So its summer here in Wichita KS and late spring starts the beginning of what most like to refer as Festival Season. There are quite a few festivals here in the US and the closest one to Wichita is Heartland Pagan Festival. So my upload of our Ritual in May for Belane is a bit late due to all the details in getting ready for and decompressing from the festival. Totally worth it though if you have never been to a festival. I frequently will post about my experiences and most likely will continue to post about them for you all to enjoy.
So now onto the real reason for this post. We had a blast at our private Beltane ceremony.
Beltane is one of the 4 main fire festivals – Beltane, Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh. In Wiccan traditions Beltane and Samhain are considered the 2 major holidays of the year. In Celtic traditional the year is split into 2 parts, Summer and Winter. Beltane starts the Summer and light half of the year and Samhain starts the winter or dark half of the year. The Beltane bonfire was lit with a bundle made from nine sacred woods and wrapped with colorful ribbons. Birch, Rowan, Ash, Alder, Willow, Hawthorn, Oak, Holly, & Hazel.
Nine woods in the Cauldron go, burn them quick a’ burn them slow. Elder be ye Lady’s tree; burn it not or cursed ye’ll be.
Elder is the 10th sacred wood and you will see it included in “Beltane bundles” if you look to purchase them online but this wood should be not be placed in the Beltane fire.
Once the fire was blazing, a piece of smoldering wood was taken to each home in the village, to ensure fertility throughout the summer months. Beltane is the spring counterpart to Samhain. While in the autumn, everything is dying, in spring it comes alive, glorious and bursting free from the earth. Beltane is about fertility and sex and passion and life.
Please enjoy some pictures of us enjoying our time at Beltane:
