a Quaker college that celebrated May Day with a day of canceled classes and festivities, including Maypole weaving/dancing (well, sometimes running).  They now hold May Day on the weekend, but many alumnae still celebrate wherever we are, even if our only outward observance is strawberries and cream.  I have celebrated Beltane in community with Pagans and Witches everywhere, even when all alone, even with (especially with?) myself and a lover.  I celebrated Beltane for many years with a community of feminist Witches and our extended community of many spiritualities and none at all.  I have hosted Maypole magic and May Day/Beltane potluck-food-and-hospitality magic from that Tradition in different parts of the US, and now in Scotland.  I have celebrated Beltane with regional Pagans in the DC area, and with Seattle's Radical Faeries and the Goddess Ravenna Ravine.   I have celebrated with friends and strangers. 

Weaving the web of life.

Blessed be. 

What are Beltane and May Day about for you?

Happy May Day!

Hal-an-Tow, traditional English May Day song

Hal-an-tow
jolly rumble-o
we were up
long before the day-o
to welcome in the summer sun
to welcome in the May-o
for summer is a comin' in
and winter's gone away-o

Robin Hood and Little John
they both have gone to fair-o
and we shall to the merry green wood
to hunt the buck and hare-o

Hal-an-tow
jolly rumble-o
we were up
long before the day-o
to welcome in the summer sun
to welcome in the May-o
for summer is a comin' in
and winter's gone away-o

And where are all the Spaniards
who made so great a boast-o
they shall eat the feathered goose
and we shall east the roast-o

Hal-an-tow
jolly rumble-o
we were up
long before the day-o
to welcome in the summer sun
to welcome in the May-o
for summer is a comin' in
and winter's gone away-o

Do not scorn to wear the horn
that was the crest when you were born
your father's father wore it
and your father wore it, too

Hal-an-tow
jolly rumble-o
we were up
long before the day-o
to welcome in the summer sun
to welcome in the May-o
for summer is a comin' in
and winter's gone away-o

God bless Aunt Mary Moses
and all her power and might-o
and send us peace in England
send peace by day and night-o

Hal-an-tow
jolly rumble-o
we were up
long before the day-o
to welcome in the summer sun
to welcome in the May-o
for summer is a comin' in
and winter's gone away-o

Many thanks to Broadside Electric, and to Jennifer Sheffield and SpiralSong Feminist Spirituality Vocal Ensemble, for my favorite versions of this lovely song.