Beltane 2009 Part II

While I only got to stay for half of the time of Fertile Ground Gathering because of family obligations, it was still a magickal experience. The wonderful setting of Prince William State Forest is transformed into a special place between worlds. You feel that when you enter.

I must admit that I suffered from yucky heat exhaustion on the opening day of FGG, despite my best efforts to drink lots of water. The weather was deceptive; it felt cool, especially when the thunderstorms came through, but was still quite warm and we worked hard to get everything set up. After being unable to eat even bread, my roommate took me home to sleep in the cool softness of my own bed. I must admit that my bed had never felt as soft and inviting as it did that night.

Friday morning was very different. I had recovered well from the previous day and returned to FGG with energy and appetite. My morning tarot class went very well. I did not participate in the opening ritual, but observed and lent my energy from across the field so I could stay on the radio in case someone needed something. I did get the opportunity to participate in the Object Alchemy workshop presented by the proprietors of Fairy Woodland, and I'm beyond happy that I did. It was an experience like no other.

After a late massage from one gifted healer and a little time around the bonfire, it was time to head home. It truly felt like I was leaving a place where I belonged. The witches, Druids, Shamans, and Healers danced and drummed in the night and kept the energy going for the rest of the weekend. It's amazing to reflect on how this group of people, from far and wide and on different points of different paths, could so effortlessly create a truly sacred space where they can dance, teach, learn, and just be. It was safety. It was peace. It was joy. It was fellowship.

I hope it is not too soon to look forward to next year.

Beltane 2009 part 1

The happiest of Happy Beltanes to you!

I must admit that I planned nothing for this Sabbat, as I will be celebrating next weekend at Fertile Ground Gathering. I've found that sometimes things present themselves.

Beltane is a fire festival and a major fertility festival. It is the other day, next to Samhain, where the veil between the worlds of the living and the spirits is thinnest. It is said that the Fae travel on this day, many looking for new residences. It is a good time for any kind of divination. With the veil being thin, insights from the spirit realm come through more clear.

A few months ago, I found an amazing artist who makes the most wondrous fairy houses I've ever seen. I ordered one a week ago, and - wouldn't you know? - it arrived yesterday morning!

In celebration of Beltane and the travels of the Fae, I did a simple meditation and welcoming ritual. I placed my new house away from the cats, cast my circle and set an offering of milk and honey. I've been collecting things: a tiny snail shell, a few quartz pieces, and a crystal point to put in my house as gifts for the fairies, so I placed them inside as well. I sat before the house and meditated welcoming the Fae to stay as long as they will.

It was a perfect way to celebrate Beltane and welcome the blessings of the fairies into my home, where they've always been welcome, but now they have a cozy, cat-safe place to stay.

Ritual Festival

This weekend's Beltane gathering was wonderful. I've worked a number of festivals: some were completely entertainment (like a Renaissance festival), some were glorified craft fairs, but I had never previously been to a gathering like this, where the purpose was ritual, celebration, learning, and fellowship.

We had positively perfect weather, even though the forecast was for rain on Saturday night. The temperature was perfect, and it didn't rain at all. The park we were in had several campsites, each with a number of clusters of cabins and a dining hall, bonfire pit, and infirmary. We had one such site that had four cabin clusters. I stayed with three staff members (one is a current co-worker and another a former co-worker of mine) in the infirmary. We ended up being perfectly situated in the middle of most things and closest to the dining hall where they did most of their work. It was also great because we had our own bathroom!

This is the altar for the opening ritual on Saturday morning. We cast our sacred circle to encompass the entirety of the campsite, and made it permeable so friends could enter and exit at will. Directly after, we crowned the king and queen of the May. Saturday also included the maypole dance.

I don't have any pictures of the actual dance because I was a part of it. I think one of my roomies may have a few. We got turned around once or twice, but otherwise it was one of the best coordinated maypole dances I've seen. It wasn't perfect (I've actually never seen one executed perfectly, though in theory, it's quite a sight) but we weren't there to be perfect anyway. After the maypole had been wrapped, it was left standing all weekend so people could come and get fertility blessings from the maypole. A fertility blessing applies to anything that involves creation; it could have been for a craft, starting something new, or a new life.

After the maypole dance, we held our main ritual. This involved the joining of soil from the sacred spaces of the people gathered. I provided soil from where a maple tree that was sacred to me once stood. We then mixed it together, and each participant took a cup of it and a single sunflower seed.

My workshop was after dinner. I had about eight people and a poor bird that was trapped in the building. I forgot to check if it had gotten out; I hope it did. I had written an extensive lesson that I managed to leave at home, but I did have my outline. I think I was able to talk about almost everything I wanted to talk about. I do intend to write up this lesson, and it will eventually find its way to the Arcanum (it's something I've been needing to do anyway!). I think my little class went well, and I hope those who attended agreed.

Saturday night ended with a bonfire and drum circle. A few of us without drums, including myself, spent much of that time dancing around the fire. No wonder my legs are so tired today! In the infirmary, we got to bed around 0130, which wasn't so bad considering we had to get up early to start breakfast.

