May Day Beltane Wiccan Pagan Fertility Festival

May Day Magic, Beltane, Faeries  FIRE and FERTILITY FESTIVAL

Beltane means “fire of Bel” or “bright fire” the “bale-fire”. Known as the bright and shinning one,  Celtic Sun God. Beli is the father, protector, and the husband of the Mother Goddess.  This is a FERTILITY CELEBRATION, The Beltane Fires, the MAY POLE, marking the cross quarter day between SPRING and SUMMER.

MAY DAY is a traditional Fertility and Sacred Marriage Festival of the Sun to the Earth. The Bel fire is a sacred fire with healing and purifying powers. The fires celebrate the return of life, fruitfulness to the earth and the burning away of winter. The ashes of the Beltane fires were smudged on faces and scattered in the fields. Household fires would be extinguished and re-lit with fresh fire from the Bel Fires.

As Beltane marks this handfasting (wedding) of the Goddess and God, it too marks the reawakening of the earth’s fertility. This is the union between the Great Mother and her Young Consort; this coupling brings new life on earth. On a Spiritual level and a  physical, it is the union of the Earth and Sun, man and woman to bring about the fruitfulness of the growing season.

MAy DAy is alchemy in action, the sacred Marriage.

Mother nature shows Herself alive again, flowers are blooming, sprouting, birds are mating, building nests, bees are buzzing.  Beltane was and is a very auspicious time in Celtic lore.

The PLEIADES

Beltane is marked in the Heavens as the rising of the Pleiades star cluster just before sunrise on the morning horizon, whereas winter (Samhain/Halloween) begins when the Pleiades rises at sunset. The Pleiades were very important to many ancient cultures. Some Native American tribes say that their Ancestors were Star Beings who came from the Pleiades. In Japan, the modern car Subaru means Pleiades and 6 of the stars are shown on its symbol. {We’ve always driven Subaru’s partly for this reason.}

 The Ancients believed that the Wheel of Time would not turn without human intervention.

People did everything in their power to honour and call and beckon the Sun and His light, for the earth would not produce life without the Sun’s warmth, his Love. We usually don’t think of the Sun as a Loving God anymore. It is important to honour these Nature Festivals, or turning of the Wheel of the Year, our ancestors did so for thousands of years. N

If we’re not in Right Relationship with other Nature then woe be to those who feel her wrath- As we’ve been trying to fool Mother Nature for many years now and continue to do so in the Industrialized world, balance can be attained by participating in these kind of Ancient Festivals.

Neo-tribalism is a necessity now.

FAERIES

May Day is a magical day so be aware of incidents that may occur.  The Queen of the Faeries is said to ride out on her white hose and trying to entice people away to Faeryland. Legend says that if you sit beneath a  tree on Beltane night, you may see the Faery Queen in all Her Glory or hear the sound of Her horses’s belles as She rides throughout the night. 

FERTILITY

Young men and women wandered into the woods before daybreak of May Day morning with garlands of flowers and/or branches of trees. They would make love in the woods, and dance around the Maypole. Pre-Christian society’s thoughts about human sexuality and fertility were not based on guilt or any such concept as original sin, but seen as a joyous natural expression of human passions. Life was seen as a joyful dance, rich in all beauty to be celebrated not defined ordered, made lawful.

Depicted in Camelot, the Mists of Avalon,

READ MORE at http://www.taratarot.com/id175.html

also a previous article May 1 May Day Beltane fire sex fertility earthy pagan celebration Astrology from Tara Greene

I am presiding over a MAY DAY BELTANE ceremony in Toronto at Ashbridge’s Bay on Lake Ontario

If you are in the Toronto area you are most welcome to come

see FB page    http://www.facebook.com/events/455617241183920/

May Day specials/Mercury Retrograde/Mother’s Day

May Day Specials on Readings -go to http://taratarot.com

If you’ve been biting your nails and keeping those midnight fires burning pouring over all those numbers, sorting through receipts, trying to remember just what you did last year, what you can write off or not, well your deadline approaches Thursday at midnight. The end is in sight, no more thinking about all that and dealing with your accountant for a whole year again, whewh, for most of us.

Mercury also enters Gemini that day the 30th of April at 3:29 pm PDT/ 6:29 pm EDT/ 11:29 pm GMT it’s home territory, but, not for long, Mercury-the messenger, the hermaphrodite, that fleet footed communication, computers, consciousness ruler is exiting stage left, that is backing out of the driveway on May 6th @ 9:55 pm PDT/ May 7th @ 12:55 am EDT/May 7th 4:54 am GMT for it’s 2nd time this year.

A BUMPER CROP YEAR of CeleSTIAL PHENOMEna  THIS YEAR

This is a bumper crop year for Retrogrades this year , 4 mERCURY Retrograde periods this year, usually there’s 3. Venus and  Mars both take a spin and there are additional Eclipses USUALLY 2 SOLAR AND 2 Lunar

this year-2 Solar and 4 lunar eclipses!

MERCURY BACK TO TAURUS- WHAT’S HE THINKIN?

Heading from home territory back to Taurus turf,I guess Mercury in his usual unable to make up his mind, forgot his clothes, I-Pod, a favourite desert dish, to smell the roses, liked lazing around in bed for a change because what with the Internet Mercury’s working waaay overtime but of course he loves it! needed to think about making money what with people’s consciousness of the Economy these days, write a song, etc.

Anyways thinking should be more practical,grounded, earthy, sensual, while Mercury hoofs his way through Taurus territory-that’s May 6th until MAY 30th when he stops and turns direct again, and then things start to go forwards.

THE STOCK MARKET

Will it be a BULL market?  Seems likely,as Mercury just spent almost 3 weeks in Taurus already bringing that dismal March stock exchange up since April 9th. But temporary, food prices up, possibly mad cow disease rearing its ugly head again, swine flus, animal diseases coming up in the news. Try becoming a vegan, Mercury retro means changing reversing all the usual trends. I forewarn you to expect the usual snafus, computer viruses, miscommunications etc., It’ll take until June 16th till Mercury gets back up to 1 degree 45 mins where he last turned direct so in fact not much moving forwards till then.

So whatever you thought you missed, glossed over, didn’t say or do,  regretted should be revisited with a clearer review and intentions in mind.  We’re all getting a repreive, another Re-tro word and Spring is finally here so take this Mercury Retrograde in Taurus time to let your brain have a rest, this gives us all time to get grounded in our thinking, be practical, enjoy life in all its sensual power and beauty, refuse to be bossed around, there’s more important things to do like revel- another of those re words in natures abundance, sip fine wines, enjoy the feelof the sun and spring breezes on our bare skin.

MOTHERS DAY MAY 10th  RETROGRADE  MOM’S DAY –

What does this mean? All things old will be new again, think gingham, apple pie, traditional, apple cider, home cookin’, sock mending,roast beef dinner on Sunday, pot roast, sausages, hey-what happened to that vegan idea? -turnips,kraft dinner, cheeze whiz, spam, Goodwill shopping, crocheting, needlepoint, pancake brunches, etc. O.K. i’m overdoing this a bit. Mercury is still in Gemini so…

The Moon will be in Sagittarius on Mom’s Day meaning that the emotional tone, the “planet” that rules women on  this special Women’s day  will be firey, gypsy-ish, she wants to travel, see exotic new things, be philosophical, get her some new books to read, enroll her in a new course on meditation or yoga, take Mom out to eat something she’s never tried before, and definitely most definitely take Mom to have her Tarot cards read!

Go to Get a Reading at my site http://www.taratarot.com