The Great Wheel of the Year is turning . . . And with the veil between the worlds at their thinnest (just like at Samhain, Beltane's Sister Sabbat), it's time for our dreams and visions to cross the threshold from abstract thought into physical reality.
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Thoughts and Questions to Ponder
Working with the Devic Realm
Beautiful people, 31 October is the day we traditionally celebrate the High Holy Day of Beltane in the Southern Hemisphere! Brightest Blessings!! (Having said that, Beltane is actually held on 7 November, this year (2022). So, there is still time to tend to Ostara's activities, if you haven't quite finished.)
Let's be clear ... it's NOT Halloween (aka: Samhain), no matter how much spooky stuff you may see in the stores! Or even if you've been invited to a Halloween party over the coming weekend.
Please work with the actual flow of Life around us, rather than blindly following the calendar of the Northern Hemisphere, which is six months out of step with our actual seasons. I know ... I keep saying the same thing over and over. I'm just trying to beat the point over your head! LOL!! (To understand this better, I invite you to read the beginning of the recent Ostara article.)
Let's Recap Before We Dive In:
(Jump ahead, if you'd like to skip the recap.)
Six months ago, at Samhain (when the veil between the worlds was also at its thinnest), we received a vision of how Life could be. Beltane and Samhain share the same axis, six months apart; they're inherently linked. Then, at Yule, with the dying of the Light of the old Sun at the Winter Solstice, we identified those aspects of our own Light that needed to die, too. Yule is simultaneously when the fragile new Sun is reborn, heralding a new Light into the world. So, too, we were invited to birth new aspects of our own Light into the world . . . especially those parts of ourselves that are necessary to bring our new vision to fruition.
So far, so good?
During Imbolc season, we were encouraged to get all our 'ducks in a row', and to carefully plan for the year ahead. Imbolc guided us to make sure we have the time, the tools, and the resources we'll need to accomplish our goals.
With the Spring Equinox on 23 September, 2022 we arrived at Ostara, a Crisis Point on the Great Wheel. During Ostara, our clear guidance was twofold:
a) Take massive, determined action on our goals; and
b) Dive into our internal world to unearth whatever fears or beliefs may be blocking our path . . . and then repudiate the structures, beliefs, and habits of our past that no longer serve us. Remember, if this repudiation is not definite enough, and we're only half-hearted in our attempts to forge a new way forward, we'll undermine this entire cycle of growth.
(We still have until 7 November, 2022, before we actually enter Beltane, so you still have time for Ostara's work, if necessary.)
And now, we're about to enter Beltane, the 5th Sabbat on the Great Wheel of the Year!
Dates: 7 November - 21 December, 2022
As at Samhain (ie: the Sabbat directly opposite Beltane on the Great Wheel), the veil between the worlds is again at its thinnest. But instead of Life preparing to leave our realm, it is now rushing INTO our dense, material world. It's Spring time!
This High Holy Day is a celebration of fertility, pollination, and conception. (Note: not birth, yet.) Continuing with our gardening analogy, let's consider the seed ideas that we planted at Ostara. Have you been taking massive, determined action on those ideas? And repudiating any structures, beliefs, and habits that no longer serve you? If so, your seed ideas will have grown into strong, healthy, young plants, by now. Importantly, they'll be covered in blossoms that are ready to be pollinated. Beltane is a time of blessed bees, busily humming in our gardens, both metaphorically and literally.
These flowers, once pollinated, will ultimately become the fruit of your endeavours. And this fruit is what will be harvested in upcoming seasons. How on earth does a flower become a peach, a pomegranate, or a snow pea? I honestly have no idea! This is part of Life's extraordinary magic, which we'll be calling on, this season.
Anything that exists in this physical realm (from a poem, to a human being, to the device you're reading this article on) was once just an abstract idea or vision. At some point, it had to cross the threshold between the worlds, and anchor here in tangible, physical form.
This Sabbat's magic relates to creativity, fertility, and conception. Beltane is a celebration of the deeper mysteries of stabilising the spark of Life in dense, physical matter.
Beltane is the Sabbat where "thoughts become things".
Joy, Creativity, Play!
Beltane is a time of creativity! Bliss. Ecstasy. Whereas Yule is the stillness and harsh depths of Winter, Beltane is the busyness and joy of Springtime. Beltane invites us to play . . . to be in the present moment. Joy shifts our energy and our focus. And it can nudge us onto a Path that we may not have otherwise seen.
When we're playing, we momentarily loosen our grip on our plans and our expectations. Our minds empty. And our hearts open. We become more connected to Life as it flows through us. We become present to what wants to be experienced through us.