My only workshop on Sunday was a mala crafting class. Mala, meaning "garter," are prayer beads. I've made a few small sets in the past of my own design and method, so I was excited to take this workshop and hopefully learn something new. I was not disappointed. In fact, it was quite wonderful, and I hope to make some more sets with my new knowledge.

The one hour time slot this workshop was allotted proved to be too little. We ended up taking almost two hours. That's really because knotting between each bead takes time when you are a beginner, but we all wanted to do it. That's some of the skill that I was really hoping to pick up with the class. I've been wearing and getting to know my mala all day today. For me, it's a comfort to have them around. The very first strand I made broke. The second one recently lost a bead. I have another (I made three that first time) that I haven't used yet, that's how recently the second one lost a bead. The mala I made yesterday is twice as long as my first sets; they're traditionally one hundred and eight beads, but can be made any length that is a multiple of nine (you will usually find fifty-four, which is what I made yesterday, or twenty-seven, which is what I had previously made).

We concluded our weekend with another ritual where we opened the circle we had cast on Saturday. It was a truly fabulous weekend.

I took off of work today so I could finish cleaning up my gear and conclude my part of the ritual. The seed needed to be planted, and I took a portion of our ritual offering (instead of cakes and ale, we had berries and tea) to offer in my own sacred space. I chose the base of the massive oak tree in my back yard to leave the offering. I planted the sunflower in a place that will get sun. I hope it grows.

The theme of this festival was "plant a seed of unity," meant to draw groups, small covens, and solitaries into a larger group: not a coven, but a community. By mixing soil and planting actual seeds, we can take the energy of the gathering and bring it to points all over the region. I've been solitary for a while, but I've also been in covens before. It's refreshing to be reminded that, even though I practice my spirituality alone, I never really am.

I would like to take this blog moment to thank Shadow Grove, the Northern Virginia Pagan Network, and MoonFire for putting on this really wonderful Beltane celebration.

Happy Beltane!

I hope everyone had a wonderful sabbat (and happy Samhain to my Southern Hemisphere friends!). I must admit that I thoroughly did not. I received a call from my grandmother at 0200, who was in a panic and bleeding. The family mobilized, summoned an ambulance, and took her to the hospital where we waited. After about four hours, my father and I were sent home to rest with the plan of coming back later so my mother and uncle could then get some rest. The source of the problem, we all believed, was an estrogen supplement that must be administered vaginally. Why a nearly ninety year old woman needs estrogen, and why her doctor would prescribe that kind, is beyond me. She was sent home and is mostly better, though the only good the hospital really did was to give her a much-needed IV and tell her to see the prescribing doctor as soon as possible. Needless to say, spending mornings in the ER waiting room is not the most spiritually conducive environment.

All is not lost! Beltane is one of the most widely celebrated of sabbats, second to Samhain. It is the other day when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is most thin, and therefore a great time for communing with the faeries and for divination. As seems to be traditional in this day and age, since the holiday fell on a weekday, many people plan to do their major celebrating on the weekend. This plan ends up working out quite well for me, since a May Day ritual just wasn't going to happen on my own.

I will be attending a festival called Fertile Ground that is put on by a fairly local pagan fellowship. There are a few things they're doing that I don't exactly agree with (like encouraging the wearing of Renaissance festival-type clothing. I understand why they are doing this, and it's not required, but I don't prefer it. I shall have to go into detail about this at another time) but I know it will prove to be a fabulous weekend. There will be an opening ritual, a main ritual and maypole, and a nighttime drum circle on Saturday, a closing ritual on Sunday, and a decent amount of workshops, activities, and entertainment. I will be presenting an introduction to tarot workshop that I am rather excited about. My only regret here is that they gave me a time slot opposite another workshop I wanted to take.

In anticipation of my weekend, and because my Beltane day was so stressful, I did take a small bit of time to gather some of the things I will need. I have a set of Morris dancing bells that I often use in ritual. Unfortunately my first set of bells has gone missing (probably somewhere in my packing frenzy) and I needed to make some new ones. I stopped by the craft store and bought a pack of bells and some leather cord. Using scraps of leather that I had on hand, I strung my bells onto a strip of leather as a wide bracelet or anklet. I tied six silver bells (six has numerological significance to me) to a strip of grey leather with cords in spring colors of teal and rose. I was able to finish one last night, and I'll complete the other this evening. I actually like them better than my original bells, as they were made with a kit I purchased in a craft store and these are entirely my design.

I won't actually be performing a Morris dance; these bells are mostly for ritual use. It is said that we ring bells to keep the faeries away, as the fae are quite mischievous and we don't want them causing trouble as they wander about. Beltane is known as one of the major fertility festivals, but it is also one where the country dwellers would take time away from planting their fields simply to celebrate life and acts that create it. Whether you celebrated last night or are waiting for some more free time with the weekend, I hope you had a wondrous one.