Beltane Planting Moon
Yes, the Great Wheel has turned again, according to the calendar. But. Not according to my window. For some inexplicable reason this Beltane finds snow falling on the somewhat greened grass. Snow. Since 1891 there have been 6 instances of 2 inches or more of snow in May. Today, tonight and tomorrow we may get as much as 5 inches. So, that’s the first thing to say about Beltane 2013.
Beltane celebrates the marriage of the lady and the horned god, the introduction of fertility among the cattle and the fields of ancient rural Celtic lands. Labor contracts for the year got made. Hand-fast marriages through a hole in a fence were for a year and a day. As with all the Celtic holidays, there was a week-long market and festivities that included huge bonfires (sympathetic magic to heat the earth), couples jumping over bonfires in hopes of children, cattle driven between bonfires to cure them of disease. And, on Beltane eve and night, couples in the fields, coupling. Like the sympathetic magic of the bonfires human lovemaking transferred to the fields the fertile passions of all the couples.
We got seeds in the ground and bees in the orchard over the last couple of weeks. The
magnolia wants to bloom but has a hard time imagining blooming during a snow. The garlic has emerged, as have the daffodils though they have not bloomed. The scylla and the grape anemones out front are blooming. They don’t mind the cold.
It is this combination of the practical and earthy with the mythic that has kept the Great Wheel present in my life for over 20 years now. As Kate and I work with the soil, with the plants and trees, the bees, we follow in our labor the movement of the sun and the seasons, long observed closely out of dire need, now out of wonder.
John Desteian has challenged me to probe the essence of the numinous. That is on my mind. Here is part of that essence. The seed in the ground, beltane’s fiery embrace of the seed, the seed emerging, flourishing, producing its fruit, harvest. Then, the true transubstantiation, the transformation of the bodies of these plants into the body and blood ourselves. A unity, a circle, rhythm. Plant, grow, harvest, feed, be.
There is some kind of resurgence of these deep feelings, these always have been connections and the resurgence gets expressed in what might seem extreme ways, but I find them encouraging. Hopeful. Google Edinburgh Fire Festival 2013.
