SUMMER! Beltaine Part 2

Cycles of flowers blooming has accelerated this last month.

More than usual rain and more rain only making the days of sun so glorious.

Though it does often feel like a rainforest here.

Scents of Wild Rose mingling with Hyacinth and the last of the Mock Orange on the damp wind. 

Almost MidSummer feels about right; with the thick greenery, winter seems impossible and far away,

even though today we lit a small fire to take off the chill. 

 If fertility is measured in depth of emotion and profundity,
this has been a very fertile season indeed. 

How much sleep or joy or tears or petals have befallen us?

This amazing life each day not necessarily what you think or want
but what is. 

Be present.

 Snakes and squirrels and birds of all varieties making home and families (with lots of noise)

deer and bear making their presence known (quietly)

metamorphosis and life-cycles of insects already done (though we are still itching)

 

 The endless day is almost here 

and then

somehow the days will begin to shorten again.

 So much magick in our gathering and words can't really detail the experience.

The smokey smolder, the flaring fires, the misty rain, the spirits gathered, the full plates.

All sacrifice consumed. Gratitude endless. Prayers from the heart.

Pictures share the memory, but the effects are felt in the here and now. 

we've been starting the fire ahead of ritual usually just me and Bryan and Elizabeth

with the rain everything was deeply wet
and even the dry harvests from last year and the pine cones from last season barely burned

Ann arrived with a miraculous box 'o' kiln-dried wood and we had fire

 

arms and legs and pre-ritual conversation

 Johnny showed up with a friend's mom, challenged by our many steps but bundled in love
and extra blankets. We waited until almost soaking wet for Katrina and Eric and then we began.

I don't usually share identifiers of folk present but sometimes it's important to call our names out loud as if song.
We are here with gratitude to honor the Gods and the Not-Gods of many names said and unsaid.

 

 candle on a spindle in the center

 

 

spirit passing through

 sacrifice

 

Our omens

from the Honored Dead: Berkanu, Birch, Birth Beginnings. Thanks Ancestors for this reminder.

from the Spirits of Nature & Place: for the first time in memory a reversed rune Eiwaz the horse, (pulled the same day that the declared winner of the Kentucky Derby was disqualified) we think of the horse as that enabler or that empowerer, the connection of the horse and rider and the use of vehicle and when something is reversed we tend to look out for that.
How are we getting to where we want to go?

from the Gods & Goddesses:Jera or Harvest, the full cycle of one year that is either beginning or coming to a conclusion.

for the Season: Uruz or that Primal Ox, the basic strength and growth that lies within.
Stuff want to grow.
Tis the season of new beginnings getting us to or through new cycles of growing strong.

closing reflections

 

 sweets and treats

Bellies full, brave folks danced the MayPole with great laughter, a ribbon in each hand

 backwards and forwards at the same time

 

We took the MayPole down the last day of May. 

Not the ending but a new beginning.