Beltane

Beltane is my second favourite Sabbat, not only is it a wonderful event because it celebrates abundance, fertility and sexuality but it also falls on my birthday so I like to party a bit extra if I can. There is a wealth of information available so id encourage you to do some reading up on this wonderful holiday but here is a brief summary.

Brief History

Beltane is usually celebrated on May 1st although some people prefer to mark it on May 5th when the sun reaches 15 degrees of Taurus. The Sabbat is named after the god Ball or Bel the name means the bright one. The word Beltane means "fires of Belos" and refers to the bonfires of pagans lit on this Sabbat. This ancient holiday has now been adopted as May day but some of the old Beltane rituals are still practiced today.

Beltane is the second fertility holiday in the wheel of the year Beltane coincides with fruitfulness and it

honours the earth and all of nature. Sexuality is also celebrated on this Sabbat and the great rite (the scared union of god and goddess ) has traditionally been a part of the holiday. in early cultures farmers

would lead livestock through purpose built fires to increase their fertility and any child conceived on this day is said to belong to the goddess.

How to Celebrate

The best way to celebrate Beltane is outside, that way you can fully appreciate nature in all of its glory and honour the earth. Because Beltane is a fertility holiday a lot of the rituals contain sexual symbolism, The maypole for example is an obvious phallic symbol. The maypole is often decorated with flowers as a way to pay respect to the earths beauty and fruitfulness.

Another great way to celebrate is to tie colourful ribbons to a tree write your hopes and wishes on them for a more personal touch.

The cauldron is used a lot during Beltane as it symbolises the womb, women hoping to become pregnant will make a fire in their cauldron and jump over it. You could also do this but instead of wishing to become pregnant you could use the ritual to spark creativity.

I plan on spending Beltane in my garden, I'm going to light a fire and make some black salt as I'm running low, I'm also going to write a grateful list and use bay leaves to write on so I can burn my desires and wishes in the fire. Nice and simple but with lots of positivity, to me that's what witchcraft should be. ~ Bunny