So there have been a couple of things that have really been playing with my relationship with Beltaine over the last couple of years…

First, the whole move to a subtropical climate… it’s difficult to get into the whole Beltaine as Lady and Lord getting it on/fertility to the world vibe when the world around you is in a constant state of blossom and green and growth… and the turning to Summer is actually entering a kind of fallow period for some crops… June and August are the grape harvest though…

So there’s that…

Then there was a mis-understanding I had at an Open Beltaine rite a couple of years ago where it sounded to me at the time that the officiants were wanting only heterosexuals to participate in part of the May games…

Let me reiterate it was a big misunderstanding but it underlined for me a disconnect I have with Beltane as a fertility festival in that I am not, as a Gay man, necessarily a part of the fertility cycle.

On the other hand I have no problem celebrating a fertility festival, honoring the life-giving principals and actions of the Lady and Lord and celebrating the Act of Creation…

But what does Beltane really mean when you are somewhere where there is ALWAYS some fertility going on in the natural world around you?  Midwinter (December) is the citrus harvest and February sees the local Strawberry festivals

Then too, there is a change in how I view or understand the esoteric tides that ebb and flow around us in conjunction with the Wheel of the Year.

See it is at both Beltaine and Samhain that the walls between the worlds draw thin.   Everyone knows about the alleged traditions of Merry Old England and the Celts around Beltaine… what a lot of folks don’t realize is that the ancient germanic tribes lit bonfires on May eve to ward off ghosts and spirits… Walpurgisnacht…

Sex and Death,  Death and Rebirth,  Limnal and Primal Mysteries.

For years it was my understanding that at Samhain and Beltaine it was a different set of, or perhaps sort of, wall that thinned.  Those between the Living and the Dead at Samhain and those between the Earthly and Faery at Beltane… but what if they aren’t different walls at all?  What if it is only our viewing these limnal points in the year through the lens of the rise and fall of the natural world around us that lends the focus to specific parts of the Other World?

I am reminded of what I’ve read about the Goddesses and Gods of Ancient Greece and how they were honored and celebrated and worshiped in very different ways in different parts of the Ancient World.

I am also reminded of one of Dionysus’ festivals, Anthestria which we discussed on the Thiasos Lusios list… at the time I maintained that I wasn’t sure if I should celebrate it at the time of the ancients or in attune with the Wheel which I know and have attuned myself too.

… Limnal points and time of honoring the Spirits of the World around us and of our Honored and Beloved Dead…

Their Crossing festivals of Imbolc and Lammas have more to do with home and human activities and activity in this world…

I think I am begining to see my way towards a reinvention of the wheel that will honor the Holy Days and allow me to embrace the cycles of the natural world I now find myself living in….

Now to figure out how to honor these Sabbats and how to explain this strange new wheel.

Peace,

Pax