🌷🍰 Beltane 🌷🍰
🌷 Also known as May Day
🌷 Art By: Jacqueline De Leon on Instagram
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🍰 When Is Beltane?
🌷 Northern Hemisphere:
30April - 1 May
It can be celebrated either day or is traditionally celebrated from the night of 30 April until the day of 1 May
🌷 Southern Hemisphere:
31 October - 1 November
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🍰 What Is Beltane?
🌷 Beltane is celebrated because we are now at the peak of spring; the sun god has now taken over. For many of us, summer is arriving, or is coming very soon. It’s super joyous, happy, exciting day that honours life. The earth is buzzing and all of the earth’s energies are thriving: fertility, sexuality, passion, energy and new life are at their peak of stimulation at this time. Fertility is the main theme for Beltane. The Triple Goddess in her maiden form and the Horned God are finally united and they are bringing new life on the earth. It’s the time of the year when we need to grant luck to the summer months and the growth that is coming. It is one of the solar festivals, the other being Samhain. Beltane represents birth, while Samhain represents death, which is why Beltane is seen as the most important celebration by some people.
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🍰 How To Celebrate:
🌷 Beltane celebrations focus on fertility, abundance and all of the amazing gifts that the earth gives us at this time.
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🍰 Activities:
🌷 Create amulets made from rose quartz and give them to loved ones, friends and family. This is a gift that can help with positivity and passion and they can help to lower anxiety too. For specific loved ones this can help with the passion and romance between the two of you and it can also calm nerves!
🌷 Flowers and greenery are a huge part of Beltane.
🌷 Create flower crowns.
🌷 Create daisy chains.
🌷 Wear flowers on your body.
🌷 Make a green man mask from leaves.
🌷 Beltane is a time of love, so if you have a loved one that you would like to make a commitment to, this is an excellent time for marriage, handfasting and promise rituals. You may want to plan your ceremony for Beltane.
🌷 Dance round a maypole; this is a pole that is typically made from wood or metal and that has ribbons tied to a wreath around it. The maypole, is a phallic symbol of the male, the wreath around it and the ribbons coming off it, the vagina. We are celebrating fertility and the marriage of the two of them around this time! You can do a traditional maypole dance around this pole holding the ribbons. Look out for nearby maypole festivities - there are probably more than you think; if not you can create one yourself with your loved ones or your coven.
🌷 Also if you have plans to conceive, now is a great and lucky time!
🌷 Another way to celebrate love is just to go for a walk- you could search for a hawthorn tree, make a wish , have a picnic and collect some wild flowers. Share this experience with a friend or loved one or enjoy a solitary walk.
🌷 Spells to cast at this time are love spells and vitality, protection, romance and purification spells. Casting your circles with oats around this time of year is also a good idea! They are a traditional Beltane grain for good luck.
🌷 Light a Beltane fire- have a Beltane fire ritual with your friends and family, serve food and have an outside bonfire. Fires are traditionally to honor our sun gods, and celebrate the warmth and the sun god taking over the cold.
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🍰 Altar Ideas
🌷 Decorate it with seasonal spring flowers.
🌷 Drape it with green cloth and ribbons to represent the green earth as it is now here!
🌷 Add birch and hawthorn branches, burnt in your cauldron.
🌷 Light red, pink and green candles.
🌷 Red and pink represent passion, love and fertility, which suit the theme of Beltane.
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🍰 Food And Drink
🌷 Oats in all forms; oat cookies, oatmeal, oat bread
🌷 Dairy, cheeses and milks or dairy-free alternatives
🌷 Also spicy food, to represent the element of fire and the sun
🌷 May Day wine
🌷 Vanilla-flavoured foods
🌷 Fairy Cakes
🌷 Ice Cream
🌷 Sweet breads
🌷 Elderflower and other flowery-flavoured cordials
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🍰 Crystals
🌷 Relevant crystals to carry around with you this time of the year and to meditate with, use in divination and spell work, place at your altar and, around Beltane, give as gifts to loved ones and partners, are:
🌷 Rose Quartz
🌷 Emerald
🌷 Sunstone
🌷 Pink Tourmaline
🌷 Beryl
🌷 Pink angel aura quartz
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🍰 Herbs And Flowers
🌷 Any herbs and flowers that are blooming now where you live are perfect or Beltane. Try to get the most vibrant and powerful blossoming herbs to work with at this time of the year.
🌷 Lilac
🌷 Thistle
🌷 Flaxseed
🌷 Paprika
🌷 Hawthorn
🌷 Rowan
🌷 Daffodil
🌷 Honeysuckle
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🍰 Incense
🌷 Good incense to use during casting circles, burning at your altar around Beltane time and for cleansing and consecrating, as well as for magickal workings, are:
🌷 Peach
🌷 Rose
🌷 Vanilla
🌷 Jasmine
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🌷 Source: A MODERN GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT & MAGICK BY HARMONY NICE
