It’s been slow coming this year, but we have finally arrived to a time where it actually feels like new life is growing and the earth is waking up with new life each day!
The season of Beltane brings with it so much tangible beauty and much needed body-mind-soul nourishment from the Earth Mother to help us ground into deeper trust, embodiment and connectedness.
This year, Beltane falls on a Full Moon in Scorpio. Every Sabbat has it’s mirror at the opposite time of year and the Full Moon accentuates this. Within this time of growth and blooming, echoes of the autumn’s letting go also weave into the mix. Some things may come up to be released, or we may experience a loss or letting go of something that has run its course. There can be grief that comes up alongside new ventures. There can be a cleansing or clearing that makes room for new growth. Embrace this energy of both life and death as one never exists without the other.
We often associate Scorpio’s season of Samhain in the fall with death, and Taurus’ season Beltane with life, yet each lies within the other. The two energies are inseparable and thus the mysteries of life and death, form and formlessness can come through this season, especially around this Full Moon.
During Beltane, the sun transits the earth sign Taurus- which highlights security, the physical body and the earth element, value and worth, as well as stability. These energies are cultivated during this season as we seek that which stabilizes, grounds and nourishes us on a physical level.
Beltane season has a building quality- an energy flowing from the earth into our bodies and psyches, asking us to nourish and create structures that support our well-being and help us live more securely and pleasurably. Our attention may turn to our resources- whether it is saving money, home and property needs, health and bodily nourishment, emotional and social supports, or tangible spiritual practices. Here we seek to ground our hopes, visions and goals into the physical world. It is a wonderful season for self-care, healing, sensuality, manifestation and creation.
We can think of Taurus as the supportive ‘yin’ energy of containment, like a physical womb, that holds the energy of transformation and creation. The transformative energy itself is more ‘yang’, as it moves continuously and represented by Scorpio. Scorpio is Taurus’ opposite and is the mysterious life force energy itself as it flows through a constantly renewing life-death-rebirth cycle in nature and in our psyches and bodies.
It’s not often talked about, but every year I find Beltane season can bring a release of an old way of being, a healing or coming to term with an ending. This is because new life is strongly pushing us forward now, and this needs space to fully come into being. Think about all this year’s new plants pushing up through last year’s old leaves in the garden. We’ve got to clear the debris so the new life that is already coming through can grow and take up its rightful space. On a deeper level, this can feel akin to the depression new mothers feel upon the birth of a child. New life often takes up the space of an old one. Allow space for yourself to grieve, or to simply feel all that is coming up around Beltane. Let tears flow, write in your journal, move, sound, allow the life-death-rebirth cycle flow through and cleanse you.
Let the earth’s renewing and stabilizing energies flow into your being for healing- go for a walk in a forest, by a lake or simply sit outside and enjoy the awakening life around you.
There is also an invitation here to let life’s simple pleasures ground and heal us of all our inner complexities. We may feel pulled around this Full Moon into our personal underworld, into our deepest rage, sadness, fear, trauma history or love or joy. There in the depths, we can find a gift. Perhaps a renewed appreciation for life’s simple pleasures, a deep gratitude for what we have, an abiding trust that we are held by something bigger when we let go of trying to control everything. Let the energies of Taurus weave a sacred container of love and support for your wholeness, as you grow through this season of change.
Later in May, Beltane season also crosses into Gemini season- air sign of connection and communication. This energy pulls us out into the world, to socialize, explore, learn and allow our curiosity to guide us. Once we’ve found more stable ground in Taurus season, we feel safer to explore.
Let your instincts lead you forward, as the divine intelligence of nature flows through your blood and bones. Know you are safely held in the embrace of Mother Gaia, the Goddess/Gods, ancestors and all the divine beings that surround you. Let the miracle of nature remind you that there is no hurry, and everything is unfolding in perfect timing.
“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself”- Matsuo Basho
Ways to celebrate Beltane:
- Go outside! Soak up the beauty of new life growing and blooming arond you
- Take yourself on a picnic, eating in gratitude and nourishing your body and soul.
- Bless each part of your body in gratitude, acceptance and love. I do this daily and affirm to my body ‘I love you, I trust you, I honor you, thankyou’. You may also with to anoint your body with oil as you do so.
- Honor your sensuality- what feels good for you? Dancing, eating chocolate, watching a comedy, cuddling your animals or loved ones? Or perhaps a cleansing bath or a run outside?
