The Joy of Beltane

The season of Beltane is upon us, joyful, beautiful and life giving. Beltane was the festival that marked the beginning of the Celtic summer, it was a time when the animals were put out to pasture and was celebrated with acts of love, lust and fertility.

Many love chases were madethrough thewoods on Beltane Eve, an act which was referred to as 'going a maying'. Here lovers would spend the night in the woods, doing what came naturally to them and these liasons were often known as 'greenwood marriages'. The Puritan writer, Phillip Stubbs was quoted as saying:

'I have heard it credibly reported by men of great gravity, credit and reutation, that of fortie three score maids going to the woods over night, there have scarcely the third part of them returned home again undefiled.'

Even when more formal marriage rites were introduced, the rules were still relaxed at Beltane. Any children resulting from these unions were often called after spirits or legendary characters of the woods such as Jackson, after Jack in the Green, a derivation of the green man. Hodson, after Hod, a woodland sprite or Robinson after Robin Goodfellow from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream or perhaps the legendary Robin Hood. Rudyard Kipling captured the essence of Beltane with these words:

Oh do not tell the priest of our art, or he would call it a sin: But we shall be out in the woods all night, a-conjuring summer in!'

May the season of Beltane bring you joy, love and hope.

From 'Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers'

Mother's Day and the Lent Lilly

Today is Mother's Day, an occasion when in times past servents were given this day off in order to journey home and attend a church service with their mother. It was the only highlight for many in what was the long and sombre period of Lent. Today it has become a serious money making day, just as the majority of our well known festivals have.

I am not objecting to honouring our precious Mum's, but surely this is something we should do on a regular basis rather than on one day of the year when florists, card producers, and a whole host of other commercial outlets selling and producing feminine gifts put their prices up in order to cash in on the fact that we feel obliged to spend money.

Mum's are special and as such they often don't desire a fortune to be spent on them and a token gesture would be just as welcome. In this respect a bunch of daffodils or a pot of primroses are most appropriate, for both are said to represent and attract love.

Daffodils are also known as the 'Lent Lilly' and a vase of them in the bedroom are said to assist with conception difficulties, although do ensure that there are a minimum of 13!

Enjoy mother's day and just telling your Mum how much she means to you will be more precious to her than any expensive gift.

I'm just looking across at my Mum's photograph surrounded by daffodils and remembering how lucky I was to have her as my Mum.

Romance, Love, Lust and Fertility

The 15th February was the time when the Romans celebrated their purification festival of Lupercalia, when the priests of the Goat foot God, Pan danced through the streests dressed in wolf skin thongs and whipping the women with goat skins as an act of both purification and fertility.

A popular aspect of this festival was to invite single women to write their names on a piece of paper and place it in a box. The men of the town would then draw a name and subsequently take that woman as a lover for the forthcoming season. This tradition survived into Christian times, at which time the pieces of paper were called 'Valentines' after the Christian Saint and eventually became the valentine card with which we are all familiar today.

Enjoy both days of romance, love, fertility and lust!

Searching for a soul mate

I have been asked this week to provide a spell, which will help to attract a soul mate and lead to a happy marriage.

Whilst this is probably something many of us ultimately desire, there is no magic wand that I can wave in order to bring the love of someone's life hurtling through the ether towards them. The magic wand lies within each and every one of us. Only we have the power to manifest what we need in our lives.

In order to attract a soul mate, we have to radiate positive energy outward into the world, for what we give out surely shall return. We can't expect good things to come from negative vibrations. Remember the words in the song, 'Something Good', from 'The Sound of Music'? 'Nothing comes, from nothing, nothing ever should.'

Therefore we must work on ourselves first and foremost before we attempt to work our magic on others. It isn't enough to look good, we must be happy with who we are, deep down inside, for that's where positive energies radiate from. We need to look at what we do; does our work satisfy us? We need to look at our relationships with others; are they nourishing? Once we are happy with who we are then our energies will change and hopefully attract that elusive someone.

In the words of Ghandi: 'Be the change you want to see.'

Good luck in your quest.

The Element of Water

'Water is in us and around us. We physically comprise of up to 70% water, whilst two thirds of the earth's surface is covered in this miraculous substance. W cannot live more than a few days without it and yet most of us do not avail ourselves of this magical liquid. Water heals and purifies, cleanses and soothes. Cared for by the elemental ondines, our oceans and rivers house a myriad of fish and mooluscs, plants and mammals, from the microscopic to the largest in the world. Beautiful clouds form from the oceanic waters and the falling rains quench our thirst. In our inner world water symbolises our emotions, whether calm and peaceful or turbulent and chaotic. This element enables us to feel on many levels, from empathising with others to experiencing the wonder of love and the bitter depths of despair.'

From Mrs Darley's Pagan Elements by Carole Carlton