In this relaxed or joyous state of being, we experience creativity in its finest form. We're struck by inspiration, and we're blessed with synchronicities - of unexpected resources, connections, and opportunities. Surely, we've all experienced moments like this at some point.
“When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.” ~Joseph Campbell
The more we can enter this ecstatic state of bliss, the more life becomes a joyful dance; a transcendent experience where we are striving less, and surrendering and allowing more. In these moments, we aren’t moving Life; Life is moving us. Beltane invites us to remember that we are not alone. We are co-creators with the Cosmos, with the Quantum Field. So, go with the flow. Know that there is a greater wisdom at play; an Intelligence weaving its way through everything, including you.
Here, in this joyful, creative place, we are dancing with Life. We are truly living Life! Whether our Samhain visions have us dreaming into a new garden, a new business, a new book, or a new baby, Beltane invites us to conceive with Life itself, and physically manifest our dreams.
I love the following images from a Beltane Festival hosted by Edinburgh's Fire Society. I remember dancing around the bonfire at Northey Street City Farm in Brisbane, many, many Moons ago. What a wonderful, vibrant community that is!
The Fire Society in Edinburgh revived the ancient Beltane celebrations in the 1980s.
© Jeff J Mitchell via Getty Images
Celebrating our Libidinal Life Force Energy!
Beltane is a magnificent festival that celebrates the energising, life-affirming energy of fire! It is perhaps the most exciting, free, pulsing, passionate, joyful, creative, sensual Sabbat of all!
Its energy is ecstatic!
Think of people dancing around Maypoles and bonfires, and making love in the fields under the stars.
At Beltane we're called to celebrate what it means to be alive! To be incarnate, as Spirit stabilised in Matter. We're encouraged to tap into that instinctual part of ourselves that just loves living!
In so doing, we honour and engage our full libidinal lifeforce. We celebrate both our joyful creativity and our fertility.
And by intentionally tapping into our personal spark of Life, we can channel this energy to our Samhain vision, helping it to cross the threshold and come into physical form, too.
Now, traditionally, Beltane is when couples would be handfasted, vowing to be committed to each other for ‘a year and a day’. And it's when young people would go “a-Maying". They would make love in the woods and the fields, laying directly on the Earth Herself, and energetically offering their fertility and ecstasy to the Whole of Life. Children conceived at Beltane were considered especially blessed. (Note: It's called "a-Maying" because, in the Northern Hemisphere, Beltane happens in May. Remember, we're six months out of synch with each other.)
By intentionally offering our creativity and fertility to Life, we engage in a form of Sympathetic Magic. We co-create with Life itself. And we ensure not only our own personal fertility and abundance, but the abundance of all of Life, too.
So, whether making love on the 7th of November, or creating a poem, making art, dancing, playing with aerial silks, or twirling poi, consciously offer this joyful, creative energy to Life itself!
Purification via FIRE:
At Beltane, whole communities would come together to dance around Maypoles as a fertility rite. (Yes, they were enormous phallic symbols of fertility). More importantly, though, special Beltane bonfires (called Teineigen) were lit for everyone to congregate and dance around.
The Celts would build these bonfires from nine sacred woods: birch, oak, rowan, willow, hawthorn, hazel, apple, grapevine, and fir. (Depending on your tradition, these nine woods may vary.) The flames, smoke, and ashes of these sacred fires were considered to have protective, purifying powers that enhanced fertility.
Livestock would be herded between two of these bonfires to cleanse and protect them from illness, as well as to bless them with fertility.
Couples would leap the Beltane bonfire to pledge their love and loyalty to each other, and to enhance their fertility.
And individuals would leap the fire to purify themselves; their hearts/minds; their visions; and their ability to co-create with Life.
Working with the Devic Realm:
Instead of our beloved ancestors (as at Samhain/Halloween), at Beltane we invite the Fey or the Fair Folk to visit us - ie: the nature spirits from the devic realm that support all of Life to grow and flourish on this side of the veil. We seek their wisdom, their support, and their loving blessings for a fruitful year ahead.
While the veils are thin, we can also seek visions and guidance from the Otherworld, along with the blessings of the Deities we work with. Pay attention to your dreams. Consult the tarot. Drum and enter trance. Sit in a fairy ring (if there is a gateway open, welcoming you in). Create something. Whatever excites you!
Throw on your gorgeous fairy wings and a stunning crown of flowers, rather than a ghoul's mask, this Beltane. Go, dance around a sacred bonfire and make merry! Purify yourself and celebrate your powerful life force.
(Oh, and washing one's face with the dew collected from the grass and plants first thing in the morning, is a very traditional Beltane custom ... random. If you'd like to do it, then the morning of the 7th of November is the day!)