- Honor the roots of Beltane as a fire ceremony of cleansing and protection- light a fire in a safe place or simply light a candle, asking that this season’s increasing energy and light cleanse and protect you, your home and your belongings. You can pass through an object that can go through fire, like a metal pendant you like to wear, through the flame as you bless it with healing and protection.
- Put out offerings of food or shiny objects for the fairies! They tend to create mischief this time of year.
- Cultivate that which you wish to grow in your life- whether it is literally planting in your garden, or putting more energy and work into making a dream come true, or cultivating a part of yourself you wish to step more fully into.
- Build or create with your hands. Make something that honors who you are and your unique way of seeing the world. This could be an art project, a meal, a room in your home, clothing, or something that adds value and beauty to your life.
Beltane Reading:
I love the feminine, flowery vibes of Beltane season, so I thought we could bring out The Rose Oracle by Rebecca Campbell for this reading!
Take a moment to ground and center yourself. Take 3 deep relaxing breaths, then ask ‘what do I need to know now?’ and choose a card.
Now, scroll down to find that number and read the description! Words are by the deck’s author, Rebecca Campbell.
- The Fertile Void: Inner winter, rest, patience, potency, secret beginnings
This is a very auspicious card. It holds the potent golden seeds of a new beginning and the aftermath of an end. We’re called to have patience and enter a state of deep rest, repair, regeneration, and acceptance. To let a part of our lives, or even who we once were, metaphorically die in order to seed, sprout, bud and bloom again. There’s often a letting go, a grief or mourning involved. A death of self or what once was. The ending of things that were once important. Relationships, jobs, identities, ways of being. The fertile void asks that honor endings to begin again. It’s a crucial part of growth and new isn’t possible without it.
In the card you can see the golden seed cradled in the dark, fertile womb of the soil. It’s easy to mistake this phase of growth as one where nothing much is happening. But beneath the surface of the winter soil, things have never been more active.
Winter is a phase of initiation, renewal and rebirth. When we’re going through a period of inner winter, we experience this too. We metaphorically ‘go underground’ by coming to a standstill and allowing ourselves to recover and rest. We don’t realize it, but this is the most important part of our growth. And it takes faith to surrender to it.
Trust the sureness of the soil. Be cradled by the great mystery. This is a very tender, powerful time.
How can you surrender into the great mystery?
2. The Sun: Joy, enjoyment, life force, success, vitality, play.
In summer, when the sun’s at it’s highest path in the sky, the rose is at its fullest. Her fragrance is sweet and the fruit is still to come. In this oracle, the sun represents the life force energy, vitality, confidence, success, positivity, delight, and the sheer joy of life. After it’s left the fertile darkness of the soil, the future rose begins reaching toward the light of the sun, which then plays its part in nourishing the rose as it reaches for its potential bloom. And it does this for us too.
One of life’s greatest blessings is to feel the warmth of the sun on our face. To drink in the gold nectar of what life has for us and to take a moment to bask in being alive. This is your invitation. To relish your aliveness. To embrace your joyfulness. To enjoy the simple things in life. To make time to play. To be grateful for your body. To acknowledge the wonderous life-force energy that’s woven through all of life. To remember that your soul had a dream, and your life is it.
This is a wondrous card that heralds a time of playfulness, enjoyment, and bliss. The sun can also represent the inner child and be an invitation to have some fun. Have you been all work and no play lately? Is your inner child longing to run free? What can you do to enjoy the simple things in life? When we allow ourselves the space to play, problems that were once unsolvable find solutions.
3. The Crowning: Initiation, thresholds, birth, rebirth, a seat at the table.
There comes a time when the flower knows that it can no longer remain in the protective constraints of the bud. Somehow, it needs to trust in the birthing energy and surrender to the unknown of the bloom. The same birthing energy exists within all of nature and in birth, both physical and metaphorical.
It’s an initiation for the mother as well as the child, who transitions from the water world of the womb to a whole new one on earth.
This is a card of crossing thresholds and walking through the gates of initiation, which requires great courage and faith. There are rolling contractions and it’s almost always not straightforward. As we transition from one thing to another we’re called to burst through the constraints of the seed and then the certainty of the bud, so that something new can bloom from within.
