The Oracle

Beltane - Apr 30th

This festival is known by many names such as May's’ Eve, Maidens Day etc. There are also a great many ways to spell Beltaine, and all are often correct. The most common forms are beltan, Beltane, Beltain. It is a Welsh term, which means “Fires of Bel” referring to the Celtic sun god Belinus, Beli or even just Bel. Even though Beltaine is a Welsh term, the Welsh have a different name for May's’ Eve and Mayday depending on which part of Wales you go to. May has always been considered a magical month, lambs are born, birds flit everywhere searching for food for their now young chicks, the season for sowing is over, and people wait eagerly for their crops to grow. The weather in May is warm, often with light showers or the rare storm. Its lighter with the daylight being longer and all is productive.

The image of a witch flying on her broomstick comes from this time of the year, and not from Halloween as portrayed by our modern culture. The reason it has become attached to Halloween is purely down the Halloween's connection with Witchcraft. The witch on her broomstick actually comes from an old fertility rite often performed in the hope of gaining a good harvest. Firstly the women of the village would gather in their fields with their besoms (brooms), and sweep the field clean, a deeply symbolic act that signified getting rid of old energy and making it clean to work in. The women would then place the besom between their legs, and run around the field. You can imagine the sight of this, it conjures images of hobby-horses and frantic laughter. During this rite one of the women would jump into the air with the broomstick between her legs. This was done in a symbolic way, the height of the jump representing the height the woman hoped the crops would grow. Surely more and more women would do these leaps, until eventually all the women would be part of it. To an outsider this was some sight to behold and is more than likely the origin of Witches flying on broomsticks. Far from that sinister image though, the dancing and leaping was purely intended to raise energy to aid the growth of the crops.

At Beltane, the days are much longer than the nights, yet this is still a cross quarter or fire festival. A community would gather and light a bonfire on May's’ Eve; thus symbolising the encouraging of the sun to bring its rays of light to aid crops. There was another use though for a fire at Beltane, a more practical and not so mystical touch. Pet owners and rural communities know the menace that rears its head at this time of year. The common pests that seem to plague us and our beloved companions. Ticks, fleas, gnats etc, all come out to take a bite out of us. But our ancestors were not blessed with the chemicals and medicines we have, for them jumping the fire and being engulfed in the smoke was often the only answer to get rid of these pests. Smoke makes insects sluggish, so they would either drop off into the flames, be picked off by hand or if you were lucky come out in your annual bath. Its worth mentioning that the farming communities also took advantage of this festival. Cattle and sheep would go through this ordeal, though it was mostly cattle, as the sheep would have been sheared which pretty much eliminates most pests. Now I know when reading this you have conjured images of cows and sheep jumping a bonfire, this is not how it was done though. Two fires would be lit, and a narrow corridor made between them. The cattle would then be driven between these fires, and have the ticks scraped off when they came through by the bellowing smoke and licking flames. The bonfire jumping eventually became a test of a persons courage. It was also traditional for the person jumping to make a wish as they did so. Also feasting was a big part of this festival, usually an animal would be slaughtered and eaten in honour of the Gods and the community. This may sound barbaric but when you consider our modern slaughter houses it does make the animals death more dignified. This may also have given rise to the legends of sacrifice, and particularly to the “WICKERMAN”. This may have stemmed from the simple use of Wicca baskets to carry the sacrificed animal in.

A more common tradition that many people will know is that of the Maypole. This is also heavily associated with the festival of Beltaine and if you look at the practice carefully it has an obvious symbolism. Now this is the area that can make people see Paganism as a bunch of sex crazed maniacs dancing naked around fires, a sad fact of our modern world. The maypoles symbolism is indeed sexual, in a matter of fact it can easily be recognised as a phallic symbol. To take that a step further you can observe how it is set up, a large straight pole thrust into the fertile earth. In metaphoric terms this is simply illustrating the union of male and female. In Paganism things are viewed in terms of balance and polarity, the fertile earth being female and the sky often viewed as male.

Another fine tradition that was linked with the maypole was Maidens Day. This was simply the crowning of the May Queen, a woman who was at an age suitable for marriage. Also on Maidens Day, the unmarried women were free to choose their partner for the one day, something that was in the growing patronised community. This would often lead to what was commonly known as the GREENWOOD marriage, a romantic term which meant that the young people would run off into the forest and engage in act of love. As you can imagine this often resulted in pregnancy, but these were not seen as wrong, more often is was seen as a blessing. Something that isn't hard to believe in a time where the mortality rate was rather high. If the Queen of May was to become pregnant, it was felt that the entire community was blessed.

Another association with Beltane is with the Fair Folk, the Shidhe, the Seelie, the Fey and the Fairies. After the wonderful Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights Dream, we were blessed with an insight into this amazing world, even if Shakespeare moved the date. It was traditional to leave little gifts out for the fey folk so that they wouldn’t meddle in the lives of the mortal people. Such activities were not welcome and some of the wonderful treats left to distract them were luxuries such as honey and milk. Due to the abundance of life at this time of year, the veil between the living and the dead becomes very thin, just as at it will at Samhain. It is said our ancestors walk among us at Beltaine, once more showing the heavy symbolism of life, death and rebirth.

Copyright Richard J Blackburn 2008