Beltane Rituals & Blessings

Within a week of writing this, we will arrive at the festival of Beltane! A time of fertility, abundance and infinite amounts of blooming appearing in the land and in yourself! The season of light had begun, the Oak king reigns and summer has officially begun with this festival! Masculine energy is at an all time high now as well, because the glorious Mr. Sun kisses our skin and gives us the boost of energy we've all been waiting for.

Years ago, when I was foraging with my very first herbal teacher, she told me of the festival of Beltane. She didn't share much about it, but as I sat there exploring the violets and dandelions on the earth as medicine we were harvesting for her... I felt a sense of beginning happening inside of me. This beginning stirred up feelings inside of me and I realized deep in my heart that this was the initiation I had been waiting for all year. I just didn't realize I was waiting for it.

Beltane, also known as May Day, is usually celebrated from the eve of April 30th to the eve of May 1st. The wheel of the year does follow the astrological pattern of the stars though, so the true Beltane would be when Taurus hits 15º, this year that happens on May 5th.

I find in my own practice that I feel the festivals for the two weeks leading up to the festival and the two weeks that follow. As always, instead of strictly adhering to a set of time or date, I encourage that everyone celebrates when they feel called to, not when someone else tells you to. You are nature, and within you you will discover everything you need to follow your own personal cycle as it relates to the wheel's cycle.

Whenever you choose to celebrate Beltane, I thought I would take the time to share with you some different practices you can explore during this time to truly initiate yourself as nature welcomes another season of light.

Beltane Fire
If I had to name one of the festivals of the wheel as THE fire festival, it would be Beltane. There is so much fire associated with this holiday and it truly feels relevant. The festival itself is named after the God Belenus, the God of fire, sun and healing. Still to this day, you still see people all over the world celebrating Beltane with all manner of fires - big bonfires, fire dancers, fire rituals and so on. In the days of old you would often see rituals with cattle, where they were paraded between two large fires to bless them, protect them and in turn bless the harvest. 

The magic of fire lives on in this festival so you can have your own Beltane ritual with some kind of fire yourself. I recommend you do this with intention and with your close community if you feel called to. I like to have a fire, have us all set intentions individually and together. I often feel called to asked people these three questions:

What are your letting go of?

What are you welcoming?

What are you initiating/beginning in your life?

There is no wrong way to have a fire ritual or ceremony with your community, so just have fun with it!

Flower Wreaths
This was also very common back in the day. They used to put flower crowns on cows, baby sheep, children, women, on their doors and windows, even the men would wear flowers around their neck and on their heads. There is so much flower magic for this festival because of the immense amount of life returning to the land! I feel this is one we should all bring back. You don't need a reason to make and wear a flower crown, you can just want one!

To make one is pretty easy, there are many tutorials on YouTube about it, but overall you can gather up some flowers either from nature or from the store and then begin exploring how you want to weave them together. Some people will use wire, some will use string or ribbon, some will try to just weave them together without any other pieces or parts. I found it easiest to use wire and ribbons to make it, and tie it. With the ability to tie it, it is then adjustable for any head size, so you can share!

I like to wear it around the week of Beltane! If you put it in your fridge then it will keep for at least 5 days if not longer, depending on how long you wear it every day. You can also get together with some friends and make them... that would be so much fun!

Bringing in the May
This is a practice I always read about and I'm pretty sure I fall in love with it more and more every time. Bringing in the May is the ritual of going out on the eve of May (April 30th) to gather flowers, greenery or other pieces of decor from nature to bring back into your home. The ritual itself also involves some form of unchaperoned amorous activity in the woods, which I am neither encouraging or discouraging (LOL).

You don't necessarily have to stay out all night but I recommend you go out at any point in time during the week of Beltane and bring in the May. Grab some flowers, greenery, pine cones and other bits you discover and bring them home with you! What I love to do to avoid bugs in my house is to bring it home and let it sit outside for a few hours in a vase/container to let the critters walk off and then I bring it in.

This fun practice can really help you honour how you are blooming and awakening within yourself. As nature blooms, so do you. Let yourself align with nature!

Dancing in the Dew
Another ritual that is borrowed from the past is the practice of working with the morning May dew. It is said that the week of Beltane blesses us with dew that hold magical properties of beauty, fertility and youthfulness. Often times, women would wake up early the morning of Beltane to run outside and roll in the dew or put their face into the bushes that were covered in it. There are stories I've found as well where the Druids would carve out a rock and collect the dew for weeks leading up to this festival and then use the dew in their rituals.

Last year for fun, I decided to wake up early and roll around the dew. My husband watched me with equal wtf and heart eyes as I rolled around in the grass giggling to myself. I truly felt inspired by this practice and my inner child was fully activated - no wonder it creates a sense of youthfulness.

You can give this a try as well - put your face in the dew, roll around in it, collect it, anoint yourself with it, dance in it - do whatever you feel called to do with the dew! I just recommend you do dew it. Hahaha I had to!

Whatever you decide to do with Beltane to invoke the energies of this time - which can also be doing nothing different and that's totally ok! - I hope that you receive exactly what you need and you release what needs to go.

You are nature, you are infinitely powerful and I hope you can tap into this truth for this festival and always.

In sacred initiation,
Emily

P.S. If you ever want to dive deeper into the Wheel of the Year, check out my online course The Celtic Wheel. It opens every year on Samhain (October 31st) and the waitlist gets first dibs.