We’re always birthing something and deep inside we know that the only way to surrender to the initiation is to surrender to the innate power within. This power is inner, but it’s also connected with the same intelligence that exists within all life. It’s the same intelligence that tells flowers when to bloom and it was present when you grew in your mother’s womb. Trust in that. It will carry you through. Surrender to what’s wanting to be born through you. Life is always trying to initiate us into even more of who we truly are.
How is life trying to initiate you?
4. The Mystic Rose: Compassion, devotion, humility, humanity, grace.
The rose was a symbol of the Goddesses of old, so it’s no wonder that when Christianity absorbed large parts of the indigenous Celtic traditions in Europe, the Mother Goddess Mother Mary became associated with the rose. Perhaps the reason Mary is so beloved is because she was the only Mother Goddess who could be worshipped safely and as such carries with her the devotion and yearning of all those who longed to worship the Goddess in a feminine form.
Mary’s connection with the rose is seen in some of her titles, including Rosa Mystica (The Mystic Rose) and the Rose without Thorns. Like those of the pagan Goddesses before her, the processions that honored Mary involved walking on rose petals. The Church altered the stories of Goddesses past- including those that featured roses, such as Aphrodite turning the white rose red with her blood- putting Mary in the Goddesses’ place, Churches were erected a;; over Europe and beyond, in many cases on the site of Celtic temples and places of Goddess worship. Many had beautiful rose windows in the west- the direction of the feminine in dedication to Mary, mother of the rose.
This is a card of compassion, devotion and grace. It encourages us to soften toward humanity and to endeavor to see the world, and even those who have hurt us, with understanding and open heart and deep humility. To see what we all carry hurt and are wounded. We have all experienced severing. Mother Mary is inviting you to open your heart to humanity when you most want to close.
How are you being called to show compassion today?
5. The Breathing Rose: Heart Healing, emotions, connection, time eases.
Often, healing is a slow, steady process. It’s complex, not linear. It takes as long as it takes. And most of the time, that’s much longer than we’d wish. But, like all things in nature, there’s a mysterious intelligence to it. And it we trust and let the vibrant petals fall to the earth, cut back what’s no longer, and protect the new shoots and buds from being pried open, we may find ourselves in a second bloom. And fruit will follow. You can’t manufacture that. We must trust the great mystery in the process.
The bud somehow manages to burst through the constraints by opening to life. All of nature has this intelligence within is. The challenge when we’re going though a time of healing- which is another word for growth, transformation, change- is not to close ourselves off from the world when we most want to separate and shut down. To somehow find the courage to open through the agony, the difficulty, and the hurt. And when we feel safe enough, to let life soften us not harden us, to deepen and cradle us.
This is a card of deep heart healing. It will often come to us as a symbol of emotional healing that’s in the process of happening. The mending is underway. Treat yourself and your healing with compassion, understanding, and gentleness. This is a card of deep encouragement that you’re doing it. Time will ease everything soon.
How can you treat yourself with gentle compassion and softness?
How can you trust the timing of your healing?
6. Plant Yourself Here: Integration, embodiment, grounded action.
Invite your soul to come all the way in. From your knees to your nose, your cheeks to your toes. Fully embody your life. Drop the defensive walls. Let your soul land and occupy each and every cell. Anchor all parts of you into the here and now. Life is here even when death is here. Birth isn’t possible without it. And you came here to birth this world anew. Don’t you remember? Fully commit to living this life. Put your two feet and your ancient soul wholly and completely in.
This is the card of the one who is committed to being the bridge between heaven and earth. The embodied mystic. They know they don’t need to denounce either heaven or earth- rather, they are a weaver of worlds. Here to embody their soul more and more with each new day. Here to weave the sacred back into everyday life.
This card is an invitation to commit more fully to your life as a soul having a human experience. To invite your soul to grow roots that reach deep so you can grow tall. To commit to your humanity and your expansion at once.
The rose invites us to embrace all stages of life on the earth. From the buds to the bloom, from the cutting back to the fruit. Her beauty and sweet scent are an embodiment of heaven. A nectarous reward for being here. The rose reminds us to take a moment to properly enjoy the sweetness and that heaven really can be a place on earth.
How can you commit more to your life?
Did your card resonate? I hope it did! May this season of Beltane bring you the growth, healing, support, nourishment and grounded love of the Earth Mother, the Goddess and the beauty within you.
xo
Serena
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