The Month of May, Beltane, Fire Festival, Between Spring & Summer
May is a beautiful, fragrant, flower-filled, celebratory month. The first day of May is Beltane – an ancient spring festival. It is a cross quarter day between spring and summer. Beltane is a sabbath festival. Sabbat means “to keep, to rest, to worship, to recognize, being in delight and in joy.”
Beltane recognizes the feminine and fertile principle of the earth as well as the fire and warmth of the Sun nourishing the Earth. Female and male principles.
Beltane, the Celtic name for the beginning of May, means Brilliant (Bel) Fire (Teine). Beltane celebrates the seasons in the natural world. It’s when spring flowers bloom, seeds sprout, birds nest, and cattle are bearing their young. The plants and trees, following the upward moving path of the Sun, reach up to the sky!
In ancient times this was the season when humanity stepped outside into nature, leaving their homes (winter protection), re-entering the world of trees, flowers and the Sun’s warmth. Maypoles (trees decorated with flowers and ribbons), Morris singing and dancing, bonfires, (fire festivals) all marked the end of winter, the turning point of the year – from cold to warm, from dark to light.
Beltane begins the warm half of the year and there is more and more light each day (northern hemisphere).
The opposite of Beltane is Halloween (festival between autumn and winter). During both festivals, the veils between worlds thin. During Samhain (Halloween), the departed return to Earth. During Beltane, the fairies (devas, builders of form, nature, flowers and beauty) return to the woodlands. They hasten their work for it is to be completed by Summer Solstice.
In the Catholic Church the May Queen (Mary, the Mother of Jesus) is crowned. In earlier times, flowers, gathered at midnight, were made into garlands and crowns. Baskets of flowers, evergreens, fir, pine and juniper and fresh herbs were left at dawn at homes of friends. I remember as a child the flowers were lilies of the valley. The baskets also held May wine (new white wine), fresh scones (bannocks), wild strawberries and sweet fragrant woodruff. It is good to return to these simple and kind activities.
Upcoming: Pluto retrogrades (2 degrees Aquarius), Thursday, May 2. Cinco de Mayo (Mexico’s victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862) is Sunday, May 5. And the new moon of May is May 7 (18 degrees Taurus – sign of constant, consistent, stable and abiding love).
ARIES: Be aware this month of defining your self-identity (a good thing) in terms of talents, abilities and possessions (what you hope and wish for). It’s good to review values and have needs met. These create financial goals and capabilities. You know possessions do not define identity or self as valuable, however it’s a beginning. Later a spiritual lens will unfold and new values will appear. What is the message here? You’re valuable not only in money but in soul, service and in spirit.
TAURUS: Attempt to express thoughts and feelings of love, appreciation, care and nurturance to those close to you, thus creating a greater level of harmony. You’re considering future plans, future work and future investments. This is good. But first you must tend to unfinished business. Are there items from the past that need tending? Past communication needing responses? These may be difficult and will take discipline. But you must have order to have the presence of mind for your next endeavor that answers to world need.
GEMINI: Working quietly and in solitude (even if also in the world), feeling at times alone and without anyone, preparing to dream and remember those dreams, asking yourself serious questions and awaiting the revelatory answers – all are part of this month’s inner agenda. Simultaneously, something may appear that becomes a resource. Each day search for what’s hidden and valuable. Look around. There’s something to see where you are. Community beckons.
CANCER: You need to communicate and interact with others more, share experiences, talk about aspirations, hopes, wishes and dreams. You cannot keep yourself isolated and under your shell. It is not healthy for your Cancer self, who likes to be out of the waters and on the shores for a while. Who are your friends? Yes, they provide you with challenges. However, they are your true family. Take authentic steps toward them. Also, garden as if your life depended upon it. It may.
LEO: You have a deep strength and heartfelt courage that comes to your aid when everything seems strange, difficult, tedious or restricted. You also have self-assurance and creativity which creates a faith that all needs will be provided for. Your accomplishments in the world are important and of great value. Sometimes you have a sense of unhappiness. A question to you – what do you wish you had or were doing instead of each moment in your life now? Write the answers in your Hopes Wishes and Dreams journal.
VIRGO: It’s possible you feel restrictions in your physical body. Are you exercising, swimming, running, walking, gardening? A question under Taurus and Venus is how do you value and see yourself, what do you think of yourself, and are you able to be free or creative? A new sense of internal structure is forming, a new perspective of who and what you would like to be. Over time previous philosophical beliefs will shift, transform and change. This leads to a liberation, seeing yourself as valuable.
LIBRA: Take time to have gratitude for friends, intimates, partnerships and the environments you find yourself in. By sharing resources, you’re creating deep and lasting connections and contacts (both of which release Love). In giving, you are comforted, cared for and regenerated. However, there may be one or more separated relationships that also must be assessed. What are they? You have ignored them too long. What we reject remains intimately connected to us. Sadness, whether known or acknowledged, is the result.
SCORPIO: Very interesting times. It’s possible you’ve become (or want to) attracted to something deep and mysterious. Simultaneously you seek new experiences that assure you of safety and security, joint resources, and intimacy. It is all so deep waters desires of Scorpio! You desire to experience beauty and the Art of Living. These are good. Do be aware though that if you attract what’s sad and moody, you too become this way. Be awake and aware of various levels of energy floating around. They are subtle. Absorb only the happy ones.
SAGITTARIUS: You need freedom, a new independence, sovereignty and a new level of harmony. You need a release from struggles and the sense of duality following you around. You’re waiting for a life change, resolution of conflict, and refinement of things financial. At work, tend carefully to those around you. Here is a little mantram that the New Group of World Servers recites at noon. Perhaps you will join us. “I know O Lord of life and love about the need. Touch my heart anew with love, so I may love and give, love and give, love and give again.” What we give, we too receive.
CAPRICORN: As everything of value centers around your domestic life, it’s important to realize that your goodness is about your sense of fairness, your sense of responsibility and care of others. It’s also about who and what you embrace, who you include, nourish and nurture and what you create. Your goodness is not about what you deny, resist or exclude. Life is a great discipline. We live on multiple levels simultaneously and within paradoxes. This is a seed thought to meditate, rely upon and hum like a mantram. “I strive towards understanding. Let wisdom take the place of knowledge in my life.”
AQUARIUS: As you feel grateful (and missing, hoping and wishing) for home and family, you create closer contact (releasing love) with everyone else. Looking into your past, you realize what choices and actions determine the quality of your present and future life. This is a mathematical equation. It’s also called karma, a beautifully fair system. You are the foundation of your life. You will build from the place you are presently. Walk, ride, drive, cycle, run, etc., around your neighborhood. Take architectural and gardening notes. Breathe in the beauty. Add more gratitude. That is the Art of Living.
PISCES: Tend to money carefully. Visualize money coming to you for the purpose of tending and caring for your life and the life of others. Inform everyone of their beauty, value and worth. Know that in doing so, many will not understand. Speak of these things anyway. You may have one good day and several confused and disoriented days. Rest within the confusion. A new harmony will come forth. Create a journal of the perfect village, community with gardens, more than enough finances. Resources begin to appear and be structured differently. A new rhythm of values emerges. You are valuable, too.