Thoughts and Questions to Ponder:
How comfortable are you with ecstasy and sensuality? With joy? Creativity? With attention? (Fire attracts attention, right??) How comfortable are you with taking a risk, and just going with the flow; allowing Life to move you and to flow through you? Can you play, unabashedly, being so "in the moment" that hours melt away like mere minutes?
Or do joy and creativity feel too intense or challenging to trust, somehow? (Been there! I definitely know how that feels!)
Can you relax, and loosen your desire to control every heartbeat? Instead, can you trust that you don't intellectually need to know how to manifest your dreams . . . or how to turn a flower into a plum or a pumpkin? It's not all up to you! Can you remember that you are a co-creator with Life-force energy? With the Quantum Field?
You are co-creating with the magic of Life, itself! You can trust this Lifeforce.
So, Beltane is the time to willingly surrender anything that blocks your bliss, your libidinal energy, or your creative self-expression. May the fires bring you into right-relationship with this ecstatic, passionate, life-giving energy! May the fires purify your trust in joy and the Lifeforce. May the fires bless, purify, and consecrate your ability to co-create with Life; and to be a vessel for your dreams to flow through, into this world of physical form.
Heed the advice and nudges of Life, as your co-creator and dance partner.
And may the fires burn away any resistance you have to the abundant growth that needs to happen during this next phase.
May the Beltane fires also purify and consecrate the structures you've been building, to make sure they're also able to conceive and protect your dreams, until they're ripe enough to be harvested in upcoming seasons.
Hold your intentions clearly in your heart and mind, and leap the fire - literally or symbolically! If you don't have access to a real Beltane bonfire, perhaps meditate on a candle, or visualise yourself being purified by Divine fire. Perhaps you can create a talisman, and then pass this over a candle flame, blessing, purifying, and consecrating your dreams and the structures you're creating to hold them.
May we only allow that which serves our vision to be conceived in this fertile period.
Surrender everything else to the Beltane fires.
Three Practices to Cultivate during Beltane Season:
If you're not already, it'd be a great idea to establish the following three practices while the veils are thin: a Creative Practise, Visualisation, and a Daily Gratitude Practice.
A Creative Practise:
Get creative! Play! Beltane is a creative, joyful Sabbat, after all! Develop a daily creative practise to help you tap directly into this energy. I once drew a mandala every day for a year, for example. This was a powerful experience of coming into right relationship with creativity. I was astonished to realise just how deeply creativity was able to connect me to myself and to the Cosmic Mind.
What longs to be created through you? Throw some pots. Dye silks. Needle felt some toys. Create a vision board of your dreams. Draw mandalas. Write a song or a poem. Dance. Sing kirtan, each morning. Paint. Take up photography. Gather flowers and create flower arrangements. Create a new pattern for your fire poi or staff.
Embrace your joyous creativity! Open yourself to the possibility of a transcendent, co-creative connection with the Universe. And, in so doing, develop trust in your ability to create, whether that's a dance or a business.
As Esther Hicks said, "It is as easy to create a castle as a button."
Visualisation:
As well as creating a vision board, visualise your dreams and ambitions as though you've already accomplished them. This rehearses your future and creates an internal map to get there, as Dr Joe Dispenza teaches. By visualising you're accessing the Cosmic Mind (or the Quantum Field). You're beckoning beyond the Veil to the Otherworld, while the veil is thin, and calling your dreams into our 3D world of physical reality.
It's the whole 'Thoughts Become Things' magic of Beltane.
Manifesting. The Law of Attraction.
Dr Joe Dispenza asks, "Does your thinking create your environment or does your environment create your thinking?"
Excellent question, right??
He tells us that through visualisation we can:
"... install the neurological hardware in our brain to look like the event has already occurred. Now, the brain is no longer a record of the past. ... Now, it's a map to the future.
I think the hardest part is teaching our body emotionally what the future will feel like ahead of the experience. You can't wait for your success to feel empowered. You can't wait for your wealth to feel abundant. You can't wait for your new relationship to feel love. You can't wait for your healing to feel whole. That's the old model of reality of cause and effect ... waiting for something outside of us to change how we feel inside of us. Under this old, Newtonian model, when we feel better inside of us, then we pay attention to whatever caused it in our environment. But what this means is that most people live their whole life living in lack, waiting for something to change "out there".
This is the difference between living as a victim and living as a creator of your world. Instead of saying, "I am this way because of this person, or that thing, or this experience. They made me think and feel this way." This is disempowering. When we switch this around, though, we become the creator of our own world. Then we start saying, "My thinking and my feeling is changing the outcome of my life." Now, this is a whole different game. We start believing that we're co-creators of our reality. And we are."
So, visualisation offers a number of very important benefits:
* It helps empower you as a co-creator with Life.
* It activates an internal map to your future, freeing you from your commitment to the past.
* It activates your creative subconscious, which will start generating creative ideas to achieve your goals.
* It activates the Cosmic Mind, or the Quantum Field, thereby constellating your charts, and drawing into your life the very people, resources, and circumstances you need in order to achieve your dreams.
* It keeps you focused on your goals and builds your internal motivation/discipline so that you'll take the necessary actions to bring your dreams to fruition.
* It channels your libidinal, creative, Life Force energy to your dreams and ambitions, clearing and smoothing their path to this side of the veil.
As Jack Canfield says, "Visualization is really quite simple. You sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and imagine — in as vivid detail as you can — what you would be looking at, feeling, and experiencing, if the dream you have were already realised. Imagine being inside of yourself, looking out through your eyes at the ideal result."
Do this meditative, visualisation process multiple times a day, every day. Before you go to sleep. First thing when you wake. During your meditation.
Final words from Dr Joe:
"If you're not being defined by a vision of the future, then you're left with the old memories of the past and you will be predictable in your life."
Daily Gratitude Practice:
Gratitude changes everything. It can move you from a state of lack to one in which you feel blessed. It helps you cherish your life.
Whilst dreaming of the life you are creating for yourself, remember to appreciate the extraordinary abundance you already have. You’ll be surprised by how much is already available to you. And when you express appreciation for the small things in your life, you open yourself to greater abundance.
Offer gratitude for the simple things that you may take for granted: like access to clean running water that you don't need to walk 5 kilometers each way to fetch; or electricity to power your devices at the flick of a switch. Offer thanks for the roads you drive on; the view of the mountains from your loungeroom window; the glorious dawn chorus of birdsong each morning; or the salty sea breeze when you walk the beach each day.
Give thanks for those beautiful Beings who share their life with you.
Offer gratitude to All Beings! The stars of the sky, the stones and mountains, the trees and flowers, the wind that brings the clouds and rain.
Give thanks for your health.
Instead of grumbling about the pile of dishes that needs washing, offer thanks that you had food to eat from them. Instead of moaning about the washing that's piling up in the laundry, feel grateful that you have an abundance of clothing to wear . . . and probably an electric washing machine that saves you hours of hard work each week.
Bless the musicians and artists and writers who bless our world with creative beauty.
Appreciate the warmth of your bed each night, as you lay your head to sleep.
Give thanks for the roof over your head, keeping you safe and dry.
Honour all those who help bring meals to your table . . . from Mother Nature; to the farmers who grew and harvested your food; to those who transported it to your local food market. If someone prepares your meals for you, bless them.
Here's one of my family's favourite ways to say Grace before we eat:
Back of the bread, the baker.
Back of the baker, the mill.
Back of the mill, the sun and the rain.
and the Great Spirit's will.
Bless all those hands who have toiled to bring this meal to our table.
Begin and end your day with a statement of gratitude. The more you express thanks for what you already have, the more you will find to be thankful for. Keep a gratitude journal that you add to each day. And if you ever find yourself in need of a reminder of your blessings, look back through the pages.
It's also important to offer gratitude for your blessings, both seen and unseen; and for those blessings that are still coming your way. Give thanks before your blessing has even manifested. Along with visualisation, this Gratitude Practise helps affirm your vision's presence in your life. It helps energetically support it to enter this 3D world of form.
As Nahko Bear and Medicine for the People sing in Black as Night,
"I believe in the good things coming."
Actually, a great mantra to sing would be Beautiful Chorus' Thank You for Your Blessings. It's such a beautiful, simple mantra to repeat as often as possible throughout the day. If you're unfamiliar with their work, they sing entrancing meditative songs, in a cappella. (Love their work!)
Here are the lyrics:
Thank you for your blessings.
Thank you for your blessings. Your guidance is wise indeed.
Thank you for your blessings.
Thank you for your blessings. Your lessons live on in me.
Click here to listen to their beautiful song.
Importantly, may we thank the Great Mother for the bounty she continues to grace us with, year after year. And may we honour Her bees. Yes, Her literal bees who pollinate our gardens, but also the Great Mother's Priestesses, who exist in many forms among us. May they grace our Path and help stabilise our dreams on this side of the veil.
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” – Meister Eckhart
If you made it this far, thank you! I hope this has been helpful in understanding the energy of this moment, here in the Southern Hemisphere, and how to best engage it.
If it has been of service to you, please feel free to share this article within your circles and to subscribe to my newsletter. If you have any insights to share, or questions, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you!
Brightest Beltane Blessings, beautiful people!
Peace
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